It’s the end of the year, so I’m taking some time to do a little inventory of the projects highlighted by the finalist communities in the All-American City Award. The award is given to communities for outstanding civic accomplishments. Each finalist community gives a description of three projects in their applications. Counting and categorizing the different projects gives me a unique perspective on the issues that are reoccupying American communities in any given year.

Obviously, it’s not a scientific survey, and there are certain factors that may skew the results. For instance, most of these projects are at least five years old, so it may reflect a lag effect. Also, we have to factor in the not-always-so-subtle clues the National Civic League gives to communities based on our organizational priorities in a given year.

In 2011, the third year of a serious economic crisis, one might expect the finalist communities to be focused laser-like on job creation and economic development. Indeed, there were a large number of community projects in this year’s competition related to jobs and the economy, there always are, but surprisingly the largest number of any category among the 2011 finalists was environmental sustainability, of which there were 14 projects.

In fact, one community, Kenai, Alaska, focused all of its projects on the environment. Lakeview, Oregon, had two projects in the alternative energy area. This focus on the environment may reflect the National Civic League’s recent emphasis on environmental sustainability as a community engagement goal, or it could reflect the fact that communities feel they may have more control over their local environments these days than over jobs and the economy - very much influenced these days by national and even global trends. The emphasis on environmental sustainability at the local levels seems to be a long-term trend that bodes well for the health of the planet.

The next highest number of projects was in the area of neighborhood and commercial revitalization. This is always a popular area among All-America Cities. Revitalizing a once neglected neighborhood or commercial area is a tangible way of improving the quality of life in communities, and it is something for which city councils and city managers are held accountable. There were eight of these projects. (Admittedly, the commercial revitalization projects in most instances could have fallen into the jobs and economic development area).

There were seven community projects to improve educational outcomes, a number that probably reflects NCL’s instruction in the applications form to list at least one project that is youth led or youth serving. But it is also increasingly clear to local officials and civic activists that entire communities should take a more active role in improving educational outcomes, not just parents, students, teachers and school districts.

There were six projects related to jobs and the economy or economic development. Again, my only surprise there was that were not more of them. The surprise—or trend—that I see is that there were also six projects related to health and wellness, a growing area of activity by many communities.

More and more local officials and civic groups are seeing the health of community members as an indicator of the desirability and strength of the community. I’ve already blogged about Ann Arbor’s standout farmers’ market and its efforts to get low income residents and food stamps recipients to eat healthier. Another interesting project is in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Rock County Youth2Youth is an initiative consisting of 200 seventh to twelfth grade students who get training on the harmful effects of tobacco and go around to schools and city leaders to give presentations. According to the Beloit All-America City applications, there was a 38 percent reduction in the number of Rock County high school smokers in eight years, a 53 percent reduction in middle school smokers, a 19 percent reduction in adult smokers, and a 12 percent drop in cigarette sales.

The Smoke-Free Air project engaged 400-500 young people who worked closely with Beloit over eight years to make the city smoke-free. They petitioned and talked to community and city council members about the advantage of being a smoke-free city. Four yeasts ago, Beloit became one of thirty-seven cities in Wisconsin to go smoke-free thanks to the partnership between Y2Y, city council, and the city staff of Beloit.

Going back over these projects reminds me what an impressive groups of finalist communities we had in 2011. The jury of civic experts who selected the ten winners had a tough time eliminating some of these contenders from the final ten. Maybe we should come up with an official All-America City calendar with big glossy photos of award-winning community projects. Something to consider for New Year’s resolutions in 2012.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

A high school teacher named Henry Littlefield once wrote an essay in the American Quarterly called “The Wizard of Oz: A Parable on Populism.” According Littlefield’s interpretation, L. Frank Baum’s immortal children’s book was full of thinly disguised allusions to the reform politics of the late nineteenth century. The Tin Man (whose joints needed constant oiling to function) represented the industrial worker. The intellectually insecure Scarecrow embodied the American farmer. The Cowardly Lion represented, the Populist-Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, an avowed pacifist. The yellow brick road symbolized the gold standard, and Dorothy’s magic shoes, which silver in the book, not ruby red as in the Hollywood film version, stood for the free coinage of silver, the main demand of the Populists. Others have added new interpretations over time. “Oz,” after all, was the abbreviation for ounces, the measure of silver and gold. Dorothy’s dog, Toto, represented the temperance movement, and so on.

