Recreating a Sustainable Southern Nevada – 081810

Las Vegas has proven to the world we can construct America’s largest schools with the largest enrollments anywhere, but we are failures at keeping children in school through graduation.  One major factor in this failure is the distance between a student’s home and the location of the schools across the valley.  As a consequence,  the heaviest congestion on today’s regional roadways occur when parents are taking their children to school in the mornings and picking them up in the afternoons. 

                Congestion is not only a significant traffic issue, but it’s a major health issue as well.  Traffic congestion creates vast, greater amounts of air pollution than smoothly flowing traffic.  Urban air pollution is the leading cause of asthma and other permanent bronchial disorders in children, and continuous exposure to air pollution adds to health problems associated with heart disease and cancer.

                Redeveloping the Urburbs offers us the opportunity to get residents out of their automobiles and outdoors walking, riding bicycles, using electric carts and public transportation - because travel distances to where we need to be are shorter.  When we add the appropriate pedestrian and bicycle amenities to the neighborhood, leaving the car at home becomes a popular option.

                Many valley families currently own two and three family vehicles.  Alternate modes of efficient and convenient transportation allows us to reduce the numbers of cars we must possess; and for every vehicle we eliminate, a typical household saves $1.000.00 a month each.  If the community builds smaller schools closer to home, and walking or bicycle riding to school is made safe through planning and design, we can eliminate large amounts of air pollution.

                Beyond school and the convenient commercial, retail and services households need, if we add employment centers to the Urburbs, we can walk or bicycle to work.  If we add libraries, parks and recreational areas and churches to the Urburbs, we can live better and have happier lives.  We’re also creating new jobs, a new economy and a far stronger sense of community –because we will know our neighbors.  Isn’t that what we all want?         

                 Please provide us with your thoughts and ideas regarding repurposing the Las Vegas valley; in turning its economy around and creating a world-class community that is home for each of us - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think about this set of issues as well!

          If you want to learn more about our current recession and receive an unbiased and current objective economic report on the community today, go to www.rcg1.com.

Thanx!                   

Recreating a Sustainable Southern Nevada – 080610

Rethinking the roles older neighborhood communities, surrounding the urban cores across the valley serve for the future, making them productive and fruitful once again adds to the long-term sustainability of the region.  Plans and zoning provisions for repurposing the Urburbs for tomorrow’s needs should already be in place –but in most instances they’re not. 

                The advantage the Urburbs have over the suburbs is that current property values are significantly lower and the properties are closer in proximity to where the larger majority of jobs are located.  There are many older neighborhoods within walking distances to major employment centers.  While some of the older neighborhoods possess housing stock that has been maintained and upgraded over the years, larger amounts of the existing housing is in a state of disrepair and is rapidly dilapidating through neglect.  Most of the neglected properties are non-owner occupied residences. 

                Upgrading the Urburbs requires three levels of improvements.  First: Dilapidated properties need to be audited to determine their potential for upgrading and continued re-use.  Those that can be upgraded need to be considered for future higher density purposes, either by adding garage apartments or Granny Flats.  Instead of a single-family residence, the upgraded properties should be increased to a minimum five living units - or become a mixed-use property with some commercial or retail space.  If the properties are not valuable for extended use, they should be razed and replaced with higher density housing.  Second:  Suburban amenities for leisure and recreation need to be brought to the Urburbs as a magnet for attracting and serving new residents, and Third: Commercial, retail and service businesses should be added nearby within convenient walking distances.

                Inter-mixing older, upgraded properties suitable for extended use with new facilities maintains the historic patina and protects the human scale of the original neighborhoods, while giving them new functional and purposeful lives.  Reinvesting in these neighborhoods also increases the property values and taxation local government receives, which offsets the costs of programs and human services.  When older neighborhoods are re-vitalized business activity in the neighborhood rises and crime goes down.  Repurposing older neighborhoods in the Urburbs is a win-win proposition that makes the Las Vegas valley a better place for everyone.   

                Please provide us with your thoughts and ideas regarding repurposing the Las Vegas Valley; in turning its economy around and creating a world-class community that is home for each of us - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think about this issue as well!

