ceos_for_cities - Yule Heibel on Diigo

04 Mar 09

SeeClickFix: Report non-emergency issues, receive alerts in your neighborhood

The map includes Canada, but is it used here yet?
Found via CEOs for Cities, who reported:
QUOTE
It's a Googlemaps mashup that uses crowdsourcing to report problems to public officials and get them fixed. The start up is located in New Haven where the service is the most developed. There is it used by the Policy Chief, Police Lieutenants, Mayor's Office, Public Works, Parks Dept, the Town Green Improvement District and, of course, citizens.
UNQUOTE

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18 Jan 09

"Land Sharing" CEOs for Cities :: Blog, View Entry

QUOTE
"Whether you're talking about money, goods or even space, these days "waste" has become a bit of a dirty word. Monday, consumers are looking for positive ways to avoid it. They're beautifying unused or neglected public spaces with guerilla gardening; they're sharing their pantry's overstock and garden surplus by food swapping, and they're taking advantage of bountiful harvests found on public and private property with voluntary harvesting. With waste top of mind, the latest waste elimination challenge focuses on the garden.
UNQUOTE

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02 Dec 08

"Broken Windows Matter," CEOs for Cities :: Blog, View Entry

Carol Coletta points to The Economist article that featured new research in Holland which showed that low-level social disorder provides a breeding ground for creating more of the same. Based on the "broken windows" theory, it gives back some statistical relevance to a theory that has been falling out of favour. (Why it fell out of favour is a mystery to me, but there you have it...)
QUOTE
The "broken windows" theory had its day in the sun during the "zero tolerance" policies of the Giuliani adminsitration in New York. Petty crime, such as graffiti and subway turnstile jumping, were not to be tolerated because, according to the theory, observing disorder has a psychological effect on people.

The theory later fell out of favor. But new research out of the Netherlands bolsters the belief that tolerance of low level crime matters. According to the new research, it actually doubles the number of people willing to litter and steal.
UNQUOTE

Coletta brings the issue back to city budget slashing, and how this will affect the climate for social disorder.

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ceos_for_cities carol_coletta cities social_disorder broken_window_theory

The "broken windows" theory had its day in the sun during the "zero tolerance" policies of the Giuliani adminsitration in New York. Petty crime, such as graffiti and subway turnstile jumping, were not to be tolerated because, according to the theory, observing disorder has a psychological effect on people.

The theory later fell out of favor. But new research out of the Netherlands bolsters the belief that tolerance of low level crime matters. According to the new research, it actually doubles the number of people willing to litter and steal.

Read the story in the Economist. Then contemplate what city budget slashing will do to enforcement.

22 Nov 08

Building an Obama urban agenda - PD Opinion - cleveland.com

Cleveland Plain Dealer blog entry about Carol Coletta's visit to Cleveland to speak at the annual meeting of University Circle, Inc.

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cleveland.com carol_coletta ceos_for_cities cities urbanism

she thinks Barack Obama will be good for urban America.

"I think he has an urban sensitivity -- an urban sensitivity based on working to make things happen in some of the most devastated neighborhoods in Chicago," said Coletta. "He knows what works. He understands the scams. He's no bleeding heart."
Coletta said she's hoping for three pillars to an Obama urban agenda:
4 more annotations...
- Infrastructure. A hot item because it can be the centerpiece of a stimulus package, Coletta hopes the emphasis of any spending on roads, bridges and sewers would be "fix it first." That is, repair what already exists in cities rather than build new or wider expressways out of town. "We need to extract value out of what we've already invested in," said Coletta.
- Transportation policy. Coletta hopes Washington will emphasize mass transit, encourage wiser land use and stop urban sprawl. And with her, it's not simply about the environment. Density, Coletta says, drives productivity. That's because modern knowledge economies thrive when creative people, the types who tend to congregate in cities, effortlessly interact and share ideas. "You need to think about how to enable those happy accidents," she said.
- Education. There's no better predictor of a city's or a region's economic performance than its level of educational attainment, in particular its percentage of college graduates. That's a lesson Cleveland has learned the hard way. Obama, during his campaign, called for a $4,000 college tuition tax credit. That would help open college doors to thousands of extra students, and cities would disproportionately benefit. "If you're trying to encourage economic development," said Coletta, "that's the lowest hanging fruit."
- Coletta says it's important that when urban leaders nudge the White House, they go with solutions in hand -- not with hands out.

