Smart Communities

A Mirror Reminds Us of Possibilities

I like to write about something positive on Fridays if not all days of the week. But I must confess it is a little hard to find good news stories sometimes. But last night Brian Williams ended his nightly news segment with a story from Washington DC Preparatory School about a creative teacher who posted a mirror on a bulletin board to remind her students that they too could achieve great things. Amidst pictures of Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Maya Angelou, children saw their own faces and thought about their own options. One little boy said he wanted to be an astronaut. Some made funny faces. But all took notice of themselves. Maybe we should all look in the mirror with a little more scrutiny. Sure we will see more wrinkles but we need to see what those children saw--possibilities. The budget announced yesterday will not get us where we need to go unless people do things differently. If it takes a mirror to see who and what has to be done so be it. 

Investing Right the First...in Energy

The first principle in the Smart Communities framework is "Investing Right the First Time." We have talked about early childhood education, prenatal care, the environment--a whole laundry list that needs our focus and attention early and often. Now we can add energy efficiency to the list. The new stimulus package has dollars for local areas to upgrade the energy use in public buildings. This is a great opportunity and a lesson to be learned. From energy audits, municipalities are learning about energy waste big time. The challenge is how to use the limited dollars to their maximum benefit. I think this whole process of audit and identifying causes of problems is where we find ourselves in this crisis. With the dollars available, and I would add the public will, we must fix the things that need to be fixed. We have seen the result in energy and every other area of situations that are allowed to fester and get worse. So it is time to put our energy in "energy" and a range of other areas that need our attention. Just read that chapter in the book and you will see what I mean. 

Bipartisanship--A "Popular Myth?"

An opinion piece about the recent history of bipartisanship is a very interesting read. Lou Cannon takes us through the last 50 years or so and how the concept has played out in reality. President Obama's speech last night extended the hand but made it clear that he was pushing forward on his agenda--bipartisanship or not. There seemed to be a good feeling in the room which was promising. I remember past years when the opposing party basically sat on their hands during the State of the Union. Of course the proof of this concept will be in the results. If the Obama team is right, the opposition will look like spoilers. If they are wrong, the opposition will look like pragmatic geniuses. Neither scenario is likely but I would like to add a third. What if we brought the best minds together for dialogue and discussion no matter their party affiliation and said don't worry about a leadership position in your party or even re-election, just give us the best ideas you have. Do you think the content of the stimulus package would have been any different?

Cities and the Stimulus--No Funny Business

When President Obama addressed the nation's mayors last week he told them the good news and the bad: help was on the way but they better spend it wisely. Unfortunately we have developed a habit of spending federal money how we think it should be spent not according to guidelines. Obviously not in every case or with every program but enough so that the President thought he had to say something. Here we are in the crisis of our lifetimes and he has to remind elected officials to spend the money as it was intended. I hope they got the message. While this situation is likely to go on for a long time and get worse perhaps, this may be our best shot to get things turned around. If the stimulus can meet some needs and rebuild confidence, our chances greatly improve to weather the storm successfully. And to those governors who don't want to take the money--godspeed. There are plenty of people around who want and need it.

"No Child" Rename--Give Me a Break

It seems that many people have a problem with the name (and probably the content) of the No Child Left Behind legislation. While I agree that it has some baggage, give me a break. What we need now is a laser focus on our public education system not unlike the focus on the economy. What we don't need is even the slightest diversion on nomenclature. Call it whatever you will but the truth remains that many of our schools are failing and taking students down too. There are far too many left behind and we need to do something fast. Rather than rename it why don't we define the problem in the most specific terms possible--prenatal care, early childhood education, quality daycare, workforce development, and school quality and then get to work. Success for all is the only name that needs to have our concerns today. 

Smart Growth Award

The Environmental Protection Agency will award its eighth annual Smart Growth Award to five communities. Last year's winners covered a range of initiatives. I was particularly impressed by the work done in Silver Spring, MD, to revitalize its commercial area. In these times of limited resources and increasing need in our communities, Silver Spring provides some very interesting ideas.

