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When you think about the parks in your city, you have probably noted that each one has its distinct flavor. There’s the park with the bike trails where you know you’ll bump into several of your neighbors on a Sunday morning. You distinguish between the parks with the baseball diamonds and those with the flower gardens. Basically, you come to know what to expect from your city parks. In San Diego, a creative game designer took on the challenge of transforming residents’ perceptions of a park, whether they were visitors or had lived there all their lives.

If a mark of a healthy organization is its capacity for allowing internal debate and dissent, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is quite healthy, at least judged by the recent 20th annual conference held in West Palm Beach, Fla.  New Urbanism has been, in the words of founder Andrés Duany, “the least unsuccessful” recent movement in community building, and therefore has some confidence and capacity to entertain dissent.  Nevertheless, even the greatest of skeptics would have been impressed by the range of topics featured in different sessions, and the range of speakers within given sessions.  One session was particularly notable for its central importance to the evolving nature of New Urbanist project and its interdisciplinary and intergenerational panel. Great skeptics might point out some glaring absences from that panel, but the lively discussion was evidence that New Urbanist leaders are deeply committed to a future of intelligent, collaborative city building.     

When you approach the polls this November to choose the members of Congress you’d like to see elected or re-elected, you will likely have put in some time prior to the election studying up on how your candidates compare to your views. It’s worth noting that there are now websites created just for that reason, such as VoteSmart.org’s “VoteEasy” platform. But it may not have crossed your mind that elected representatives and their political allies in the state legislatures will have pre-selected their voters by creating partisan electoral districts through the manipulation of maps.

Join a discussion with the Sustainable Practice Network's panel of experts and thought leaders on the impacts of Environmental, Social and Governance measures on society and the way we conduct business.

Recently, John Hamilton, the Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management, New Zealand, spoke about the Canterbury earthquakes at the National Board meeting of Neighbourhood Support. John was effusive in his praise for the “personal fortitude” of Cantabrians and the resilience of their communities. Their response has negated the myth of weak neighbourhood spirit prevalent in pre-quake discourse. The tragic impacts of the earthquakes have strengthened community engagement and communication.

Earlier this month the website challenge.gov went live to the public.  A forum for citizen engagement, Challenge hopes to turn the typical participatory paradigm on its head.  Bev Godwin, director of new media and citizen engagement at U.S. General Services Administration equates it to the next form of citizen engagement; going beyond participation to co-creation.