Recognition, The New Yorker
Texas has the reputation of being tough on crime and even harsher on those found guilty. For those who binged Netflix’s recent “Making a Murderer,” the tale of Tim Cole, an Army veteran who, because of incorrect eyewitness identification by the victim herself, was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1986 (and died while incarcerated), will make it seem like our criminal justice system is broken. Fortunately, there is a silver lining to this tragic story.
This Village of Tiny Houses Is Giving Seattle’s Homeless a Place to Live, Fast Co. Exist
With approximately 10,000 people living on the streets, it’s an understatement to say that there’s a homelessness crisis happening in Seattle. Since affordable and free housing for the homeless is a costly endeavor, the nonprofit Low Income Housing Institute needed to get creative. Their idea? Tiny houses that can house a small family, yet cost just $2,000 to construct.
A Coral Reef Revival, The Atlantic
Helping a century’s old coral reef come back to life certainly sounds like science fiction, but it’s exactly what David Vaughan, Ph.D., is doing off the coast of south Florida. He and his team of scientists are restoring reefs by producing thousands of new pieces of coral using microfragmentation — a new process that he developed by accident.
Tag: Texas
All It Takes Is Some Honey, Peanut Butter and Oats to Reduce Recidivism
As an inmate working in the kitchen at La Tuna, a low-security federal prison in Anthony, Texas, Seth Sundberg pulled a box of chicken out of the freezer with a label warning, “NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.” Unsure of what happened to the meat once the container left his hands, Sundberg never ate at the prison dining hall again and decided to come up with a healthy alternative to the cafeteria meals. Using honey, peanut butter and other items stocked in the commissary, he and a partner (who’s still incarcerated) made granola bars. Within a short time, Sundberg had a sales team working the prison yard. Technically contraband, the bars were “criminally delicious,” he says. He moved 3,000 in the first seven months.
Standing seven-feet-one-inch tall, the former professional basketball player who transitioned from playing in the NBA to working for a mortgage lending company, was sentenced in 2010 to seven years of hard time for swindling the IRS out of more than $5 million. Out of prison, Sundberg is now cobbling together his own business venture, Prison Bars. Adapted from his jailhouse recipe, the granola bars are produced by a team of four formerly incarcerated individuals. (To meet demand, they are transitioning from handmade to commercial production.) Sundberg has plans to sell the bars to Silicon Valley tech companies as snacks for employees and to San Francisco tourists at attractions like Alcatraz Island. Eventually, he wants to see them stocked at grocery stores nationwide and envisions hiring 100 formerly incarcerated individuals as account managers, easing their re-entry into society.
“You think everybody that’s in prison fits into three groups: those not intelligent enough to have avoided it, those not wealthy enough to have bought their way out of the system or paid a good attorney and those who are really bad people and deserve to be there,” he says. But after serving time, his opinions changed dramatically. “The degree of separation between someone behind bars and someone that’s not is much less than I ever thought. Once you start hearing those stories, you think, ‘Wow, that’s not too different than an avenue I could have gone down. Or one I have gone down but didn’t get in trouble for.’”
In lockup, Sundberg says he often felt “worthless.” The way the system is designed made him feel like “you screwed up so bad,” making it difficult to reclaim “anything left that you have to offer to anybody else,” he explains.
Once he’d been released, with a box of Prison Bars in his pocket, Sundberg looked for support from outside organizations. He enrolled in school full-time and worked at a laundromat on the weekends as he planned his next move. In the prison library, he’d read about Defy Ventures, a New York-based organization that helps people with criminal histories develop careers as entrepreneurs.
“They say that America is the land of second chances, but it’s really not. Once you have an X on your back, you almost have no opportunities,” Catherine Hoke, the nonprofit’s founder, tells Fast Company. “Of people who are rearrested in America, 89 percent of them are unemployed at the time of their arrest.” Hoke, a former venture capitalist, says a tour of Texas prisons made her realize that organized crime rings were often sophisticated operations, on par with corporations in their management, marketing and bookkeeping. She wondered, was there a way to put those skills to work in a legitimate enterprise? Or as Sundberg puts it, can you “transform your hustle?” Through a Craigslist ad, he signed up for Defy’s first class of entrepreneurs-in-training in the Bay Area.
