Happy Friday (the 13th)!

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:

What’s new on the Go Cultivate! podcast:

Affordable housing & incremental development

Kevin Shepherd and Monte Anderson talk affordable housing, incremental development, and more on the Chaffee Housing Report radio show.

Chuck Marohn and the revolution we need

Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns joined the Go Cultivate! podcast to talk about his new book, what's keeping our cities from building prosperity, and what regular citizens and professionals can do about it.

And here’s what we’ve been reading:

1. How Media Coverage of Car Crashes Downplays the Role of Drivers

There have been many assertions that, when it comes to crashes, pedestrians and cyclists are often blamed in the media. Of course, these are often termed "accidents" rather than "crashes," suggesting a lack of responsibility on anyone’s part. The context surrounding crashes is also rarely included in the media coverage.

Here's what a paper that examined a large number of crashes and media coverage related to those crashes found: all of the above is factually accurate. And the language we use influences the actions we take (or don’t take). Let's take this a step further; what language is used in your organization, your staff reports, your presentations, and your various disciplines? How can you be mindful of these issues and not only help educate your local media, but your local decision makers? It's a moment for reflection that we all need. Let's do better! – AJ

2. Should we still be building single-family homes?

In this piece for Curbed, Kate Wagner (one of my favorite writers these days) wades into the hot debate over single-family homes. “Is it immoral for us to keep building them?” she asks. The answer is that it’s complicated. “By conflating single-family houses with the problems of homeownership as a means of investment and wealth accumulation (or, conversely, seeing the single-family house as one of the only forms of generational stability and a safeguard against rising housing costs), we gloss over the problems of our system of wealth accumulation as a whole.” – Jordan

3. Why One City is Prioritizing Financial Empowerment

We've written quite a bit in the past about the growing wealth gap and how certain city policies can make things even more difficult on low-income residents. St. Paul, MN, is trying to turn this around. Keep an eye on this one and consider doing something similar in your community! – Kevin

4. The Hyperloop and the Self-Driving Car Are Not the Future of Transportation

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.

While it can be fascinating to chat about the Hyperloop and the self-driving/autonomous vehicle, the authors of The Future of Transportation contend that these are not serious parts of our transportation future. I agree wholeheartedly. The argument? That technology which does not attempt to drastically change the status quo (i.e. Uber and Lyft) is most successful. The author writes, "There’s a lesson in that. Getting people around in new, different ways—as happened in Amsterdam between 1970 and 2000, between Beijing and Shanghai in the past decade, and in Dar es Salaam right now—relies mostly on technologies that we have had for a while." The alternative? Focus on what's in front of us—the bus, the elevator, the bicycle. It's definitely a great suggestion for refocusing our efforts. While we hope for more efficient technology, we can still be affecting change, and it's not rocket science! – AJ

5. Why Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm

Cities are ultimately places for people. Cities were started and grown around this concept for thousands of years. Then when the automobile was invented, we saw a shift to designing cities for cars. Now, we are seeing cities shift back toward prioritizing their space and design for people. There’s a LOT of damage to mitigate, but we’re proud to be part of the trend towards re-humanizing our cities. – Kevin

6. What happened to all of the tiny houses for the homeless in Dallas?

In 2016 a tiny home community was set up at the intersection of S Malcon X Blvd and Louise Ave, with the goal of getting at-risk and "expensive" homeless people off the streets and into a more stable, healthy environment. These individuals are considered "expensive" to the City and its citizens because they are people who have been on the street for years and who may have been repeatedly hospitalized for addiction and mental health problems. On average it costs the City $40K a year to incarcerate or hospitalize someone in Dallas. Housing someone for a year at CitySquare, the nonprofit that manages the tiny home village, costs the City around $15K. Not only is a development like this helping by providing housing as a service, acting as the first line of health care for these individuals, but also (secondarily) helps the tax base. Would your city consider acting on the development of a low-income housing project like The Cottages at Hickory Crossing? Are there already projects that your community has in place to serve the economically disadvantaged? – Ryan

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.

Have a look! →

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!