I recently met with a councilman from SeaTac, a small city in the inner-ring suburb of Seattle that boasts about 30,000 residents. As a new councilman in the middle of his first term, Peter Kwon initially asked a lot of questions. And like many of our city leaders and their staff, Councilman Kwon was already
This is guest post by Bill Eller, vice president, business development at HomeServe. Skilled trades are the future of work. A combination of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age and lack of interest by young adults in the skilled trade field has caused an unprecedented labor shortage. It’s estimated that, for each person who enters the
This is guest post by Bill Eller, vice president, business development at HomeServe. Ever the trailblazer, California’s first city, San Diego, also was the first city in California to embrace the NLC Service Line Warranty Program, entering into a partnership in June 2012. As the Preferred Service Line Warranty Partner of the City of San
This is a guest post by Ellyn Parker, project manager for the 2018 Rose Fellowship team. This is the second blog in a three-part series about insights from a study tour of Toronto by NLC’s 2018 Rose Center Land Use Fellows. Last month, NLC’s Rose Center Land Use fellowship team braved the cold temperatures of
Across the ages and in every culture, childhood has included time playing in and exploring the outdoors. Yet over the last few generations, childhood has moved indoors, leaving kids disconnected from the natural world. To combat this challenge, the NLC Institute for Youth, Education, and Families and Children & Nature Network (C&NN) launched the Cities Connecting
This is a guest post by Nancy LeaMond of AARP. In the above photo, hackers and community members collaborate during the City of Seattle’s “City for All” technology hackathon. (Credit: Michael B. Maine) In his address at Harvard University’s 2017 commencement ceremony, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Change starts local. Even global changes start small
At 10:10 a.m. on October 10, 134 of the nation’s most influential mayors joined The Trust for Public Land, National Recreation and Park Association, and Urban Land Institute in launching an historic “10-minute walk” parks advocacy campaign, establishing the ambitious goal that all Americans should live within a 10-minute walk (or a half-mile) of a
This is a guest post by Suzanne Nienaber of the Center for Active Design. Over the summer, the Center for Active Design (CfAD) introduced the Assembly Civic Engagement Survey (ACES), a groundbreaking study examining the relationship between place-based design and civic engagement. Through the CitiesSpeak blog series, we highlighted 5 key design strategies to support civic life,
The NLC Service Line Warranty Program is proud to work with and showcase cities who show dedication to inclusive values. The City of Orem has partnered with the NLC Service Line Warranty Program to offer homeowners optional warranties for their water and sewer service lines since 2016. The All-Together playground in Orem, UT is Utah County’s
Here’s how the city is partnering with several groups and organizations to create equitable access to nature programming for its youth. This is a guest post by Tracy Muckey. This spring, Yolanda and three of her children joined a YMCA of San Francisco Family Camp in the Marin Headlands, a national park located on a
