DHS Program Awards Free Equipment to Police Departments (March 27)
Imagine a government assistance program that bypasses the bureaucracy and awards state-of-the-art equipment to local law enforcement agencies at no cost and with a minimum of paperwork. More from The Police Chief.

Poll Shows Great Concern Over Affordable Housing (March 27)
More than half of Americans believe housing policy, with respect to the provision of affordable housing, is on the wrong track, according to a new Zogby America poll. More from Nation's Cities Weekly.

Predator Protection Laws come under Fire (March 27)
Supporters of the zoning ordinances that restrict where convicted sex offenders may reside after being released from prison say they protect children, while opponents say such restrictions may be going too far and are suing to overturn them. More from American City & County.

Betting the Farm (March 27)
Data storage is the backbone of today’s Internet economy. But are power-hungry server farms worth wooing for economic development? More from Governing.

Homeland Security Guide (March 27)
The National Governors Association recently updated the Governor's Guide to Homeland Security (1698KB), which offers best practices and step-by-step advice on managing emergencies, including sections on interoperability, information sharing, governance and critical infrastructure protection.

The Oregon Example: Statewide Planning Works (March 27)
In 1972, prompted by rapid immigration from California and other states, Oregon enacted one of the most comprehensive state wide planning laws in the country in an effort to curb sprawl. More from New West.

What’s the Survival Formula For Our Second-Tier Cities? (March 27)
Smart states and cities, in today’s knowledge economy, focus on great urban universities, high-finance and high-tech firms that rely heavily on drawing young professionals. But what happens to America’s second-tier cities? More from Nation's Cities Weekly.

At the Tipping Point (March 27)
Has tax increment financing become too much of a good thing? More from Planning Magazine.

Guidebook for Freight Policy, Planning, and Programming (March 27)
The Transportation Research Board's (TRB) Guidebook for Freight Policy, Planning, and Programming in Small- and Medium-Sized Metropolitan Areas explores how freight policy, planning, and programming processes can be most effectively designed, initiated, and managed. More from the TRB.

Broadband’s Buzzwords (March 22)
To understand the debates over telecom policy taking place at the state and federal levels, it helps to know the video franchising lingo. More from Governing.

Sightings: Walkable Communities and Pedestrian Planning (March 22)
Sightings: Walkable Communities and Pedestrian Planning With an increasing nationwide interest in healthy communities, local governments have recognized the need to encourage the development of walkable, pedestrian friendly places. This month's Web Sightings focuses on walkable communities, pedestrian safety, and related plans:

• Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration
• Walkinginfo.org - Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center - Clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, and access and mobility. Sponsored by U.S. Department of Transportation and operated by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, in cooperation with the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. Includes Exemplary Pedestrian Plans
• Walkable Communities, Inc. - Organization formed in 1996 by national pedestrian expert Dan Burden to help communities become more walkable and pedestrian friendly
• National Center for Bicycling and Walking - Helps to create bicycle-friendly and walkable communities across North America
• Partnership for a Walkable America - A national coalition of government agencies and nonprofit organizations working to improve the conditions for walking in America and to encourage more people to walk regularly

• Walking in Washington - Washington State Department of Transportation - Safety, recreational and technical information for walking enthusiasts
• FeetFirst - Washington State-based organization supporting the creation of walkable communities
• Designing Transportation Facilities for Pedestrians and Bicycles, MRSC Web page - In particular see Planning for Bicycles and Pedestrians - Nonmotorized Transportation Plans

From U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration:

• How to Develop a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, February 2006
• Improving Conditions for Bicycling and Walking, January 1998
• Pedestrian Facilities Users Guide – Providing Safety and Mobility, March 2002

From Victoria Transport Policy Institute:

• Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning: A Guide to Best Practices, by Todd Litman et al., April 2006
• Walkability Improvements, Strategies to Make Walking Convenient, Safe and Pleasant, TDM Encyclopedia

Other

• Creating Walkable Communities – A Guide for Local Governments, Mid-America Regional Council, Dec. 1998

Can You Dig it? (March 22)
New less expensive and easy-to-use mobile GIS equipment with sub-foot accuracy is helping utilities keep track of their assets. More from American City & County.

Pedestrian Safety Initiative: The Other Side (March 22)
Many police departments, schools, and parents have become complacent about educating children about pedestrian safety. More from The Police Chief.

Where the Lights aren't Bright (March 22)
How two booming cities have tried, and failed, to revive their centres. More from The Economist.

Middle-Class Dream: Rental (March 22)
Affordability problems are creeping up the income ladder, leaving even rental housing out of the reach of more middle-class families. More from Apartment Finance Today.

Top Ten Alternative Fueled City Fleets (March 22)
SustainLane surveyed the largest 50 US cities in 2006 as to the percentage of their city vehicles fleets using alternative fuels including biodiesel, hydrogen, ethanol, compressed and natural gas, as well as electric vehicles, gas-hybrid vehicles. More from SustainLane.