10 Nov 08

"Offshoring Audacity," CEOs for Cities :: Blog, View Entry

I would love to have attended the Chicago Humanities Festival conference. Carol Colletta's summing up sounds intriguing, with lots of important issues and themes raised. The discussion around high-speed rail and how Chicago could be connected to a bunch of other great cities to maximize each one's potential depressed me a bit, insofar as I'm reminded that my city (Victoria) sits on an island, which leaves us only with ferries and airplanes... <sigh>

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ceos_for_cities conference chicago

The morning session had a consistent message: Chicago must dream big to compete with London, Paris, Beijing and Shanghai. These four cities were mentioned repeatedly, and the clear ambition is for Chicago to compete with these cities. But what made the first presentation this morning especially exciting was Rick Harnish, who runs Midwest High Speech Rail Coalition. He makes a compelling, detailed, persuasive case for high speed rail in the U.S. The coalition is pushing a high speed system for the Midwest that connects Minneapolis to Cincinnati, Detroit to St. Louis, with Chicago at the hub of the "X". If the increasing calls for federal investment in infrastructure continue, high speed rail could move from plan to reality. Putting all of these cities within 3 hours of comfortable travel from downtown Chicago will increase productivity, help centralize business in these city centers, likely lead to increased density around stations
President-elect Barack Obama has talked openly and repeatedly about his support for high speed rail and, according to Rick, high speed rail also has the support of Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Could high speed rail really be in the near future of America?
3 more annotations...
- Offshoring Audacity was a discussion of architecture as a manufacturer of identity of place. The discussion picked up on a theme sounded by Saskia last weekend: Uniqueness of place is what is most valued but our system of global finance (and architecture?) pushes in the direction of sameness.
- The session's other provocative theme was this: If it is Western architects designing buildings in the Middle East financed with Russian oil money, where exactly is "offshore"? Who is us and who is them? Where is here and where is there? All of the panelists were under 40 (and several much younger), and it strikes me that the concept of "offshore" has little relevance to them.
- This echoed the discussion at the CEOs for Cities national meeting and our Friday Creative Cities Network gathering on the increasing challenges to institutions by the next generation. Think about those severely challenged: newspapers, churches, big arts institutions, old-style nonprofits (instead, we reward "social entrepreneurs"). The question is, is it worth tweaking the existing institutions? Or will something completely new appear to take their place?

16 Oct 08

CEOs for Cities Blog: "The Big Three Creatives"

Discussion of panel with John Howkins, author of The Creative Economy; Charles Landry, author of The Creative City; and Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, which took place in Detroit at the Creative Cities Summit.

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ceos_for_cities creatives creative_cities

Although the creative city, the creative economy, and the creative class are fundamentally different concepts, they are all related. Each panelist has clearly been influenced by the work of the others.
Creativity is not only slippery, as John said. It is also risky business. It “fails” more often than not. And therefore, it’s not easy political business.
6 more annotations...
- The panelists’ list includes openness, curiosity, the right to use your full talent, and the right to full expression (the freedom to create).
- bigger cities have real advantages over smaller cities. So he had special advice for 3rd tier cities: Build strength by connecting to a bigger city, connecting to universities, accept brain circulation as a reality and use it to your advice, understanding what is authentic about your city and capitalize on that (distinctiveness), and most especially, acting with imagination.
- Using distinctiveness to build your local narrative.
- The panelists agreed that people gravitate to physical beauty. There is today an aesthetic premium.
- Charles called for a concerted effort to advocate for the creative city and build evidence for the case for the creative city. He also urged us to work with places in a coordinated way to implement projects in “the new creative city paradigm.”
- John reminded us that it is unlikely that politicians will take the lead on the creative city. Instead, it is up to us to define the agenda and ask them to respond. In this, content is king.

02 Oct 08

Connected Urban Development - Connected Urban Development - Cisco Systems

This is the Cisco site that CEOs for Cities blog post pointed to. It describes the Cisco-funded/ sponsored program, "Connected Urban Development" (CUD), now in several cities around the world.

Question: how does a city get involved with this? From the webpage:
QUOTE
By using network connectivity for communication, collaboration, urban planning, and other activities, CUD will help change the way in which cities do the following:

* Deliver services to residents
* Manage the flow of traffic
* Operate public transportation
* Use and manage real estate resources
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CEOs for Cities: Connected Urban Development

Another article that underscores the need for (and uses of) "cross-use" (as defined by Jane Jacobs). The interesting difference/ twist here is that cross-use is created/ nourished through congestion-cutting strategies and transit infrastructure, as well as (get this!) broadband infrastructure (!).

So, interesting pointer: congestion as another barrier to cross-use. Something to think about.

