A few things to know this week: November 22, 2019
Happy Friday, friends!
Every week, we round up some of the things we read, listened to, or watched that really caught our attention. Here are just a few things we think you should know this week:
This week's things to know:
NEW on the Go Cultivate! podcast:
Engineer Mike McKay Mike joins the show for a wide-ranging discussion on the past, present, and future of the engineering profession—and its role in the way we’ve built our cities.
And here’s what we’ve been reading:
1. Formerly Hidden, Beautiful Infrastructure is Now Back in the Limelight
Whether your growing concern about infrastructure in the United States is based on fiscal challenges, climate change, or something else, this article provides insights on a different approach as we move forward. Just as the Victorian Era transformed England, there are some great suggestions shared in this article on how we can reimagine infrastructure in a way that can be transformative for our future — and for future generations. Their tips are interesting, germane, and thought-provoking. It's timely, given the increasing limitations on states and cities to generate revenue (most of which is hardly a sufficient amount to maintain infrastructure) and stay afloat with the ever-growing demand for services and quality of life measures. If it's the one article you share with somebody this week, please share it (especially with city managers, public works directors and engineers). – AJ
2. Two-part interview: How Cities and States Can Stop the Incentive Madness & Tailored Place-Based Policies Are Key to Reducing Regional Inequality
This interview with Timothy Bartik is a good starting place for the discussion about why and how we need to move away from tax incentives as an economic development strategy. The simple truth is that they do not help, and often actually hurt. – Jordan
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.
If you've followed or worked with us for very long, you know we are huge believers in incremental development and economic gardening as core strategies to make cities more financially strong and resilient. Our friend and frequent collaborator Monte Anderson has been doing this work in his hometown of Duncanville, TX, for over a decade. This article features two of the newest locally owned and operated small businesses that are building on what Monte started to cultivate a unique, self sustaining local economy in Duncanville. This can happen in your community too! – Kevin
4. Election 2019: Planning and Development Related Results Roundup
If you've experienced fatigue from the sheer amount of craziness that's happened this year with politics and policy as it relates to cities and transportation, this is a great summary that Planetizen writer James Brauswell put together that will help you with knowing what the important takeaways are — without further brain damage. – AJ
5. Enhancing New Urbanism through greenway design
Most of my favorite places I have been to have a central pedestrian "artery" of sorts that acts as a channel for everything from exercise to leisure. These greenways have proven themselves reliable assets for the communities that they serve. How much emphasis is your city putting on these lighter infrastructure projects that have such an outsize impact on citizens' experience and quality of life? Is there a future where you see major pedestrian corridors becoming central to all new development? – Ryan
6. States and localities face $873 billion of deferred maintenance costs
Our work at Verdunity focuses on quantifying infrastructure funding deficits and helping cities work intentionally to close their resource gaps. A new working paper from the Volcker Alliance discusses what the infrastructure deficit looks like at the federal level when you add it all up and warns that our increasing reliance on debt to fund maintenance may not work as well in the future. (Note: subscription required to read full article). – Kevin
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!
