Officials tell what to expect in 2011

The start of a new year brings with it the promise of new opportunities and the chance to move forward. Officials at school districts and municipalities across the region are hopeful 2011 will offer a delivery on long-promised developments and continued successes with projects already in the works.

From the anticipated opening of an indoor market at the site of an old department store to the first curtain call at yet another renovated downtown theater, this year could offer residents a host of changes.

As 2010 wound down, The Daily Journal asked local leaders to explain what's on their calendars for 2011.

City Of Vineland,.

The city has some major redevelopment plans in the works. Some will only pick up momentum this year, while other projects long in planning will come to fruition this year.

Residents can expect Landis MarketPlace to open in March in the former J.J. Newberry department store on the 600 block of East Landis Avenue. The indoor public market has several tenants already on board, including an Amish market on the bottom level and flowers, fresh fish, spices and other specialty foods on the main level.

The Amish Market in Mullica Hill, run by the same people, gets thousands of visitors a day and Mayor Robert Romano hopes some of that will be replicated on Landis Avenue.

"That would be a lot of foot traffic for Vineland," he said. "It should be nice when it's open."

Also this year:

Vineland will celebrate its 150th birthday. The actual birthday is Aug. 8, but the city is planning events for the entire year. Officials are planning a parade and fireworks display on Aug. 7 and a Civil War Ball is planned on Sept. 24.

"We want to celebrate our heritage," Romano said.

Efforts will continue this year to transform the former Newcomb Medical Center into Newcomb Alliance Medical Center, a medical school with -- ideally -- University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey as the anchor. The university has yet to officially sign on with the effort, but has shown interest, including visits to the State Street site and, most recently, drafting a tentative plan for operating a school there.

(source:thedailyjournal.com)

Binghamton University faculty members make predictions on 2011

VESTAL -- Wondering what might be coming in 2011?

Faculty members at Binghamton University have identified seven different issues, trends or events likely to make headlines in the coming year.

Here they are:

* David Campbell, assistant professor of public administration at BU's College of Community and Public Affairs: There will be a focus on philanthropy and technology in 2011. As nonprofit leaders continue to look for ways to identify and connect with new donors, mobile applications and the proliferation of marketing information gathered online will contribute to increased micro-targeting of potential donors, he said.

"Look for more partnerships between nonprofits and sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, which provide bargain shopping opportunities in cities around the United States and Canada," Campbell said.

* Eugene Krentsel, assistant vice president for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships: In 2011, Republicans and Democrats will agree the road to economic recovery begins with a return to the basic principle of promoting and incentivizing entrepreneurialism, Krentsel said.

"That concept has been, remains now and will remain the brilliance of the American dream," he said.

Innovation and entrepreneurship have always flourished during economic crises as many companies with what are today household names were born at those times, and in turn, have ultimately contributed to job creation, he said.

* David Cingranelli, professor of political science at BU's Harpur College of Arts and Sciences: In the next few years, there will be continued decline in government protection of the rights of workers around the world, including freedom to collectively bargain, strike and join unions, Cingranelli said.

"The downward pressure on governments to weaken labor protection laws and/or enforcement is due to the increased global competition for foreign investment and the desire by most, if not all, governments to produce goods for export at the lowest possible cost," he said.

Worker rights are eroding as factory jobs are moved to countries with lower labor costs, he said.

(source:pressconnects.com)

2011:Year you weren’t expecting

What does 2011 hold in store? It may well start with a flashback. Remember the Y2K bug, when the world’s computers were expected to shut down because they couldn’t handle the “00” in 2000? There’s another one expected this year. It’s known as the Y1C problem, and although equally serious, it’s confined to the island of Taiwan, which uses a calendar that dates year 1 from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. For many computers in Taiwan, 2011 is the year 100, and with the “00,” chaos may ensue.

f you’re writing that down, make sure your marker is honeysuckle, which Pantone has designated the color of 2011. The year has also already been proclaimed the year of forests and the year of chemistry by the United Nations. You’ll be able to book tickets to two places you’ve never been able to visit before: a massive new Legoland in Dubai and the abandoned city of Chernobyl, which opens to tourists this year. If you’re Canadian, you’ll be able to pay for these using Canada’s new plastic money, set to be released in the second half of this year.

What’s that? You didn’t have any of that on your calendar?

When looking forward to a new year, all too often we focus on the big and the obvious: elections, royal weddings, Harry Potter movies. But a year is much more than that: It’s one enormous landscape of exciting events you had absolutely no idea were about to occur. What follows is the Ideas guide to the year in the obscure and unexpected.

January Chernobyl begins to offer official tours for the first time since April 26, 1986, when the worst nuclear reactor explosion in history devastated the region and made the Ukrainian city a byword for techno-dystopian disaster. Tourists can see both the nuclear plant and the abandoned nearby towns. It’s reachable as a day trip from Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.

January Van Halen is expected to begin recording an album with, for the first time in more than 25 years, original singer David Lee Roth.

January 9 The world will gain a new nation if voters in Southern Sudan choose independence in a referendum that begins today. The youngest countries in the world currently are Curacao and the Republic of Kosovo.

January 11 The Dali Museum opens in St. Petersburg, Fla. It will be home to more works of Salvador Dali than any other museum in the world. Costing $36 million, it will house 2,140 pieces of art and is designed to withstand a category 5 hurricane.

January 12 A new $1 coin debuts in Plymouth, Mass., depicting the hands of Governor John Carver and Supreme Sachem Ousamequin Massasoit exchanging a peace pipe. It joins more than 1 billion dollar coins already minted. Though most Americans rarely see them in circulation, they are very popular in Ecuador, which began using the US dollar as its currency in 2000.

(source:boston.com)