Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

"Top 50 Urban Policy Wonk Bloggers"

SPRAWLED OUT is proud to be included in a list of the "top 50 urban policy wonk bloggers" as compiled by the Public Servant Blog. I posted their entire list after the break for easy bookmarking:

Public administration is an interesting field, filled with a number of opportunities and challenges. Among those challenges is making urban policy. The way we live in our cities, how they are planned, and how the people are taken care of are all things that go along with a job in public administration. If you are interested in urban policy, and learning more about what goes into it, here are 50 bloggers that can provide insight, and help you create urban planning success:

Read the rest at: Top 50 Urban Policy Wonk Bloggers; List after the break.

"Hey - this city-planning stuff is easy." SimCity Deluxe coming soon to iPhone

 
SimCity should be required "play therapy" for Common Council and Plan Commission members:

An updated version of the the preferred game for those who want to create cities and watch them prosper or founder is coming to the iPhone this summer. SimCity Deluxe from EA Mobile will have a user interface that improves on the current Sim City offering, with enhancements that make it look a bit more SimCity 4 on the PC. SimCity has been popular on the iPhone since it was released in 2008.

The game includes different seasons (with appropriate disasters, of course) and 7 starter cities just waiting for you to run them into the ground. The new version will sport improved frame rates, and the ability to modify terrain with a touch and swipe of your finger. These type of games go way back. I remember playing Santa Paravia which was a similar, but considerably more primitive economic simulation, way back when it was on the TRS-80. Ah, memories. The new SimCity Deluxe will work on the iPhone and iPod touch, and I reckon that you can count on an iPad version as well.[via Slide to Play]

via www.tuaw.com

"USE YOUR PC'S AT HOME. If you don't have one, don't expect to leech off of the taxpayers."

Intriguing thread of comments at the Battle Joined blog reveals some cynical attitudes towards the role of a public library in Franklin, Wisconsin.

One wonders why anyone would consider moving to - or relocating a business to - a community that does not make a priority of its public library and its associated services, programs, and opportunities.

UPDATED: "The tone of the initial post sets the stage for what is to follow. We get what we give."

Saw this comment on a "MyCommunityNOW" blog and thought it was so well-stated that it needs to be posted here as well. With slight edits for context and my added emphasis, this good advice is by the commenter known as "JUST1THOUGHT":

The post says: "It is appropriate and quite helpful if the individual and/or group that is distributing the literature provide full disclosure on the pamphlets, brochures, etc. with contact information including name, address, telephone number, e-mail address."

I sort of agree with him about the literature distribution. I’d like to know who is saying what too. But when it comes to blogging on a regular basis (3-5 times a day) those rules don’t seem to necessarily apply.  But why not and what if they did?  Scary thought isn’t it?

Most blogger bios are blank or vague at best. Some are down right silly. Yet they complain about anonymous commenters as evil.  Again, I sort of agree, people are mean, but they are responding to something you "distributed".

Just imagine if we had to provide our “contact information including name, address, telephone number, e-mail address" on a blog or a comment for that matter. The literature distributed, and the comments they receive would be more objective and less subjective (and less in general) Or we all would have broken windows and flat tires.

To prove the point, view your blog with the highest comments in the last few weeks and look at the subject. Then read the comments.  Good begets good and bad begets bad.

Now it might be said, (has been said), if you don’t like it, don’t read it. But I have to read it to come to a conclusion. You are posting on a Community Web Page as a “community voice”. Comments are invited by nature of the ability to comment. But the blogger is in full control. You don’t have to pass through a comment you find offensive either. But sometimes you do, just to counter attack. A real dialog never develops. I guess that’ why there are so few comments these days. Unless it’s good news.

Don’t mistake a high hit count for popularity, curiosity counts too. People love to hate. Good or bad, the numbers of comments you receive to a post are the true gauge of the effectiveness of your blog. Since you have control of what gets through, you control how effective the conversation can get.  The tone of the initial post sets the stage for what is to follow. We get what we give.

