Subject: Advocacy
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This past Saturday 80,000 of my closest friends and I rallied at the capitol in Madison. This time I volunteered to be a marshall. We had a brief orientation at 9 AM, got our cool orange vests, and then were…
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We just had our second amazing Saturday in a row, with estimates ranging from 70,000 to 120,000. The problem with the estimates was that it was snowing and cold and at any given time a whole bunch of people were…
A group of activists are fighting back against the Glenn Becks, Andrew Breitbarts, and the rest of the Fox News propaganda machine who have worked tirelessly to spread lies about ACORN. Last week a new watchdog group, www.IndictBreitbart.org, launched a…
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We’ve seen some coverage commemorating former Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died eight years ago this week in a tragic plane crash. This is a good, if incomplete, look at some inspiring public addresses. Wellstone always reminds us, in one way or another, to keep our eye on the prize: ““Politics isn’t about big money or power games; it’s about the improvement of people’s lives.”
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This week Chicago Alderman Pat Dowell, at the request of Action Now, the former Illinois chapter of Acorn, which broke away in 2008, and their allies, like Southwest Organizing Project, in the Foreclosure Convening, introduced a new ordinance that would…
“Aside from reduced CO2, less traffic time and health advantages, the most important benefit of walk to school programs is teaching children self-reliance.”
The quote comes from architect and urbanist Ann Daigle, who puts into practice all the things that I advocate as a smart growth loyalist. And it’s a fitting intro to telling you about the National Trust’s important new report, Helping Johnny Walk to School. The report is a sequel to the Trust’s seminal Why Johnny Can’t Walk to School, co-authored by my friend Constance Beaumont and published in 2002.
Helping Johnny Walk stresses policy recommendations and new ways (in many cases older but now under-appreciated ways) of thinking about the role of schools in our communities. I’ve written extensively about school sprawl, where some isolated newer schools are within walking distance of nobody, occupy lots twice as big as Disneyland, and are designed so that you can’t tell one from a Walmart, other than through signage and the presence or absence of shopping carts. (See, for example, here, here, and here.) Schools should be community anchors, not drains. more
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This may be small in the grand scheme of the economic collapse, but I think it’s worth highlighting anyway: While there are dozens of reasons people are getting behind on their mortgages and entering foreclosure, there are also apparently some…
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Everyone’s excited about the money pouring, or rather trickling, out of the federal government in the form of economic stimulus. As is the case with many grants, loans and other funding sources, the money is meant to be used within…
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Editor’s Note: This is in response to Randy Stoecker’s earlier post on community organizing on the national level. ACORN, PICO, and US Action are among the community organizing groups mobilizing people around health care reform. They are part of a…
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Finally: Al Franken has been seated in the US Senate. After a grueling recount process, former Sen. Norm Coleman finally conceded defeat and congratulated Franken on his Senate victory in Minnesota. With the Democrats securing 60 Senate votes, the media…
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Burgeoning Asian-American communities in places like Colorado and Georgia are not necessarily served by Asian-American-based community development corporations — though they should be, according to Jeremy Liu, Executive Director of the Boston-based Asian Community Development Corporation. Liu, who made his…
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Doris Koo, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, brought up an interesting concept of using TARP monies returned to Treasury by various lending institutions and re-appropriating them toward community development financial institutions. Community Development TARP, as she called it…
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We have some insight from Sonal Shah, the head of the new White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, who is advocating here at here at the 10th annual National CAPACD convention for government to play a limited…
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Mark Winston Griffith of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy is making a particularly keen point here at the National CAPACD 10th Annual Convention in Washington in regards to community organizers becoming too enamored with the Washington, DC lifestyle now that a community organizer occupies the White House:
“We need to steer clear of a “Beltway conversation” now that we’ve won the White House and the thkning that we’re part of the political elite. We can’t only be focused on getting our organizations invited to the White House.”
Staying local, he said, is imperative:
“We need to exploit this power to our fullest ability now that we’re here. Just as the tide came in we also have to think about the tide going back out. We need to think not only in terns of electoral victories, but local victories as well — building very local alliances, focusing on local events, and local impact.
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Spurred by the Bullet Space squat in Manhattan’s East Village making the transition to being a co-op, we find an interesting conversation on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show on squatting’s legitimate place in the housing field. The interview includes Andrew Reicher…
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Given all the emphasis on green jobs and energy efficiency in the Obama administration, it’s not surprising that these uses are targeted by a huge chunk of the economic stimulus money now flowing to the states and on to cities…
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What should you do if you’re politically progressive or even if you label yourself a liberal, or a Democrat but are unhappy about the direction of New Jersey’s government? You should attend a great conference on Saturday, April 18th being…
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Back when I was a local reporter, I witnessed the unfortunate demise of a beloved neighborhood park in Malden, Massachusetts. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. had been involved in the park’s design at the dawn of the 20th century. But local…
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It’s amazing what accounts for a market rally. Are we starting to see a pattern here? While the MSM still insists on using the Dow Jones Industrial Average in taking the temperature of public policy, it’s clear that the “markets” are not fond of being held down. Is the Dow reaching over 8000 for the first time in almost two months an economic indicator, or simply a characteristic of an increasingly fickle market?
From a report today in The New York Times:
The board that sets United States accounting standards is giving companies more leeway when valuing assets, a potential lift to battered banks’ balance sheets. The independent Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to adopt guidelines under the so-called mark-to-market accounting rules, which require companies to value assets at prices reflecting current market conditions…The changes could reduce the losses banks have been forced to report as the values of their mortgage-backed securities have crumbled. The decision will allow the assets to be valued at what they would go for in an “orderly” sale, as opposed to a forced or distressed sale. The new guidelines will apply to the second quarter that began this month. The mark-to-market rules have forced banks to take steep write-downs on some assets, especially securities tied to high-risk subprime mortgages.
The Dow was up over 300 points at the publishing of this post. See article link here. more
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In general, most efforts to develop “green infrastructure” at the neighborhood level have been volunteer-led, grassroots efforts. City governments don’t tend to take the lead on creating pocket parks and planting trees or developing bike infrastructure. Seattle’s Green Factor is…
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National Housing Institute