Sundberg hopes the granola bars will appeal to both the health-conscious consumer (gluten-free, non-GMO bars are on the way) and those who want to do good. “If you can make a small change by eating a granola bar, helping provide jobs, a lot of people can get behind that,” he says. With individual profiles of their employees on packages or their website, Sundberg wants to put a face to the 2.2 million Americans in federal and state prison. By humanizing felons who have been locked up, he hopes his business demonstrates the power of second chances.
Sundberg knows he needs one himself. Now managing his own business, he’s going to do things right this time — in the eyes of both IRS auditors and his employees. Prison “just rips your soul out, and it’s a process to get it back. It’s something I’m still going through,” he says. “I spent the first two and a half years being upset at other people, at the system, all these outside things, before I fully realized I’m truly responsible for all this stuff. These were my issues and my decisions.” He spent a lot of time thinking about how to make amends, pondering what else he had to offer. “I screwed up and made a mistake,” he says. “But I’m not doing that again.”
Tomorrow’s Energy-Saving Neighborhood Is Being Built Today in Texas
America’s most futuristic neighborhood is being built, perhaps surprisingly, in Texas.
Under construction in Austin, the Lone Star State’s liberal enclave, is a residential development boasting rooftop solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations and meters to measure the electricity usage of every appliance. Known as the Mueller neighborhood, the community is “smart grid experiment” where the Pecan Street research consortium brought together experts from universities and utilities alike to provide real-world data for one of the most important ecological questions of our time: How can we reduce our energy and water consumption?
“There was virtually no data available on appliance-level electric use. We were trying to determine if testing certain things out, like electric cars or home energy-management systems would affect people compared to how they used electricity before they got access to this stuff,” says Brewster McCracker, Pecan Street’s president and CEO. “There was not only no data on that but nothing on the market that would measure that. We spent a long time working with suppliers and configuring things to measure appliance use every minute 365 days a year.”
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Energy usage by homeowners and businesses fluctuates wildly, accounting for 41 percent of all consumption. To be more environmentally friendly, McCracken says, we need to think about reducing our use during peak times, as well as what will use less total energy. That’s why Pecan Street’s live data is so important for measuring exactly what appliances are putting heavy demands on the system. Its analytics can tell you that an electric vehicle charger puts the same load on the grid as a clothes dryer — both far less than an air conditioner. Previously, no one tested the kind of impact that a dozen electric vehicles on one block, let alone an entire neighborhood.
Through a mobile app, the research team informs customers of specific ways to reduce energy like, say, unplugging the microwave. Those suggestions have led to a 10 percent reduction in electricity use, McCracken, a former two-term member of the Austin city council, says. Overall, the Mueller neighborhood uses 38 percent less electricity on heating and cooling than their less green neighbors.
The stats help plan better infrastructure for an entire region. Conventional wisdom, for instance, holds that south-facing solar panels will absorb the most sunlight. Which is true generally, McCracken says, but energy companies should know that west-facing photovoltaic panels will absorb more energy during late summer afternoons when need is greatest, his team found.
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Additionally, Pecan Street can detect when something seems amiss on an individual home. “We found that people who have solar panels have minor maintenance issues, but they didn’t have any way to learn about them,” McCracken says. “By having that data, we were able to isolate the solar panels that are turned off. Other things could be more subtle. A single fuse that’s blown could produce at a reduced level. We have the data analytics running to detect that. It’s not something that you could stare at a rooftop or look at the electricity bill to see that happened, but better data helps.”
The research institute’s data collection has been so unique that other energy companies throughout the country have invited it to study their neighborhoods. Pecan Street now gathers stats from more than 1,200 homes, primarily clustered in Texas, Colorado and California, and ships the data out to 138 universities in 37 countries.
“We have strong reason to believe that access to better data and better information enhances our ability to solve problems,” McCracken says. “If we have better data on weather patterns, we can help people be safe in storms. If we have better data on car performance, we can make cars that work better.” With a hotter planet, drought in the West and superstorms along the East Coast, this Texan neighborhood couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time.
