Posts Tagged ‘Ben Brown’
We’re OK. Ya’ll, Not So Much: Your guide to understanding national polls
Last week brought a barrage of polls about Americans’ attitudes. And despite the spins some of the sponsoring organizations offered, the underlying message is that we seem to be holding steady with our conviction that the farther we get from our own little corners of the world, the less confidence we have in the competence…
Read MoreThis Just In from CNU20: World not yet saved
The Congress for the New Urbanism’s annual convergence of giganto ideas and fine-grained pragmatism wrapped Saturday night with a party in a bar. The four days in West Palm Beach, Florida, marked the 20th anniversary of such gatherings, most of which also involved spill-over debates in venues with liquor licenses. As usual, the CNU20 agenda…
Read MoreStop Making Sense: A new strategy for community outreach
Okay, I’m not confident David Byrne would be all that excited about turning an ironic subtitle from the Talking Heads’ 1984 tune into a community engagement tactic. But stay with me here. Over the last few months, the urban planning universe has been all atwitter (literally) with concern over how “those people,” the Agenda 21ers…
Read MoreStop Making Sense: A new strategy for community outreach
Okay, I’m not confident David Byrne would be all that excited about turning an ironic subtitle from the Talking Heads’ 1984 tune into a community engagement tactic. But stay with me here. Over the last few months, the urban planning universe has been all atwitter (literally) with concern over how “those people,” the Agenda 21ers…
Read MoreCutting Edge, All-Purpose Comp Plan: For you? Free (conditions apply).
Pssst! You say you need a comprehensive plan? On the quick and on the cheap? If you pay retail, it can cost you tens of thousands, maybe millions, depending upon how many layers of wonk and weasel language you layer in. And it can take years. But I can offer you the best one you’ll…
Read MoreDream Home for the New Era: Compact, connected & mortgage-free?
The future is here. And it’s for lease. Even before the Great Recession, real estate market analysts Todd Zimmerman, Laurie Volk and Chris Nelson were patiently explaining the demography-is-destiny argument for an inevitable shift in American housing. It’s all about the numbers.
Read MoreThe goal is not engagement. It’s disengagement.
Having worked in communities big and small across the continent, we’ve had ample opportunity to test ideas and find approaches that work best. Urban design details. Outreach tactics. Implementation tricks. Many of these lessons are transferable, which is why we’ve created “Back of the Envelope,” a weekly feature where we jot ’em down for your…
Read MorePolitics & Public Process: The Half-Life of Anger
Maybe it’s like the argument that given enough time, a chimp with a keyboard would eventually hammer out Hamlet, but I’m thinking the messy GOP presidential campaign is inching its way towards clarity. Not that the process will produce outcomes extreme partisans will like. Disappointment is often the byproduct of a clarifying experience, especially if…
Read MoreGetting Beyond ‘Mad as Hell’: Here’s hoping for a civic afterlife
On December 14, Time magazine announced its 2011 “Person of the Year.” And as it’s occasionally done in the past (Remember the choice of “You” in 2006?), the mag opted for a broad zeitgeist capture as opposed to settling on just one person. This time around it’s The Protester. “Is there a global tipping point…
Read MoreCollaboration’s Failing so it’s Back to Hypocrisy
It’s a sad day when you have to start rooting for liars and hypocrites. That thought occurred to me when I read the news of Congress’s likely axing of the budget for the Sustainable Communities Initiative. That’s the two-year-old program that attempted to pull together goals of three federal agencies — the Department of Housing…
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