Sid Burgess

Changing Planning Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 03:39:00 +0000

What if all planning decisions were made from the sidewalk?

I mean literally, from the sidewalk. Like modern day inspectors, our planners and respective planning commissioners should walk the site, the neighborhood, perhaps knock on a few doors, and then make recommendations.

Erosion of Liberty via Political Parties

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 04:43:00 +0000

So, being someone who doesn't own a car and doesn't drive. What ID do you want me to carry/maintain so that I might have the keep my right to vote?

Do I also need to be in good standing with any political party as well?

This is why Washington didn't like parties. He saw them as a way to eventually erode the sovereignty of government. Today, party politics is re-writing the rules of our society, and not in an attempt to improve our liberty. Our public liberty.

The most fitting words of Washington:

The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

Being Honest About Walking

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Walking By lindejesus

There are a lot of articles out there, especially this time of year, that attempt to address the issue of fitness in our society. Most are pretty simplistic -- eat less, exercise more -- and some even attempt to blame bad genes.

David Frum said yesterday in this article what I think needs to be repeated over and over...

First lady Michelle Obama has made healthy eating her special project. Good for her, and let's hope her efforts lead to success. But if we are to succeed, we should understand: The campaign against obesity will have to look a lot less like the campaign against smoking (which involves just one decision, to smoke or not to smoke) and much more like the generation-long campaign against highway fatalities, which required the redesign of cars, the redesign of highways, and changes in personal behavior like seat-belt use and drunk driving.

It is not only the truth, it is the only truth. We simply can't live in a world where we get our cake and eat it too. It is like the old irony that we spend billions a year in fitness equipment yet fight for the closest parking place. When given two choices, to try to get more fit while at the same time acting less fit, we tend to pick...well both of them.

So does this mean that we should remove one of these options? Should we simply force people to walk more? No, in fact as I just stated, people will actually choose better options for themselves. The reality is, walkable places are some of the most demanded to live in. That isn't to say that everyone will choose to live in a place that is more conducive to a healthy lifestyle. Just like not everyone buys a treadmill to keep up with their exercise. Or some people choose eating healthy over regular exercise diets.

Walkability isn't just about yuppy, dense, neighborhoods. It is amazing how walkable some places can be with just a little effort. Sidewalks, pedestrian laws, and mixed uses go very far, even in "suburban" contexts to providing more ways for people to simply get out and walk a little each day. This isn't to diminish reasons like walking should be a fundamental right. The idea that you are practically required to own a car to even legally move from your house to the grocery store is to me, a slap in the face of the values and freedoms this nation was founded on.

Nevertheless, rebuilding spaces to ensure that walking is indeed an option can and must place a roll in helping America get back in shape. I say back in shape because it really wasn't too long ago that we had this under control. We can do it!

The City as a Stage

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

No one believes that people want to live in a crappy town. I just believe that too often we fail to show others what is possible. And when we attempt to inspire, the goals tend to be about programming (what people will be doing) rather than show how certain, fundamental concepts will give them the freedom to do many different things with the city.

Prosperity and productivity are by-products of efficient, happy work within an efficient space. We need to demand more efficient use of our city space and make them inspiring so they promote happiness. We must always be showing people how certain built environments are going to improve our lives, not burden them.

Sidewalks shouldn't be spoken of as a form of access, but a place for work, communication, and entertainment.

The city itself is our outdoor room for the theater that is tomorrow. We must build better stages -- plain and simple.

Speak Up

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:58:00 +0000

One thing I am troubled with increasingly in America is the lack of participation with government at the local level. I get it if we are busy, which we all are. But one excuse I keep hearing bothers me and I wanted to address it.

"I voted for my representative to make the hard choices, to see that things are being done."

I could not agree more with this statement, but it begs the question, "Is everything getting done?"

Turning over the reigns make sense, but you wouldn't leave your kid completely alone at age 10 even though he probably could be. You are going to check on things and interject as need be.

Our leadership is counting on us not waiting until after the vote to be heard if we have something to say.