7 States Making Bold Criminal Justice Reforms
No other sitting Commander in Chief, including Ronald Reagan, who took office in 1981 when prison populations spiked upward rapidly, or George W. Bush, the hang-’em-high leader who presided over 152 executions as Texas governor, had ever set foot inside a federal penitentiary. But last month, President Barack Obama stepped behind bars — hinting that he’s conscious of the legacy he’ll leave and is eyeing criminal justice reform as his next issue to tackle.
“When they describe their youth and their childhood, these are young people who made mistakes that aren’t that different than the mistakes I made,” Obama said after speaking to six nonviolent offenders at El Reno prison, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. “The difference is they did not have the kinds of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes.” He added, “It’s not normal. It’s not what happens in other countries. What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things. What is normal is young people making mistakes.”
As bipartisan momentum grows in Washington, D.C., reform efforts are also sweeping the nation, many led by conservative governors. Here’s the latest innovations to come out of our country’s statehouses:
TEXAS SHUTTERS PRISONS
Everything’s bigger in Texas, including its correctional facilities. That is, until recently. Starting in 2007, Gov. Rick Perry, Bush’s successor in a “tough on crime” state and now a Republican presidential candidate, led the conservative state in reining in the size of its prison populations. Texas focused on expanding treatment programs and diverting offenders through probation and parole. In 2011, three juvenile facilities were closed, halving the number of incarcerated youth in the state. Cuts continued in 2013, when legislators reduced the corrections budget by $97 million, a clear sign they intended to scale back the system’s capacity. Two prisons near Dallas mired in scandal and operated by Corrections Corporation of America, the country’s largest for-profit prison company, looked to be on the chopping block. When Sen. John Whitimire, the longest-serving legislator, called for the closure of the prisons built during his watch, the decision seemed final. Through the budget process, both were defunded.
UTAH REDEFINES A PRISON-WORTHY OFFENSE
Obama didn’t selected El Reno prison for his visit at random. He picked the institution because half of its inmates are behind bars for drug offenses — the same proportion for the country as a whole. Utah faced the same situation. While crime fell for two decades, the state’s prison population increased without bound: From 2004 to 2013, the number of inmates grew by 18 percent, six times faster than the national average. This March, Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, signed a comprehensive reform package (developed by a commission of state and local officials) that reclassified all first- and second-time drug possession violations as misdemeanors, instead of felonies. Along with creating new guidelines for parole violations and adding “re-entry specialists” to smooth the transition from prison, the Beehive State’s new law is expected to eliminate the 2,700 projected incarcerations and save the public $500 million over the next 20 years.
ALABAMA DOESN’T JAIL FOR PROBATION VIOLATIONS
Alabama has one of the nation’s highest incarceration rates, jailing more than 30,000 people in a system designed to hold only 12,000 prisoners — leading officials to call it a “time bomb waiting to explode.” Almost a quarter of newly admitted inmates were thrown into overcrowded cells because they violated the terms of their parole or probation. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, half of those cases were for “minor technical violations,” such as missed appointments, unpaid fines, moving to a new home without permission or losing a job, “that did not result in a new offense.” A law signed in 2010 by Gov. Robert Riley limited incarceration for those who committed an administrative error but didn’t break any laws. The alternatives saved the southern state an estimated $18 million.
INDIANA RETOOLS DRUG-FREE ZONE LAWS
The signs are so commonplace you might not notice them: “Drug-Free School Zones.” In fine print, they’ll inform you that selling drugs within 1,000 feet of school property, a public park, a housing project or a youth center in Indiana is a Class A felony, automatically upping the recommended sentence to 20 to 50 years in prison. The creation of these areas were one of the government’s first salvos in the War on Drugs, passed by Congress in 1970, more than a decade before Ronald Reagan escalated the battle. Indiana’s reform began in 2007 in an unlikely way: bills in each chamber of the legislature initially set out to expand the drug-free zone to include bus stops and churches. Kelsey Kauffman, a professor at DePauw University, tasked her students with evaluating the law’s effectiveness. Over an eight-year campaign, they presented their findings — that more than 75 percent of the defendants affected by the zones were black — to multiple Senate committees. By 2013, new legislation cut the zones in half, limiting them to a 500-foot radius. A bill last year sought to scale them back even further to 250 feet, but political maneuvering killed the attempt.