Bloggers (especially NOW bloggers) - I am not suggesting that you provide full disclosure on your bio, I sure won’t, but try blogging as if you did. Try and imagine yourself entering my neighborhood and placing you literature in my “newspaper box or at my front door.” As long as you are on the Now website, it’s sort of the same thing, 21st century style. I go to the NOW for a lot of reasons and there you are.

BUT MOST OF ALL, IT IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY AS MUCH AS THE WAY YOU SAY IT.

End of Post.

UPDATE: As if to underscore and add an exclamation point to "JUST1THOUGHT's" excellent observations and articulation thereof, the blogger in question "responded" to this well thought-out comment thusly:

Now if only the hateful left would read and heed.
We get what we give, hey? You have no idea what I all get...

Name-calling, non-engagement and self-pity, all in the space of 24 words. At least in this case his approach to mediocrity is somewhat parsimonious.

New to the blogroll: The New Wave Planner

Brand new blog by New Jersey based urban planner/land use consultant Justin Auciello: The New Wave Planner.

Detroit and how it got that way

detroit and how it got this way

(Via MarkMaynard.com.)

While some local Councils turn to new media, Franklin still flipping cassettes

GoogleMap image uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

We have a fairly serious transparency problem here in Franklin. The city website is fairly incomprehensible, and staffing shortages mean that it'll be a long time before resources can be devoted to making it easier for people to know what meetings are upcoming and what projects and developments are pending.

Want to follow a development or issue through myriad meeting and committees? Forget it; the city of Franklin website assumes that you have time to search through EVERY POSSIBLE AGENDA (in PDF format  - so you have to download them first) for your development or issue rather than simply list developments and then add to it every meeting and document that is related (see it done right at the city of Davis, California website).

Of course, I highly suspect that not everyone in local government wants information and processes to be easily accessible. The emergence of local blogs has been a source of extreme discomfort for many longtime local pols, and has arguably contributed to the resignation of more than one of the "old boys" who did not appreciate the extra scrutiny.

I also suspect this is why we still see city meetings stop regularly - in the year 2009! -  so someone can flip the cassette used to record the meeting!

Still, they're slipping 'em by us now and then.

For instance: Did you know the city might actually spend stimulus money (with Greendale) to, inexplicably, widen 51st street to four lanes between Rawson and College Ave.? AND, did you know that St. Paul's Church (see above; it's beautiful even in a GoogleMaps screenshot) will have to be torn down to accommodate that folly? (More on that later).

District 3 Alderperson Kristen Wilhelm sends out regular emails alerts (the only reason I know about 51st Street) and updates her website; it may be time to get her and the other council members Twitter accounts so they can send and be sent news during meetings.

In the UK, they seem to be on top of the possibilities of new media in keeping local government answerable to the people:

Councils turn to new media:

Local authorities have been using social media to keep residents informed about how the heavy snowfalls have affected services.

Authorities including Lichfield and  Babergh district councils used micro-blogging site Twitter to announce canceled bin collections while Newcastle city council used  its Twitter account to keep parents informed about school closures.

Other councils including Barnet, Southwark and Hillingdon had regular website updates. Increasing numbers of councils and councillors are turning to social media to communicate with residents. Latest figures suggest more than 20 councils and a further 40 individual councillors have Twitter accounts and Newcastle city council recently became the first to use Twitter to announce the results of a by-election.

Alastair Smith, communications advisor  at Newcastle city council, believes the use of new media is part of the democratisation of information and can lead to greater openness  and transparency.

He said: “It’s a great way to engage with the citizen. Rather than it being a one-way communication, it’s two-way. If you are putting a message out there, it’s important to hear what people think about it.”

The use of online media is growing. Over the past year the use of Twitter has rocketed nearly 1,000%. Mr Smith believes that with the number of traditional news sources diminishing  it will be increasingly important for councils to maintain an online presence.

“While it is important to maintain a relationship with traditional media, if people are  looking at YouTube we need to be there. We need to have a presence where our customers are,” he said.

