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PRx and The California Redevelopment Association's Annual Conference and EXPO from March 30th - April 1st. If you’re working in redevelopment in California, you face a difficult situation. Redevelopment is in peril -- Governor Jerry Brown proposed a $1.7B billion cut in the State budget to entirely eliminate redevelopment, impacting cities across the state. In the midst of this chaotic time, redevelopment managers and city leaders converged on the San Jose Convention Center for the Annual California Redevelopment Association Conference and EXPO from March 30th to April 1st--the theme was "Redevelopment: Worth Fighting For."  But why is redevelopment worth fighting for? What do the convention attendees have to say about redevelopment? Our goal was to take the redevelopment message to a wider audience, and we decided to start by directing the fighting words to Jerry Brown himself. We set up a life-size "flat Jerry" in the booth, and invited attendees to share their thoughts on video, as though they were addressing the Governor directly. In addition to the YouTube posting, the video is going to the governor’s office. If we get a response, we’ll post it here! [Check out our slideshow of photos from the Expo!] Changing gears, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed gave a powerful keynote address that highlighted some key points on why redevelopment is worth fighting for. You can see the video that we took of it here. Consider what San Jose would be today, the Mayor says, in terms of economic development had redevelopment not been in existence. There would be no:
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