NEBRASKA OVERTURNS DEATH PENALTY
Smack in the middle of America’s heartland, the Cornhusker State became the first conservative state in four decades to repeal capital punishment this May. Nebraska’s nonpartisan, unicameral legislature defied Gov. Pete Ricketts, a fierce advocate for the death penalty, with a 30-to-19 vote, just barely enough to overturn a veto. Liberals and conservatives alike believed the death penalty was inefficient, costly and immoral. “Today we are doing something that transcends me, that transcends this Legislature, that transcends this state,” Sen. Ernie Chambers, an independent from Omaha, said before the vote. “We are talking about human dignity.” Along with Washington, D.C., Nebraska joined 17 other states in banning capital punishment.
MISSOURI REPEALS SELECT BAN ON FOOD STAMPS
The federal welfare overhaul in 1996, passed by Rep. Newt Gingrich’s Republican stronghold in Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, revoked the ability of felons convicted of drug offenses to receive welfare benefits. The lifetime disqualification from food stamps seemed so vengeful and contrary to public safety that 19 states have chosen to opt out of the provision entirely and 24 states created exceptions, according to a tally by The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stateline blog. Barring someone from benefits “increases the odds they will commit new crimes by virtue of the fact that you’re creating a significant financial obstacle,” says Marc Mauer, the executive director of The Sentencing Project. A grassroots push, particularly by religious leaders in St. Louis and Kansas City, united lawmakers in values-based support and won the governor’s signature.
GEORGIA WIPES THE SLATE CLEAN
Once a person’s made contact with the criminal justice system, it’s hard to allude its grasp. A criminal record follows you into every job interview. It’s a red flag on every background check for a new apartment or a loan. That’s the case — even if a person isn’t a felon who spent years in the pen or if a judge dismisses the case or a jury agrees the accused is innocent. With prodding from the Georgia Justice Project and others, legislators overhauled the state’s burdensome and limited expungement law. On the day the law went into effect, one-third of Georgia’s population had a record expunged. Bolstered by the success, Georgia Justice Project convinced Gov. Nathan Deal to issue an executive order to “ban the box” asking criminal history questions on state employment applications this February — the first state in the Deep South to change its hiring policy.
5 Cities That Are Making Eco-Friendly Living a Reality
Darker winters and blazing heatwaves, higher floods and months without rain. It’s undeniable that our climate is changing. But some American cities are lagging behind; only 59 percent have a mitigation plan, the lowest rate for any global region.
There are are bright spots, however, as some municipalities are adapting with the weather’s fluctuations — and their early efforts are showing results. Last year, for the the first time on record, the global economy grew without an accompanying rise in carbon dioxide emissions. Cleaner energy sources and conservation are proving more effective than even most experts predicted.
Here are several American projects leading the way into a new century of climate consciousness.
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New York City
The largest metropolitan region — the Tri-state Area, which consists of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and is home to nearly 20.1 million Americans — found itself taken off-guard by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The devastating, 13.88-foot storm surge flooded the city, shuttering the subways and leaving the New York Stock Exchange, along with most of Lower Manhattan, dark for several days. One hundred and six people died along the East Coast, and thousands were displaced from their homes. Spurred into action, the Big Apple took immediate measures to stave off destruction from another nor’easter. A few days after, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it may be — given the devastation it is wreaking — should be enough to compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.”
Following suit from Southern cities like Galveston, Texas, and Miami, which have built storm barriers and restored wetlands, The City That Never Sleeps proposed a $20 billion, 430-page plan to protect its coastline. A central aspect involves beautifying neighborhoods with miles of parkland wrapping around the island, placing some buffer between city and sea. Offshore, oyster beds could break the storm surges, an innovation Kate Orff, a Columbia University architecture professor, calls “oyster-tecture” or “living breakwaters.” She was awarded a $60 million grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to plant millions of pearl-producers off Staten Island. The artificial reef is bringing biodiversity back to New York’s harbor and using the water as an advantage before the next storm strikes.
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Chicago
From the 1871 inferno that burned 3.3 square miles to the 1979 airline flight that crashed seconds after takeoff from O’Hare International Airport, Chicago has been no stranger to its own tragic disasters. But the Second City is taking proactive measures to prevent the next climate change crisis. As part of the Chicago Climate Action Plan started by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2008, the city is preparing for hotter heat waves and wetter downpours. Researchers have studied ways to combat the “urban heat island” effect, a phenomenon that can increase temperatures by as much as 10 degrees during already scorching summers. In response, the city council passed ordinances requiring more trees in and around empty parking lots as well as reflective covers on most roofs. And at City Hall, landscapers planted nearly 20,000 plants in a rooftop garden.
