So you’ve got a problem. Or your community has a problem, and despite yourself you’ve found yourself on a committee to do something about it. What do you do? Gather the usual suspects, pour some weak coffee and bring in a dozen donuts for a brainstorming session. “What do you want to do?” “I don’t […]
Know Thyself and Your Community
“Know Thyself” urges the inscription on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, repeated throughout the Platonic dialogues of ancient Greece. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes opens Leviathan by urging his readers nosce te ipsum—only by study can we understand our world. In building community, no matter if you choose a traditional dichotomy between Action and Planning, or adopt a cumulative and […]
Implementation is the Watchword
Most people have a hard-wired bias for action — they may place more or less value on collaboration, or risk-taking, but they want to get things done. Others of us are more concerned with taking our time to understand what were doing, to get the Right things done.* This does not have to be an either-or choice. […]
Planetizen Benchmarks How Tech Savy Your City Planners Might Be
Remember when the Internet was going to make our lives easier? Everything was going to be available anytime, anywhere. Sometimes it feels like the web has just made everything more difficult, more complicated. Yet sometimes, when we look up from our iPhones for a minute, some folks are trying to make the business of civic […]
Small Victories: A Public Participation Save in South Cheyenne
“You can’t save everybody / Everybody don’t want to be saved” –Kieran Kane Everybody agreed the unincorporated community needed attention. The County Comprehensive Plan had highlighted concerns with increasing density in the area just outside city limits. The City Comp Plan had acknowledged the community’s vision as “an attractive, semi-rural neighborhood”. The State Rural Development […]
Diary of Orrin Brown—Jan 31, 1865
Diary of Orrin Brown, Sister’s Landing, Georgia Tuesday–Jan. 31st We had another cool night but it came of warm and nice through the day. We had company drill this AM and about 11 AM I was detailed with 17 others of the company to go down to the river and unload a steamer, it was […]
Robert E. Lee and Confederate Confiscation of Private Arms—Jan 25, 1865
On this date in 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee issued a reminder to his citizens that all private arms were to be delivered to the CSA Army for immediate use. This item seems so extraordinary as to deserve a separate entry from our series on the Diary of Pvt. Orrin Brown. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF […]
Railroads Rebuked for Failing Freight Service
It used to be that at the very least you could count on the trains running on time. Not anymore. The Red River Farm Network out of Grand Forks, ND, has great coverage of agricultural issues across the northern Great Plains of Minnesota, the Dakotas and somewhat into Montana. In this week’s news digest, they […]
What Makes a Great Planner?
The Planning Institute of Australia—counterpart to our American Planning Association—is asking its members a simple question: What Makes a Great Planner? Kristy Kelly, PIA’s CEO, shared their inquiry on the LinkedIn APA discussion group recently. As I’ve worked through my job search, I’ve asked myself the same question, and also how I might apply the […]
The Best of the New? Or the Worst of Both Worlds? A Walk in a Hybrid Power Center
New Urbanism and neotraditional planning offers to bring the best of traditional town planning to new development. I generally like the idea, in large part because the “new” that I’ve lived out in the suburban sprawl hasn’t stood up well. Yet living in smaller communities that haven’t tried the idea, I can’t say how well […]