Social, political, and environmental phenomena drive the emergence of infectious disease, but we talk about magic bullets.

An ounce of prevention? Maybe next time. America is far too dipshittian for this, at least at the present time.

It’s Time to Tell a New Story About Coronavirus — Our Lives Depend on It, by Sonia Shah (The Nation)

The way we talk about contagion matters. It shapes how societies respond—and whether many of us will survive ...

 ... It’s time for a new story, one that more accurately captures the reality of how contagions unfold and why. In this story, pandemics would be cast as both a biological reality and a social phenomenon shaped by human agency. And the coronavirus, if cast as any kind of monster at all, would be a Frankenstein’s monster: a creature of our own making. We, after all, created the world in which SARS-Cov-2 evolved, one in which our industry has swallowed up so much of the planet that microbes from wild animals easily slip into livestock and humans. We created the society of overcrowded prisons and nursing homes staffed by underpaid employees who must work in multiple facilities to make ends meet; in which employers force their workers to labor on meatpacking lines even if they’re sick; in which asylum seekers are crammed into detention centers; and in which people living in hard-hit cities like Detroit lack access to clean water with which to wash their hands.

A narrative that elevates these realities would compel us to consider a much wider range of policy responses to counter the threat of pandemics. Instead of blaming outsiders and waiting for magic bullet cures, we could work to enhance our resilience and reduce the probability of pathogens reaching us in the first place. Instead of reflexively demanding that killing chemicals be slathered across the landscape to destroy mosquitoes infected by the West Nile virus and ticks infected with Lyme disease bacteria, we could restore the lost biodiversity that once prevented their spread. We could protect the forests where bats roost, so that Ebola, SARS, and other viruses stay in them and don’t find their way into human populations.

A new story would allow us to see contagion as more than a purely biomedical phenomenon to be managed by biomedical experts and, instead, as the dynamic social phenomena they are. It would necessitate new alliances among public health advocates and environmentalists, between doctors, epidemiologists, wildlife biologists, anthropologists, economists, geographers, and veterinarians. It would shift the meaning of human health itself. Instead of thinking of good health as the absence of pathogenic contamination, we would understand it as a complex latticework linking the health of our livestock, wildlife, and ecosystems to the health of our communities.

When pathogens emerge, we could scrutinize our social and economic relations to find ways to reduce transmission opportunities as attentively as we screen pharmaceutical compounds to create new pills and potions. When we encounter respiratory pathogens that spread silently in crowded places, we could empower our workers with hazard pay, sick leave, and fair wages. When faced with viruses ferried around by mosquitoes, we could work to improve drainage and housing so that people aren’t regularly exposed to their bloodthirsty bites. Rather than prop up a drug industry that profits from our sickness, we could work to prevent the conditions that lead to contagions.

Progress toward this new paradigm has already begun, thanks to a new approach called One Health, which considers human health in the context of the health of wildlife, livestock, and ecosystems. As a theoretical approach, One Health has been endorsed by the WHO along with a wide range of high-level agencies in public health and veterinary medicine. It’s been operationalized, on a more limited basis, as well. After a 2005 outbreak of avian influenza, USAID used it to launch the Predict program, which sought to identify viruses that could slip from animals into humans. The New York City–based EcoHealth Alliance used a One Health approach to discover a reservoir of SARS virus in bats, opening up new ways to understand the coronaviruses that afflict humans. And in the Netherlands, it’s been used to tackle the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in people, by addressing the use of antibiotics in livestock.

These still-nascent efforts could go much further to address the social, political, and environmental phenomena that drive the emergence of infectious disease, but they are already under attack ...

Dear Peter: "10 Tasks for Cities Responding to the Pandemic."

The mayor's most recent video reminded me of that Downfall flick.

Meanwhile, Chuck has more good advice that doesn't stand a chance in New Gahania.

10 Tasks for Cities Responding to the Pandemic, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

... Last week we published Nine Things Local Government Needs to Do Right Now in Response to the Pandemic, a guide for the first sixty days. Following that initial phase, local leaders must continue the mental shift they started by recognizing that:

1. Recovery will not mean restoration. 
2. You must work towards community self-sufficiency, fully knowing you won’t get all the way there. 
3. There is a tradeoff between growth and stability. 

Can you imagine anyone -- ANYONE -- amid the Team Gahan cadres capable of thinking along these lines?