When it comes to preventing floods, Chicago is once again at the forefront. Almost all public alleyways (and in some districts, concrete sidewalks) have been replaced with pervious pavement, concrete mixed with fine sand that enables water to flow straight through. Under heavy traffic, this paving deteriorates faster than normal, but it also reduces stormwater runoff into the city sewer system by 80 percent, preventing flooding and pesky potholes. Rain or shine, the Windy City’s ready.
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El Paso, Texas
The pipes in this Southern city were running dry after years of drought, so researchers turned to another source: already-used water. Faced with an arid climate in the mountains along the border, El Paso launched the nation’s largest potable-reuse program. Derided by some critics as “toilet to tap,” the technology can seem icky, but most city residents were more worried about running out of water. “In an area where it doesn’t rain you have to explore every viable option, and that’s a viable option,” one resident said at a recent public meeting. While there are some worries about chemicals being poured down the drain, most experts say it’s completely safe since the water’s sent through a body of water, like a lake or aquifer, and then purified an additional time before being mixed in with the regular drinking water supply. The $82 million technology will be fully functional in 2018.
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Los Angeles
This sprawling metropolis is far from the City of Lights, but it’s trying to emulate its European counterparts. Notorious for smog and light pollution dimming out the night sky across Southern California flatland, L.A. has established itself as the definitive leader in smart street lighting, drastically cutting its carbon emissions. In concert with the Clinton Climate Initiative, the city has replaced 157,000 lampposts, more than two-thirds of the total stock. The lights, which used to emit an orange glow from high-pressure sodium vapor, will now be powered by brighter, white light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.
The city has cut energy costs from lighting by 63.1 percent and is saving $8.3 million annually, according to recent figures. To put it another way, by changing out all the bulbs burning through the night, L.A. cut down 94.3 gigawatt-hours — the equivalent power of four dozen Hoover Dams. “It’s a shining example of how green technology can be both environmentally responsible and cost-effective,” says Ed Ebrahimian, the director of the Street Lighting Bureau. Even better? It’s making streets brighter and safer at night: overnight incidents like vehicle theft, theft and vandalism declined by nine percent.
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Honolulu, Hawaii
Not only are its residents enjoying the constant sunshine, they’re also harnessing it for their electricity. The most populous city in the Hawaiian chain, Honolulu also claims the country’s highest per capita rate of homes outfitted with photovoltaic panels, with solar power being generated on at least 10 percent of rooftops.
Because much of Honolulu’s power currently comes from burning pricey diesel fuel, the savings from launching one’s own power source attracted many customers, so many in fact that the local utility fought to cap the energy customers could sell back to the grid. Lawmakers ensured solar power would continue to thrive by removing any caps. Last month, in a 74 to 2 vote, they approved a long-term plan that will have Hawaii running entirely on renewable energy by 2045.”Our state is spending $3 [billion] to $5 billion annually on importing dirty, fossil fuels, which is not good for the environment, our future sustainability, or our pocket books,” says Sen. Mike Gabbard, the bill’s sponsor. “Our islands are blessed with abundant, renewable energy. We should be using these resources for the benefit of our people.”
This Man Says American Democracy Is Dead, But He’s Working to Revive It
Tomorrow, Lawrence Lessig will bring his message on the need to get big money out of politics to Austin, Texas.
In a talk called “MAYDAY: The Next Phase in the Fight to Save American Democracy,” the lawyer and activist will address a crowd gathered at SXSW Interactive.
Not among the badge holders? Not to worry. Join the conversation using the hashtags #sxsw and #maydaypac.
Whether you tune in virtually or in person, don’t miss these videos from our NationSwell Council event with Lawrence Lessig.
Here, he describes why the Citizens United ruling was, in fact, a gift to campaign finance reform.
And in less than a minute, he captures the reason for his political action committee.
Lessig has drawn a lot of attention with his mission to raise money for candidates who commit to saving our system. He’s not alone at SXSW Interactive in tackling the issue of making government work, as the conference deals with the intersection of technology and just about everything.
