A few things to know this week: February 28, 2020
Happy Friday!
Every week, we round up some of the things we read, listened to, or watched that really caught our attention. Here are just a few things we think you should know this week:
Featured on the Go Cultivate! blog this week:
Aligning actions with purpose – AJ Fawver
Why is it that we continue to execute, but end up no closer (or even further away from) our ultimate goals and purpose? AJ highlights some of the questions city leaders need to ask to align actions with outcomes.
Talking Points Tuesday: Block Length – AJ Fawver
Subdivision regulations may bore some people... but not us. They actually have a big impact on the way we're able to carry out our lives in the cities we live in. Here are a few thoughts on the importance of shorter blocks!
And here are this week’s (other) things to know:
2020 Financial State of the Cities (Truth in Accounting)
Want to know how much you the taxpayer are on the hook for your city's debt? This report is a good starting point. One thing that is missing from the numbers in this report, though, is—you guessed it—unfunded infrastructure liabilities. This report only considers the debt associated with bonds for infrastructure (that's what most most cities do as well). There are only a handful of cities that can pay their bills with what this group includes. When you add the aging infrastructure liabilities that cities aren't quantifying, it gets pretty ugly. When will we acknowledge how fragile our current local government business model is? – Kevin
My City Has Massive Infrastructure Liabilities. So Do 99% of the Cities in America. (Strong Towns)
When it comes to being the “Best place to live, work, and play!” the city of Plano, TX, shows up close to the top of the list fairly often. The city has lots of good neighborhoods, a nice downtown, several large corporations, and many other amenities. However, they are also known for resisting more dense development patterns, and in this piece, Alex Zhang argues that a car-dependent single-family development pattern will create some hardship in the next 20-30 years. It will be interesting to see how cities like Plano will adapt—or whether they can adapt—into the future. – Tim
What Cities Can Learn from the Nation's Only Privacy Commission (Governing)
Four years ago, Oakland set up an advisory commission to look at city policies through a privacy lens. It is still the only body with such a wide scope and could (hopefully) become a model as the use of tech grows. – Jordan
No ‘carmageddon’ on auto-free Market Street. Study shows bikes and buses benefit (SF Chronicle)
San Francisco has been debating for ten years whether to close off one of their main thoroughfares (Market Street) to cars. While our car dependency might have us believe this would create a nightmare, the results have been remarkable. On nearby streets, car travel speed has only been reduced by 4% (0.4 MPH), while transit speeds have increased by over 10% and ridership has grown by over 25%! Bike ridership has improved too. What this demonstrates, in a short amount of time, is that prioritizing certain modes of travel encourages greater use of those modes of travel. Just because the car still is dominant in most places doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. – Tim
Climate-Driven Risk Is Severely Underestimated across Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate Entities, Says Economist Spencer Glendon (Urban Land Institute)
The title kind of says everything I would have written in this part. You should still definitely check out the video, because he expounds on these points. If you’re thinking the effects of climate change are either far off or won’t really touch your community, it’s time to think again. – Jordan
The Commuting Principle That Shaped Urban History (Citylab)
I found this series by Jonathan English to be an enlightening read about transportation and city design/planning through the ages. For me, it put things in perspective and showed me how skewed our modern thought processes surrounding commuting and transportation options really can be. – Ryan
Do you enjoy these weekly roundups? (Why wouldn’t you?) You can get them sent straight to your email inbox every Friday, if you’re into that.
Is your community looking to close its resource gap, recruit and retain a diverse mix of residents, and cultivate a vibrant local economy and workforce? If so, a critical (but not always politically easy) part of getting there is by shifting your development pattern and neighborhood design from one where everything requires a 20 minute drive to one where all daily needs are within a 20 minute walk or bike ride. Your city will be much stronger and your residents will enjoy a much higher (and healthier) quality of life. Of course, there’s unfortunately not a switch you can just flip. This will require political will and discipline to change plans, codes, policies, and attitudes in many places. But in our minds, these are hard things worth taking on. Our children will be grateful for those who did. – Kevin
Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build (New York Times)
How do we solve the housing crisis? Or, more accurately, how do we solve the housing crisis when NIMBYism consistently opposes anything that is different? At public hearings on zoning, this attitude essentially has the effect of shutting down proposals that are otherwise consistent with adopted city policies, state statute, and legal precedent. Those voicing the NIMBY point of view often frame their stance in terms of a larger “public interest.” But, who are we planning for? Well, it isn't just the people who are part of our communities today—and isn’t just the narrow group of people who own property and have the time, means, and level of comfort to show up to public meetings and voice their discontent. This piece captures a variety of different community voices that ultimately ask the big question: what level of obligation do cities have to their present—and their future? At Verdunity, we talk often about stewardship. How can we help citizens evolve in their understanding of stewardship? – AJ
Upcoming keynotes and workshops!
Check out our Upcoming Events page to see if we’ll be anywhere near you this spring. We’re currently confirmed for the TML Elected Officials Conference in Frisco, the APA National Planning Conference in Houston, and the ELGL national conference in Portland, OR—and we’ll be adding more events shortly!
Want to learn more about how fiscal analysis can help you make your city stronger financially?
We created a new sister website showcasing how we use math, maps, and money to help cities communicate your resource gap and explore ways to increase tax revenue and improve service efficiency without necessarily raising taxes.
Hey, friends in local government:
Have thoughts on any of the links above? Think we missed something essential? We’re discussing these topics and more over on our brand-new online community, exclusively for local government employees.* Sign up for the Community Cultivators Network and join the discussion!
* The network is currently only for those wonderful folks out there who work in local government. If you’re not currently working for a city, town, or county, we still love you (and are sure many of you would add value to the community), but we want to keep our commitment to making this a community focused specifically on our friends working in local government. Thanks for understanding!
