The 30 Most Creative Small Cities

This is a great listing of the 30 most creative small cities (under 500,000). It’s put together by a group named Creative Vitality, who has developed a “Creative Vitality Index”, or CVI. The CVI “allows users to measure important economic signals that correlate to a region’s overall creative economic health and compares them as a ratio to that of the United States”. While that in itself is interesting to read about, I really enjoyed looking through the list of cities for ideas and inspiration. 

– AJ

The Santa Cruz River Heritage Project

I work from Louisiana, a state that helps to drain around 40% of the continental US. While we often see an excess of water, in other states, like Arizona, water is at a premium. I lived in Arizona briefly in college for an internship, and it was weird to see signs for "rivers", like the Salt River in Phoenix or Santa Cruz River in Tucson, that had no water in them. Actually, these rivers used to have water in them more often, but growing populations and water management has left them dry except for after large storm events. However, the Santa Cruz River Heritage Project is aiming to change that, by releasing treated wastewater back into the river. The project aims to recharge the groundwater and provide riparian habitats that used to be more prevalent in Arizona. I hope this effort to reap the benefits of our natural environment provides fruitful and useful for this urban environment.

–Tim

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