So speak up.

An Argument Against Walkability

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:32:00 +0000

In our efforts to identify and solve a serious crisis in this country, we have held up places, neighborhoods, and communities against the light of so-called walkability. But in the process we have, ironically, diminished our ability to provide citizens with their right to move freely. A bold statement, but let me explain why we need to stop and think about how or why we use the term "walkable".

We need to be careful about labeling cities walkable or unwalkable. Stringing a sidewalk between the houses in a neighborhood does not equal walkability if the citizens find themselves threatened by vehicles the moment they exit their neighborhood oasis in order to get to the store. Neither does a narrow strip of cement running alongside a bustling thoroughfare constitute a practical sidewalk.

A city, by definition, should not be allowed to be unwalkable. Because any area that exists within the normal boundaries of an incorporated municipality comes with the clear assumption that basic government services will be provided. If you can't safely walk from your home to the market or to your place of business, then one of the most basic tenets of government has not been met. Government is not there to provide power, water, or anything else before it allows for [safe] public egress along a public right-of-way from one property to the next. This is a principle that is grounded deep in our nation.

An unwalkable place is synonymous with an unincorporated area. A place where local government services are not implied to be provided. Unwalkble is uninhabitable from any urban sense. You wouldn't say that a city is "unbreathable". A city, presumably full of people, can't freely exist without air. Of course, you could force everyone who lives there to buy oxygen tanks (and then of course you could tax the oxygen).

We don't have cities where every citizen is required to own a gun and therefore no police protection is provided. We don't have cities where every home is expected to have a fire hydrant, proper suppression equipment, and necessary training in leiu of fire protection. Why then have we allowed cars to literally crush the rights of non-car-owning citizens by forcing them to essentially pay a automobile tax in order to live there?

The real head-scratcher for me is that so many people want to claim that walkability is anti-conservative. That it smacks of collectivism. For the life of me, I can't fathom how that makes sense. Collectivism implies force or a lack of choice. It appears that the current state of most cities, where I have NO choice but to get in a vehicle if I want to go anywhere, is much more collectivist than any truly walkable locale where pedestrians, bikes, and vehicles share the space. Automobiles, at least in the context of current engineering methodology, don't exist on our roads without an encyclopedia of laws.

Let's be more conscious about defining real walkability as a goal, and growing in understanding of what that means. Let's be bold in stating the fact that being able to walk out of my house down a public right-of-way to the grocery store is in fact a right. And when we address it, we need to address walkability not as a selling feature, but as a basic requirement for a productive, incorporated area. If we don't, if we continue to treat it like a metric we can have more of or less of in an urban or semi-urban (suburban sometimes) context, then we have already given up much of the battle. We are admitting that it is a plausible option for cities to literally tax their citizens by forcing them to own an automobile in order to survive.

Is it?

Public Committee Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:54:00 +0000

I was listening to the MAPS 3 Streetcar Citizen Advisory Board Subcommittee meeting that was recently recorded and uploaded to Soundcloud by Jeff Bezdek of Modern Transit Project OKC. I went ahead and embedded it below because I know several people that read this blog are from Oklahoma City and I encourage them to listen to it.

It is the first time, to my knowledge, that one of these MAPS 3 subcommittees have been recorded and posted online. As silly as it sounds, this is huge. Why? Because, although the information discussed at the meetings is critical to the development process, not much of it ever gets disseminated to the general public. That's essentially because these discussions are not taking place in a council chamber -- they just don't get reported on very well. And that is too bad.

Michael Bates from Batelines.com just recently wrote a post about why it is critical to record and broadcast these types of board/committee meetings.

Much of the substantial discussion about a city decision takes place in the recommending body, with the decision maker (City Council or Mayor or both) often deferring to the recommending body's judgment without comment or discussion. For this reason, video recordings of Tulsa's authorities, boards, and commissions are central to the public understanding of the official actions of city government.