          If you want to learn more about our current recession and receive an unbiased and objective economic report on the community today go to www.rcg1.com.

Thanx!                   

Recreating a Sustainable Southern Nevada – 070410

Taking simple steps to protect and shepherd the valley’s air, water, the desert surrounds and its ecology, and dramatically reducing waste through recycling and composting, Southern Nevada will have accomplished a major goal in achieving its new purpose.  The valley cannot attract new businesses, high-tech manufacturing and assembly, new entrepreneurs or international trade to a community with a filthy natural environment.  We must begin by creating a higher-quality-of-life.   The second step forward is repurposing the valley’s urban cores and the surrounding oldest neighborhoods defined as the Urburbs.  Included in this second level of redevelopment are the old, dilapidated strip shopping centers that align every major arterial across the valley.

                Southern Nevada has more than twice the amount of retail space needed to serve the valley’s population.  Why?  Historically, local governments have allowed the valley to be developed by speculative investors whose only goal is to maximize profits from real estate sales and construction.  Consequently, to bring the community back into balance large areas of the valley must be repurposed – and it’s always easier to begin with the oldest areas of the community first.    

                The added value of beginning with the Urburbs is that it stops nose-diving property taxes and reinvigorates the area – as well as the economy.  Ample area for retail and professional offices already exist within the Urburbs.  The goal is to upgrade, reinvigorate, add the living amenities necessary and increase the existing housing density to make the area vibrant.  Redeveloping the urburbs, and keeping much of the good that originally existed, maintains the historic patina of the older neighborhood that keeps the area attractive, comfortable and inviting to yet another generation of residents.  The oldest blocks are also the shortest blocks throughout the valley which makes the areas pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

                Repurposing is a creative way of recycling this valley.  By bringing balance back to the oldest areas of the downtowns and the neighborhoods circling the downtowns, residents have the opportunity to possess all of the amenities and services they need within short distances to their homes.  Adding the vitality makes the areas safer because there are always people on the streets.  Public transit already exists so residents have convenient access for longer trips across the valley.      

                Please provide us with your thoughts regarding repurposing the Las Vegas Valley, turning its economy around and creating a world-class home for each of us  - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think about this issue as well!

          If you want to learn more about our current recession and receive an unbiased and objective economic report on the community today go to www.rcg1.com.

Thanx!                   

Repurposing Southern Nevada – 062310

It’s easy for citizens to deal with urban environments at the macro level because the issues are managed and addressed by government agencies and trained professionals.  That’s not to say we’re especially happy with the results of government’s accomplishments, but large scale macro conditions are well beyond the average citizen’s ability to get their arms around and resolve.

                At the micro level, however, citizens are far better problem solvers than government can ever be.  But most citizens today seem to want someone else other than themselves to come to their aid and rescue.  The strength of community and quality-of-community-life comes from the investment of social capital within the community, and that social capital begins at home and in building relationships with neighbors.   This idea is critical to successfully repurposing Las Vegas as a community that partner’s with the nature and ecology of the region.

                At the micro level there are simple tools we can use measure our success and we begin in making our partnership stronger at home.  Our measurements are: What can we do at home to strengthen air quality?  One example is that we can plant more drought tolerant trees and large shrubbery to absorb air-borne pollutants and carbon dioxide and transform it to oxygen.  There are literally hundreds of other things that can also be done to make our air-quality better from home, like walking and biking wherever we can rather than driving.  Second, what can we do at home to protect and shepherd our water resources?  As infrequently as it rains, catching rain water to use for gardening helps –as does turning off the automatic sprinkler system when it rains.  Keeping your irrigation water corralled in your yard and out of the gutter also helps.  How do we protect our soil?  We quit dumping solvents and other hazardous waste into the ground.  Finally, we can protect our surrounding natural environment by composting, recycling and using land-fills rather than dumping in the desert.

                From your own home, get with your neighbors and use the same matrix of four measurements to identify what you can do together.  Perhaps you buy a composter to use jointly.  Add more neighbors and soon you have a block.  Perhaps the block can own a tree-limb shredder and now you have organic mulch for all of your yards.  Add more blocks and before you know it, you’ve improved an entire neighborhood, and you’re just getting started.         

