I am home from steamy Lafayette – which they claim was rather mild for August – and ready to report that the trip was a success. Like every local government, there are a lot of challenges, but this is a place doing more right than wrong and truly is asking a lot of hard questions. We made a lot of progress and it looks like Joe Minicozzi and I will be headed back later this year to follow up. Can’t wait. In the meantime, I’ve been so immersed in Lafayette that I feel way behind on the news (and my sleep) so this week is going to be a short version of the news digest.
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I suggest starting small. Pick up an orange flag and cross a street. That's how revolutions get started.
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This week I’m on the road in Lafayette, Louisiana, with my good friend and frequent collaborator, Joe Minicozzi. For this Minnesotan, where anything over 80 degrees is starting to get uncomfortably warm, this promises to be an interesting week. Let me fill you in on what we are attempting to do.
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Thirty two new jobs (projected), a million dollars in direct subsidies and millions more in transportation funding later, we’ve managed to move two businesses from one Minnesota community to another. And we call that “creating” jobs and businesses.
Rome (AD 56): They make a desert and call it peace.
America (AD 2014): They relocate a business and call it growth.
Have we fallen so far that telling ourselves lies is the best we can do?
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When we mix high speed cars with stopping and turning traffic, it is only a matter of time until people get killed. It is statistically inevitable because we are all normal people living normal lives. When things get bad on one spot – when a random sample of accidents becomes the inevitable statistical aberration in one place or another, the mistaken signal within the noise – professional engineers will propose some turn lanes or a lane widening or a greater clear zone. They will never propose the two things that would matter: designing non-highways in such a way that people drive more slowly and removing dangerous accesses from those highways where we want people to drive fast.
Read MoreLast weekend we had a really important Strong Towns retreat. Not only did we finalize the agenda for the National Gathering – which is going to redefine all your expectations of what a conference should be – but we made some important progress on how Strong Towns, the organization, is evolving and adapting to grow this critical movement. I left excited and energized; we have some real visionaries working with this organization, as members and volunteers, and being with them is invigorating. Now we all switch to baby watch as our former board president – Faith Cable Kumon – and her husband, our Executive Director Jim Kumon, are expecting any day. August is going to be a great month.
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This week Chuck does a solo podcast talking about the Federal Highway Trust Fund and the implications of its pending insolvency.
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The Proposition 7 propaganda in Missouri mirrors that from other states where similar debates over transportation funding are taking place. One of the cheap and easy arguments is over safety. I say "cheap and easy" because, not only it is an emotional one, but it plays to our base instincts. We all want to feel safe.
That is why ads like these work.
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