“You’re terminated, hippie.” — Where does that leave local sustainability?

Federal government to sustainability efforts: You’re terminated.

In a blockbuster-style showdown, the House Appropriations Committee started a furor this month as they proposed the elimination of HUD, USDOT and EPA sustainability programs in 2011-12, as well as suggesting the rescinding of dollars already awarded by the Sustainability and TIGER grant programs. As municipalities, counties and regional COGs scramble to find ways to focus the weak development market forces into more sustainable patterns of walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods, the possible removal of the federal support is discouraging.

Looks like we’re gonna have to go indie.

No fate but what we make? Sorry, hippie, you're terminated.

In this new age of municipal austerity, forward-thinking local and regional governments are looking for ways to spend our remaining cheap oil in human-centric ways, instead of our auto-centric habits of the last 80 years. For obvious reasons.

We’ve talked last week about being stripped of the comfortable delusion that somebody else will pick up the tab, and how new partnerships are generating Smarter Growth. We’ve been making the case for how great placemaking can save money and grow the economy. We’ve looked at urban retail downtown and sprawl repair in the ‘burbs, and their wealth-building potential at both ends of the spectrum.

Such conversation is good but, lest you get lulled into thinking that’s enough, I turn now to three of my colleagues-in-arms, currently slugging it out in the trenches of community building, for some wider insight.

Full story on PlaceShakers, including interviews of Dan Reuter, Scott Polikov, and Joe Minicozzi.

Good News: The End Is Near. Really.

We're about to be freed to innovate, stripped of the comfortable delusion that someone else will pick up the tab.

What shrinking governmental budgets may mean for placemaking, the environment, the economy, infrastructure. It's the Death of Denial.

PlaceMaker Ben Brown writes:

"Here’s how Governing magazine summed up discussions at its early February Outlook in the States and Localities conference this way: 'Even as the national economy begins to turn around, (Fiscal Year) 2012 will be the worst budget year for states and cities so far.'"

"An analysis of federal spending received per dollar of taxes paid by states in 2005 by the non-profit Tax Foundation found that 32 of the 50 states got more back then they paid into federal coffers. Not news widely shared by those who get elected to government by denying its effectiveness."

"Waking from a dream state forces us to take responsibility for living in a more complex environment. We have to stop pretending we can do – and pay – for everything. Just as the Tea Party tantrum will subside, so must all the other tantrums we throw, whether we’re pounding the desk for single-minded environmentalism, single-minded economic development strategy, or single-minded infrastructure initiatives."

"Instead of fighting to optimize one component of complex systems at the expense of all the other components, we have to think comprehensively and imagine integrated, cost-effective solutions."

"The tough road out of the current frustration and confusion may be more clear (soon). But be forewarned, the way forward won’t be like the way we’ve come."

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Monkey See, Monkey Don’t: Economic Development as a Whole New Animal

In the economic development world, we’re always trying to grow our economic base. And by that we mean goods and services that we export, not just what we use in our local markets. That might include university services, tourism, and any products that we pack and ship, or regional retail that we steal from our neighbors.

We see economic development in conventional terms, and we seek only to perpetuate the model, adding more of the same to the end of the chain. Another monkey from the barrel, so to speak.

All I really need to know, I learned in Kindergarten.
At least as it relates to old-skool economic development.

From the MBA perspective, OPM, or Other People’s Money, usually refers to debt. But it’s really also the traditional view of business development, the Ponzi scheme that Strong Towns articulates so well. It’s how America has run for the last century, and it isn’t working. We can’t spend our way out of this financial situation by boosting consumer confidence so that we “spend” the most recent stock market up-tick, which we, of course, haven’t sold our stocks to really capture and may just turn into credit card debt in the end. It’s the same sort of way we’ve justified the next sprawling infrastructure spending in the hope of future revenue.

Last month we talked about how sprawl is an economic loser for city governments, and how placemaking is a development catalyst and infrastructure saver. Kaid Benfield’s great article on the NRDC Switchboard this week highlights the Growing Wealthier study, which quantifies those arguments.

The neighborhood is the unit of sustainable urbanism. But what if we went back to the notion that the region is the unit of sustainable economic development? Not cutting off the spice trade or China, but in terms of how we think of balancing our city budgets. Attracting and channeling investment rather than jobs? Targeted selectively, across the spectrum of residency, building, employment, the works.

