RENEW Website!

We’re thrilled to share that RENEW has officially launched their website! This site is a useful tool to learn more about the importance of energy-efficiency and other environmental justice efforts in our region. Rochester ENergy Efficiency and Weatherization (RENEW) works with community partners to help make the homes of income-eligible residents more energy-efficient, healthier, and safer. They’re proud to have been doing this work for 9 years, and celebrated with an anniversary party in August, where this site was first previewed by longtime friends and partners in the work.

The website features a comprehensive list of community partners, client stories, photos, and more. Try using the Carbon Offset Calculator to calculate your total carbon emissions and the amount to donate to “offset” your footprint to the RENEW Climate Fund. This tool will help support our neighbors, and all contributions will stay local to help clean the air we all breathe.

We love to lift up the work of our fellow initiatives at the Community Foundation and invite you to explore this new website at your leisure!

Here’s a bit of a scavenger hunt to get you started: which award did RENEW win in July 2024?  

Eviction Diversion Resource Center

On October 15th, colleagues from fellow RACF initiative RENEW (Rochester ENergy Efficiency and Weatherization), passed along a memo to members from the National Low Income Housing Coalition about Monroe County’s new resource center.

The memo - found here - references ACT Rochester data and explains the utility of this important public service. The Eviction Diversion Resource Center (EDRC) is located within the Hall of Justice and is associated with Housing Court. In fact, the EDRC appears to be a nexus point for many housing-related organizations in Monroe County.

Housing has been a hot button issue and the EDRC and the article provide critical information to inform community members in need, as well as the stories we are telling about housing in Monroe County. Consider this some significant Brain Food!

Early Voting

I’m voting this weekend! In New York State, we have a voting window in case life gets busy and you can’t make it on November 5th. The window starts tomorrow, October 26th.

I received information in the mail about my voting location, the voting window dates, and the hours that my location is open. If you haven’t received this, you can look up your voting location and the details at https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov/

Please make sure you take the time to vote!

Register to vote!

Voter registration is due October 26th, which is next Saturday.

If you are not sure whether you are registered, fill out this form.

If you are not registered, here is what you need to know:

Qualifications to Register

To qualify for voter registration in New York State, you must:

• be a United States Citizen;

• be 18 years old (you may pre-register at 16 or 17 but cannot vote until you are 18);

• be a resident of this state and the county, city or village for at least 30 days before the election;

• not be in prison for a felony conviction (click here to learn more about voting after incarceration);

• not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court;

• not claim the right to vote elsewhere

Registration Forms

You may register to vote using the New York State Voter Registration Form found at the links below. You can complete a PDF version of the New York State Voter Registration Form on-line by clicking on the link below, typing the necessary information and selecting the appropriate boxes. Alternatively, you can print the form to complete by hand.

New York State Voter Registration Form English

New York State Voter Registration Form Spanish

Once the form is completed, you need to print the form and sign it. We cannot accept any kind of digital or Adobe-generated signature. Then, mail the form to your local county board of elections (select your county and find address here ) or return the form in person to your county board of elections, a local DMV, or any of the following agencies:

• Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services

• City Universities of New York(CUNY)

• Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired

• Department of Health - WIC Program

• Department of Labor

• Department of Social Services

• Department of State

• Division of Veterans’ Services

• Military Recruiting Offices

• Office for the Aging

• Office of Mental Health

• Office For People With Developmental Disabilities

• State Universities of New York(SUNY)

• Adult Career and Continuing Education Services-Vocational Rehabilitation(ACCES-VR)

• Workers’ Compensation Board

Again, the voter registration deadline is October 26th, so registration forms need to be returned by mail (received by 10/26) or in person by the end of the day on October 26th.

Absentee ballots also need to be requested by October 26th. For more information click here.

National Zoning Atlas + Local Update

I attended Reconnect Rochester’s film event - “The Sprawl Effect” - last week, and it was fantastic! Information, important conversation, and inspiration were plentiful.