Preparing for Recovery

With the community stabilized, it’s now time to shift to preparing for a recovery. Here is a list of ten things to work on once you're ready:

1. Waive Home Occupation Restrictions. 
2. Legalize Neighborhood Essential Services.
3. Kickstart Entrepreneurs. 
4. Legalize Housing Adaptations. 
5. Make Quick and Lean Investments in Walking and Biking. 
6. End Parking Requirements. 
7. Start Growing Food. 
8. Thicken Civic Infrastructure. 
9. Begin Reorienting Bureaucracies. 
10. Change How You Measure Success.

Here's the portion we're most in danger of botching, because Gahan's first instinct will be to ask HWC to "study" how we might use this assistance, thus revving up the same old pay-to-play bull feces.

State and Federal “Assistance”

It is likely that local governments will be offered some form of recovery assistance from the state and/or federal governments. In advance of these funds being offered, be proactive in having a discussion about how to respond ...

 ... Infrastructure spending is popular for state and federal officials because it creates immediate jobs and the potential for long-term growth. For local governments, new infrastructure has some of those same benefits, but also the additional long-term liability of now having to service and maintain that infrastructure. Over time, these hasty transactions rarely work out well for local communities, most of which are already burdened by years of deferred maintenance.

If you are asked or have a chance to influence deliberations, tell your state and federal officials that cities would benefit more from cash assistance than aid channeled through a narrow infrastructure funnel. Local government officials are more influential than they may think, so know that your recommendation could be impactful.

If the only form of assistance provided to local government ends up being an infrastructure appropriation, take steps to focus those funds. You want to select projects with the most upside benefit and the least additional long-term commitment. When considering projects:

• Prioritize maintenance over new capacity. 
• Prioritize below-ground infrastructure over above-ground. 
• Prioritize neighborhoods that are more than 75 years old. 

When making infrastructure investments, the more you can let a neighborhood assessment of urgent needs guide your priorities, the more effective your efforts will be. Ground yourself in your people and places. The less time you spend chasing the shiny object or projecting theoretical new growth opportunities, the more likely your investments will help the community prosper.

TRAVEL: An alternative "hotlist" of ethical and sustainable travel destinations.

Portugal (from the article).

A view of Lake Bled in Slovenia leads this article at The Guardian: "Our pick of 20 places to visit in 2020 celebrates inspiring conservation and community projects that are making a difference to people and the planet."

It's nice to know that for once, we were ever so slightly ahead of the curve when selecting destinations. Speaking personally, just about every place mentioned in this excellent read intrigues me. I've been to several of the choices in Europe, including Copenhagen, Vienna, Rotterdam, Finland, Romania and Portugal.

As always, the only problem is financing the journeys. Here's the link:

Where to go on holiday in 2020: the alternative hotlist (various writers)

Attention, candidates: Grassroots economic development by working closely with local entrepreneurs to learn how the city can help foster their ideas.

Utilizing assets like The Root.

Tonight Develop New Albany holds its annual Be Local Expo, a once yearly promotion of independent small businesses. Of course there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this approach, although it falls well short of the everyday engagement required to build and nurture the independent small business community. An "expo" is a showy thing, and the incumbents can glad-hand in a convivial setting.

But there could be so much more.

ON THE AVENUES: Prom planning's nice and all, but New Albany still needs an autonomous independent business alliance.

As long as our City Hall team prioritizes its own absolute iron-fisted political control, and refuses to consider small, sustainable efforts to support the expansion of entrepreneurial endeavors -- "creating avenues to wealth creation at all levels of society," as opposed to maximizing Gahanite campaign finance -- we'll continue to endure the pre-eminence of the prom planning committee, with predictably self-serving and tepid results.

The following podcast link offers a different scenario. Imagine if New Albany possessed fewer paid event coordinators and prom planners, and instead emphasized an "Ecosystem Builder" as described therein?

Isn't our best alternative to the subsidized-from-above River Ridge employment model to contrast and complement it with a grassroots approach like this?

Economic development is far more than squeezing a few extra dollars from the city's exhausted TIF lodes, showering outsiders with gifts underwritten by taxpayers, then waiting for incoming campaign contributions to close the circle. That's not economic development. It's a personality cult.

Better to make the most out of ourselves, right here where we live, by circulating more money locally and encouraging the social network-driven aspect of entrepreneurial activities. Cooperation creates the ecosystem, and the ecosystem fosters cooperation -- and a boost for our sense of community.

