A few things to know this week: December 20, 2019
Happy Friday (and Happy Holidays)!
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:
Are We Doing This Right? – Food Trucks & Pop-Ups Edition
Nontraditional retail has gained ground in many cities recently. In this episode, we examine whether we’re getting it right, or if there’s room to improve.
And here’s what we’ve been reading:
1. The Link Between Cars and Income Inequality
This fascinating study from the Kinder Institute analyzed 150 mid-size cities across the US to find connections between multimodal transportation and income inequality. In summary, the greater a city’s multimodality (% of trips taken other than car) the less its income inequality. Several ideas, such as connecting bikeways to buses and trains, are suggested as some iterative solutions that city leaders can employ to bridge the economic opportunity gap. – Tim
2. The Fight to Make Austin Affordable
Coveting cars over people? Check. Promoting unchecked sprawl? Check. Exacerbating a lack of housing affordability? Check. Exclusionary? Check. Austin's zoning code, dating back to 1984, checks all the boxes of things we now must confront to make our cities inclusive and fiscally solvent. As the City pursues a new land development code to execute the "compact and connected city" that their 2012 Imagine Austin plan calls for, one thing is certain: the prohibiting Texas cities from utilizing inclusionary zoning as a tool increases the risk for a community desperately in need of adequate housing for today's population and the massive increase projected for the region. The new codes can encourage the development of affordable housing, but it cannot require it.
These issues apply to so many communities around the nation, in varying degrees. Here's some food for thought. How many of these powerful quotes from the article could apply to your community?
"You will never go homeless...if you’re a car."
“If you have a land development code based on exclusion, that’s the result...”
“When we’re talking about displacement today, when we’re talking about gentrification, when we’re talking about the mass exodus of people of color of this city—it’s based on our code today...”
"...the last person in the room or the loudest yeller just seemed to get their way...”
– AJ
3. Formerly Hidden, Beautiful Infrastructure is Now Back in the Limelight
We've written in the past about the value of building places for people and emphasizing human scale design over auto-centric development. This article discusses ways designers can incorporate aesthetic, social and environmental benefits into projects. And it doesn't always have to cost more money - there are plenty of low-cost ways to do this too! – Kevin
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.
4. The Problem with On-Demand “Transit”
On-demand “transit” can be useful in serving specific, usually small, populations for specific needs. But this compilation of writings by Jarrett Walker illustrates that what cities ought to know about “microtransit” and how it does or doesn’t advance equity and transit accessibility. And there’s a nice breakdown of the ridership vs. coverage discussion. – Jordan
5. Americans are moving less and less—and it could dramatically reshape society
The narrative of people moving constantly moving around in America is no longer quite so true. For the first time in a long time, more people are staying put — some because they choose to, and many because they are forced to. I hope this will lead to a growing contingent of residents in cities who are more concerned with the fiscal solvency of their city and its ability to maintain existing neighborhoods. That would be a welcome shift from the popular vocal opinion we hear in many communities today, which is all about prioritizing growth, amenities, and low taxes in the short-term. – Kevin
We’re taking a break from these weekly roundups until 2020. See you then, and Happy Holidays!
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!