At the event, I was introduced to a new resource that is relevant to zoning conversations that I know are happening across our community. Reminder: zoning codes were highlighted in Poverty, by America as a key area to focus on for poverty abolitionist work.

The resources is the National Zoning Atlas, an effort to digitize, demystify, and democratize (the 3 Ds!) zoning codes across urban counties in the US. Of particular interest is an interactive map, that includes zoning information about much of Monroe County. In addition to the map, the website includes a section called ‘Atlases in Action’ that provides snapshots, examples of advocacy, analysis, and some curated research on the topic. It is worth perusing!

Note: the project’s focus seems to be urban areas and therefore only areas within Monroe County are included at this stage, and even within Monroe County there are some gaps (Irondequoit is not available, for example). The project is in building mode so we hope that their good work expands into the other 7 counties of our region.

Consider using the National Zoning Atlas to check your facts and inform your conversations about zoning codes in Monroe County! The link is also included on the National Data Sources and Services page under Resources (a great reference list!).

UPDATE: In a brilliant example of communicating and connecting, Shane Wiegand (of Our Local History at CCSI) alerted me to a local project done in collaboration with Dr. Stu Jordan at the University of Rochester on zoning regulations and city planning. Please find an excellent story map here and a map specific to exclusionary zoning in Monroe County (with 2018 data) here.

3 Excellent Short Reads on Public Safety

The issues of crime and public safety have been top-of-mind since before COVID, and then the circumstances of the pandemic made everything worse. So, communities across the country have been struggling with crime statistics, identifying trends, and attempting to intervene effectively.

Chicago and the University of Chicago Crime Lab have been center stage. The Crime Lab is nationally recognized for its applied research and is often seen as the gold standard for evidence-based intervention toward public safety.

On September 23rd, 2023, three articles came out that highlight the work of Chicago’s Crime Lab and provide high quality food for thought:

1. An article about the difference between data and personal experience, and what the experience gap tells us about the reality behind the numbers. I know that I have heard friends and colleagues talk about the confusion of data trends that show reduced crime while at the same time feeling less safe downtown than we can remember. This article provides approachable insight. Highly recommend!

2. An article about an approach to gun violence prevention that has been successful in high risk neighborhoods in Chicago

3. Commentary directly from staff at UChicago Crime Lab and insight into some of the work that the Crime Lab has done that shows promise and innovation, including the establishment of Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs) for data-driven decision-making

Please consider reading all three articles, particularly as you engage in conversations about public safety in the city of Rochester. We need to learn from Chicago and see what we can customize for the Rochester context.

Brain food for evidence-based decision making around public safety!

Creatives Rebuild New York

Did you know that New York state has an investment and relief program dedicated to the financial stability of artists and the organizations that employ them? The program is called Creatives Rebuild New York. Find out more here.

Next City posted an article on September 18, 2024 that tells individual artists’ stories about their experience with the program. It provides a bit of background and then beautiful pictures and stories. Find it here and enjoy some arts and culture brain food!

Curated Article: How 3 cities are using federal funding to reknit communities divided by urban renewal and freeways

Reimagining the Civic Commons posted an article about Reconnecting Communities grants that includes case studies about Cleveland, OH, Akron, OH, and Miami, FL.

Included in the case study review is a spotlight on designer and spatial justice activist Liz Ogbu. Liz Ogbu was a featured speaker in Syracuse at the New York State Funders Alliance meeting in October of 2023, and she was fantastic. Her message promotes a diversity of narratives and embracing creativity as we think about our public spaces.

We have similar urban renewal projects that we think about and talk about in our community, and these 3 case studies may spark something new in the story you tell or the framing you use.

As a reminder, opening our minds to new stories often leads to innovation, which can lead to transformation and improvement. Let’s get creative!