Communicating in a Digital Age

Increasing numbers of councils and councillors are turning to social media to communicate with residents and to keep up to date with what is happening in their local communities. Alison Purdy looks at how councillors are getting to grips with the digital age.

Is social media a useful tool for councils and councillors to communicate with residents?

Twitter is one of the latest social media buzzes. Although it has been around for a while it is now starting to gain more widespread popularity as more people as increasing numbers of people start to use it. Celebrities from Stephen Fry to Barack Obama use Twitter accounts to update their fans. Nationally the Conservative party is on Twitter, along with No 10, the Foreign Office and Parliament. But there is also a vibrant community of people posting updates who are involved in local government and a number of councils using Twitter as part of their engagement drive.

Latest figures suggest that more than 20 councils are using Twitter with a further 40 individual councillors regularly posting their own personal messages, known as tweets. Newcastle city council became the first local authority in the UK to announce election results in real time through the social networking site. The Fenham ward by-election results were sent to ‘followers’ of the council – people signed up to read their messages – through the website or on their mobile phones as soon as they were announced.

And more recently councils around the country used Twitter to keep residents up to date with the latest weather situation and the impact the snow storms were having on council services. Here are some examples of how councillors are using Twitter and other social media to get their message across.

Twitter

 Cllr James Cousins (Con) Wandsworth council Twitter is often portrayed in the media as a festival of celebrity banality but it is a valuable medium, where diverse people congregate, contribute and discuss. I first became aware of its power through Twitter conversations about local government engagement, and from there it was an obvious step to use it as a councillor. My approach, in short, has been to ‘be human’. I use my personal account and try to avoid too much about the town hall, which I suspect even I would find dull. Instead I try to make my ‘tweets’ either encourage discussion or be informative, but that doesn’t stop me discussing TV or celebrating my team’s rare wins.

What is surprising is not just how many local people were tweeting, but how many were eager to engage and use Twitter to communicate with their councillor. While I often sit in a draughty library with no-one attending my surgery it is quite the reverse in the ‘Twitterverse’ where people are keen to ask questions or air local issues with me. In the past week alone parks, parking, traffic, policing and business issues have all been raised with me via Twitter. Like any dialogue, you get out what you put in. For me, Twitter has been incredibly rewarding

Facebook

Cllr Daniel Cox (Con) Norfolk county council Norfolk county council recently used Facebook as a tool in our campaign to get the government to bring forward the dualling of the final single carriageway stretch of the A11 – a major route into, and out of, Norfolk. Our two-month campaign resulted in 16,000 people signing either a hard copy, or the online, petition, with an additional 3,200 joining our Facebook group.

The business community regarded the dualling as vital for boosting competitiveness and improving the perception of Norfolk as a great place in which to do business. The economic benefits of dualling the road are estimated at £600m – far outweighing the cost of construction. Thousands of people who live in Norfolk, or have links with the county, have Facebook accounts and many Norfolk-related groups already existed. This gave us an opportunity to reach an existing online Norfolk community – many of whom had direct experience of this section of the A11.

Different audience

Some of these people may have kept in touch with news via the local media, and some may have seen the petition in our libraries, or on our website, but many wouldn’t have, and Facebook provided us with a direct way of reaching a different campaign audience. We linked up with a number of groups, including Norfolk live music venues – stressing the benefits it could bring in terms of bands and DJs finding it an easier and quicker location to reach.

We also targeted online football forums – mainly related to Norwich City football club, but also forums of teams who were heading into Norfolk to play during the time we ran the campaign. Ultimately we were able to access groups of people who conventionally would have shown little interest in local government campaigns – personalising the benefits for their specific interests. The result was that transport secretary Geoff Hoon announced that dualling would be brought forward to 2010 – the first road scheme he has announced since being in office.

YouTube

Cllr Maureen McGarvey (Con) Blackburn with Darwen council. I’m the first to admit that I still use one finger to type on my computer keyboard. But when it comes to trying new ways of connecting with our community I’m all in for it – even if I don’t always fully understand the tool being used. We were recently awarded the top possible ‘four score’ corporate assessment rating. It’s not easy to engage staff and the wider public with something like an inspection report. That’s why I was pleased to see some creativity with the communications.