Interested in improving government? You can also tune in online or in person for sessions including “Move Fast, Government, Or Get Out of the Way” and “How Government Fails and How You Can Fix It,” featuring another featured NationSwell Council speaker, Code for America founder Jennifer Pahlka.
Going to the DMV Just Got a Whole Lot Better
Rather than waste a day waiting in line, a person in Michigan, Texas, Massachusetts and a growing number of other states can check in at the Department of Motor Vehicles remotely via computer or cell phone or through an in-office kiosk. The app, which was created by Pasadena, Calif., tech firm QLess, will estimate the time until your number is called and send you a message when you’re up next. Running late? Send a quick text and you’ll be moved back in the queue.
“We believe time matters, and we’re on a mission to eliminate waiting lines worldwide,” says Alex Bäcker, QLess founder and CEO. “Our technology has liberated more than 20 million people from waits long and short, collectively giving humankind more than 500 years back, while simultaneously giving control back to an organization.”
Already a success for retail stores, healthcare facilities, college campuses and polling places, implementing QLess at DMVs was a logical next step. QLess reports a 75 percent reduction in people who walk away because lines look too long. For probably the first time ever, DMV customers are saying visits are actually “pleasant.”
“My wait was so short that I only lost two of my five lives on Candy Crush,” Darren Little notes of his review of Michigan’s program in The Detroit News. “We shouldn’t expect government to develop the latest and greatest technology,” he adds, “but we should expect them to utilize existing technology to make government work better.”
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3 Top Educators Share Their Secrets to Successful School Reform
For education reform to succeed, there’s one thing it must have: buy-in from teachers. No matter how visionary the school overhaul is, it will never reach students without employees’ consent. In light of a recent Gallup survey finding that 70 percent of K-12 teachers aren’t actively engaged, how can the most promising changes build wider support? NationSwell asked three high-profile educators to weigh in. Here’s what they had to say.
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HAVE ADVOCATES OUTSIDE THE SUPERINTENDENT’S OFFICE
Michelle Rhee, the former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor, said her goal from day one was doing “the job right for the city’s children,” even if it meant she “would upset the status quo.” Which is exactly what she did. Rhee, now chairman of the St. Hope public charter school system, “quickly” (her word) decided to shutter two dozen schools, cut the administrative district office in half, instituted new evaluations, bargained with the union to undo tenure and rewrote the math and reading curriculum. These changes “provoked community outrage” and “caused turmoil in the district” (again, her words), but she says the improved test scores and higher enrollment made the changes worth it.
Today, Rhee (who left the D.C. district five years ago) reflects on how she could have acted differently; she wants the most engaged teachers to be on her side. “Anytime you are working on something that will impact classrooms, reformers need to go to stakeholders,” Rhee tells NationSwell. “Parents will want to understand what the changes mean.… Principals and administrators need to understand the role they will play in managing the instructional program. The community will want to understand how the modifications will result in better schooling for the next generation. But it will always be teachers who will be asked to actually implement the change, making them the most important group,” Rhee says. Engaged teachers will not only incorporate their experience into a program’s development, they will also bring fellow colleagues onboard, which will “ultimately determine the success — or failure — of any initiative,” she adds.
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LISTEN, THEN ADAPT
As superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), Karen Garza oversees a network of 196 schools in the Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, D.C. One of her biggest issues ahead is managing the budget. “When meeting and talking with employees around the country, and when embarking on my listening tours, I have heard repeatedly how important it is for FCPS to stay competitive in the region with employee salaries,” she says. “Organizations change and evolve, and it was apparent that our needs had changed.” In other words, listening also must translate into meaningful modifications. In January, Garza compiled all she’d heard into a comprehensive $70 million plan to boost employee salaries, while making up the difference in cuts to health insurance, utility costs and employee turnover.
“I understand there is always a little trepidation when a new leader arrives and I am mindful of the tremendous history of excellence that exists in Fairfax,” Garza adds. “However, even with greatest systems, it is necessary to embrace the notion of continuous improvement.”