2024 Fringe Festival!

This week’s Brain Food is specific to the right brain - the creative side! Rochester’s 2024 Fringe Festival begins on September 10th. Visit the site - rochesterfringe.com - for information, tickets, and list of shows.

If you would like additional information, the September 3rd episode of Connections with Evan Dawson is dedicated to the Fringe Festival. Listen here!

Curated Book on Urban Design

A close friend lent me the book Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery after a lengthy policy conversation. He told me I needed to read it; he was right. You should read it, too!

Note that Happy City is not written by social scientists so the objective of the book is not to prove or disprove a hypothesis. I loved and recommend Happy City because it is an exercise in out-of-the-box thinking. It is a catalyst for innovative problem-solving. It provides case studies of cities across the world, told as stories, and patched together for a wholistic and human-centered approach to the complex challenges of urban areas. Happy City highlights the successes of Vancouver, Canada, Bogota, Colombia, Siena, Italy, and Paris, France, and it uses history and exceptional scholarship to make arguments about what makes a city great and how to improve the quality of life for all city residents.

“And what are our needs for happiness?... We need to walk, just as birds need to fly. We need to be around other people. We need beauty. We need contact with nature. And most of all, we need not to be excluded. We need to feel some sort of equality." (pg. 6)

Montgomery introduces concepts like challenged thriving (pg. 37), the relationship between happiness, economists, and urban design, unintended negative consequences of urban sprawl (beyond the damage to the environment!), and on page 111 Montgomery references a relevant psychological study at the University of Rochester. 

We spend so much time reading about the challenges of the City of Rochester and perhaps you find yourselves talking about those challenges in your networks. Consider reading Happy City to catalyze more creative thought about what urban transformation could look like.

Consider Happy City for your brain food - it's high quality nutrition for healthy thought! 

Source: Montgomery, C. (2013). Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

Federal Home Loan Banks

How’s your banking legislation history? Don’t worry if it’s not worthy of an A+ because Brookings provides a history lesson and accessible description of Federal Home Loan Banks in their August 8th, 2024 commentary: “How to Fix Federal Home Loan Banks.”

Our community has talked a lot about the intended and unintended consequences of the New Deal, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 has a role in that conversation. The good news is that there is a restructuring in progress, Brookings submitted commentary, and we all can get up to speed.

Keep in mind that this is information for policy at the federal level, but we know the effects of federal policy cascades into more local settings like ours!

Curated Blog Post: Central New York Community Foundation

Our friends at the Central New York Community Foundation posted a blog on July 11th titled "Lending Tree Study Ranked Syracuse Second in Economic Disparity."

I know what you're thinking - where does Rochester rank? Fortunately, we did not make the bottom five. Unfortunately, we are bottom six.

I encourage you to read the CNY blog post for their insight, and to look at the lending tree study itself (linked directly here). We have more work to do!

Interview with Robert Putnam

A friend of ACT Rochester passed along this interview with Robert Putnam and the associated article from The New York Times. (Thanks, Barb!) The interview talks about Putnam’s famed book Bowling Alone, rampant loneliness, and the social circumstances of our society. Dr. Putnam is a political scientist and social capital expert.  

Dr. Putnam is no stranger to our community, as he worked with RACF on a social capital survey in the 1990s. He thinks, talks, and writes a lot about “joining” and its opposite, social isolation. This topic is particularly relevant post-COVID and has many correlations to upward mobility. 

Consider this interview and Robert Putnam’s work as our political landscape lights up preparing for November elections.

Funding POC Arts

Today, July 9th, 2024, Next City and Hester Street published a podcast about the consequences of not funding arts programs, particularly arts programs operated by people of color and in non-white communities. The podcast (included if you scroll down to the end of the short introductory article) is an important conversation - I encourage you to pay attention particular from 10 minutes to 12 minutes and then a conversation about data and metrics around the arts at the 21st minute.

The importance of funding the arts is well-known and recognized here at Rochester Area Community Foundation - see the work RACF does in Arts and Culture here. 