Our chief executive was filmed being questioned in a journalistic style. His answers and relevant images from the borough were used to make a three-minute video. The idea was to show the story behind the Audit Commission rating. The video was posted on YouTube and the link was sent to staff and members via e-bulletins and further ‘seeded’ (I’m told that’s the right term) by emailing to partners and adding to relevant social message boards. Information about the video was given out on our website and the local paper ran a story. Innovation was one of our inspection strengths so it was only right that we did the same with celebrating the success. I believe we’re pioneers with the use of video in inspection communications and I’d recommend it to other councils. It certainly got people talking and that’s half the battle. The video can be found at www.youtube.com/BwDCtube 

Blogging

Cllr Clive Hudson (Lab) Wakefield council As Wakefield’s environment champion I have created an online diary to chronicle my family’s attempts to become greener and our switch to the new alternative weekly bin collection scheme. This blog is also an opportunity to try to encourage people who live, work and visit the district to take care of their environment. My family and I are very involved with keeping the district clean and green and as part of this we have changed to a more environmentally-friendly family car.

I live in Altofts which has now joined the new bin collection scheme. This encourages everyone to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and, in turn, helps people to think about the amount of packaging they use. When I was asked if I would be interested in creating the blog it seemed the perfect time to get to grips with new technology and set-up an online diary so people can see how we are attempting to become greener and help the Wakefield district continue to be a place we can all be proud of.

Wakefield has so much to offer and I’m a strong believer that if we all work together, take pride in our places and say no to litter and waste, we can strengthen the area as a beautiful place to live, work and visit. Visitors to the online diary – at http:// cleanergreener.wakefield.gov.uk – can see how I have been preparing for the change, including getting rid of most of the bins at home.

Local right wing radio talker goes out on a limb

Here is an ACTUAL BLOG ENTRY on the local squawk radio blog of right wing talker Jeff Wagner (WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee). I added boldface, though I doubt such emphasis is needed:

18-year-old Marc Monfort lives in Oconto Falls.  For Halloween, Monfort has hung three plywood mannequins outfitted as scarecrows from a tree in the yard of his home.  The figures have black faces and are hanging from branches by their necks with rope.

Monfort says the display isn't racist and that he's not taking it down. He says that he made the scarecrows when he was  eight years old and has hung them outside his home in prior years.

The Mayor of Oconto Falls says that the display is "disgusting".  A resident of the community says that she's "horrified" by the display and the fact that no action is being taken to remove it.

For what it's worth, a confederate flag also flies in the yard.

Later today, we'll talk about whether this is a legitimate Halloween display or an example of racism?

What a quandary. Do you think the inquisitive Mr. Wagner will get to the bottom of this?

"Hmmm.... I guess it could be legit..."

Tomorrow's topic on Mr. Wagner's show: Paint Thinner - Should We Drink It?

Racist Or All In Good Fun? | Newsradio 620 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin News, Talk, Sports, Weather | Jeff Wagner:

Podcasts available of Franklin Technology Commission Podcast Subcommittee as they struggle with the concept of... podcasts

Blogger Janet Evans has posted meeting podcasts of the latest Franklin Technology Commission Podcast Subcommittee meeting.

That, my friends, is pure and simple irony.

A photo essay on school sprawl in two parts

I've commented here often on the fact that Franklin's schools are great examples of sprawl-planning in action: inaccessible, dangerous to travel to and from except by vehicle, etc.

Kaid Benfield asks in a two-part photo essay:

How in  the world did we get from this...
 

..to this:

Schools used to be the heart of a neighborhood or community.  Children and not a few teachers could walk to class, or to the playground or ball field on the weekend.  This was relatively easy to do, because the schools were placed within, not separated from, their neighborhoods.  They were human-scaled and their architecture was not just utilitarian, but signaled their importance in the community.  Now it has become hard to tell one from a Walmart or Target.

Kaid Benfield's Blog › A photo essay on school sprawl - Part 1: 

Part 2