A few things to know this week: June 12, 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—plus anything new from us.
New on the Go Cultivate! podcast:
Building vibrant communities – with Quint Studer
I recently interviewed Quint Studer for our podcast. Quint is a nationally recognized business and leadership expert and author who started his career in healthcare and is now doing community advocacy and consulting work. His book Building a Vibrant Community is an underrated resource for cities looking to cultivate a thriving, self-sustaining community. The podcast interview was one of my personal favorites, and we cover a lot of topics, but there are two things in particular that I really wanted to hear him talk about: the critical role early child development plays in communities and how to get community investors off the sidelines and investing in local programs and projects. We also discuss our shared belief that small and mid-sized cities have a tremendous opportunity right now to bring talent back that's been leaving for bigger cities. I look forward to collaborating with Quint and his team to help as many communities as we can! – Kevin
This week’s things to know:
‘Safe Streets’ Are Not Safe for Black Lives (Citylab)
What happens when the modifications to streets we make in our cities actually marginalize or harm so many of those which streets are supposed to serve? In this piece from CityLab, the point is made in an eloquent manner that the rush to open up streets has been done without any consideration of the danger and violence that these spaces hold for so many of our citizens. The exclusion of a number of groups (Black, Brown, Indigenous People, people of color, and trans people, to name a few) from these decisions - and the lack of a plan to protect these groups - this phenomenon (coined "quick-build equity" by the writer) provides no real progress. Writer Destiny Thomas also provides a list of suggestions which planners—and governmental agencies as a whole—should read, consider, and implement. – AJ
How do we respond to anti-Black racism in urbanist practices and conversations? (Canada Urban Institute)
This panel discussion moderated by Jay Pitter is definitely worth your time if you have an hour. Definitely listen to the very end, where they discuss the biggest ways urbanism and city-building have failed Black people, as well as action steps for non-Black urbanists. – Jordan
After the discussion mentioned above, Jay Pitter shared an open letter to Canadian urbanists that just as well applies to those who consider themselves urbanists in the U.S. context. In it, Pitter offers tangible steps toward a more coordinated effort to dismantle ant-Black racism in the realm of planning. Here are just a few:
“Acknowledge that urban design is not neutral, it either perpetuates or reduces social inequities;
“If you haven’t been doing equity-based placemaking work prior to the pandemic, kindly refrain from exploiting this moment and allow urbanists with the professional competence and lived experience to lead;
“Review policies and practices that may be creating invisible barriers for team members from equity-seeking groups to make meaningful contributions within your municipality or organization/firm;
Identify and actively work to reduce power imbalances when engaging communities—especially those with histories of exclusion and/or marginalization”
Also included in the document are an individual learning agenda with a personal assessment, as well as a brief exploration of intersectionality & equity-based placemaking. – Jordan
I’m a cop. I won’t fight a ‘war’ on crime the way I fought the war on terror. (Washington Post)
There are a lot of things being said about what police should not be. This op-ed from a former CIA operations officer who is now a police officer in Savanna, Georgia, outlines more of what I think our policemen and women should be—good neighbors. – Kevin
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.
Municipal Workers in One City Unite to Call for Higher Taxes Instead of Layoffs (Route Fifty)
Discussions about budgets and tax rates in cities typically focus on residents' opinions and keeping tax rates down. As the impacts of COVID-19 slash city revenues like sales, hotel, and tourism taxes, cities across the country are debating what to cut and what to keep, and most are acknowledging that a tax increase is off the table. But what do the people that work inside our cities to manage community development and provide services to the taxpayers think? This article on Philadelphia offers some insight. – Kevin
Recovering Participatory Politics for the 21st Century (Strong Towns)
Here’s a quick post from Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn, and I’m sharing it mostly because it serves as a good introduction to the work of Solidarity Hall, which I’m a fan of. Check them out if you’re not familiar. – Jordan
The Un-Urbanist Assembly (Thrivance Group)
I also wanted to share something that I and some other members of Verdunity will be tuning in for next Thursday and Friday. Dr. Destiny Thomas (who AJ mentioned above) is putting on a (23 hour!) “digital protest and teach-in dedicated to dialogue and strategies for anti-racist urban planning.” Click through to see the full program. – Jordan
Transformative Talks (The Untokening)
One last resource. I’ve shared statements from the Untokening before, specifically as related to “slow streets” and mobility justice. They have been hosting a series of bi-weekly webinars called “Transformative Talks” on timely issues related to mobility justice, COVID-19, racism, community resilience, and much more. If you miss a talk you can still watch the recordings. – Jordan
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 19 @ 1:30pm CDT
Don’t miss next week’s webinar!
In our first two webinars, we covered assessing existing tools and resources. The third and final element of the assessment phase in our framework is evaluating how you’re doing on getting input from citizens. Do you have a culture of apathy, or do you have an interested and energetic citizenry that is anxious to contribute their ideas and feedback?
In this webinar, AJ and Kevin will break down the topic of community engagement and discuss a few specific ways you can evaluate:
Who you are engaging—and who’s being left out;
How you’re engaging people—and other methods you may not be thinking about;
When to engage them; and
Most important of all… Why you’re engaging them—and how to better connect with citizens to increase the frequency and quality of your engagement efforts.
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!
