A few things to know this week: June 5, 2020
Happy Friday, friends! Every week we collect some of the best things that members of our Verdunity team read, watched, or listened to over the course of the week. And if you’re seeing this in time, we have a free webinar today!
This week’s things to know:
Untapped Opportunity: Don’t Just Repair Water Infrastructure, Reimagine It (Common Edge)
Resource constraints vary in how easy they are to measure. Measuring our fiscal constraints can be seen relatively easy by looking at a budget. Water constraints, on the other hand, can be much more difficult to measure when the system is mostly underground. Amir Kripper explores this difficulty in his article through the lens of trying to home school his kids on how our homes get the water we need. He argues that making our water infrastructure more visible and tactile can lead us toward resiliency. 'Non-roman' infrastructure, as he calls it, can help us envision new ways of delivering essential resources that make the water system much more tactile, and therefore understandable to us all. – Tim
The Toxic Intersection of Racism and Public Space (Citylab)
It isn't just that we are looking for positive mental health benefits right now, or that we are looking for ways to deal with being quarantined inside our homes, or that studies show that green spaces and parks provide both of those things. It just isn't that simple. It's also that black and brown people across the nation must constantly weigh those benefits against the fears and threats of the suspicion they routinely face, against the backdrop of a pandemic and the tidal wave of racism rolls in waves across every community. When does the notion of "eyes on the street" encourage and when does it discourage residents with every right to enjoy public spaces? Furthermore, what are we as planning professionals and human beings going to DO about this racial inequity in public spaces? – AJ
WEBINAR: Virtual Conversation on Community Control (Participatory Budgeting Project)
Yesterday evening I tuned in to this discussion on building and strengthening participatory democracy at the local level. The conversation touched on the concept of participatory budgeting but also went much further than that. It was a great reminder that there are organizations that have already been working on these issues in cities across the country for decades; if local governments want to build community collaboration they should seek out partners like some of the ones represented in this discussion. – Jordan
How to Detect the Distortions of Maps (Citylab)
Just as there are tips out there on helping you spot a phishing scam or an unreliable source of information, there is now a resource to help you spot map bias. The Leventhal Map Center - part of the Boston Public Library - has launched an online exhibit highlighting examples throughout history where maps have influenced the presentation of information in ways that persuade or support a specific perspective. If you want to feel more savvy about reading maps, they've got tips for you. Bottom line: people making maps can be heavily influenced by their own assumptions. It's an excellent digital exhibit that can be accessed here. – AJ
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The disconnected and minimally effective federal response to the COVID pandemic is exposing the economic and social fragility of current policies and programs. In this LinkedIn piece, Bruce Katz and his co-authors suggest that what we must conceive and demand is a national response that remakes our federalism and empowers our localism. They propose several policy changes along with highlighting examples that can provide a blueprint for the path forward. And if you haven't already read it, Bruce Katz's book The New Localism is a must read. – Kevin
An excellent Twitter thread from Keith Benjamin
The thread begins like this. “One of the dangers of this moment for white counterparts in placemaking is to be invigorated to “do something” instead of just picking up the best practices, voices and research of women/black ppl/white allies from the last 5+ years and put that work to work.” It’s long, and it might be challenging for some people to read. If it is, then you might be the right person to be reading it. – Jordan
And speaking of Twitter…
Urbanist Leaders of Color Twitter List
I know that my worldview didn’t really start to change (on a whole range of topics) until I started getting exposure to people whose experience was nothing like mine, or at least was different in important ways. I think the related fields of planning and design (and, by extension, the people who live in the world they create) suffer from operating in a bubble that allows unfounded assumptions to go unchecked, legitimate critiques to go unheard. Those assumptions have to do with blind spots in a lot of areas—race, class, age, sex, ability, and so on. The past couple week has laid bare plenty of things (though they were out there in the open for ages); one of them is that Black people in general and Black people in our profession don’t get their voices heard (enough) by a predominantly white field. While I think it’s essential that the learning take place offline, I also think it’s the case that what we consume regularly (social media most definitely included) frames our understanding of the world, the problems that need solving, and obviously, the people who need to be central in the solutions. So if you’re one of the many white folks in, or interested in, the “urbanist” realm, and you’re seeking to broaden your understanding, here is a good starting list of voices you may have been missing. – Jordan
Capturing the essence of what it means to cultivate community (Active Towns Podcast)
Our good friend John Simmerman of Active Towns (who you may have heard on our podcast a couple times) had Verdunity CEO Kevin Shepherd on his own “Active Towns” podcast this week to talk about cultivating fiscally (and physically) healthy communities. Give it a listen! John’s a great host and his important work helping to move us toward a more human-friendly world.
Here's the standard disclaimer: We always encourage our team members to freely share their thoughts and opinions, both in these newsletters and elsewhere. Given that, opinions expressed by any one member do not necessarily represent the views of the company as a whole.
Friday, June 5 @ 1:30pm CDT
Don’t miss today’s webinar!
In this webinar, the second in our "Emerge Stronger” series, Kevin Shepherd and AJ Fawver will discuss how to assess and maximize the resources your community has available. You’ll learn:
How to use land use fiscal analysis to quantify the costs and revenue productivity of your city’s land, buildings, and infrastructure—and how it can be used to align your city’s development pattern and service model with what residents are willing and able to pay for
How to align and inspire your existing staff to maximize engagement and achievement of priority outcomes
How to identify and tap into other partners in the community such as school districts, philanthropic groups, local businesses, and other “implementers”
The webinar will begin at 1:30pm Central.
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!