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NEVER STOP COMMUNICATING
Mike Miles, the superintendent of Dallas Independent School District who’s a fast-rising figure in the education reform movement, sums up his advice succinctly: The “best way to build consensus and buy-in” is to “communicate clearly and often,” he says. “This means you avoid placing an artificial cap on your communication efforts and continually seek avenues to convey your message in a focused and clear manner.” In Dallas, they’ve been doing just that as they roll out the Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI), a new system of merit compensation that’s replacing the decades-old pay ladders that dole out salaries based on seniority. “Obviously, this major shift takes teachers out of their familiar comfort zone, so communication has been key to creating an understanding of the process,” he says. Miles held staff meetings at every campus, convened a teachers’ task force and shared details with all employees through a website, one-sheet handouts and email newsletter — all before the school board even took a vote to approve the initiative.
Now that the program is underway, Miles continues to ask a panel of expert teachers for their advice on continual improvements, and he’s continuing to share success stories on a news website, The HUB. He believes these two measures “have reduced fears of the program and allowed our teachers to view the initiative favorably,” he says. Overall, “by not placing artificial limits on our communication, we are making TEI a successful project our teachers and community can support.”
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This City Fixed Its Public Transit System Without Spending a Dime
Houston just revamped its entire transit system, an upgrade that doubles the number of frequent bus lines but didn’t cost a cent.
Some 2.1. million residents live in the nation’s fourth largest city, and they’re spread over a wide geographic area. (Point of reference: Nearly eight times as many people live on one New York City block compared to Houston.) And since the Texas town is known as a place where cars are a prerequisite, this makes Houston METRO’s feat all the more astonishing.
How did the transit authority do it? By focusing on areas where ridership could be increased and people could be moved most efficiently. Duplicate routes and meandering zig-zags that were originally designed to pick up a few hard-to-reach passengers were dropped.
A small number of residents, designers admit, will have to walk further to reach service, but only 0.5 percent of bus riders will be more than one-quarter of a mile from a stop.
“The core idea of the new network is the high-frequency grid,” says planner Jarrett Walker. Downtown, for instance, this means riders will be able to catch any bus within 15 minutes and transfer somewhere else along the line. While that may require one additional stop than riders are used to, residents will be able to move around town much faster than ever before.
When Cities Get Connected, Civic Engagement Improves
With tighter budgets and fewer resources, local governments are turning to technology to stay connected to residents and improve their systems. According to the Digital Cities Survey published by Government Technology magazine, four major tech trends are visible across most of the participants, which range from cities with populations of 50,000 to more than a million.
1. Open data
Transparency is important for governments and thanks to technology, it’s easier to achieve than ever. Leading the pack of cities with easily accessible data records is New York City. The Big Apple started its open data system in 2012 and now has 1,300 data sets available for viewing. Chicago ranks second with over 600 data sets, while San Francisco scores the highest rating in U.S. Open Data Census for open data quality.
Open data isn’t limited to the country’s biggest cities, however, as mid-size Tacoma, Wash., offers 40 data sets and Ann Arbor, Mich,. has financial transparency data that is updated daily, according to Governing.
2. Stat programs and data analytics
These types of initiatives originated in the 1980s with the NYPD merging data with staff feedback, but have expanded to other cities. Louisville, Ky., now has Louiestat, which is used to spot weaknesses in performance and cut the city’s bill for unscheduled employee overtime.
Governing reports that data analytics are also a popular tool to gauge performance. In Denver, Phoenix and Jacksonville, Fla., local governments use them to sort through all their data sets in search of patterns that can be used for better decision-making.
3. Online citizen engagement
As social media becomes more prevalent in daily life, governments are getting on board to stay connected. Through social media sites and online surveys, local governments are using social media to engage their residents in local issues.
One such city is Avondale, Ariz. (population of 78,822), which connects a mobile app and an online forum for citizen use. Citizens can post ideas on the forum and then residents can vote yay or nay.
4. Geographic information systems
Although it’s been around for a long time, cities are updating the function of GIS to help make financial decisions that will, in turn, improve performance, public transit and public safety as well as organize social service and citizens engagement activities.
Augusta, Ga., recently won an award for its transit maps, while in Sugar Land, Texas, GIS is used for economic development and citizen engagement with 92 percent survey respondents citywide.
Based on all this, it seems that cities have embraced the tech craze.
MORE: Which 3 Cities are Fighting Poverty Through a Tech Cohort?