Smart Communities

Food Stamps in More Demand

The New York Times reported today that ffood stamp demand is the highest in the program's history. If you have been wondering whether the recession was real or not--don't wonder any longer. Job layoffs, rising prices, and generally less income have caused this increase. As we wrote in our blog of December 14, 2007 food banks and other community sources will be maxed out if we are not careful.

In a hopeful sign though, the lawyers of Richmond, Virginia have taken on food collection as one of their charity projects. Getting professional groups, religious organizations, corporations, as well as nonprofits thinking about hunger is key to addressing the need short-term but also investing in its long-term solutions.

Call someone today about the hunger situation in your community--United Way, food banks, even the larger churches will know. Think about a school project, one can for admission to a local baseball game, anything that will help fill the shelves of people who cannot even afford to feed their families.

What to do on Monday: Support Community Colleges

Perhaps the key to getting our communities on track and moving forward in this scary economic time is the ability to prepare our workforce for the future. The vehicle that I believe is most critical to that process is your local community college. These institutions are the entry point for hundreds of thousands of students who want a skill or seek higher education. It is time to make a community college education more accessible and to support the annual funds of these institutions. In full disclosure, I serve on the board of Piedmont Virginia Community College. Every year we see a greater demand for our programs by our service area and a very talented student pool. Back in September I was the opening convocation speaker at Danville Community College and was blown away by the high technology facilities they have and provide for students. This is the wave of the future in education and in community development. If you don't know what is offered at your local college, find out on Monday. If you have not supported your college either by attending an event or by contributing, find out how.

Transportation in the Work Equation

In our continuing to think ahead with responses to our changing economic system, one area must be public transportation. Usually this conversation begins and ends with bus, train, or subway service. But in the case of smaller communities and larger ones with all night needs, there must be a different answer. That answer was found in part by Cedar Rapids, IA, back in the early nineties with its Neighborhood Transportation Service (NTS). We studied this program as part of our Solutions for America initiative. In a nutshell, it is a van service that takes people to work on the third shift--often outside the city limits. We learned that factories are often off the bus line preventing people who need jobs most from even applying. The service also provided drop-offs to child care. This service essentially paid for itself through user fees and allowed a group of people access to jobs who wouldn't have otherwise. This is the kind of creative thinking that we will need as we hit this economic crisis head-on. Start thinking about what it will take families already living on the edge to keep ahead of the downturn. We have talked about food and transportation already this week. Tomorrow we will complete the list.

Community Gardens Feed Body and Soul

At the risk of sounding like our Depression-era parents, we had better brace ourselves for the continuing fallout from the economy. We are seeing more jobs lost everyday and prices at the pump and the grocery store go up. This scenario will play havoc on local food banks as we have discussed in previous blogs. Now is the season however to consider a community garden as a way to provide fresh food to families who might not get them otherwise. In places that have gardens like San Gabriel Valley, CA, the garden helps people come together in community for food and spirit. Or as the folks in Carrboro, NC are learning, it is a great teaching tool and service project for young people. Portland, OR, has a children's gardening program that is terrific. This is a win-win and can lead to local farmer's markets if the interest is there. How to get started? The American Community Gardening Association has made it easy for us. There are 10,000 community gardens across America. If you don't have one where you live, think about starting one. If there is one already, think about a second in another part of town. Let us know what has worked where you live.

Globalization Can Work for Us

In this insightful article by New York City's mayor Michael Bloomberg, he touts the ways that globalization--the movement of markets, labor, and capital--across the world revitalized New York City after 9/11. He says that the experience of New York City provides lessons for cities across the U.S. Let's take a look at the mayor's lessons: 1) harness the forces of immigration and globalization; 2) tap innovation; 3) institute accountable governance; and 4) have the independence to take on the entrenched or special interests to move ideas forward. In layman's terms, I read the mayor's suggestions for other cities this way. Use the wonderful skills and talents of immigrants to create a larger pie for all; support ideas and innovation through schools, business, and government; make elected and appointed officials accountable for results; and don't take no for an answer and don't give up or in. I would add a fifth to the mayor's list: work regionally.

The new economic palette for American communities is in some ways less complicated not more. We have a bigger playing field, almost all kinds of economic engines are open to us, and we are not limited by what we have right in the community--almost everything is accessible through the internet. What Bloomberg is really saying is get a plan that has some semblance of the four building blocks. It has certainly worked for New York.

Appalachia--Sounds Like the Place to Be

National Geographic Magazine and the Appalachian Regional Commission launched an interactive map last week to key sites in the 13-state region. Certainly a guide for tourists, it is also a celebration of a culture and a people that too often have been left behind economically. I consider the map to be a guide for tourists and residents alike. Too often people have no knowledge or appreciation for what is literally right under their noses. How many of us have visited all the historic or cultural sites in our own area? My guess is very few of us.

