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November 29, 2017 | 5:11 pm

Storytelling Part II: Getting to Getting Things Done

First a review:

In a post last month, I made a pitch for organizing community storytelling around getting stuff done. I acknowledged how hard it is to do that in the current political environment, which is increasingly an arena of competing tribal identities and mutually exclusive convictions:

A community that has struggled to identify and assert shared values and hopes for the future isn’t likely to provide a great context for storytelling, especially when it comes to big, ambitious ideas. Chances are, people with their own stories of disappointment and frustration, buttressed by the experience of past efforts, will have a hard time imagining their roles in a new story or see the ambitions it describes as realistic.

Category Community Development, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Public Policy, Theory and Practice2 CommentsTags Ben Brown, get things done, storytelling

October 17, 2017 | 11:44 am

Plotting a Persuasive Story? Better have a happily ever after

On my PlaceMakers business card, my job title is “Storyteller.” I figured a graduate degree in English and a two-decade career in journalism gave me a certain amount of credibility in that department. What I didn’t count on, however, was what the title seemed to imply to most folks. To them, I was the spin doctor.

“We’ve got some great ideas, a really cool project,” potential clients might say. “But people just don’t get it. Time to educate them. Win ‘em over. Go work your magic so we can get back on track.”

Category Community Development, Development, Public Engagement, Theory and PracticeLeave a CommentTags Ben Brown, Public Engagement, storytelling

September 7, 2017 | 1:26 pm

A Hurricane Response Lesson: Disrupt the cycle of futility

Those of us who spent extended time in coastal Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are watching the weather and reading the news with a serious case of Groundhog Day. It’s rescue-recriminate-rebuild-repeat. Over and over again.

Category Environment | Sustainability, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Public Policy, Resilience3 CommentsTags Ben Brown, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Katrina, Resilience

August 3, 2017 | 9:56 am

Good Side of the Downside: The end is (only) near

Chuck Marohn needs a hug.

That was my first thought reading this in his July 17 Strong Towns post :

Let me be clear about what I actually imagine is in store for us. I look at America’s cities, towns and neighborhoods and I see overwhelming levels of fragility. I see a development pattern that destroys wealth; the more we do, the poorer we become. I see municipal debt levels rising as a consequence, as well as an increased dependence on state and federal assistance. I see property values and consumption rates (property tax and sales tax) artificially manipulated higher by federal monetary and fiscal policy—a lofty perch I don’t see as stable. I see local governments overwhelmed with liabilities, from infrastructure maintenance to pensions and rising health care costs. And I see the people in the system — politicians, professional staff and residents — all with powerful short term incentives to simply increase the level of fragility.

. . . I think we’re royally screwed.

Category Public Policy, Resilience, Theory and PracticeLeave a CommentTags Ben Brown, Chuck Marohn, Strong Towns

July 12, 2017 | 9:41 am

Comp Plan for Westeros? Same issues, more swordplay

Frustrated with efforts to pull your little kingdom together for long term strategizing? It could be worse. You could be caught up in the public outreach drama in Westeros. The battles renew on Sunday night, when HBO debuts season seven of “Game of Thrones.”

Category Community Development, Economic Development, Public Policy3 CommentsTags Ben Brown, Game of Thrones, Westeros

June 13, 2017 | 11:01 pm

The Other Side of Anxiety? Realism. And maybe hope.

When the dust settles after the current traumas, I think we’ll see this time in our lives and in our nation’s history as a period in which what we’ve learned about human psychology, democracy and policy-making at every scale has exposed weaknesses in ourselves and our institutions that will take a while to fix. And that could be a good thing.

We’re wired to seek simple solutions, even when evidence suggests hairballs of complexity. And the more stressed we are, the faster we default to The Answer. Evolution encourages us to be hammers in search of nails. Needless to say, this has not always worked well for us. (See racism, genocide, xenophobia, etc. Also Urban Renewal and the 2016 presidential election.)

Category Demographics, Public PolicyLeave a CommentTags aging, aging in place, Beacon Hill Village, Ben Brown, Village-to-Village Network

May 24, 2017 | 11:57 am

‘So all we have to do is…’ call bullshit

Chuck Marohn was in my town last week with his better-than-ever demonstration of the lies we tell ourselves about infrastructure finance.

Chuck’s message and that of Joe Minicozzi prod us to get our arms around the math. And that’s a crucial message. But, jeez, our problem is way bigger. Thanks to the never-ending hangover from the 2016 campaign, we’re picking our way through fake news and alternative facts, hoping to salvage a morsel of hope that not everybody everywhere is bullshitting us about just about everything just about all the time.

Category Community Development, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Public PolicyLeave a CommentTags Ben Brown, bullshit, Charles Marohn, Dan Savage, Joe Minicozzi

April 19, 2017 | 10:48 am

Florida Man Fails to Fix Everything, Reconsiders Position

You know magical thinking about cities is fading when one of the gurus says stuff like this:

“My optimism has been tempered and I’ve become more of a realist.”

That’s Richard Florida, the guy who inspired a (mostly unsuccessful) stampede to hipness 15 years ago with the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life.

Category Community Development, Economic Development, Public Policy3 CommentsTags Ben Brown, creative class, Richard Florida

March 21, 2017 | 8:41 am

Feared Dead, Math’s Back: Planning nerds vindicated

Planning for the future tends to be a humiliating exercise. Whatever’s headed our way is both inevitable and unpredictable. Yet because it brings with it the consequences of decisions we made or ducked in the past and now have to manage or endure in the present, we have to take a stab at decisions that are coherent and well-informed.

Or not.

Category Community Development, Economic Development, Planning and Design, Public Policy1 CommentTags Ben Brown, Chuck Marohn, Do the Math, Joe Minicozzi

March 7, 2017 | 5:26 pm

Small Goes Big: The Katrina Cottage Connection

If you’ve been following our work here, you know we have a soft spot for Katrina Cottages and the neighborhood design movement they inspired. And you also know some of us — okay, me — have been grumpy about the way Tiny House talk has sucked oxygen out of the discussion of small scale homes in small scale neighborhoods. So it was great to see last week’s “Public Square” Q&A with two of the design pioneers behind Katrina Cottages, Marianne Cusato and Bruce Tolar.

Category Architecture, Community Development, Planning and Design, ResilienceLeave a CommentTags Ben Brown

Storytelling Part II: Getting to Getting Things Done

Plotting a Persuasive Story? Better have a happily ever after

A Hurricane Response Lesson: Disrupt the cycle of futility

Good Side of the Downside: The end is (only) near

Comp Plan for Westeros? Same issues, more swordplay

The Other Side of Anxiety? Realism. And maybe hope.

‘So all we have to do is…’ call bullshit

Florida Man Fails to Fix Everything, Reconsiders Position

Feared Dead, Math’s Back: Planning nerds vindicated

Small Goes Big: The Katrina Cottage Connection

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