It is 2012 and we should no longer be debating about if we should be providing this information to the public. In fact, we should be so far past that, it's rather inexcusable that the vast majority of cities still do virtually no recording and publishing. If you are serious as a city about providing information to the public that makes them more informed citizens, then recording and posting those recordings online is a fantastic first step. The tools are available and with smart-phones, you can actually do the whole setup for free now by simply using your phone as a recording device. Rudimentary, but it is at least a start.

Room Please

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:08:00 +0000

It is unmistakable. The feeling you get when you notice you are not just walking along a sidewalk, but the space you are inhabiting is in fact an outdoor room. A room designed just for you and for many, many others. It is room to move, to breathe, to succeed, to fail, to stop and go and to simply watch the world go by. Outdoor rooms are rare these days. Sidewalks as we know them are a pittance of the opportunity afforded to generations long gone. Today, our broken rivers of concrete are narrow hallways that line places once valued simply because they were connected to this room. Today we treat this relationship like a burden or an afterthought of connectivity. We need these outdoor rooms. They are the public spaces that our nation's ideas were debated on and quite literally fought over. We need them now more than ever.

Sidewalks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:26:00 +0000

I could honestly talk about sidewalks all day long. I love them. To me, they are the key to a city's soul. Cities without a solid sidewalk grid almost always lack depth, character, and beauty.
I will begin our discussions of what will probably be many on the subject of sidewalks by asking one simple question. Do you have a plan to maintain and improve your sidewalk grid? If not, a make a plan today that includes fixing 50 feet of sidewalks this year. Then add to your calendar to fix 100 feet next year. Start small if you need to, but start. So many people rely on being able to walk to where they need to go. Requiring that citizens own a car in your community is just plain un-American. People should be free to move about without having to pay a "car tax".

Walk Friendly Communities Deadline Approaches

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Every year cities battle for status in the Walk Friendly Communities contest.

"Walk Friendly Communities is a national recognition program developed to encourage towns and cities across the U.S. to establish or recommit to a high priority for supporting safer walking environments. The WFC program will recognize communities that are working to improve a wide range of conditions related to walking, including safety, mobility, access, and comfort." walkfriendly.org

The deadline is approaching fast but there is still time. Register by January 19th by going here. It cost nothing and could be a fantastic way to get your neighborhood thinking about pedestrian projects for the new year. If you are submitting an application, let us know. We will want to follow your progress through the year.

Understanding where you should not be walking

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:46:00 +0000

Microsoft recently secured a patent on a "Pedestrian route production" tool. VentureBeat

The idea is simple. The walking navigation tool will direct you around areas you wouldn't want to walk. These could be areas that are unsafe because they have high crime rates or they could be areas that simply lack proper pedestrian facilities. The concept, especially as it relates to pedestrian accommodations, could prove to be very useful. More and more I am starting to use the "walking" navigation option built into my Google Maps. Sometimes it is just easier to glance down from time to time and see myself creeping along that blue line than to try to memorize street names and routes. However, if you walk as much as I do, you have no doubt, at some point, found yourself walking down a sidewalk that you wished hadn't been on your route --for one reason or another.

I am, in fact, a little sad that this patent went to Microsoft. I think it might prove to be valuable as a navigation tool, but I actually see more value in the concept as a community/neighborhood tool. Imagine being able to see pedestrian trouble spots. If Bing doesn't think that the adjoining avenue to your neighborhood would make for a pleasant walk, then you could arm yourself with this new information and seek to correct the problems. Homeowner associations could quickly see where they need to focus next year's big dig project.

Of course, you don't need a computer to tell you the obvious. If you lack a sidewalk, well, you need one. Which is why I wish this patent went to a company like Walk Score. Walk Score is a company that provides millions of people with basic data about neighborhood walkability. Specifically it provides an address with a Walk Score, or a rating of how walkable that particular area is. For example, a place with a high walk score will likely have plenty of places to eat, shop, recreate, and get healthcare nearby and ideally, all without having to jump in a car. Lower-scored areas generally are lacking at least some of these basic amenities. I wish Walk Score had this patent because I think that this kind of walking route logic will be most valuable to citizens and neighborhoods when viewed holistically with other neighborhood information --like a Walk Score. I also want the data to be publicly available and I have my doubts that Microsoft will open up all of this data.