Consider listening to the podcast and learning, especially if you're mounting a campaign for local office. Perhaps the chief reason to #FlushTheClique, #DrainTheGahanSwamp and depose a few tired Democratic office holders is to get some fresh air into this civic room.

Theirs isn't the only approach to advancing the local economy. It's just the one with maximum benefit to them.

---

Why One City Hired an "Ecosystem Builder" to Support Entrepreneurs, by Jacob Moses (Strong Towns)

Want to better your community but don’t know where to start? Enter It’s the Little Things: a weekly Strong Towns podcast that gives you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger.

It’s the Little Things features Strong Towns Community Builder Jacob Moses in conversation with various guests who have taken action in their own places and in their own ways.

For city officials desperate to create jobs, winning over a big corporation and convincing them to set up shop in your hometown may seem like the only option. Yet in the midst of this race to the bottom, city leaders often overlook the lower-hanging fruit right in their backyard: local entrepreneurs.

And when we say “local entrepreneurs,” we’re not just talking about the tech guy working on a new app alone in his basement or that one friend you have who left their 9-5 job to “go freelance.” Not all local entrepreneurship is so solitary, and it can take some surprising forms: the at-home baker who dreams of having her own storefront bakery downtown, the college student who wants to create a local startup. And they all have the potential to be job creators in your local economy.

Of course, a thriving startup community doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Support from city leaders is invaluable to help tap this potential.

That’s why in this episode, I chat with Skyler Yost, founding member of Strong Towns and Ecosystem Builder for the city of York, Pennsylvania (a pretty cool job title, I know). For the past two years, Skyler has worked closely with local entrepreneurs to learn how the city can help foster their ideas.

In this episode, you’ll learn how you can foster entrepreneurship in your community, including how to assess existing resources, how to create an ecosystem in which entrepreneurs are supporting one another, and most important, how fostering entrepreneurship makes your place stronger and more resilient.

"The city that gives you free beer for cycling" (spoiler alert: it ain't us).

Watch the video here.

The city that gives you free beer for cycling. (BBC)

This is how the Italian city of Bologna is getting people to leave their cars behind. Video by Amelia Martyn-Hemphill and Nicola Kelly.

An app records sustainable trips -- on foot, by bicycle or with public transportation. Users amass mobility points, redeemable for freebies from participating businesses.

Bella Mossa: Another Reason to Love Bologna, by Irene S. Levine (More Time to Travel)

Like most urban centers around the world, Bologna has its share of traffic congestion. One major initiative to address this problem was the designation of a pedestrian zone in the city’s historic center that strictly limits automobile traffic. (There are special provisions for tourists who need to get to hotels located within the zone.)

But traffic in most areas of Bologna, which fall outside the zone, still remained challenging, often exacerbated by the frequent strikes (scioperi) and political demonstrations that are typical in Italy.

Goals of Bella Mossa

My Facebook friend, Laura Bizzari (a language teacher in Bologna), recently posted a BBC video on Facebook about an innovative project in Bologna, called Bella Mossa, that aims to make a difference in health and quality of life.

The project is funded through European Commission’s Horizon 2020, an EU program to promote sustainable transport. Launched in April 2017, the project uses incentives to reduce vehicular traffic and CO2 emissions by encouraging people to walk, cycle or use public transportation ...

Marohn: "We earn the right to do big things by doing the little things well."

Languishing unrepaired since at least February.

Yeah, I know. Strong Towns again.

Required reading for the Reisz Five ... again.

Do any of them read?

Or do they just take orders?

LET'S DO THIS FIRST, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

There’s been a significant shift here in my hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota. People and organizations who have long promoted some of the more destructive development practices in our region are now turning their focus downtown. Their rhetoric is great. Their vision is fantastic. I’m excited about the momentum. The stars are aligning.

The main initiative is called River to Rail, a push to connect the Mississippi River to Strong Towns headquarters (and many other cool things) at the Northern Pacific Center. In between these two locations sits our core downtown, a place needing — and starting to receive — a little bit of love. It’s a great concept.

I want to see us do big things, and I think we can—if we pay attention to the little things first.

snip

I am sure that there will be people who read this and say, “Love your ideas, Chuck. Let’s do both.”

I’m with you. Let’s do both, but let’s first do the things we can do now.

It’s doing the little things first that gives you the credibility to do the big things later. It’s taking small steps now that demonstrates competence to take larger steps in the future. It’s doing the obvious thing sitting right in front of your face that gives you the clarity of vision to fully comprehend that more distant challenge.

We earn the right to do big things by doing the little things well.