Food--Not as Easy as it Sounds

There were three very interesting articles on food that caught my attention today. The first describes the "run" on food banks that the economic downturn has caused. Not only are those in chronic need asking for help but this article says the "newly poor" are adding to the demand. We have written about the need to keep the food flowing to your local food banks and pantries. I would just encourage all of us to be aware that things are getting much worse for families. While this is not a solution to the long-term crisis, it is something that each of us can do: share what we have with people in need. If you are not sure where to take food, call your local United Way.

A second piece--an op-ed by Alice Waters and Katrina Heron--calls for the rehauling of the National School Lunch program. Launched in the late 1940s to provide at least one balanced meal a day for poor children, the program has not lived up to its expectations according to this article. It does not provide healthy food on the one hand and there has been wasteful spending in the program. The authors are not calling for an elimination of the program but a hard look that would give children what they really need.

These articles have different but complimentary messages. Yes they both are about food for the poor but mostly they are challenging us to think about how we provide and deliver one of the basic needs. So much of what has happened in this area and many others is just doing the same old thing year after year. In this time when we are scrutinizing every area of our joint lives, we must look at hunger with new eyes. That is what the third article detailing a lecture by a Keene State professor does for us. He points out the personal and societal effects of hunger. Answers to hunger will include food production (aka farming), delivery systems, and public will. It seems to me that this is one of those issues that we can really get our arms around at the local level. I can't save a bank but I can work on this.

Partisanship--Not a New Song

James Marone's op-ed in the New York Times this week cuts to the core of the partisanship dilemma--maybe we shouldn't worry so much about what people or don't support, just get the job done. A professor at Brown University, Marone cites President George Washington's rather unpleasant visit to Congress in his first term to seek advice on the treaty as evidence that the partisan bickering has been around since the beginning. While that is a convincing argument, I am not so sure we should be satisfied with the situation. The problems we face are huge. We need the best thinking we can get. It is hard to believe that the decisions are as simple as party affiliation. Surely there is a middle ground that can be reached. I shared with my students this morning a quote by Jules Ellinger that speaks to a need to question but also a need to seek solutions: "There has never been a statue erected to the memory of someone who let well enough alone."

Scams Against the Elderly

Yesterday my 90+ year-old mother was robbed by two men posing to be home repair people who knew her name. When she opened the door upon hearing her name (she normally wouldn't open the door to a stranger), they pushed their way in with the excuse to show her some flooring they were selling. While they were in her house, one or maybe a third person stole her money and jewelry. Despite this, she had a real lucky day. She was not hurt in anyway and had her faculties about her to sense the danger and not do anything to provoke them. I am writing about this to encourage you to alert older people in your family, congregations, or neighborhoods that part of the scam is knowing the person's name. This is easy information to obtain from a letter in a mailbox to church directories to web searches of addresses. No, she shouldn't have opened the door at all but how many of us upon being called by name might do the same? I am not sure age had much to do with the decision although I feel certain she was targeted because of her age. Unfortunately crime of all types is likely to go up during these difficult economic times. Encourage people to be aware of this scam as well as others that have been reported.

Nonpartisanship--Stateside

I think all Americans (or at least a majority) had hoped that this economic crisis would yield two positives: less partisan bickering and more collective action in Washington, DC. Well hope springs eternal but we haven't seen much of that kind of thinking yet. However the nation's governors see things differently. A balanced budget mandate and being closer to their constituents have "stimulated" them to work across party lines to try to find constructive solutions to the economic crisis that knows no party affiliation. I applaud them for this kind of pragmatism and only wish the sentiment would reach Congress. 

While healthy debate and thoughtful deliberation are good for our democracy, lack of engagement and compromise on both sides of the aisle are not. It is time for a change of tone and procedure. The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority leader need to lead the way to a new way of doing business--focused on compromise, information, and engaging all sides in the conversation. If after that there is still partisan infighting then let the voters decide the kind of leadership they want representing them.