Most importantly, if Microsoft turns this into a feature on Bing Maps, my hope is that pedestrians will not only get value out of it but that community leadership will use it as a tool for finding and addressing problem areas. Let's make sure we use technology to help us address the problems and not simply go around them.

Public Space Banking and Thoughts of Flexible Street Uses

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:50:00 +0000

Streets are tricky things. I was reading Car Parking vs. parks vs. restaurant patios, over on Richard Layman's blog, Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space. It is a short but good article that made me think about why we don't allow more uses of on-street "parking spaces". The strip of street running parallel to the curb is a public space, but generally isn't viewed as anything more than a place to park cars. Communities could create so much more value in the places they already have by exploring alternative uses for parking spaces. So here is my urban, multi-use plan for on-street parking...

If a business wants to install outdoor seating on what used to be a parking space, then we could ofset the lost "public space" by charging a fee that can be used to reclaim or preserve public space elsewhere. Call it a Public Space Bank. As businesses come and go, they can choose whether that public space that is currently being rented by a car would be more valuable to them as seating.

Such an idea might require the defining of a "citizen to public space" ratio. And perhaps that gets too technical. But the idea isn't that complicated. It also probably sounds more fair to the "I pay taxes to the center of the road" crowd. Our public spaces on our streets have been taken over by cars for a long time. Theoretically, we are getting paid for this invasion. Let's disrupt things a bit and let uses other than cars have a chance.

If you want to avoid the complexity of a so-called "Public Space Bank" then simply charge the requesting business the same amount a car would pay to literally sit there and call it good.

Let's keep the math simple. If you pay $1 per hour to park your car, then a business would have the ability to use the space for $24 per day. It could be that simple. They could even use the parking meter to pay for it if you have meters that accept payment forms like credit cards.

This would turn this area into "flex space" essentially. During busy times of the year, a business could use the added seating. Parking garages would fill up faster and sidewalks would benefit from added outdoor activity. I can even see areas being designated as "flex districts" where the city has actually installed receiver slots for the metal poles that could act as temporary barriers during non-auto uses. Making a street-long transformation a quick process that would fundamentally change the use of a street.

The notion of flexible public space instead of "parking space" also helps us better understand the true value of that space. By allowing for more uses, we can better understand the demand side of our commodity.

I always have believed that when you allow for more mixed uses, you generally get a better result. By essentially condemning this space as "parking" (whether used or not), you will never be surprised by all the great place-making possibilities it holds.

Momentum Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:01:00 +0000

When was the last time your broke ground on a project? One of the challenges that small towns face is they are often spending more time fixing leaks than pouring new sidewalks or sweeping streets. You can't ignore the leaks, but you can't afford to ignore the power of momentum in your community.

One piece of advice that I have given over and over is that if you haven't poured a sidewalk lately, go pour one. If you haven't trimmed a tree this season, go trim one. Communities thrive on progress. It is part of what gives us all hope. Small towns live and die by the energy you get from the people that live there. For those that have lived or still live in a small town, you know what I am talking about. Will our town 'survive'?

Just like after a hard fall, sometimes the best thing you can do is get up and walk it out. Make 2012 the year you don't stop walking. Pace yourself, and keep focused on moving forward one small step at a time.

Happy Birthday to Me

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:17:00 +0000

Today is my 30th birthday and today I have given myself something I have been wanting for a while. Nearly 100% disconnect from all things social online. So starting at around midnight I began systematically deleting all my profiles, pages, and posts and I am making good progress.