Trash Force's Earth Day Celebration is Sat., April 28, at the Farmers Market.

This one's coming up in just two weeks.

"Living a healthy and sustainable life today requires knowledge. Small changes in your everyday life can make a huge impact. We at Trash Force and the New Albany Farmer's Market want to provide a forum on April 28 for the public to ask questions to learn about recycling, climate change, and preserving our air, water, and soil. We will have a kid's table too. Food, music, and A Plus Paper Shredding will be on hand to shred your sensitive documents from 9am to 11am."

Learn more at the Trash Force event page.

Green infrastructure? Light imprint? Low asphalt? Tell it to Summit Springs, pal.

As for green, the only relevance it has to New Gahania in Year Six is the color of money.

Great idea: Light Imprint for walkable green infrastructure, by Robert Steuteville (Public Square: A CNU Journal)

A leaner, lighter approach to infrastucture is more cost-effective, sustainable, and livable—an idea worth considering for America in National Infrastructure Week.

In the public realm, the greenery to impervious pavement ratio—and how that relates to urban context—has an impact on quality of life and experience. Conventional suburban design tends toward heavy use of asphalt, with wide roads lined by parking lots, in relatively low-density areas. This engineering approach requires large and expensive stormwater mitigation. New urbanists have countered with techniques that lay far lighter on the land, an approach that could be called "Light Imprint," "lean," or simply "green infrastructure." This light approach to engineering the land, combined with good urban design, makes for appealing streets and public spaces while providing effective rainwater management ...

 ... Public Square editor Robert Steuteville interviewed architect and planner Tom Low, founder of Civic By Design and author of the influential Light Imprint Handbook, and Paul Crabtree of the Crabtree Group, a specialist in civil engineering for urban places, on the the subject of Light Imprint and green infrastructure.

"Instead of growth at all costs, a new economic model allows us to thrive while saving the planet."

We've "been there," and only recently.

What do you know? Chance the gardener was right, after all.

Now, to continue the doughnut riff:

Finally, a breakthrough alternative to growth economics – the doughnut, by George Monbiot (The Guardian)

So what are we going to do about it? This is the only question worth asking. But the answers appear elusive. Faced with a multifaceted crisis – the capture of governments by billionaires and their lobbyists, extreme inequality, the rise of demagogues, above all the collapse of the living world – those to whom we look for leadership appear stunned, voiceless, clueless. Even if they had the right courage to act, they have no idea what to do.

The most they tend to offer is more economic growth: the fairy dust supposed to make all the bad stuff disappear. Never mind that it drives ecological destruction; that it has failed to relieve structural unemployment or soaring inequality; that, in some recent years, almost all the increment in incomes has been harvested by the top 1%. As values, principles and moral purpose are lost, the promise of growth is all that’s left ...

When it comes to what makes a good Main Street work, what is New Albany's grade?

Botched, but still might help. 

It's "Main Street" in the sense of downtown, and I think maybe a C, up from F just a few years ago. Give it another year or two, and maybe we'll make it to B.

But no grading on the curve. Something actually must be accomplished to graduate, Jeff.

What Makes a Good Main Street Work? (Planetizen)

What Makes a Good Main Street Work? Kaid Benfield uses Corning, New York, to illustrate five key elements.

"While some Main Streets seem well past their prime, others – like Corning, New York – remain thriving to this day. Why? A lot of it has to do with the towns and cities in which they are located, of course; it’s hard to have a well-functioning Main Street in a down-and-out community. But there are also elements of design and context that matter. What are they? The answers matter to sustainability, because traditional Main Streets tend to have central locations and good walkability, both of which reduce carbon and other emissions associated with driving; over time, they also recycle land, buildings and infrastructure."

Benfield muses on some essential elements for thriving Main Streets:

• A superior pedestrian experience
• Density, but at human scale
• Viable local businesses
• Nature
• Nearby residences

"What we have to address now is making livable, healthy, safe, and sustainable cities," (Jan) Gehl says.

Photo credit. 

Go to the article for the details. As always, the point isn't so much that New Albany should embrace outright such ideas from the realm of larger cities. Rather, it's that until we begin thinking these thoughts, we'll be unable to borrow from these ideas and adapt them to make a great, smaller city.

5 Rules For Designing Great Cities, From Denmark's Star Urbanist, by Diana Budds (Fast Company)

Danish architect and urbanist Jan Gehl has spent decades making sure cities work for people, not the other way around. Here's how.