Sadly, Littlefield’s theory has been thoroughly debunked by a succession of academic killjoys, professional historians who note that, among other things, author Baum was not in fact a Bryan Democrat, as Littlefield suggested, but rather a supporter of boring old William McKinley. One historian of consumer culture interpreted the Wizard of Oz, not as a critique of the Gilded Age but a celebration of consumer capitalism. Noting that Baum was a Theosophist who had once worked as window-dresser, this historian found the book to be an “optimistic, therapeutic text.” The Emerald City, in this interpretation did not represent Washington, but the 1894 Chicago World Exposition with its dazzling and Oz-like array of new products and inventions.

With its flying monkeys, witches and munchkins, the book and even more famous movie are clearly rich subjects for a variety of interpretations. Last summer, I witnessed an entirely new re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz, Dublin, California’s presentation at the All-America City Awards competition in Kansas City. (To be clear, it was KC, Missouri, not Kansas, but close enough). In this 10 minute tour of the city, Dorothy—who sang a mean version of Over the Rainbow, was taken on a tour of the Emerald City of Dublin. In this version, the Scarecrow represented the wisdom of city officials in implementing one of the most progressive and inclusionary housing policies in the state of California. Dublin being a mostly affluent Bay Area community, housing prices are intimidating to say the least.

Concerned that local teachers, firefighters, police and others wouldn’t be able to afford housing in the city where they worked, city council members enacted a comprehensive affordable housing policy. Over the last 10 years, the city’s programs have created nearly 1000 “below market” rental and owner occupied housing units, about seven percent of the city’s overall housing stock. Programs include Dublin’s Below Market Rate Home Program, which provides a supply of deed-restricted below market rate units, and a First Time Homebuyer Loan Program with down payment assistance and financial advice. Developers who cannot build the number of below market rate units required by ordinance can contribute to the Inclusionary In-Lieu Fee Fund, which the city uses to support non-profit developers in the construction of below market rate senior and multi-family rental developments.

Heart: The Tin Man represented the city’s heart in providing a home for the School of Imagination, an innovative and inclusive school readiness/early intervention program that partners typically developing kids with those afflicted with developmental disabilities. More than 300 children weekly participate in the programs they offer and they have served more than 3,000 children with speech delays, developmental delays and autism from throughout the region.

Courage:  The Cowardly Lion represented the city’s courage in making efforts to preserve its past and secure its future with environmental programs. The city formed a partnership to develop a historic park to be a living monument to the community’s agricultural past. To increase sustainability education, the city hosts a community volunteer event called Dublin Pride Week. As part of Dublin Pride Week, the city sponsors a Volunteer Day where residents engage the community in a variety of projects, including school beautification projects, clean water projects, and environmental program outreach.

In his essay, Henry Littlefield said he’d developed his Oz theory to make the forgotten world of the 1890s comprehensible to his students. “Consider the fun,” he wrote, “in picturing turn-of-the-century American, a difficult time at best, using ready-made symbols provided by Baum.” It furnished a teaching mechanism, he suggested, “guaranteed to reach any level of student.”

The same could be said of the Dublin presentation, which was corny, but also effective. Heart, head and courage—contemporary communities need of all those qualities they can get. It’s worth taking a look at thee archived video of Dublin’s Presentation. (link here.)

Granted, this unique approach might not work for all communities in addressing critical needs for its members, but it certainly accomplished its goal. There are a multitude of city, towns and parishes in need of bringing attention to an issue greatly affecting the community. Do you know of additional ways in which a community has brought awareness to a critical problem resulting in change? What was that change and how did it impact the community? We would love to know, so, please, fill the box below with your community’s story of success.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

I’ve wondered about this. In science fiction, technology is often viewed as a threat to democracy, individual freedom or even (as in those cases in which robots try to take over) humankind itself. In real life, however, technology can help make our democracies work better.

I’m always looking for good examples of communities using technology or social media to engage people in the process of local problem solving and decision making. Here’s one: Olathe, Kansas, recently was named one of the top “digital cities” by the Center for Digital Government and Government Technology magazine.

Like most communities, the city has public meetings to discuss budget issues and holds them in different venues in an effort to get people to come. “In our experience, budget hearings at city hall were dwindling,” says Erin Vader, the city’s manager of communications and public engagement. “So you take it on the road and do road shows.”

But even going out to the neighborhoods and bringing meetings to the people didn’t seem to get the crowds, so the city’s communications and public engagement department went in search of new ideas.

So they decided to hold an E-Town meeting in the studio of the local government access cable station and to drive interest and participation with social media. Chris Hernandez, a Kansas City TV news personality hosted the meeting, which was cablecast and live-streamed, and members of the public asked questions to city council members via e-mail, the city’s budget web page, Twitter and facebook.