What this map does is literally connect the dots for people. You can get a sense with just a few clicks of the sites of most interest to you and then see their proximity to other things. All around this is a very impressive partnership by these organizations and the thousands of people who recommended them. This has inspired me to see some new things in my area. Today I am off to Mount Vernon, which is the most visited historic house in America. I saw one of the second most visited sites, Monticello a few weeks ago. See something new this week and think about how it can be leveraged in new ways.

What to do on Monday--Who is My Neighbor?

Today is one of the holiest days in the Christian world--Good Friday. So I believe that today is different from other Fridays and deserves a different message. No matter your beliefs, this article from Paddy Kearney from Durban, South Africa speaks to our responsibility as people and as citizens. He writes of a custom in South Africa to carry the cross through the streets in silence. This year the theme of the processional is the question that Christ posed in the parable of the Good Samaritan, "who is our neighbor?" Random acts of kindness got their start on the road with the injured man and the Good Samaritan. This is what we are supposed to do: help people less fortunate, those in need, or sometimes those who have made bad choices. I want to focus on the latter today.

In the research for Smart Communities I ran across an analysis of what makes the poor poorer than the rest of us. One author wrote in essence that at least part of the answer is people making bad decisions with no support system. That could be everything from too much debt to substance abuse but basically no room for error. That is where the Good Samaritan story has real teeth. Doing for people who have screwed up and helping them get things turned around is a different kind of neighborliness than we are used to displaying. That is not to say that we shouldn't help those who find themselves in bad circumstances through no fault of their own but rather that our outreach and our compassion should and can reach further. That for me is God's grace for them and for us. On Monday, think about who is your neighbor.

Idaho Offers Chess in Schools

In one of the most original ideas around, Idaho is offering chess instruction to second and third graders. Based on the curriculum called First Move, young children are introduced to strategy, planning, and even counting as a result of playing the game. One teacher has seen a rise in self-esteem from children from other cultures. What started as a pilot this year will be offered to all second and third graders next year. Teachers are provided training if they are not chess players and allow play right in the classroom.

I really like this idea. While few evaluations have been done thus far on the relationship of chess to learning, we do know from years of research that music and philosophy lead to better math skills. Fostering a new way of learning and thinking is transferrable. I applaud Idaho for taking a chance and being creative. This is exactly the kind of innovation that needs to happen if we are change education for the better. Idaho calls itself the "Gem State" and this is a gem.

Driving Tours--Cultural Tourism by Car

Today I want to discuss the importance of organizing cultural driving tours--again. We talked about Georgia's Literary Trail and Massachusett's Quilt Trail but I want all of us to think about why a car would pull off the interstate and visit your town or region. According to the National Trusts for Historic Preservation, 118 million people visit at least one cultural or historic site on their vacation every year. Why not one in your community? With gas prices rising, I think we have to be doubly smart about cultural tourism--that is, value and interest for the time and money spent. Here are a couple of examples. Virginia has done a good job with its "Virginia is for Lovers" them and developed a number of driving routes. Brandywine has an interesting battle tour. Or in one of the most clever, Edenton, NC's tour of the stolen North Carolina Bill of Rights.

This is an inexpensive way to get into the cultural tourism business and create ripple effect for area businesses. We will feature more sites this week but this is a must for any place that wants more tourists.

Education is Like the Weather

One of Mark Twain's great lines was "everybody complains about the weather but no one does anything about it." The same can be said for education. It is a cure a day. If you read Education Week or any of the online sources, you will find a myriad of articles for and against everything to No Child Left Behind to teacher pay to home schooling. The fact of the matter is that now 25 years after "A Nation at Risk" was published, we are still at risk and going lower. Too many of our children can't read, too many drop out of school, and too many just don't go. One fact that hasn't changed in these 25 years: children who are behind or at-risk from the beginning have a hard time catching up. So what is the remedy? Interventions before the problem gets unmanageable. Jay Mathews has written a wonderful column about a book that profiles schools that work. This is more than a pre-K program, this is more than Reading First, this is more than a bunch of tests. Our commitment to education has to do with parents having decent jobs, children living in safe neighborhoods, and schools having the resources they need to meet the needs. We can tinker around the edges all we want to but in the end this is an interrelated set of challenges that must be met. Where so we start? Every child in our community has a book in his or her home that is age-appropriate and someone to read it to or with him or her. If that is a family member--great-- if not, then that is great too. US Airways and Reading is Fundamental's partnership "Read with Kids" is a great first step. In other words, someone has got to step up. Let's do this first and then go on to the next step.