... "What we have to address now is making livable, healthy, safe, and sustainable cities," Gehl says. It's a topic he's written about in his books Cities for People and Life Between Buildings, and spoken about in The Human Scale, a documentary about his life's work. His research and theories have inspired a generation of planners and urbanists who are intent on reclaiming cities for people. On the heels of a recent lecture he gave at the Van Alen Institute in New York, we asked him about the most pressing urbanism problems of today and what he thinks the path forward should be.

1. STOP BUILDING "ARCHITECTURE FOR CHEAP GASOLINE."
2. MAKE PUBLIC LIFE THE DRIVER FOR URBAN DESIGN.
3. DESIGN FOR MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCES.
4. MAKE TRANSPORTATION MORE EQUITABLE.
5. BAN CARS.

"How Europe’s industrial cities bounced back from the brink of ruin."

Reusing what's already there, re-skilling people ... recycle, remake and regrow ... but nowhere is it explained how TIF-driven campaign financing makes it all possible.

How Europe’s industrial cities bounced back from the brink of ruin, by Anne Power (The Conversation)

From Sheffield to Torino, Lille to Leipzig, Belfast to Bilbao, Europe’s industrial cities are no strangers to hard times. Faced with depleted resources, plummeting populations and urban degradation, these cities struggled to round a corner. But somehow, around the turn of the century they recovered and began to flourish. The 2008 bank crash and the eurozone crisis dented their progress, but couldn’t stall it completely.

I have spent the last 20 years seeking to understand how the cities of Europe’s industrial heartlands backed away from the brink of ruin and recaptured their former glory. I discovered a strong common thread of industrial collapse, reinvestment and pulling through in spite of austerity ...

 ... All these cities rely heavily on small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which survived the industrial crisis. This model of small-scale survival and reinvention has served the “weak market cities” well. Their populations have slowly recovered, jobs have returned and they have found new ways of making and doing which reuses what is already there – starting with their civic infrastructure, and spreading to poorer neighbourhoods. They are re-skilling their people, as well as restoring their homes.

Along the way, the shrinkage in global resources, the urgency of climate change, the potential of green energy illustrates the need for the circular economy – where we only take out what can be restored. Europe’s former industrial cities are developing new ways to recycle, remake and regrow, as well as pioneering renewable technologies. For the world’s smallest continent, these cities are the future.

Let go of Adam's teat and read about ways to make cities sustainable.

But campaign finance monetization.

To Make Cities More Sustainable, Let Go of Tradition, by Richard Florida (City Lab)

“Things aren’t right in America today”: In his important new book on social innovation, Gabriel Metcalf—executive director of the urban policy think tank SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association) and a CityLab contributor—opens with this all-too-familiar sentiment. Rising inequality, deepening segregation, and increasingly unaffordable housing are just a few of the many problems currently plaguing the U.S. These issues are no more evident than in America’s dense, large urban communities, which boast some of the greatest technology and innovation in the world, but also some of the harshest economic and class divides.

To make things right, Metcalf argues in Democratic by Design: How Carsharing, Co-ops, and Community Land Trusts Are Reinventing America, we need to make more and better use of alternative institutions like cooperatives and community land trusts to help build more sustainable, socially responsible, and prosperous communities.

"If globalization is the hallmark of today’s mainstream economy, relocalization is the hallmark of the alternative."

Photo credit: Community Matters

"The plan to build better, more connected, flourishing communities is here—and it won’t require putting a Starbucks on every block."

It's funny the authors should mention Starbucks, seeing as I'd just mentioned the coffee giant on social media.

Rather than becoming aesthetically outraged by the cookie cutter chains (Starbucks hates Jesus, Chick-fil-A is anti-gay) why not ignore the distractions and come to the point: They're bad for your community economically. Follow the money, not the matador's cape. Independent local businesses are better for the local economy. More money stays here and recirculates. When you shift spending to the local economy, you're making a genuine difference. To repeat: Follow the money ... and death to chains. Enjoy your Monday.

A good discussion followed, which did not neglect oft-noted expressions of dissent, with varying degrees of relevance: "But I like chains," and "big companies create jobs and give back, too," and "localism is the new mercantilism."

Subsequently, Jeff G helpfully pointed to the following article, which outlines the parameters of a localist's alternative. It's what I was saying throughout the mayoral campaign, albeit nowhere near as clearly as stated here. It's what we've discussed for years in the context of organizations like AMIBA and writers such as Michael Shuman.