The city launched an online forum six days before the scheduled e-meeting, asking citizens to submit questions. Questions could also be submitted live during the meeting.

Local officials consider the experiment a success. The city’s facebook page saw an increase of about 60 percent in post views during the live-cast of the event and traffic on the city’s budget web page increased nine fold.

“We’re trying to meet the citizens where they are,” explained Chris Kelly, the city’s IT director Chris Kelly, “which is online.”

This is the 11th year the digital cities award has been given for cities that increase efficiencies and achieve better results by using technology. Olathe won first place in the category of cities with between 125,000 and 249,999 residents. The e-town hall wasn’t the only one reason for their award. Olathe has used technology to consolidate its 911 dispatch system with the county and used improve meter reading machines to save money, which is being used to promote other energy saving measures.

Getting people out to budget hearings can be a tough sell, especially in these days when the choices are almost always sub-optimal. Ordinarily, the public only gets involved when some favored program or department is facing the chopping block. But it is important these days when the choices are so tough that the public is both aware of and engaged in the process, and technology can help. Not just in discussing the issues, but also in giving citizens a role in helping local government do more with less.

One of the other localities named in the digital cities survey was Long Beach, California. I’ve been doing some research on the city’s efforts to eliminate its “structural deficit.” Better use of technology is one of the ways they are trying to save on labor and money.

The city recently unveiled its “Go Long Beach” app, which allows citizens with smart phones to report problems like graffiti, pot holes, downed traffic signs and weed strewn yards so the city can respond to them more quickly and efficiently. The app allows a user to take a picture of the problem and the GPS on the smart phone tells city crews exactly where to go.

Long Beach has also made strides in using technology for more efficient document storage, upgraded its fiber optic networks and used streaming video and social media to keep citizens in touch with what’s going on at city hall.

Technology is no panacea. And there is always a risk that the robots may in fact decide to take over, but in the meantime, these cost savings and interactive engagement possibilities can increase citizen trust and understanding of government and the challenges facing localities in this time of financial crisis.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

State of the Re:Union contributor Mike McGrath of the National Civic League shares the encouraging news on how schools across the U.S. are vying to be a part of the All-American City Grade-Level Reading Award.

The response has been overwhelming. We’ve gotten more than 150 letters of intent to participate in the 2012 All-America City Grade-Level Reading Award.  The list includes cities large and small (L.A., NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, among others) and counties and multi-county areas from 36 states. Two U.S. Territories and D.C. are represented. You can read a press release from the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading here.

Our goal was to get 50 to 55 communities to sign up.  This level of interest has more than surpassed expectations, which suggests that grade-level reading may be an issue whose time has come.  We’ve been working with the National League of Cities and United Way Worldwide, among other groups, to generate interest in this award. This great show of interest is partly a testament to their work in ginning up interest in communities all over the country.

The awards will be given to communities (counties, regions, whatever) that develop the most comprehensive, realistic and sustainable plans for addressing three issues: school readiness, school attendance and summer learning.

The communities that sent letters of intent will join the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading’s network. Being part of the network allows them to seek assistance during the application process when they will be developing community-wide plans for improving reading achievement by the end of third grade.

Honestly, we didn’t know how this was going to turn out when NCL President Gloria Rubio-Cortés came up with this idea. Since 1949, NCL has offered this award for communities that show outstanding civic accomplishments, but in the past we have always let the communities themselves highlight the programs that think best illustrate the values of the award, innovation, inclusiveness, equity and the ability to show results.

So in any given year, we might find out about a successful homeless program, an original approach to economic development, an effort to address gang violence or provide dental care for low income kids. This time we are working with the campaign to help people develop their community-based projects on grade-level reading.

Another unusual element of the AAC grade-level reading is effort—in 2015 we are going to back the reading issue as a focus of the AAC program. Only in 2015, it will be about accomplishment—what these communities have actually accomplished with their plans.

This is really new for us. We want to be part of a coalition that focuses intently on one issue. We want to see if we can move the dime.

This year, AAC GLR awards will be held June 30-July 2 in Denver, Colorado, the time we hold the award program in our hometown. In the past, we have always held the event in a community that was a past winner. It helps for the people in the community where the event it held to get the award and what it stands for. Denver has never won the award, and in my memory, nor has it entered. This year the Mile High City is entering, one more indication that this GLR thing is an idea whose time has come.

Is there a school that you think should be recognized for an outstanding reading program or service? If you would like to find out more on how to enter your school into the 2012 All-American City Grade-Level Reading Award, click here.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.