A few things to know this week: August 7, 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:
Connecting housing & community health – with Becky Gray
In this episode, Kevin speaks with Becky Gray, Director of Housing for Chaffee County, CO, to discuss the County's early efforts to build a more resilient regional housing system.
This week’s things to know:
Salt Lake City planners have about 30 minutes a day for the big stuff (Building Salt Lake)
This article is not flashy, "urban", or trendy content that will get a huge following, but it's the most important article worthy of sharing this week, in my opinion. Why? It demonstrates the reality that people outside city organizations aren't often aware of, and drives home the prevailing problems with our cities' regulations and tools. Salt Lake City is not alone in the struggle to find time for planners to, well, plan. This is an extremely common problem. A problem of cities' own making. When regulations are used as ways to mandate special approvals and obtaining permission for everything under the sun, the typically well-qualified team of planners for that community spend the majority of their time processing applications.
I can tell you from experience that "processing applications" isn't just reviewing forms and programming them into the machine that is local government. It is writing, editing, and finalizing reports. It is site visits and photography. It is writing and publishing legal notices. It is ensuring that boards dependent on volunteers have quorums. It is lengthy public hearings. It is legal review, and city manager review, and department head review. It is agenda preparation and preparing Powerpoint slides. It is analysis and internal frustration when planners attempt to uphold the adopted vision and are preempted from the top. When that's all done, it's time to begin the next cycle of applications.
It is rare that all of this application processing has a true impact to the community's well-being. Rather, the impact is two-fold: 1) creating a bureaucratic nightmare that frustrates all parties and makes even the most straightforward projects difficult (and sometimes, cost-prohibitive), and 2) it prevents cities—and their planning staff—from truly doing the work they are meant to do, making any sort of efficiency a pipe dream. I applaud Salt Lake City for seeing this and taking some initial steps to trim down the endless number of things requiring costly hearings and approvals. They will be better for it, and leadership in other cities of all sizes should take note. – AJ
Texas’ debt problem was well underway before it received federal bailouts, reports show (The Center Square)
Unfunded liabilities for pensions and infrastructure are a threat to the fiscal health and resilience of local governments across the country, even here in Texas. These are liabilities that aren't always included in annual budget documents and balance sheets, but are costs that agencies (and their taxpayers) are obligated to pay at some point in the future. The nonprofit group Truth in Accounting is one of the few groups out there attempting to quantify what these liabilities mean for taxpayers. In Texas, they estimate we had a $98.7 billion debt burden, and that was before COVID-19, which has depleted state and local rainy day funds and exacerbated the resource gap. Not surprisingly, state and local agencies and their representative lobbying organizations have responded by doubling down on requests for federal aid, but where will this money come from? With or without federal aid, it's time for our local governments to embrace a more fiscally responsible and resilient model of development and operations that aligns with what taxpayers are willing and able to pay. – Kevin
Five Steps to Prevent Displacement (Sightline Institute)
Alan Durning from Sightline Institute has a new installment in his "Winning Abundant Housing" series, this time addressing the displacement dimension of housing politics. It's a longer piece that I think is worth the read, wherever you come down on some of his stances and recommendations.
After a useful discussion on the nature of urban land as "two irreconcilable things at once"—money and meaning—Durning frames a few of the ways in which "abundant housing" advocates and anti-displacement activists may find themselves talking past each other. Clearly, Durning is making the argument from the abundant housing standpoint. But he seeks to find common ground with anti-displacement advocates that respect the political realities in place across cities.
Abundant-housing advocates are unlikely to win anti-displacement advocates’ support for upzoning, and anti-displacement advocates are unlikely to win abundant-housing advocates’ support for downzoning or other tight regulation. What’s left? What’s the intersection of the two sets? What anti-displacement strategies can abundant housing proponents get behind?
I see five: invest in anchors against displacement, build elsewhere, build more if it’s affordable, upzone for reparations, and protect tenants.
– Jordan
NACTO urges shift from 'outdated' speed-limit planning (Smart Cities Dive)
It's about damned time. That was my initial thought when I read this article. To be clear though, lowering speed limits alone will not make our streets safer. When our residential streets are 30 or 40 feet wide, a little white sign with a number on it is not going to slow cars down, especially in today's unfortunate reality of distracted driving. If we really want to make our neighborhood streets safer for biking, walking, and socializing, we must change the design of the streets themselves to force drivers to pay attention and slow down. – Kevin
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New guide offers communities a path to zoning reform (CNU Public Square)
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has released a new free how-to manual that provides guidance and model regulations to help incrementally reform zoning and regulatory barriers that have limited housing access, convenience, and affordability. I'm looking forward to digging into this resource and incorporating it into our work. – Kevin
Report: 26 Actions Local Leaders Can Take to Help Small Businesses Weather the Pandemic (Institute for Local Self-Reliance)
Kennedy Smith has been a nationally recognized leader on the subject of Main Street and local business economies for years, so I was thrilled when she published her new report highlighting ways communities can safeguard their small businesses during the pandemic. Kennedy and I will be discussing the report on an upcoming episode of our Go Cultivate! podcast, so keep an eye out for that in the new few weeks. – Kevin
How Europe’s Greenest Capital Is Saving City Trees (Next City)
Trees provide numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits to our cities, so it makes sense that we should all work together to protect them. Apps like Berlin's Water the Neighborhood, Open Trees, and New York City Tree Map are providing open source data and tools to help residents chip in. – Kevin
How Collin County’s Growing Diversity May Have Shaped The El Paso Walmart Shooting Suspect (Texas Standard)
This week was the one year anniversary of the tragic mass shooting in El Paso. This article is an interesting read that connects how historical development trends in north Texas and political rhetoric in the affluent suburb where the shooter grew up and lived likely impacted the shooter's views and actions. – Kevin
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.
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