Excerpts are provided below, but PLEASE CLICK THROUGH AND READ THE ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY, especially if you're an independent local business owner. Nothing can be done to change the fact that we've just now re-elected a cadre of politicians and functionaries willfully ignorant of these principles, but even they cannot impede our progress at a grassroots level if -- it's a big "if" -- we decide to unify, organize and bypass them.

I've underlined a few key passages.

7 Paths to Development That Bring Neighborhoods Wealth, Not Gentrification, by Marjorie Kelly and Sarah McKinley (Yes Magazine)

In cities across the nation, a few enjoy rising affluence while many struggle to get by.

An August 2015 study by The Century Foundation reported that—after a dramatic decline in concentrated poverty between 1990 and 2000—poverty has since reconcentrated. Nationwide, the number of people living in high-poverty ghettos and slums has nearly doubled since 2000. This situation is created in part by the practices of traditional economic development, which prioritize corporate subsidy after corporate subsidy over the needs of the local economy. Current trends threaten to worsen, unless we can answer the design challenge before us.

Can we create an economic system—beginning at the local level—that builds the wealth and prosperity of everyone?

Economic development professionals and mayors are working in partnership with foundations, anchor institutions, unions, community organizations, progressive business networks, workers, and community residents. What’s emerging is a systems approach to creating an inclusive, sustainable economy where all can thrive. The work is place-based, fed by the power of anchor institutions, and built on locally rooted and broadly held ownership. It’s about building community wealth across the United States—in more places than most would imagine, a new kind of economy is beginning to appear. It’s an economy that, because of its fundamental design, tends naturally to create inclusion and prosperity for many, not simply for the few.

1. Place
2. Ownership
3. Multipliers
4. Collaboration
5. Inclusion
6. Workforce
7. System

The seven drivers of community wealth building work together. Starting with a devotion to a place, this approach builds on local assets of many kinds. At the heart of it all is an inclusive focus on the needs of low-income families, people of color, and those with barriers to employment. The end goal is a new system that helps broadly held community wealth to flourish.

"Ten Ways to Democratize the Economy," apart from the parties.

I won't be long-winded about this, as the article is lengthy and thought-provoking.

The fundamental difference between me and either Jeff Gahan or Kevin Zurschmiede is that as mayor, I'd be doing whatever I could to support democratization initiatives like the ones explained here.

In fact, I'd challenge the community to embrace these, and to do more. I sincerely believe that insofar as posterity cares about Gahan's term, it will focus on the perpetual pander: "Relax, and let me spend more of your money. You needn't do or believe anything. Just trust me."

This offends me, and it should offend you. Corporate welfare of the sort practiced by both major political parties has nothing to do with grassroots sustainability and democratization.

You have to push from the ground up. If I'm mayor, I'll listen and try to help.

What Then Can I Do? Ten Ways to Democratize the Economy, by Gar Alperovitz and Keane Bhatt

The richest 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 180 million taken together. The political system is in deadlock. Social and economic pain continue to grow. Environmental devastation and global warming present growing challenges. Is there any path toward a more democratic, equal and ecologically sustainable society? What can one person do?

In fact, there is a great deal one person working with others can do. Experiments across the country already focus on concrete actions that point toward a larger vision of long-term systemic change – especially the development of alternative economic institutions. Practical problem-solving activities on Main Streets across the country have begun to lay down the elements and principles of what might one day become the direction of a new system – one centered around building egalitarian wealth, nurturing democracy and community life, avoiding climate catastrophe and fostering liberty through greater economic security and free time.

Margaret Mead famously observed: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Some of the ten steps described below may be too big for one person to take on in isolation, but many are exactly the right size for a small and thoughtful group committed to building a new economy, restoring democracy and displacing corporate power.

As the history of the civil rights movement, women’s movement, and gay-liberation movement ought to remind us, it’s precisely actions of this sort at the local level that have triggered the seismic shifts of progressive change in American history.

"If you (literally) disintegrate a society’s physical setting, as sprawl has done, you tend to disintegrate its culture as well."

Who are the local conservatives and Republicans who'd like to join the dialogue about these purple topics?

I can think of plenty of them in leadership positions who can't and won't, and yet many of us on the shop floor agree as to broad concepts during social media chats.

Where are you? Let's have a beer. Forget the parties, because there are coalitions waiting to be built.