                 Please provide us with your thoughts regarding repurposing the Las Vegas Valley, turning its economy around and creating a world-class community for each of us  - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think about this issue as well!

          If you want to learn more about our current recession and receive an unbiased and objective economic report on the community today go to www.rcg1.com.  

Thanx!                   

Repurposing Southern Nevada – 061510

All communities have four principal characteristics that are additionally defined by macro and micro environments.  First, there is Nature and the ecology of the region; every community also has a Physical Presence that shapes the lives of every citizen; every community revolves around its Society, and every community is supported by an Economy.  With roughly 20% of the local workforce unemployed in Southern Nevada, how do you put people back to work in a fashion that enriches the quality of life for all valley residents?

                The traditional response is to find means to attract new companies to the community.  If we’ve learned anything over the past several decades, it should be that it’s not small government, minimal public services, low taxes and a blue collar workforce that attracts new companies.  Not only has our past approach failed in attracting new forms of employment, but we’ve created a large percentage of the population that are discontented with life here – and wish to leave the valley for better lives elsewhere.

                In repurposing the valley, the first priority is the community’s investment in partnering with nature.  We live in an extremely hostile yet fragile environment, so everything that can be done to strengthen nature at a macro level as well as micro level improves the quality-of-life for everyone, including the lives of our visitors who holiday here.  Clean air reduces air-pollution and lowers lung and heart disease, along with many forms of cancer.  Clean air also helps other forms of life improve, replenish, prosper and fend off invasive species that endanger the region’s natural ecology. 

                Additionally, we need to insure our water remains clean and healthy; we need to protect the surrounding desert from further environmental damage and work to eliminate all future solid waste through composting and recycling.  If we begin making the Las Vegas Valley a special place for living in the desert, we can begin rebuilding a community that has pride in its place and its quality-of life.           

                Please provide us with your thoughts regarding repurposing the Las Vegas Valley, turning its economy around and creating a world-class home for each of us  - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think about this issue as well!

          If you want to learn more about our current recession and receive an unbiased and objective economic report on the community today go to www.rcg1.com.

Thanx!                  

Society and Population – 060810

Any ideas on what we want to become when we grow up?  Do we remain on this see-saw and continue reliving the ups and downs that come with a one-pronged economy; or can we foresee a possible three-legged stool that regardless of how rough the economy turns, the stool remains stable enough to withstand the challenges of the time?  Changing Las Vegas means we must repurpose our community around a new, greater vision – we must create a plan to achieve our goals, and stick with it!

                Those that plan almost always succeed!    

                For far too long, the residents of this valley have allowed its elected leadership to misappropriate the communities’ valuable resources reacting to growth issues rather than pursuing community development as a means to make this a better community in which to live.  At the same time, we’ve allowed too many elected officials to maintain cozy relationships with developers for receiving re-election contributions rather than behaving independently – or for that matter - leading.  Las Vegas is two years into the Great Recession and we’ve yet taken charge on creating a set of constructive futures that will get this train back on track and running again – to even better destinations.

                How much longer will it take before we wake-up and do something to stimulate community development?  Not growth, but community development.

          Not all elected officials are brain dead.  County Commissioners Chris G. and Steve Sisolak certainly get it. Mayor Hafen and Councilpersons Debra March and Gerri Schroder in Henderson certainly get it too, and Robert Eliason and Richard Cherchio in North Las Vegas also understand. 

            As a candidate for governor, Rory Reid better get it, because more than 50% of the state’s budget income comes from taxes earned from businesses and economic activity in Southern Nevada.  Bringing an end to this recession feeds not just Las Vegas, but the entire population of the state.

            Repurposing Las Vegas means we must create and implement strategies that support new kinds of jobs and a new economy that supports a new kind of community.  Becoming something greater than what we’ve always been doesn’t occur over night.  It also requires partnering with the character of the natural environment – rather than ignoring it; and, it requires us to create and implement physical, social and educational changes as well that lift us towards tomorrow rather than holding us back against yesterday. 

            When 40% of the people living here want to leave and live somewhere else, we must awaken and understand how much we’ve failed the interests of the community-at-large, our friends, neighbors and especially our children and grandchildren. 

