As another Earth Day approaches, I feel the need to make a confession related to something I heard at a climate conference two years ago. The speaker (who will remain anonymous), exclaimed to the jam-packed and dumbfounded room, “Folks, somehow, I am able to hold two totally contradictory ideas in my head at once: ONE
Whether you are a municipal leader thinking of ways to solve city challenges or looking to support existing youth programs, look no further. NLC’s partners at the Wallace Foundation have put together a Summer Learning Toolkit that local leaders can share with program providers to develop and strengthen high-quality summer learning programs. Cities play a
Timbs v. Indiana has received a lot of attention because it deals with a controversial subject—civil asset forfeitures. But as a practical matter this case is unlikely to have much of an impact. What this case now requires under the federal constitution has long since been required under state constitutions. In Timbs the Supreme Court
Local Tools to Address Housing Affordability: A State-by-State Analysisis the fifth annual report produced in partnership with the 49 state municipal leagues. This post is part of a series highlighting findings from this new report. As the housing crisis rages on, cities are experimenting with a number of tools — that is, where they have
The National League of Cities (NLC) is assisting six member cities to assess and reform their use of local fines and fees and develop equitable collections strategies as part of the new Cities Addressing Fines and Fees Equitably (CAFFE) technical assistance and grant initiative. Cities chosen for the CAFFE cohort include: Aurora, Colorado; Baton Rouge,
Residents frequently turn to local leaders with questions and concerns related to the census—this will be doubly true with the many changes to the upcoming 2020 Census. After reviewing frequently asked questions, NLC compiled a list of answers and responses that will set your community at ease. These originally appeared in NLC’s report, Preparing for
Ninety-eight percent of growth in the hundred largest cities since 2000 was from growth in minority populations. A Brookings Institution analysis of the 2011- 2015 American Community Survey found that despite this increased diversity in cities, racial segregation has only moderately declined. Dominantly white neighborhoods in cities were 79 percent white in 2000 and 72
The Supreme Court heard oral argument—yet again—in two cases arguing it should adopt a standard for when partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional. Before argument court watchers were focused on Chief Justice Roberts, but during argument Justice Kavanaugh stole the show. In 1986 in Davis v. Bandemer six Supreme Court Justices agreed that some amount of partisan
This is a guest post written by Barry Dechtman, Ivanna Fregoso, Su Bin Chang, and Esmeralda Aquilar, members of the NLC youth delegates program. We were proud and excited to be among the 181 strong youth leaders from 35 cities across the country who came together at the 2019 Congressional City Conference. The youth delegate
A process beginning in the 1930s, redlining describes how banks and government agencies discriminated by race in determinations for federally-backed mortgages. At the March Congressional City Conference, local leaders used redlining maps of Baltimore and Muskegon, Mich. to examine the intersection between racial equity and affordable housing. “Housing is a key priority for NLC and
