On Thursday, the National League of Cities released The 10 Critical Imperatives Facing Cities in 2014, its annual report highlighting ten of the most pressing issues facing cities across the United States. Partners board member and incoming NLC President, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker explained during the report's unveiling, "This is not a wish list just of cities. This is a wish list of the people who live in America. That’s 80 percent of the population of America that’s being represented through us."
The ten items on the list were:
Fragile Fiscal Health
Deteriorating Transportation Infrastructure
The Shrinking Middle Class
Inadequate Access to Higher Education
The Need for Affordable Housing
A Less-Than-Welcoming Return for Veterans
Gang Violence
A Broken Immigration System
Climate Change and Extreme Weather
Lack of Public Trust
Click here to read the full report from NLC, which includes an overview of initiatives being taken by cities in their own efforts to tackle these ten challenges and create more livable communities for their residents.
New York City is widely considered to be one of the most diverse places on the planet, with residents from hundreds of different countries living within close proximity of each other. Queens in particular has a broad mix of ethnic populations, which have lead some to consider it the most culturally diverse area in the world. Yet, when Susan Lacerte became the Executive Director of the Queens Botanical Garden, she noticed that the diversity of the borough was not reflected in the Botanical Garden’s attendance. To challenge that, Lacerte started The Ambassador Program to reach out to ethnic communities and find out what they wanted in their public garden.
Last month the nonprofit group America Achieves released a report titled Geek Cities: How Smarter Use of Data and Evidence Can Improve Lives through their Results for America initiative with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies. The report dissects how leaders in six major cities throughout the United States (and one initiative in London) are using data and technology to improve the lives of their residents. Rapidly improving technology and the digitalization of information has made mass data collection easier than ever, and cities are using this data to find effective programs and measures to combat social, economic, and physical challenges that many face today.
In today’s economic climate, trying to find a high-paying job without a college education is nearly impossible. That is why the leadership at Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis started their Community Learning Network that focuses on continuing education and lifelong learning. Each year the network provides more than 600 continuing education classes to over 7,000 residents in Central Indiana.
Each year a number of organizations and publications, from the New York Post to The Economist and Bloomberg Businessweek, devise a list of the most ‘livable’ cities in America and the world. Then, without fail, every year, waves of critics denounce the list for being biased towards certain cities. This process illustrates how truly difficult it is come up with a singular definition of the term ‘livability’. Each publication has their own formula that generally includes ratings that represent each city’s access to affordable housing, cost of living, quality of education, and amount of cultural amenities, among the many other components that determine a city’s livability. How these factors are weighted in the formula depends on the interests and goals of the publication.
In 1923, when the Lafayette Building was constructed in downtown Detroit, the city was one of the cultural centers of the United States and home to an exploding automotive industry. Famous American architect C. Howard Crane designed the cutting edge, Italian Renaissance-style building in a unique ‘V’ shape to maximize the amount of natural light allowed in. Today, however, Detroit has fallen on harder economic times, and the once striking skyscraper at 144 West Lafayette was torn down in 2010 after being vacant for more than a decade.
Inner-city Detriot may not be the first place one thinks of when looking to learn golf, but that is precisely where Renee Fluker founded her immensley successful Midnight Golf Program a dozen years ago. The program is a 30 week mentoring experience that not only teaches students about golf, but also about a number of essential life skills. The organization uses golf as a medium to teach children important life lessons, such as strategic thinking and how to deal with frustration and failure.
Founded in 2002 in San Francisco, California, 826 is a nonprofit that runs eight writing and tutoring centers for students aged 6-18 nationwide. Each writing and tutoring center provides after-school tutoring at least four days a week, writing workshops to spark students’ interest in the subject, scholarships to helped under-privileged children gain access to a college education, and a variety of other initiatives to help the most at-risk youth further their educational endeavors.
Walkability is synonymous with less traffic, a higher quality of life, and more vibrant streetscapes. A new Brookings Institution study—Walk this Way: The Economic Promise of Walkable Places in Metropolitan Washington, D.C., by Christopher B. Lienberger and Mariela Alfonzo—highlights the economics behind walkabaility, and why walkable areas are worth more than previously thought.
The D.C. Office of Planning (OP) has awarded a $75,000 “ArtPlace Arts and Culture Temporium” grant to Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) to develop and manage temporiums in underutilized spaces in the Deanwood neighborhood, one of the District’s earliest African American communities.
Under this grant, Partners will develop and manage DeanwoodxDesign, a project that showcases the rich arts, cultural, historical, and green space assets of Deanwood and Ward 7 through a community-wide, intergenerational, and collaborative effort. This project engages artists and a diverse network of Deanwood institutions and stakeholders to cultivate community pride, showcase and create great art, and invigorate the creative economy.
Tersh Boasberg is honored for his revolutionary advocacy of historic preservation, land use, and environmental law, and as founder of Preservation Action, a national grassroots lobby. His active leadership in Washington, D.C. zoning battles has provided regional growth through the protection of historical beauty for our future.
Partners’ board member Sam Williams, President of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, carried the banner for business leadership in helping to solve urban problems during remarks last month to the TEDxAtlanta conference. Calling for business leaders to fulfill roles as “urban statesmen,” Williams articulated a vision shared by Partners in which business leaders and elected officials can work together as members of a team to find creative and innovative solutions to urban problems. Service on Partners’ board is just one way in which Mr. Williams works daily to translate this vision into reality.