                Please provide us with your thoughts regarding turning the Las Vegas Valley and its economy around - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think about this issue as well!

          If you want to receive an unbiased and objective economic report on the community today go to www.rcg1.com.

Thanx!                   

Society and Population – 060110

Las Vegas must awaken to the reality around us!    If we wish to look into a mirror and see ourselves within another perspective, all we have to do is look at Detroit today.  The physical, social and economic drain that has severely damaged Detroit over the last 25 years is a result of a city, its people and its elected leaders thinking its problems will fade by continuing to operate and do things the way they always have.  They wrongly concluded their downfall could – and would - be resolved over time and the unemployed would soon be back to work.

                 Today, after everyone who can has left the city, Detroit finds itself with large expanses of neighborhoods all across the once grand community filled with thousands of empty, vandalized homes standing in ruins.  The only economic and social option available to Detroit today is to demolish hundreds of blocks of earlier development and convert the land back to agricultural purposes.

                As radical as it sounds, the scenario playing out in Detroit could happen here.  Yes, our community is not as old as Detroit.  Yes, our community still possesses a large employed workforce, even in this extended recession; but, if like Detroit, we do nothing as a community to alter the current conditions, we will continue to deteriorate as well. 

                As an example, if we allow those first rings of oldest development lying just outside the urban core to continue to deteriorate, the Urburbs will become even greater pockets of poverty and crime – driving property values and taxes downwards even more.  Lowering property values decreases taxes as we’ve learned, causing significant reductions in services the community provides to those in need.  Without assistance, more people will be moving elsewhere to find ways to support themselves and their families.

                Southern Nevada is reaching the point where if we don’t act to turn our current situation around we may not be able to control our future fate until we fail like Detroit and must begin all over.

                How do we deal with the current problems?  We have to find ways to put people back to work.  We have to identify ways to create and initiate new fields of employment; and we need to begin today! 

                Please provide us with your thoughts regarding turning the local community and its economy around - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think about this issue as well!

Thanx!                   

 Values and Political Structures – 051610

If we are to become a sustainable community in the future, we need to begin relearning how to successfully feed ourselves - living here in the heart of the Mojave Desert.   We can do this individually, one family at a time, or we can work collectively using neighborhood gardens which are far more efficient in terms of resources, conservation and useable production. 

                Growing fruits, nuts and vegetables in the extreme environment of the desert is far more arduous than farming in more moderate climates and locations, but agriculture was first successfully performed in this region by The Early People, the Anasazi who lived here more than a thousand years ago and it was successful once again when performed by the Mormon pioneers who settled in Clark County along the Virgin, the Muddy and Colorado rivers in the late 1800’s.  In fact, farming was still underway in sections of the Las Vegas valley until the late 1960’s.   

                Water is a critical resource in the desert for human survival as well as it is for farming, so it must be treated respectfully and used responsibly.  Creating appropriate shade, natural nutrients and moisture retaining soil beds are imperative for long-term successful food production.  Urban agriculture is already in place all across Europe today.  There are more than 55,000 urban farmers in Berlin providing approximately 40% of the city’s food production.  These numbers are similar to the percentages American urban gardens provided during the Great Depression and Victory Gardens supplied during both World Wars.

                Urban farming is evolving once again across the United States and many communities are revising and upgrading their zoning ordinances to allow households to possess small numbers of chickens for eliminating kitchen bi-products, reducing insect infestations and producing eggs for family meals.  Rabbits are also becoming popular options for producing alternative meats for the urban populace.  In addition to backyard coops, rooftop pens are used for housing the animals.  Organic wastes are minced, treated and composted for enhancing landscape soils.

                The North Las Vegas pig farm is a sustainable asset for the valley’s futures as the animals feed almost entirely upon leftovers from the local resorts.  They must, however be transported to Utah to a slaughter house for butchering.   A local cradle-to-cradle food cycle would be created if the valley possessed a small slaughter and butchering facility.  Fish is another meat alternative to red meat that can be locally grown for protean through farming.  Waste from fish farming can likewise be recycled to create a cradle to cradle process.  More specific research needs to be performed regarding the Mojave Desert environs to understand how a rich diet of natural, organic foods can be economically grown locally.

