A few things to know this week: October 16, 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.
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This week’s things to know:
Five Ways to Be the Change We Want to See (Busy Leaders Handbook)
We're in the middle of some trying times, and tensions are high. This is a nice reminder from Quint Studer on the importance of self awareness and humility, and simple steps we can all take to be more empathetic in our interactions with others, especially those who may not share our same beliefs or opinions. -Kevin
The Ever-Improving City — Strong Towns (Strong Towns)
If you are new to the concept of incrementalism, this article is a great introduction to a Strong Towns concept that is very important in building a resource-conscious city. Tristan Cleveland gets local and shows a few streets in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that are heavily trafficked pedestrian streets. Incrementalism advocates for what Tristan calls a 'healthy adaptation' which would allow current users of the street a more comfortable experience. Similarly, he shows how a popular bus stop can be retrofitted to make it even more used, leading to some of the more efficient forms of transit like BRT in an organic way. Making our cities more adaptive in the small things is the most efficient way to go. -Tim
Mapping low-income displacement and poverty concentration in Houston (Rice University)
In this piece, the Kinder Institute examines Jason Segedy's recent piece in City Observatory (a masterful piece found here) challenging the notion of gentrification as a universal issue in all cities. He counters that the bigger issue in the majority of cities - think midsized, non-metro - is actually the concentration of poverty. Think displacement by decline. They look at this in Texas and specifically, in Houston, where gentrification is a well-documented problem. They find, among other things, that places with significant new housing construction are increasing greatly, and that this increase is taking place across all income categories. Kinder Institute researchers share that, "The Houston area's specific combination of socioeconomic and cultural diversity as well as sprawling residential patterns has led to a unique set of challenges." It's a fascinating read, and if you're interested in the debate over gentrification, I highly recommend looking it over. -AJ
Muni Bond Market Disclosure: It’s about time - and time is money (Forbes)
This is the sixth and final piece in a Forbes series on investor disclosure in the municipal bond market. In this last piece, the author focuses on how the disclosure problems cost municipalities and taxpayers dollars - and how these same organizations have the power to correct the issues. Muni bonds are gaining in popularity and will become an even more critical aspect of how cities keep up with aging infrastructure, so we need to get these disclosure issues cleaned up.
"The municipal bond market’s failure to establish clear, uniform disclosure standards and metrics and integrate those into current technologies costs municipal borrowers—and the tax paying American public—billions every year. With proven solutions readily available, excuses not to expeditiously implement those ring hollow. The market needs implementation, not further examination." -Kevin
Best practices for ending exclusive single-family zoning (CNU)
If you've been following the huge push to enable missing middle housing, or devoured Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today's Housing Crisis, here's a great piece by Dan Parolek himself giving six quick tips to do this in your community. It's a fast read with excellent tips. -AJ
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Don’t miss out on our upcoming (virtual) event!
Texas Downtown Association Conference (November 9–12)
Kevin will be presenting on "Bridging the Resource Gap: Cultivating Strong Communities with the Resources You Have."
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:
Hey, friends who love cities! If you're looking for a place to discuss these topics (and more) with like-minded peers who want to help create a more resilient community, check out our Community Cultivators Network. It's free to join, and we are currently working to build new features for our 2021 relaunch, so stay tuned! We'll arm you with the content, ideas, and support to take small impactful steps to cultivate change.