Of course, the region is, at its cellular level, a collection of places — places acting in their own self-interests, competing with each other for diminishing slices of pie — and the monkey-see, monkey-do manner in which so many of them go about their economic development efforts ultimately fails to produce sustainable results at either end of the spectrum.

Thus, the taming of this new animal is paramount. The sooner the better. How are today’s great — or poised to be great — cities and towns getting it done, despite their dire city budget situations? And what does community have to do with it?

Quality of Life
Even in the toughest assessments of what attracts industries to locations and keeps them there, quality of life rates high. We know that people who live and work in places with diverse options for housing, shopping, mobility, and entertainment are generally happier. Happy people tend to be happier employees. Happier employees make more productive employees. And productive employees are highly valued by employers. LA’s Strategic Plan for Econ Development does a good job of laying it out.

Attachment
Soul of the Community, thanks to Knight Foundation and Gallup, concludes that the places where people have the most emotional connection to their community generate the highest rates of GDP growth over time. The usual drivers of safety, leadership, and services were overshadowed by social offerings, openness, and aesthetics – gathering places and a public realm that is alive with pedestrian activity, not auto-oriented throughput.

A Predictable Decision-Making Environment
Communities that have consensus-backed rules and straightforward processes to channel growth and redevelopment can control one of the variables that make firms nervous about capital investments. Predictable environments are at the top of business wish lists.

New Economy Entrepreneurs
Since the overwhelming majority of businesses in the U.S. are those with 10 employees or less, the future of economic development will be in providing a supportive environment for small, entrepreneurial outfits. The most sought-after are the knowledge economy/creative class types. And those folks are urbanists with a vengeance. The latest Kaufman Foundation report does a good job of laying out government strategies for encouraging innovation and entrepreneurial firms.

Don’t just take my word for it. It ain’t just me. I gave a call to urban retail guru, Bob Gibbs, and Sprawl Repair maven, Galina Tachieva. Those interviews and the rest of the story on PlaceShakers.

Robertgibbs

Retail Guru Bob Gibbs

Sprawl Repair Maven Galina Tachieva

Season’s Greetings from Alabama: Where Stars Aligned

Here’s a story of hope for the holidays. And like most good stories, it begins with bad news. Ben Brown talks about the Coastal Recovery Commission of Alabama, how politicians, community leaders and professionals working together on a plan for resiliency in the aftermath the BP Oil spill.


Unlike many recent natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake or Hurricane Katrina, the magnitude of the repercussions are much less obvious. A thousand people came together to make a plan for how their fragile coastal homeland might become more resilient in the face of what natural disasters almost certainly await their high-risk region.


"The report itself (7.9mb .pdf), produced in 90 days, is less significant than the response it was able to conjure. To produce it required an alignment of the stars through a process that attracted more than a thousand leaders and citizens. And though the report’s recommendations aren’t likely to surprise professionals familiar with the fundamental goals of regional planning, the process and its ceremonial climax in Montgomery on December 15 revived at least a little hope that it’s possible for folks to come together in agreement on something important for generations to come. Even if what’s agreed upon is a commitment to keep the conversation going."


"It wasn’t a gift. It was the result of some heavy lifting on the part of regional leaders and an inspired governor. And it’s a fragile coalition that will require continuing attention as the Commission’s proposals move towards implementation. But it’s a hopeful moment, nonetheless. Which is good enough in these uncertain times."


Read the full story here.


Retail Redemption

Retail Redemption: Skivvies Uncovered, then Promptly Covered

My fellow PlaceMaker, Howard Blackson, finally locates those elusive skivvies, then talks about what is and isn't working in new urban retail

A couple months ago I rambled on here about my inability to purchase a particularly critical item of men’s apparel during an extended tour of new urban projects throughout the southeast. Modesty was not my problem. Rather, despite healthy commercial activity most everywhere I went, I could find no walkable stores catering to such day-to-day basics.

Food and drink? Sure. Tchotchkes and novelties? You betcha. Skivvies? Not a chance. Read on.

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Brave New Codes Reach Tipping Point: When, Where, Why?

A year ago, Apple’s sales of its iPhone and iPod Touch eclipsed 40 million units, confirming their potential to fundamentally retool our future opportunities and patterns of daily life. Today, a year later, form-based codes hit a similar milestone, with similar implications, as over 330 cities and towns around the world — representing over 40 million people — have embraced the idea of form-based coding as an alternative to the sprawl-inducing zoning models of the past century. We’ve hit the tipping point. Welcome to the other side.

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