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Meet Them Where They Are — Make Their Job Easy
Earlier today I had the privilege of attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., where — along with our partners in the 10-Minute Walk Campaign, the Trust for Public Land — we had the opportunity to brief the Tourism, Art, Parks, Entertainment and Sports Committee on the 10-Minute Walk Efforts. It was great to hear an enthusiastic reaction to the campaign in real-time from local elected leaders and we expect to add to our tally of 150 mayors.
The conversations got me thinking about the recently released
Menino Survey of Mayors,
in which
mayors identified affordable housing and climate change as among their top challenges in 2017.
In a competitive marketplace for ideas and attention, what can we, or what must we do as an organization and as local leaders to stay front of mind to our elected leaders?
I think the keys are relevance and vigilance. The tendency of any leader or subject matter expert is to lead with our priorities and the programs or places that we're justly proud of.
Instead, perhaps we should sit back, listen and learn.
What are the issues that your mayor (or county executive or city manager) are struggling with? What do they spend their days and sleepless nights focusing on?
In many cases, we do have part of a solution. Homelessness vexing your leadership? Do like Portland, ME, or San Jose, CA and pilot a program that hires individuals experiencing homelessness to help maintain your parks and centers. Don't have a direct tie-in to that key vexing issue? Climate change got your elected officials down? Share your agency's resilience plan to redesign your waterfront as a protective park buffer. Rather than forcing a square peg in a round hole, fall back on the fact
that we've got kids and smiles all over town.
Bring your elected officials by for a little park and rec therapy
— give them a dose of sun and smiles. Then rinse and repeat, stay vigilant, keep out in front of the issues your city is facing and deliver solutions when we can. And where there's no park and rec solution, how 'bout those smiles — can't hurt during budget cycle, right?
Kevin O'Hara
Vice President of Urban and Government Affairs
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Featured
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In this week's episode of Open Space Radio, we're chatting about how the shift in how people are getting around cities is causing the use of parking lots to decline, and how that land can be used in other, more environmentally friendly ways. This transition into a "ride-sharing economy," coupled with a complete waste of urban space, provides a huge opportunity for increased land use for parks and recreation in dense urban areas. Converting these unused asphalt parking lots into parks, green
spaces or urban farms is a way that we can not only brighten our communities and cities, but our future as well. Many people view their favorite parks as their "paradise" — this could be our opportunity to reclaim that paradise.
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Applications are now open for
NRPA's award, scholarship and fellowship opportunities! Nothing feels better than knowing the work you do is award-winning (and it doesn't hurt that your community and the nation know it too). Unlike many awards programs, NRPA's awards have no application fee. With the great work and innovative ideas that come out of your agency, there's a good chance you could be coming up on stage in
Indianapolis this September
to receive your award!
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Trending Stories
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Parks & Recreation Magazine
This past year, many park and recreation agencies experienced some of the greatest challenges they've ever faced from natural disasters — hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, extreme heat waves, drought, hail, ice storms and more.
CityLab
A new report finds that federal disaster-mitigation grants produce an average of $6 in societal savings for every dollar spent.
American Society of Landscape Architects
As part of its Climate Ready Boston plan, the city of 670,000 aims to act fast and protect two coastal neighborhoods most vulnerable to rising sea levels and storms: East Boston and Charlestown.
Arbor Day Foundation
Exposure to trees and other greenery has been shown to stave off depression in adults, and a new U.S. study finds the same may be true for teenagers.
A wild desire to preserve one of Utah's most famous natural monuments almost destroyed it.
Metro
Guards protecting the soil around trees along New York City streets are important to helping cut back pollution from the sewer system, Columbia University researchers found.
Houston Business Journal
"I think Harvey was a great reminder that although the city's undergoing rapid development, it's important that we keep green space available to handle some of the climate concerns."
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The New York Times
Nearly 200 decoys will be paid to act as if they live on the street during the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate, the city's annual census of unsheltered homeless people, as a way gauging the count's accuracy.
Next City
In an effort to make its events more inclusive, MPRB is piloting a program called Sense Tents. The tents will provide a space at events where people with sensory processing disorders can go to either or soothe or stimulate their senses when they're overwhelmed.
CityLab
Many Americans would be appalled to think that caste might exist in the supposedly meritocratic U.S. But is the country's persistent, entrenched inequality really so different?
NPR Fresh Air
'Vox' drug policy reporter German Lopez details the scope of the opioid epidemic. There were nearly 64,000 lethal drug overdoses in 2016. "To put that in context, that's more than gun deaths. That's more than car crashes. It's more than HIV/AIDS during the peak of that epidemic," Lopez says. Also, WHYY criminal justice reporter Bobby Allyn talks about the safe injection site being considered in Philadelphia.
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Route Fifty
White House adviser DJ Gribbin also told mayors the plan would not propose cuts to existing, "formula" funding programs, like the Highway Trust Fund.
Urban Omnibus
For the final Housing Brass Tacks event of 2017, Mychal Johnson and Monxo López of South Bronx Unite and the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards outlined the benefits of land trusts and why and how they're implementing the model in their Bronx neighborhood.
Route Fifty
The debate over reinstating earmarking on Capitol Hill may come down to who's best at allocating federal funds: elected officials or bureaucrats.
New York Magazine
The most essential designed component of New York is not a skyscraper or a station, but the street.
Shepherd Express
Citizens will have only two opportunities to speak about proposed parking meters in parks.
Next City
A new exhibit at the ArtCenter/South Florida in Miami Beach imagines one potential future, with city streets dry at low-tide and flooded at high-tide, and examines how the city can use infrastructure and ecology to adapt.
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Route Fifty
Route Fifty launched this second biennial survey of civil servants in late 2017; with responses from across the nation, they were able to get the pulse on the management challenges state and local employees are facing.
The New York Times
Roundworm eggs, shed by stray dogs, can be ingested by
children playing outside. The worm's larvae have been found
in the brain, experts say, perhaps impairing development.
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EPA developed the National Stormwater Calculator (SWC) to help support local, state, and national stormwater management objectives and regulatory efforts to reduce runoff through infiltration and retention using green infrastructure practices as low impact development controls. It is designed to be used by anyone interested in reducing runoff from a property, including site developers, landscape architects, urban planners, and homeowners. It can be used for any location within the United States,
including Puerto Rico. This webinar will provide potential and example applications, and will present the new cost module and mobile web application version that can be used on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
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© 2018 National Recreation and Park Association, All Rights Reserved
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