This isn't a new trend in my life really. Starting last year I dramatically trimmed my email. I deleted tens of thousands of emails. Wiped out thousands of contacts --people I really didn't know and whose information I was never really going to need. I have also been on Twitter a whole lot less. It is funny. When Google+ came out I immediately was there. But for all of it's coolness, it has failed to prove to me that it is useful in replacing Facebook. In fact, Facebook got noticeably better this year, in my opinion. So with three (four if you count LinkedIn) major social networks now vying for my attention, it didn't take long for me to get disinterested in all three of them. I am just not interested enough to try to make that balancing act work.

In no formal way, I also started a journey through the happy and peaceful world of minimalism a couple years ago. I love it. Ever since I started tossing out junk and cutting back on just about every expense category we have, I have noticed a proportional increase in the peace and happiness of our home. I love having less.

But online, the world that I have made a big part of my career the last several years, has never been really tackled --much to my chagrin. So I decided a couple months ago that I was going to start mentally prepping myself for the day. I woke up this morning and immediately smiled at the idea of not getting another notification email or that silly red "1" from Google Plus isn't going to be telling me that someone from India has added me to their circle (for the 3,000th time). No more notifications on my phone telling me that I got another spam tweet.

I will keep my blog. In fact, one of the reasons I wanted to try jumping out of social networking sites is I want to see if it will help me get back to blogging. I do enjoy writing and I always regret not doing enough of it.

Happy holidays.

Meaningful layers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:46:00 +0000

There is a lot of talk about creating new technology. A leap frog in innovation. But layers matter. In fact, for the most part, technology is just a bucket. It brings us information and doesn't create it. We can only hope that the way it does this, is inspiring to us.

I think technology should be an inspirational layer. An effortless carrier of wonderfulness in our lives. Should technology have a deeper meaning than that?

Gov sensors

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Citizens make great sensors. Reporting potholes, graffiti, street lights that are out. The reality is municipal workers make great sensors too. According to one call center I talked to recently, the average lifetime of a ticket is just under 14 days. That means if I report a pothole, on average it will be fixed in within the next two weeks.

But that made me think. The next time I was on the bus I noticed we hit a pothole every day in the same location. In fact, today that pothole is still there. For the last several months I have noticed graffiti, burnt out street lights - all going unfixed week after week.
So we have a couple issues here. Why are these bus drivers not reporting potholes? Why don't the police report all graffiti? It is a crime right? I suspect most officers wouldn't drive on past a car with a broken out window.

This isn't about ganging up on one group of municipal employees. This is about asking of them the same we ask of citizens. Sure, if every single burnt out street light was reported tomorrow then the 14 day average would probably change dramatically. But that is okay. Because then we have a better way to understand how to fix our community. To get it to some kind of standard.

I suspect a lot of employees do report these types of issues but the shear scale of the problems can sometimes cause one to lose focus on our ability to make a difference. If this is you, start anew today. Recognize your opportunity to make a difference. Report what you see and let those responsible figure out how to get them all fixed.

Baselines are critical to have when we are assessing our health and those of you that are keeping us safe, driving us to work, or inspecting our restaurants are just as vital to getting that baseline - if not more so.

Partisan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

While I was a councilman, I always said that I never met a Republican water line or a Democrat park. But I have seen both that need time, energy, and money to get them fixed.

The key in local government is not to avoid the partisan discussions but to just make sure that after you have them you still fix the water line and park. The next generation is counting on our ability to do that.

More on paying attention

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Consumers pay for what they buy in a very direct way. You walk up to the cash register with a gallon of milk and hand them the money. Citizens are removed from the actual transaction of purchasing items, like a new road. We elect people who then turn around and hire people who then turn around delegate that task of purchasing that road.

The buck stops with you. When a town makes poor choices, it does so in part because citizens made poor choices somewhere. You elect poor leadership and they hire the wrong guy. Right? All excuses aside, it does come down to our responsibility. In turn, the citizens should of course hold those they put in power responsible. Like a parent who has to pick up the tab for a broken window. But you still have to pay.

Don't let our representative form of government keep you from ensuring that your town is making good decisions on how it spends our money.

Hunger

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

We all think starvation in the world is a tragedy. But what can we do about it? Well, a lot really. If everyone gave a couple of dollars a month, it would quickly disappear from the globe.

