A few things to know this week: July 31, 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.
This week on the Go Cultivate! podcast:
A recovery toolkit for local leaders – with Rachel Quednau (and AJ Fawver)
Our friends at Strong Towns have put out a resource for folks in local government called The Local Leader's Toolkit. Jordan speaks with Rachel Quednau of Strong Towns and then with Verdunity's AJ Fawver to discuss some of its key points.
This week’s things to know:
How Do We Change the Narrative Around Housing? (Shelterforce)
This piece discusses some recent public opinion research on the narratives surrounding housing and housing policies, and highlights good strategies for building support for housing justice—as well as some types of framing to avoid. The first thing that stuck out to me was the focus on values-based messaging. It begins by invoking shared values. “Most progressive messaging currently follows the pattern of ‘problem, policy solution.’ But despite its ubiquity, this is an uninspiring and ineffective approach.” Instead, leading with values, they say, “activates emotions and opens an audience’s hearts and ears to the message.” Other interesting findings: Talking about race is more effective than remaining explicitly race-neutral when discussing housing justice issues.
The researchers also found that there is broad support for a governmental role in helping people meet their housing needs. “What is lacking is intensity of support, in part because there are so many actors (government, developers, landlords, investors) that people don’t know who to blame.” And guess what? Framing the discussion around “affordability” has a tendency to make people see housing simply as a consumer good, sometimes leading to the feeling that a housing crisis is inevitable. Instead, “[a] human-needs framework that taps into people’s real experience really helps us fight individualism.” There is much, much more to learn from this article! Don’t miss it! – Jordan
The Pandemic and the Suburbs’ Second Chance (Governing)
I've gotten a lot of articles forwarded to me lately about how the coronavirus has more people fleeing cities for the suburbs and rural areas for their open spaces and less crowded environment. But as this article points out, many of today's suburban communities either have, or are working to build more urban style mixed-use centers to serve residents and attract businesses. And if the trends from the virus hold and more people continue working from home, demand for these environments will continue to increase. As humans, we can only hunker down in our homes for so long before we need social interaction.
I can see why suburbs are attracting more people. But the real question about suburbs still remains, and that is: can we financially afford suburbs after the growth phase? The post-WWII suburban pattern has a hefty price tag for maintenance of streets, parks, and services that very few have the means and willingness to pay. The only real chance that suburbs have to pencil out over the long term is to build in a more compact pattern similar to the urban areas some people are saying they want to move away from. – Kevin
The fair housing rule Ben Carson’s HUD wants to delay, explained (Curbed)
If you you're on Twitter these days, you've probably heard or seen the hubbub from the White House regarding the delay of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act. This article from Curbed gives some context to the issue, and some background into similar issues in housing and equity across the nation. The Fair Housing Act, enacted in 1968 as a part of civil rights legislation, has been increasingly enforced and defined in recent years to ensure that government funds are spent in a just manner in the jurisdictions in which they are given. I hope you will give the article a look and see what this delay means, and if it may stand through potential upcoming litigation that other similar recent delays did not withstand. – Tim
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If we’re going to combat the evils of structural racism in our communities—and I’ve heard a lot more people using that phrase of late—then it’s going to mean, in part, understanding that exclusionary practices still continue, and are justified by coded and even seemingly innocuous language. The author of this piece is correct to point out the role that “neighborhood character” talking points have played in preserving and perpetuating inequality. Wrapped up in these discussions tends to be the assumption (stated or not) that renters are a sort of lower class of resident—“tumbleweeds, just blowing through a neighborhood with no real commitment to it.” Which I’ll say, as a married, 32-year-old renter, and someone who has no real hope of owning a place anytime soon, is ridiculous. Moreover, these discussions often provide cover for a de facto continuation of the racial covenants that were once in place but haven’t been enforceable for a while. I understand this might be surprising to read for some people. But we can’t go on record saying “we must fight systemic racism” and then proceed to be blind to the inequitable systems we may be unwittingly holding up. – Jordan
There Is Little Evidence That Mass Transit Poses a Risk of Coronavirus Outbreaks (Scientific American)
“On the contrary, […] transit can play a crucial role in the pandemic era by reducing air pollution that makes people more susceptible to COVID-19.” My suspicion is the folks who have been the most ready to paint transit as dangerous already had their sights set on cutting funds for public transit, for one reason or another. Good, reliable mass transit is absolutely essential for equitable and functioning societies. It will survive the pandemic, but it will not magically work without adequate funding. Anyway, everyone still needs to wear a mask. – Jordan
Podcast: Listening Is Not Really Sharing Power, with Naomi Doerner (The Movement)
I took a lot of great points from this episode, any of which would be worth sharing here. I think my favorite point that Naomi makes is the same one included in the title of the episode. “There really is this deep wealth of knowledge, deep wealth of community. […] And the only way to really know these things is to be connected to and not only to listen but to actually be connected to. So I feel one of the strategies is we often hear people say, ‘Well, we have to listen to communities,’ but that’s not really sharing power. And so, to hear someone say what they need but then to give and to resource and to allow a community to really self-determine what a visions is and what principles that they hold and value, the ways in which I have been able to do that, like, shifting from just the listening to the actual resourcing.” – 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.
Today @ 1:30pm Central
Don't miss today’s webinar!
You've completed assessments to vet your community's vision and values, review existing plans and resources, and prioritize desired outcomes. These are important steps toward maximizing existing plans and tools to make meaningful progress right now with the resources you have.
The next step is to reach out into the community to identify, connect, and empower people and local organizations who have time, talent, and treasure to contribute and develop a plan to work toward your shared goals in a collaborative and community-wide manner.
Join us for the next webinar in our Emerge Stronger series, where we'll walk through strategies we use to help communities organize and leverage partnerships with citizens, businesses, philanthropic groups, and others to work collaboratively to improve their cities and neighborhoods.
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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!