Additionally, the Center for an Urban Future published a report about how the arts catalyze economic vitality - find information and the report here. 

Curated Report: The Children’s Agenda Rochester City Budget Highlights

Local advocacy organization The Children’s Agenda released a report highlighting the Rochester City’s Budget allocations, with a particular emphasis on how the budget affects children. 

The report calls out policy efforts in the areas of poverty, support for the public library system, youth development and mental health, and youth violence prevention. 

The report is very well-organized, providing readers a summary of budgeted items by category as well as commendations and recommendations. PLEASE READ!

Curated Post: Next City Covers Rochester as featured case about banking efforts

On June 3rd, 2024, nonprofit resource Next City posted a story titled “Why a Rochester Credit Union Wants the Local Government to Create Its Own Bank” as a case study for lenders meeting residents’ and small business owners’ needs. The Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union is featured as part of a push to create a Bank of Rochester, a “public bank” intended to hold only government deposits and partner with local private lenders. 

The article outlines how the idea of a public bank would work and makes the argument for the potential of such a program. This idea is also a spark for thinking about alternative lending, alternative banking options. 

As we learned in Dr. Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America, the banking industry is a particularly institutionalized impediment for upward mobility. Consider this alternative, or come up with your own ideas, as you engage in conversations about banking equity, and the potential of this community to encourage home ownership, small business development, and our general upward mobility efforts. 

A State-Level Look at the Social Safety Net

The US social safety net is a collection of programs meant to support families experiencing financial hardship. The provision of these programs varies widely by state, and Brookings has published an article and interactive data tool for us to review New York State. These are great references to consider, particularly as we think about the elections coming up in November and the overall well-being of our community. 

As you review these tools, also consider New York State tax credit policies, laid out and defined here. Consider looking up other states as well, so you can put New York in context.  

Curated Webinar: ARPA and US Placemaking

On Tuesday, June 11th from 1:30pm to 3:00pm Eastern Time, Next City is hosting a webinar to explore ARPA’s significant investment in local governments. The webinar includes representatives from PlacemakingUS, National League of Cities, and Michigan Municipal League to discuss what we have seen with ARPA’s historic investment at the state and local level. Click here to learn more.  

Locally, we have been intentional in our approach to ARPA funds, with an eye toward inclusive and equitable recovery. See our Inclusive Recovery narrative page and Federal Recovery Funds dashboard for more information and relevant case studies. 

Curated Webinar: Black voters and the complexity of race and politics in the 2024 elections

On May 16, 2024, the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative at Brookings held a virtual event where scholars discussed trends and insights specifically about Black voters. The live YouTube event highlighted some myths about Black voters – including debunking the idea that Black people don’t vote – and provided insight into why Black voters may not unanimously support the Democratic party in the way that popular culture would like. 

Pro tip: At about 49 minutes in, an audience member asks for how white allies can support Black voters. 

Note: Brookings will be hosting similar webinars for other racial/ethnic groups. Sign up for the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative events newsletter here.

Testing a Guaranteed Basic Income

In Rochester, one in four people live in poverty. Imagine how our community might change if everyone had enough money to cover living expenses, as well as enough to manage urgent or unexpected ones.

That’s part of what the City of Rochester is exploring in its 12-month Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Program, which began in 2023. The idea is to see how a guaranteed payment of $500 per month will help residents who live at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. Payments are unconditional — participants do not have work requirements or restrictions on how to spend money. 

Other cities across the country are exploring similar programs to find ways to address poverty.

Pilot programs like these are valuable because they allow us to test novel approaches on a small scale in the real world. The key is that these projects last only for a prescribed period of time. Fears of failure and loss of funding can bring the temptation to let them go on indefinitely without analysis, but it is essential to stop and evaluate the data.

Rochester’s Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot made its first payments in October 2023. As the program unfolds over the coming months, city officials and their community partners will be examining its impacts. We will all have to stay tuned!