Painting the Town Purple, by Jeff Turrentine (On Earth)

... Which is why it’s always satisfying when left and right amicably agree to come together over a sustainability issue that was previously thought of as the province of “the environmental movement” (whatever that term has come to mean). Not long ago, I came across a remarkable quote: a one-sentence condemnation of urban sprawl that astutely links its ethos of physical decentralization to the breakdown of certain civic ideals, like community and neighborliness, that we hold dear.

If you (literally) disintegrate a society’s physical setting, as sprawl has done, you tend to disintegrate its culture as well.

True enough, I thought—and well put, at that. The sentence appeared in a white paper on sprawl’s social costs. That one of its three authors was Andrés Duany, the architect who coined the term “New Urbanism” to describe a set of urban-planning principles emphasizing density, centrality, walkability, and shared civic amenities, came as little surprise. But upon reading the names of Duany’s collaborators, I’ll confess that my first thought was that a politically minded copyeditor was playing a practical joke. Could it really be the case that helping Duany make his anti-sprawl, pro–smart growth argument were Paul M. Weyrich, cofounder of both the far-right Heritage Foundation and the Moral Majority, and William S. Lind, the conservative critic who has spent the last quarter-century since the collapse of the Soviet Union railing against an insidious “Marxist culture” that’s still hard at work corrupting America from within?

Your Saturday Radical 3: Bernie Sanders and progressive municipal policies.

Pragmatism, grassroots, collaboration and livability.

Who's the radical, again?

There's this ...

What Kind of Mayor Was Bernie Sanders?, by Peter Dreier and Pierre Clavel (The Nation)

... Thanks to the enduring influence of the progressive climate that Sanders and his allies helped to create in Burlington, the city’s largest housing development is now resident-owned, its largest supermarket is a consumer-owned cooperative, one of its largest private employers is worker-owned, and most of its people-oriented waterfront is publicly owned. Its publicly owned utility, the Burlington Electric Department, recently announced that Burlington is the first American city of any decent size to run entirely on renewable electricity.

And this ...

Most of Burlington’s business leaders initially distrusted Sanders. They didn’t know what a socialist would do once he held the reins of power. But even many of Sanders’s early opponents came to respect and even admire his willingness to listen to their views and his efforts to adopt progressive municipal policies.

Also this ...

Under Sanders, Burlington became a magnet for attracting and incubating locally owned businesses, many of which expanded into large enterprises. Burton, the nation’s largest snowboard company, has its headquarters (as well as a snowboard museum) in Burlington. The city assisted Seventh Generation, a green cleaning-products firm, when it started in 1988. Today, with its downtown waterfront headquarters in a LEED-certified building and over $300 million in annual sales, it is one of Burlington’s largest employers. With the city’s help, Gardeners Supply Company, which sells environmentally friendly gardening products, moved to Burlington in 1983. Four years later, its founder, Will Raap, began the process of selling the firm to its workers. It now has over 250 employee-owners.

What they're saying: It's an election finale, and a look ahead.

As the weeks have passed in route to May's primary election, for which voting already is underway and will conclude on May 5 with what is still quaintly known as Election Day, I've referenced periodic public candidate statements of substance, generally unretouched, as lifted from social media and news reports. 

Again: Public. 

Not what was transmitted on the sly during a brief chat in a smoke-filled back room, but what has been transparent and in the open. Familiar gems such as "yard signs win elections, not people" and "donate to my campaign first, and maybe I'll have something of merit to say much, much later" have been omitted. 

That's because my aim has been to determine whether any at all of our declared candidates have had anything at all to say, and I've quoted all candidates, from any and all parties, whether or not they're involved in a contested race.

Happily, most have had something of value to offer. 

---

The primary campaign didn't end with a bang, and there were no April Surprises. Perhaps this can be attributed to the changed dynamics of a weeks-long voting cycle.

As the actual (and perhaps increasingly outmoded?) "election day" has approached, discussion seems to have turned markedly toward the school corporation's referendum and the Democratic mayor's race.

In taking a final look at city council contestants on social media, we'll begin with Al Knable, Republican for city council at-large, who has campaigned vigorously despite being assured of the nod to compete in November. In a Facebook post, Knable offered this positive thought:

I'm especially pleased with the bipartisan nature of the communication taking place.

We are one community. If you share my goal of a cleaner, happier more competitive New Albany, we must move forward together!

I look forward to meeting with as many New Albanians between now and the November election as possible. I will continue to work each day toward that end.

On the Democratic side in the at-large race, two-term incumbent John Gonder recently linked to a blog entry in which he discussed sustainability.