                Please provide us with your thoughts regarding feeding the valley using locally raised foods - and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think as well!

Thanx!                   

UNLV’s recent Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey should awaken all of us to the fact that for the sake of money, we’ve ignored the responsibilities of citizenship and our obligations as residents to make this community a better place to live.  This ignorance begins with each of us and spreads outwards through our neighborhoods and upwards into our community leadership and elected officials. 

          The issue first surfaced from interviews with student high school leaders at the Las Vegas Sun Student Forum, last fall, where a significant number of representatives planned to leave the valley to attend university studies elsewhere – and did not plan on returning.  Now we find that almost half, 40% of the valley’s population, desire to live somewhere else.  It appears our misdirected focus has been on promoting growth for the sake of growth and developer profits rather than building community and making this a Place people wish to live and call Home.

          In promoting growth the way we have, we’ve allowed developers to drive our planning and zoning policies while valley-wide planning staffs have been delegated to administering subdivision applications and variances.  By auctioning gigantic parcels of local public lands, we’ve eliminated small builders and homeowners from participating in the process economically, selling the land to conglomerates of national firms with far deeper pockets.  A large segment of the recent real estate bubble and our current recession is the product of artificially elevated property values.

          So, what do we do now – in the depth of this recession when we must cut governmental budgets so deeply?  First, we have to re-establish what our values truly are.  Education and strengthening Neighborhood Services need to be our highest priorities.  Without a well-educated population, we’ll never rebuild our economy – crime and the demand for illegal drugs will continue rising, increasing our problems with socialization and unemployment.

          Neighborhood Services rank just below education at this time.  There is such anonymity and pragmatism amongst the various subdivisions throughout the valley there is no unique sense of Identity, Scale, Place, or Home.  As we’ve learned from the UNLV survey Subdivisions do not Neighborhoods make!  We now have to create ways in which to begin linking and connecting the people who live here together – defining one neighborhood at a time; dealing with the worst conditions first.  Then, we have to uncover, design and build bridges between the neighborhoods that make us a community valley-wide.          

                      Please provide us with your thoughts regarding the value of our population – and we’ll respond.  We’ll also connect you with others so you can learn how they think as well!

Thanx!                   

It may be a bi-product of the current recession, or perhaps there’s a growing segment of the valley’s population with changing attitudes towards responsible family life.  In the mornings I see more parents and grandparents walking their children to school.  No doubt, the largest majority of these adults are Latino; but it’s a lesson for all of us in “Back-to-the Future” life-styles and civilization.  The kids I see walking to school are happy children.  Even though they’re loaded down with back-packs and their lunches they’re all laughing, playing and riding their Razor scooters across the intersections and down the sidewalks, with the adult chaperones scurrying to keep up.  Some of the older children are riding their bicycles.

          The adults are also chatting with one another and smiling.  When I see these moms and dads, aunts, uncles or even grandparents with the children, it reminds me of my own youth, because adults then were very active and involved in the children’s daily lives and activities.  It also proves to me that even in the 21^st century, not every family has to have both parents working.  So what is the value of having a parent at home each day managing the family? Identify a budget for yourself for what it would cost to have all of these services provided to your family: the cost of a grocery shopper, cook, meal server and dishwasher; a maid, launderer, butler and errand runner; household accountant, family arbitrator and medical assistant; a bartender, busboy and cocktail server – as well as a trusted friend and faithful lover?  How much of this gets lost with both parents working, recognizing that a 60 hour workweek is not that uncommon today?

          So changes in political goals need to reflect that Southern Nevada is a more diverse and complex society today; we’re also a less affluent society.             We need stronger and more sensitive governance for building synergy and a sense of community that welds us together through the smaller degrees of commonality we possess.  Also, Las Vegas is still an extremely young society that is yet invested in - and committed to - strengthening its long-term connection to Place, Community and living within the environmental constraints of the Mojave Desert region.  We also need to identify and support more and more citizens for advancing to leadership and governance roles who are representative of the diverse demographics of this Valley’s population.

          We’ve always been a community that looks forward rather than reliving the past.  There’s no need to stop moving forward!