And: think about taking broadband/ digital infrastructure into account when thinking about cross-use vs single-use. How to map the virtual onto the real/ actual? Hmmm....

Note: CEOs for Cities entry has further links.

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ceos_for_cities urban_development cross_use cities jjacobs

24 Apr 08

Chicago's Green Dividend

Short video clip produced by CEOs for Cities, which asks, "How much is it worth, to live two miles closer to work?" The answer(s) is (are) astonishing, when you take those 2 miles and make them cumulative, for the whole US. That said, imagine what it does mean, then, if we build cities that are walkable, that engage people in public transit, that shave those 2miles off people's commutes/ daily drives?

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ceos_for_cities automobile cars driving video walkability urbanism

21 Apr 08

CEOS for Cities - Conversations - CEO Blog - Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?

Ed Glaeser dissed Buffalo in a City Journal article, and is subsequently asked to come to Buffalo to explain himself. His strategy: apologize, but then hammer home the point that buildings do not a successful city make --it's the people-talent, stupid. Interesting advice.

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ceos_for_cities edward_glaeser urbanism cities place_making

What Ed seems to be railing against -- with good reason -- is the unhealthy reliance some cities have on the shiny new physical bauble to be a magic bullet for what ails them. (Keep in mind that Buffalo is planning to make a major public investment in a Bass Pro Store on its waterfront.) Ed's message was, invest in people, not buildings. And when physical investments are made, he favors flexibility.

"There is little evidence that development projects fix decline," Ed told his audience.
On the other hand, Ed makes a strong case for density, which is "particularly valuable for an idea economy" since "proximity enables ideas to move quickly."

"People learn from one another," Ed said. "You get smart by hanging out with smart people. It's the way you build skills."
2 more annotations...
- 1. Invest in building skills not building buildings.
  
  2. Quality of life is economic development.
  
  3. Always ask who benefits from policy. (Too many place-based policies tend to benefit either the connected business.)
  
  4. There is little reason to favor one region over another. But it costs more to provide services to people who start with less, which provides a strong rationale for state and federal governments to pay for social services. And different forms of development have different environmental impacts so that should also be taken into account in state and federal policy and funding.
  
  Put people ahead of place, Ed admonished.
- But the paradox is that people increasingly choose where they want to live because of place, not because of the job. So I think his formula is too simplistic. Another formulation would be, "Make smart investments in place, and honestly appraise those investments before they are made."

18 Jan 08

Cities ramp up kid-friendly hospitality - USATODAY.com

Featuring many comments from CEOs for Cities's Carol Coletta, on the various strategies cities are being encouraged to use to make them more child-friendly.

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01 Jan 08

CEOS for Cities - Conversations - CEO Blog - Travel Wishes for 2008

"Ban further luxury hotel development until they can find enough capable people to staff them." That's a suggestion from Monocle's Travel Wishes for 2008/09 (via CEOs for Cities) -- and it's great. Here's CEOs for Cities further comment: "How can you have 'luxury' hotels without workers who can deliver a 'luxury' experience? If people are willing to pay more for luxury experiences, shouldn't some of the benefits accrue to workers equipped to deliver those experiences?" A carpenter once told me, "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys," and monkeys aren't going to be able to build you a quality product. If you call yourself a "luxury" outfit, make sure you're not trying to get by on peanut payrolls.

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ceos_for_cities income_disparity monocle_magazine socialjustice

Three items from Monocle's 25 Travel Wishes for 2008/9 caught my eye.

The first was this: "Suspension of the silly no-liquids rule."

The second was "Suspension of the sillier take-your-shoes-off x-ray procedures."

To both I say, Amen.

The third, though, is less obvious. "Ban further luxury hotel development until they can find enough capable people to staff them."

As our economy becomes more bifurcated, there is a sense that the fates of those at the top and bottom of the wage scale are increasingly disconnected. But their connection makes itself felt in the most unexpected ways. And this is one of them.
How can you have "luxury" hotels without workers who can deliver a "luxury" experience? If people are willing to pay more for luxury experiences, shouldn't some of the benefits accrue to workers equipped to deliver those experiences? If people are willing to pay for luxurious gardens, shouldn't the workers who plant them benefit more than those capable of planting only "ordinary" gardens? Isn't the same true of luxury homes, boats, clothes and cars?

Without judging whether any of this is "fair," it seems that workers who can delivery luxury goods, services and experiences ought to be able to link their incomes to those who can afford those luxury items. And if that's the case, then it makes sense for some of us to aspire (financially) to serve those needs.

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