In recent years, cities across California have faced
unprecedented challenges — wildfires, flooding, mass shootings,
hazardous spills, and more. But the benefits of a good crisis
communication plan go beyond emergencies.
What defines success may be different for every agency, but one
thing is clear: City councils and city managers who work as a
team can achieve great things. But these relationships don’t
happen overnight. They require intentional, long-term
commitment from everyone.
“The painful truth is that it’s less of a contradiction than just
the system functioning the way it’s been designed. That sounds
bleak, but in fact, it points to the possibility of different
choices: If systems are designed, they can be redesigned.”
For decades, planners focused on attracting young singles to
dense urban cores. That dynamic has shifted, in part because
those young singles didn’t want to move to the suburbs to
have kids. But many cities still don’t have
enough affordable, family-sized housing or services.
In May, Santa Cruz became the first California city to implement
a sugar-sweetened beverage tax since the state preempted new
local grocery taxes in 2018. Those funds will go back to local
public health programs and city services.
Bundling traditional energy projects with related infrastructure
and community initiatives can shorten the payback on projects and
capture ones that would have been otherwise unfunded or
deferred.
In recent months, the federal government has slashed funding to
cities and states, warning that almost every federal funding
stream is under review. While cities can’t stop these cuts
completely, they can take steps to mitigate them.
“One of the most powerful platforms in the digital age — YouTube
— lacks a basic, critical feature: an emergency alert system for
local governments,” writes Paul Sanftner, a public
information officer for the city of San Leandro. “The absence of
this feature is a serious gap in our nation’s emergency
communication infrastructure.”