DHS Offers Free Security Training on the Web (March 22)
New Web-based training is available from the Department of Homeland Security for anybody involved in protecting critical infrastructure, such as power plants and water supplies.

The Political Calculus of Congestion Pricing (March 22)
The political difficulty with congestion pricing is persuading people to do it in the first place, not in convincing them of its value after the fact. More from Transport Policy (206KB).

Sustainable Cities (March 22)
Smart growth is newly fashionable. But what will it take to turn fashion into national policy? More from The American Prospect.

Public/Private Development (March 13)
Public/private partnerships have become a favored strategy for implementing complex urban developments, but the large volume of literature on the topic falls short of providing city planners, development experts, and policy analysts the knowledge needed for either teaching or practice. More from the Journal of the American Planning Association (1172KB).

Historic Preservation - 2007's Dozen Distinctive Destinations (March 13)
The National Trust for Historic Preservation's recently announced 2007 Dozen Distinctive Destinations, an annual list of unique and lovingly preserved communities in the United States, includes one very special city in Washington.

One Tiny Town Becomes Internet-Age Power Point (March 13)
While much of the U.S. frets over a residential real-estate slump, this small farming town on Washington State's plains has the opposite worry: A boom-town economy is inflating housing prices. More from The Wall Street Journal.

Service-Delivery Completion Targets (March 13)
Selection of performance targets for service delivery has important implications both for how agency employees behave and how citizens evaluate the agency’s competence. More from Bob Behn's Public Management Report (224KB).

Smart City - An Authentic Sense of Place (March 13)
Authenticity is one of those qualities that is hard to define, but you know it when you see it - or feel it. This week's guests on Smart City explore its meaning and its application to places.

More COPS (March 13)
A recent Brookings Institution Policy Brief argues that it is time to reconsider the massive de-funding of one of the most successful federal anti-crime measures of the 1990s: the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Policing Services (COPS) program.

Churches' Zoning Protection Irks Locals (March 13)
Several cities are challenging the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, saying it places an undue burden on them. More from American City & County.

Seaside Revisited (March 13)
Slate Magazine offers a slide show on the influential new urbanist town of Seaside, Florida. More from Slate Magazine.

Numbers, Crunched (March 13)
If budgets are financial plans, then Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) tell you what happened to the plan. So why don’t more people pay attention to them? More from Governing.

How Can a Metro Wi-Fi Network Benefit Your Community? (March 13)
In the past few years, an emerging technology known by a variety of names, including "metro-scale Wi-Fi," "municipal Wi-Fi," and "mesh networking," has been doing for high-speed Internet access what cellular telephones did for voice services. More from Public Management Magazine.

The Theme-Parking, Mega Churching, Franchising, Exurbing, and McMansioning of America (March 07)
Walt Disney's utopian dream forever changed Orlando, Florida, and laid the blueprint for the new American metropolis. More from National Geographic.

Updated IRS Instructions for Federal Telephone Tax Refund (March 07)
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced that it would stop collecting the federal tax on long distance and bundled telephone services and that instructions for refunds would be issued. For many local governments, this announcement was a "non-event" because they had long ago filed certificates with their telephone service providers, claiming an exemption. However, if your jurisdiction was paying the tax, you should file for a refund. More

Breaking the Density Deadlock (March 07)
A local government that denounced density in blunt terms just six years ago is embracing it now. More from Governing.

Storm Tests Seattle's Emergency Response Resources (March 07)
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels recently released a detailed review of the city's response to the historic December 2006 windstorm and pledged to implement all of the report's key recommendations to help prepare even more effectively for future emergencies. More from Government Technology.

Preserving and Using Institutional Memory (March 07)
A new report from the Transportation Research Board (TRB), Preserving and Using Institutional Memory through Knowledge Management Practices, examines practices for the effective organization, management, and transmission of materials, knowledge, and resources that are in the unique possession of individual offices and employees. More from the TRB.

Local Wireless Networks - A Prerequisite for the Future (March 07)
More than 140 cities and counties in the United States (compared with 12 municipalities in 2004) are pursuing wireless networks while another 200 are studying the issues or are in the feasibility phase. More from Public Management Magazine.

Local Governments Offer the "Truth" on Telecom Reform (March 07)
Facing fierce lobbying efforts, national local government associations launched a new Web site to present the "real truth" on the potential effects of telecommunications reform on communities and consumers. More from Government Technology.

Down on the Waterfront (March 07)
Seattle's new Olympic Sculpture Park honors art and the urban environment, while preserving Seattle's natural resources. More from American City & County.

Oregon's Property Wrongs (March 07)
A new report from the Sightline Institute, Two Years of Measure 37: Oregon's Property Wrongs (448KB), tells the story of Oregon communities wrestling with the consequences of Measure 37.

LEED for Neighborhood Development (March 07)
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development Rating System integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design.