"So, what is the point of public art? ” This question, posted online by Voice of San Diego's Kelly Bennett, came in response to the city of San Diego’s recent pull from public art funding; after its release on Twitter the post quickly turned viral. Responses to the post ranged from views of public art as superfluous and its place in the public sphere as luxury, to public art as necessary for community well-being, safety, and cohesiveness.
Many of us believe in the arts as integral to the livable community— but when measuring out our federal dollars, the arts are usually the first to go. But what if we could prove that in addition to instilling neighborhood pride and value in our public space, public art could actually serve as a deterrent for crime and violence?
Walk Score has launched new neighborhood “heat” maps for over 2,500 cities and 6,000 neighborhoods which show graphically just how walkable they really are. Instead of the numerical scale that rates a location’s pedestrian friendliness from “Car Dependent” to “Walker’s Paradise,” Walk Score has developed a new system that incorporates heat maps showing where cities are more or less walkable. The greener the area, the easier one will find it to get from one place to another without the aid of an automobile.
These maps have potential to become powerful research tools for policy makers looking to make their regions more livable and sustainable by allowing them to see where areas are less accessible. Walkable cities are livable cities because they offer people alternative transportation options to driving from place to place. Walking and walkable neighborhoods offer many positives for improved health and community involvement all contributing to the creation of livable communities.
Three partnerships in the Centralina region were each awarded a "JumpStart the Conversation" grant on August 25, 2008.
The winning projects exemplify the use of innovative ideas focused on creating livable communities for all ages and theme of "land use planning and design". These strategies are aimed at the over 11 percent of residents age 65 and over in the Centralina region, and will encourage services that strengthen "aging in place"and increase accessibility to resources and independence among older adults.
The Jumpstart the Conversation Grants followed a workshop in the Centralina Region, titled Land Use Planning and Design: Creating a Livable Community in the Centralina Region for All Ages. As part of the Aging in Place Initiative, the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, was selected by MetLife Foundation, Partners for Livable Communities and the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging to host the sixth of 12 national workshops on creating livable communities for all ages.
This workshop, co-hosted by the Centralina Council of Governments and Centralina Area Agency on Aging, was a unique opportunity for Centralina to begin looking at the region and to hear how other communities have begun to create livable communities. Participants learned how to apply for small grants given to support innovative ideas that further the concept of land use planning and design.Local leaders are calling for strategies to help strengthen "Aging in Place" services. Speakers and panelists focused on ways to address physical environment issues like housing and transportation
Centralina/Charlotte Jumpstart Grants
Centralina Foundation in partnership with the Centralina Council of Governments, the Town of Waxhaw Planning Department, and the Council on Aging in Union County To develop a “Land Use Ordinance Best Practices Checklist” that would encourage communities to become more senior friendly. Partnering with the Centralina Council of Governments, the Town of Waxhaw Planning Department, and the Council on Aging in Union county, the Centralina Foundation will create a Steering Committee comprised of members of each organization to assist in the development of the checklist and assessment of land use regulations in Waxhaw. The checklist will serve as a framework to identify ordinances in need of change in order to develop an increasingly senior friendly community.
Downtown Davidson, Inc. in partnership with the Town of Davidson To offer weekly transportation services to seniors living in the town of Davidson, NC. Using existing resources offered by the Department of Parks & Recreation, this initiative will provide seniors with the opportunity to run errands without worrying about driving or transportation arrangements. Another goal of this project is to address the need of older adults to have more independence and freedom in planning their schedules.
Council on Aging To use Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) in Charlotte as case studies for the development of senior-friendly communities. These studies will identify characteristics that support NORCs so that they may be disseminated for educational and advocacy programming. The Council on Aging has already developed a task force to address housing and related issues as they pertain to the Charlotte’s aging population. The long-term goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive housing plan for older adults through 203
Real Estate may save us after all, say strategists Christopher Leinberger and Patrick Doherty, but only if it responds to a growing demand for walkable, dynamic neighborhoods. Real estate represents 35% of our economy’s asset base, so its recovery is essential to the country’s “economic renaissance.” However, write Leinberger and Doherty in a recent article, changing housing preferences driven by Millennials and aging baby boomers will make that recovery look quite different than previous decades:
In the fight for livability, sometimes advocates can forget about those who are happily living in environments that others would deem “unlivable”: sprawling, car-dependent suburbs. If it’s all about making our lives more livable, “shouldn’t we be able to choose the sprawling suburbs if we want to?” asked a participant at the Partners’ “Building Livable Communities” Forum in September 2010. Well, yes, replied the panelists, but it’s not that easy. “Choosing” sprawl is not always the free choice that many believe it to be.
For his contributions to creating more environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable communities through his work as a developer, academic, and author.
Columnist Neal Pierce reports on the success of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the new federal collaboration of DOT, EPA, and HUD that has awarded a series of grants to communities "for roads and housing and environmental protection."
President of Partners for Livable Communities, Robert McNulty, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal article “Artists vs. Blight ,” discussing artist occupations of blighted homes and neighborhoods in transitioning communities such as Cleveland and Detroit.
