The Political Whore

The National Civic League ’s 2009 All-America City Awards conference concludes tonight in Tampa. We’ve highlighting one nominated project from each of the 30 competing communities (10 will be named AAC’s). Here is Rowlett, Texas:

Rowlett, Texas
ROCK

Seeing an influx of juvenile offenses in 2003, Rowlett Municipal Judge Belinda Loveland created Reaching Our Community’s Kids (ROCK).  ROCK is an after-school mentoring program teaching life skills to at-risk boys and girls, providing them with the training and encouragement necessary to succeed in school and stay out of the juvenile justice system, while advocating the benefits of living substance free. “Our goal each week is to provide students the tools to make healthy choices in their everyday life,” Judge Loveland said. “We are here to support them and counsel them with any problems they encounter along their journey to success.” In Rowlett, community support for ROCK stems from Rowlett Lions Club, Rotary Club, Police Department, Fire Department, School District, business leaders and neighbors all working together to make a difference in the life of a child. ROCK has a direct impact on approximately 150 of Rowlett’s boys and girls annually. But what makes this program so successful is the promise of positive ‘peer pressure’ emulating from the participants into the community as a whole.

Thirty cities, towns, neighborhoods and communities are vying for recognition as an All-America City tonight at the  conference at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel. Each will give a short presentation on three public-private civic projects they undertook before a panel of judges names the best. Tampa is one of the finalists.

This morning’s project from the nominees inthe 2009 All-America City Awards conference coming to Tampa starting next Wednesday is not an entirely new idea: community visioning. The difference, as our in-depth coverage continues, is that is sounds like Wichita is not letting its vision document sit on a dusty shelf:

Wichita, Kansas
Visioneering Wichita
Visioneering Wichita (VW) is about achieving far-reaching, but attainable goals to make the region an excellent place to live. In 2004, residents from throughout the region gave input on efforts and priority to issues, including creating jobs, increasing per-capita income, ensuring education at every age and various quality of life initiatives. A process was created where the community could reach consensus on major issues of local, regional and statewide importance.  Thousands of volunteers and hundreds of organizations worked together to create a long-term plan. Ten community issues were selected for the VW working document, and strategies were set for each goal, with over 500 organizations and community groups attaching themselves to one or more strategies.  These vision partners agreed to work together to commit time, staff and resources to making individual strategies reality. Although the accomplishments to date are impressive, it is Visioneering Wichita’s process that is remarkable. Visioneering Wichita is about the gift of collaboration, the realization of a dream and the empowerment of a community.

Thirty cities, towns, neighborhoods and communities are vying for recognition as an All-America City at the June 16-19 conference at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel. Each will give a short presentation on three public-private civic projects they undertook before a panel of judges names the best. Tampa is one of the finalists. CL and this blog will provide live tweeting and blog coverage from the presentations on Thursday and Friday morning.

Former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman is the president of the National Civic League this year and a big proponent of these kinds of partnership projects. During her tenure, in 1990, Tampa was named an All-America City. Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason is also involved, as a member of the Host Committee.

By Lorna Bracewell
PoHo contributor

In a recent blog posting, Nadine Smith, Equality Florida’s executive director, issued a formidable challenge to GLBT people everywhere: If you want equality, sacrifice for it. With the bus boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins of the black civil rights movement as her inspiration, Smith asks “What can we (GLBT people) do that demonstrates not only the rhetoric of equality but the personal sacrifice that will awaken the conscience of a nation?”

Smith answers this question with a simple suggestion:

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By Grant Rimbey
Green Community contributor

The term “sprawl” was coined in 1956 and is defined as unplanned greenfield (undeveloped land) development on the periphery of urban areas that is generally single-use, single-story, low density, inexpensive to build, and requires little knowledge or expertise to create. Sprawl gobbles up our farmlands and woodlands while increasing dependency on fossil fuel, fosters obesity because you have to drive everywhere, diminishes the natural environment, decreases the feasibility of mass transit, all while failing to create a “sense of place” or build community.

There was once a time in America (before the second World War) when sprawl didn’t exist. The ascent of sprawl to the predominant development form in the United States is based on many criteria: Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, my droogies, there was a time when having civic pride in Tampa Bay meant a whole lot. When we were innocent enough to care that Tampa was awarded the “All America City” designation. When the meaning of civic involvement was broader than just whining on a blog about local government.

That time was 1990, to be precise.

Now, less than two decades later, civic involvement and (more importantly) the idea of learning more about civic involvement seems nowhere. Sure, you hear a proposal from a politician every once in a while for more civic engagement between the people and their government (such as St. Pete mayoral hopeful Bill Foster’s call for more business and civic groups to adopt maintenance in parks or requiring that neigborhood associations put in service hours in exchange for city grants).

For local elected officials, the repository of knowledge about improving your community’s civic health and democracy was the All America City awards’ custodian, the National Civic League (on Facebook, as well). The NCL was founded in 1894 by my fave president, Teddy Roosevelt, and other Progressives of that era.

The chairwoman of the National Civic League this year is former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman, who was mayor of Tampa in 1990 when the city won its designation. “Civic democracy is what I call it,” Freedman said over coffee in a South Tampa shop recently. And the National Civic League is bringing its annual community awards conference to the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina June 17 -19.

So why has there been so little said or written about this killer opportunity for local civic activists and politicians to attend and not only get some good training but hear some ideas that worked in other communities. Ideas we can steal.

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