There are thousands of cracks, graffiti marks, dead trees, crumbling sidewalks, and poorly designed parks in our cities. The solution is not to focus on the size of the problem, but rather the size of one single solution. We don't give up on feeding the needy just because there are not enough people doing something about it to actually end it. We feed as many mouths as we can.

If you are wondering how you can make a difference in your community, figure out something very small you can do often and don't ever stop.

Activity: Start an automatic monthly donation of a few dollars to a charity and then go pick up a few pieces of trash.
World Food Programme

Perception of cities

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:10:00 +0000

I was recently visiting a neighborhood in a major US metro. It was a nice neighborhood. Had neat shops, entertainment options, and parks. However, the more I walked around it, the more a specific perception of this neighborhood began to take over in my mind -- one that might not show up on a neighborhood search website or one that city planners might not give it. I started to sense it was lacking something and for me, that something was starting to redefine this neighborhood all over again. Personally, I felt like it lacked some cohesion or perhaps even a healthy dose of civic pride. The more the details I observed, the more I began to recognize this theme.

In this case, I created a perception that became as intimate and powerful as any reality.

Defining a city as active, accessible, and inexpensive might be a good description. But perception is about sense, realization, and comprehension. People are perceiving your city not necessarily based on what they initially see, touch, or smell, but what they eventually come to discern. Those experiences are going to communicate a perception that you will want to understand.

You see this clearly in towns where it is hard to find a fan of their own community. Or conversely in a city that is full of cheerleaders. Those emotions are the patchwork of experiences and comprehension.

The next time you ask your citizens to describe your city, cut right to the important stuff and ask them to give you a thoughtful comment on how they actually perceive your city. After all, it is more likely that they are making essential personal decisions about work, family, and recreation based on that intuition and not what is in your marketing materials.

Describe your city. Then tell me how you perceive it. Which is more useful if you are trying to improve your community?

Entropy of Cities

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:34:00 +0000

I have repeated the saying, if you are not growing, you are dying. Thanks to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, we know that entropy wins. Always. It isn't something we can choose to ignore.

Cities must not only know this, but must embrace it. Growing must be a part of their very being, not just a plan on the shelf. We all know those plans. They collect dust, are rarely consulted, and are eventually tinkered into a unrecognizable new project.

If your city is to prosper, it must be able to attract new people, new businesses, and perhaps most importantly - new ideas. How are you growing as a community today?

Cures for Civic Apathy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

It’s the number one killer of motivation and progress in a community. It’s the most insidious enemy of creative solutions. And it puts on such an innocent face we barely recognize it, even in ourselves. Apathy. For whatever reason (and we ALL have our reasons), we just don’t care anymore. Or never did. Busy with so many other things, we fail to see any connection between our involvement within our communities and the overall quality of our daily lives. Too bad. It’s our loss. We don’t even know what we’re missing! The benefits of caringand participating far outweigh the risks.

“It is not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena… who strives valiantly… who spends himself in a worthy cause… his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” –Theodore Roosevelt

Ready to kick the apathy? I have a few suggestions.

Attend public meetings. Citizens who understand the basic functions of their government will always be better equipped to helpfind solutions for their city or town. Too often we make assumptions as to how our local governments actually work.It’s easier to complain about policies, taxes, or projectswhenour knowledge of them is sketchy or basedon hearsay. Be an active part of the goings-on. Attend some meetings, chat with some officials, and become an educated,proactive citizen.

Join a civic organization. Youwill soonfind yourself caught up in planting flowers at the park, collecting clothes for the needy, coordinating a fall festival, or fighting to protect a beautiful antique bridge slated for demolition. Apathy will be burned off by the flameof pride in a job well done, completed side-by-side with your neighbors. Never underestimate the value of those localnon-profits which foster such a sense of ownership and camaraderie within a community.