Infrastructure of Sustainability

This article from earlier in the month appeared in the Courier-Journal. The article on the drought in California is relevant to us, here in New Albany, for a number of reasons: 1. evidence of climate change 2. noteworthy during the week of earth Day 3. validates the logic and exigencies of localism, independent businesses and sustainable communities.

Gonder's fellow Democratic at-large council aspirant, Hannegan Roseberry, was featured in a WDRB piece with Nick Vaughn ... her student, who seeks the Republican nomination in the 6th district: New Albany teen runs for city council. Also in the 6th district, Noah McCourt had a few things to say about spending.

In closing, the News and Tribune Voters Guide can be viewed here. Early Tuesday evening, much of the November ballot will be finalized. The GOP might insert a candidate into its vacant 1st district council slot. Incumbent 6th district councilman Scott Blair will file his petition to seek re-election as an independent, and, of course, I'll be completing my own petition and running for mayor, also as an independent.

Since October of 2004, this NA Confidential blog has changed and evolved, but always proceeded forward in a somewhat predictable pattern. Throughout this period, I've never once run for mayor. Consequently, it is unclear to me whether the blog will be affected by my campaign. We'll just have to wait and see.

As always, thanks for reading.

Greater New Albany: "Pillsbury closing a symptom of failed economic development."

More comments can be found here. To paraphrase the axiom, if we don't learn from Pillsbury's departure, we're sure to repeat it. A prime point of discussion in New Albany during the year 2015 must be a reconsideration of the very nature of our "economic development" efforts. 

---

PILLSBURY CLOSING A SYMPTOM OF FAILED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

NEW ALBANY, Ind. – The anticipated closure of General Mills’s Pillsbury manufacturing plant in New Albany exposes weaknesses in the city’s economic development program according to a newly-formed social welfare group called Greater New Albany.

New Albany city government has, according to public affairs director Randy Smith, rejected the advice of respected national organizations like the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR.org), which endorses “local ownership [that] ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.”

“We were just as blindsided by the announced closing as anyone,” Smith said. “In our discussions, the plight of those workers and their families is our first concern and we hope General Mills and the state of Indiana can step up to soften the blow.”

It’s not known whether the city has the tools to reverse the decision or to mitigate the negative effects, but Greater New Albany sees this moment as a good time to reevaluate the city’s efforts to sustain the local economy.

“Everyone with a heart for the welfare of our citizens needs to educate themselves on what governments can and should do to create a sustainable business environment,” says Smith. “Sustainability through local ownership can help us avoid the worst effects of closures like the one at Pillsbury.”

Influencing city elections by means of voter education campaigns is a primary goal of Greater New Albany.

The organization is currently evaluating potential candidates in the 2015 New Albany city elections and intends to work for the election of those whose positions align with Greater New Albany’s objectives.

CONTACT: randysmith(at)outlook(dot)com

Public Art Project sustainability talk & walk on Elector Day, November 4.

Tuesday, November 4 has a lot going for it.

For one, there'll be $2.00 pints and $6.66 growler refills of Elector at both NABC locations. That's because it's also the day for an election, a word owing most of its rapidly diminishing local significance to $2.00 pints and $6.66 growler refills of Elector at both NABC locations.

And then there's the Carnegie Center's second “talk & walk” about sustainability with Claude Stephens of the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest.

But it gets EVEN BETTER. Both before and after the walk, you can enjoy $2.00 pints and $6.66 growler refills of Elector at Bank Street Brewhouse, providentially located RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the Carnegie Center.

The overview is below; go here for more.

We are happy to be working with Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest (www.bernheim.org) to present the Public Art Project theme of sustainability in 2015 and a series of related programs, including this one.

On Tuesday November 4, from 6:00-7:30 pm, beginning at the Carnegie Center, the public is invited to our second “talk & walk” about sustainability with Claude Stephens of Bernheim. Claude will lead an informal chat about sustainability and regenerative design with a focus on ecology. We will then take our conversation into downtown New Albany by dividing into groups to visit the sites for the 2015 public artworks near the Carnegie Center. Each group will consider their site from a sustainability perspective and then we will gather back at the Carnegie Center to share our observations. Come help us envision a future where we live in better agreement with nature as we explore a shift from sustainable to regenerative thinking. Claude Stephens is the Facilitator of Outreach and Regenerative Design at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. As an ecologist and educator Claude is excited about a future where ecology and economy work in partnership.