A few things to know this week: June 26, 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:
Are We Doing This Right? – Bike Networks Edition
Our ‘Are We Doing This Right?’ series returns to take a look at bike networks! What are cities doing right—and what might they be missing?
This week’s things to know:
The Ins and Outs of Your City Budget (Citylab)
Most people don’t know much, if anything, about their city’s budget. Recent calls to divert money away from police spending and toward expanding social services and investment in left-behind communities have many people scrutinizing their city’s budget like never before. “The good news,” says Ariel Aberg-Riger, “is that if you want to track down your city’s budget, it’s pretty easy to find. The bad news is […] budgets are complicated, dense, and vary widely from city to city.” So, if budgets are made for the people of a community, what would a truly accessible budget look like? The author has some suggestions (and it’s fun to look at). – Jordan
Want to #SlowTheCars? Don't Rely on Enforcement. (Strong Towns)
I seem to be getting more calls lately about how to reduce speeding in residential neighborhoods. Common solutions that residents offer up are things like speed humps, additional policing, more signs (speed limit, "kids at play", etc) and reducing the speed limit. My answer? Change the street design to force people to drive slower. As Daniel Herriges points out, changing the design of our streets to slow cars has many other benefits as well. – Kevin
Revenge of the Suburbs (The Atlantic)
This provocative article digs deep into the ways our built environment could change due to COVID and the drivers behind America's love of the suburbs. Aside from being challenged by the article, I also appreciated the push back of what the author called a "sneer" towards the suburbs. For one, Ian Bogost argues that the increasing home size that moves many formerly public functions indoors (think about laundry, pools, and gadgets that limit trips to the hardware store) has been a benefit during a pandemic that limits time spent outside the home. Don't assume, however, that the author shies away from a critical look at the suburbs—he is quick to point out the increased infrastructure costs suburbs have, how we often confuse density with overcrowding, and why affluence is often the key to a suburb’s benefits instead of the suburb's inherent design. I highly recommend reading this article and imagine how to move forward towards healthy future cities. – Tim
NLC: Financial impact data paints 'dire picture' of cities' futures (Smart Cities Dive)
On a recent press call to discuss findings of National League of Cities' new CV19 Local Impacts Survey, NLC CEO and Executive Director Clarence Anthony reemphasized the need for more federal support, but also prepped listeners for Congress' potential failure to respond. “If we don’t get that direct funding, looking at this data, we’ve gotta brace ourselves as leaders [and] brace our residents," he said. "Because a storm is coming.” – Kevin
The Porch Puzzle (Curbed)
Growing up in a suburban neighborhood where front porches were not common, I never really knew much about my neighbors, didn't spend time in my front yard, and felt a sense of home only on the inside of our family's house. It wasn’t until I moved away from that suburban environment that I started to develop an appreciation for those design elements that foster neighborly interaction. This piece in Curbed dwells on the upsurge of front porch use (among those who have them), and also highlights a challenge: the front porch “is neither public nor fully private, exposing porch-sitters to interactions they can’t expect or control.” We recommend giving this one a read (as well as the rest of Curbed’s “Neighbors Issue”), for the quick look at the role of the front porch in the messiness of neighbor interactions, and also for the inclusion of our friend (and early podcast guest) Joanna Taft. – 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.
Allan Mallach, author of The Divided City among other books, has a new piece in Shelterforce arguing that "focusing on zoning in hot-market urban centers misses economic realities—and major opportunities." – Jordan
Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom has some thoughts on how to improve governments' ability to work collaboratively to protect common interests. I hadn't heard of her before this article, but I'm diving in now. Here's an excerpt from Ms. Ostrom's 2009 Nobel Prize Lecture:
Humans have a more complex motivational structure and more capability to solve social dilemmas than posited in earlier rational-choice theory. Designing institutions to force (or nudge) entirely self-interested individuals to achieve better outcomes has been the major goal posited by policy analysts for governments to accomplish for much of the past half century. Extensive empirical research leads me to argue that instead, a core goal of public policy should be to facilitate the development of institutions that bring out the best in humans. – Kevin
Extreme fires erupt in the Arctic Circle (Mashable)
For the second year in a row, there are fires in the Arctic Circle. Yep, you read that right—fires in the Earth's polar region. – Kevin
Survey: City of Dallas considering legalizing accessory dwelling units citywide
For our Dallas friends: The City of Dallas is (finally) considering allowing ADUs (sometimes known as granny flats), and has a survey for Dallas residents to fill out with their thoughts on the matter. You already know what we think about the value of ADUs; if you feel the same way, let the City know you support for them and why! The survey closes on July 7. – Ryan
Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore (Antipode Foundation)
Excellent short video featuring geographer and abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore that can serve as an (extremely brief) introduction to the notion of racial capitalism, the arguments for prison abolition, and the role geography plays in this discussion. – Jordan
As evictions resume in Texas, unemployed renters have few options (Texas Tribune)
I didn’t add this to the list before sending out the email version, but I thought this still needed to be shared. The virus is laying bare the gross inadequacies of our society—which we have the collective capacity to do something about. – 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.
Next Thursday, July 2 @ 1:30pm CDT
The fourth webinar in our (ten-part) biweekly series!
Our first three webinars covered several areas to assess where you are and establish a baseline for improvement. In the next three sessions, we’ll cover how to organize your community’s resources to make meaningful progress right now.
In this webinar, we’ll discuss how to prioritize desired outcomes and set critical objectives for the upcoming year, including:
Identifying a purpose and rallying cry that’s unique to your community and that the majority of people can and want to connect with;
Establishing community values and guideposts for decision making that transcend individuals or council administrations
Defining shared outcomes and establishing critical objectives, measures, and actions
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!