Want to REALLY rock your world? Go the full monty? Run for public office. Win or lose, it will force you into the thick of issues in your town or city. It will definitely give you a heightened sense of awareness. After many sleepless nights trying to figure out the proper placement of your next storm water project or the budget of your police department, you will appreciate the commitment and challenge of participating in government. Ideally, you will become a voice for change filtered through a healthy dose of experience.

Let’s go DO something. Apathy isn’t that much fun, anyway.

Cleanliness Is King

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Our communities are failing and it isn't because we lack resources (not always anyway). We are failing at appropriately identifying which projects merit our tax dollars and which ones do not. The result is a series of public relation projects that only provide the illusion of progress. These are projects that do not have the critical sustaining benefits of major infrastructure improvements like a water treatment facility for example. In a time when our dollars are being ripped out of our pockets more and more, we have reached an emergency status in America. We must focus on projects and programs that will allow us to SURVIVE as a city into the next generation.

There are three basic ways we should start to re-look at our cities. In this post we will examine one that is so obvious, it often gets laughed or scoffed at. But cities who choose to ignore it will find they wont be having the last laugh. Keep your city clean! Focusing on the cleanliness of your city is vital to understanding the needs of your community. This is important for two reasons.

1) You cant identify whats wrong if you cant see it! Knowing what is just a mess and what is actually broken is an important first step. For example, if you walked into a neighborhood and your eyes are drawn toward the cracking road, fading road stripes, and the tall grass in the ditches and alleys, would the failing sewer line below the street ever be considered a priority to you? Of course not, because there are always so many other more obvious things to do! Now of course we as citizens dont dictate the projects per se. Sure, some Public Works guy figures all that out. But what about him? He has to look past the mess on the surface and determine what really needs to be done. This makes his job harder than it needs to be. What I am touching on is the simple fact that we humans, by nature, are distracted by disorder. We demand more order in our lives than we give ourselves credit for. Ensuring our city is clean and free of the basic visual and emotional obstacles, creates an opportunity for a freeway of ideas.

Keeping your city clean doesn't have to be expensive. There are a great many churches, civic groups, homeowner associations, etc. that can and SHOULD lend a hand. If you have a problem with getting out and picking up trash or doing a little weed eating, then you probably shouldn't live in a city. It is not the norm for cities to provide perfection in this department without the help of locals the exception being cities that have a huge tax base to work with. You can buy just about anything with money, even clean streets.

2) A clean city is a content city. If you listen to Clark Howard, you may have heard him advise someone with new car fever to go and have it detailed inside and out, and to fix all the little things that are wrong. End result the car owner feels much better about their vehicle and the new car fever goes away. The concept is simple: when we own something for a long time, or more specifically,

when we live within a city for a long time, we grow tired and weary of the little things that bother us. I know for me, it is the silly concrete half-curb I have to drive over when I exit our apartments, left-over from when the city resurfaced and then retrofitted our street for the complex. It is a royal pain! Or what about the street that doesn't look like it has been touched with a tar truck since the Cold War. Neither are going to make me too excited about any ballot initiative to replace the aging water treatment facility. If those small projects were addressed regularly, more citizens would feel proud of their communities.

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most important to pay attention to. If communities are not distracted by the little things they will be more likely to correctly identify the larger issues facing them. I really could have spent a lot longer building upon this point, but I really don't think you need it. I hope you get the basic concepts though. A clean city is easier to fix and the fix is easier to pull off in a clean city.

Global Data Catalog Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:18:00 +0000

A new website launched recently that aims to be the global director of all public government data.

It includes data.ok.gov so I am happy.

Check it out here.

Beautiful Sewers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:19:00 +0000

In virtually every class in college where I was required to write an essay, I figured out a way to write about one of my favorite people - Joseph Bazalgette. He has always been an inspirational person to me. Perhaps I will post one of my short essays about him soon.

I came across this photostream this morning via the Public Works Group's facebook account.

Commemorative Plaque to Sir Joseph Bazalgette

It is a collection of beautiful photos of sewers and drains from an era when they were built to last and by today's standards, are works of art.

Thank you TheVicarDrains for sharing these photos.