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Here's the Community News You Requested February 05, 2026 |
Please visit A Good Community: Making and Keeping One. 
As we close down our website in about four weeks, we can't help but reflect on which of our pages we think are the best. Sometimes these haven't received the attention they deserve due to the way search engines work. We thought we would call your attention to some of them. How to put together a neighborhood tour, which is pretty new and thus isn't being found as much as hoped. We know plenty about this!
Adaptive re-use, a terrific list of possible new uses when the existing land use can't attract new tenants. The long lists don't register as useful with search algorithms.
Small town character, which probably reads like we are talking about
a colorful person, but actually the page concerns what it takes to give a small town an impactful visual character and atmosphere.
Cleaning up your neighborhood park, which does get traffic but not as much as it warrants.
School site selection about how school siting influences the way a town or city grows; it's a page that should be recommended to your school board.
Tree canopy, an interview with an expert about selecting and caring for street trees and also trees on private property in your town.
Community anti-drug coalitions, another
interview-generated page about an approach to young people and drugs that breaks down siloes among professions. This one is suited to smaller communities as well as the big city.
Co-housing, which a co-housing expert told us is the best information available anywhere about the joys and pitfalls of organizing a co-housing development.
Urban design principles, another page that generates good traffic but would attract a lot more if people knew what the term "urban design" means. (If you don't know either, a quick skim of the page will clue you in.)
We also want to encourage you to look for the yellow box near the top of our Sitemap page, where you would find a cross-referenced list
of pages that may be of interest to different audiences. Instead of being organized by topic, such as Economic Development, the lists are broken down by reader, such as Planning Commissioners or Local Government Officials. Since so many community development topics could be categorized in multiple ways, this helps readers find articles they otherwise would overlook if they only checked out the menu.
Lastly, a reminder to have community organization social media or newsletter chairs look over the spring newsletter ideas.
Recently I was asked to judge an awards competition. One of the categories was best plan. Two of the three entries came from large, well-financed public agencies. Typically they were grand, grandiose, lengthy, flashily produced, fairly comprehensive in their range of topics, but way short of any meaningful discussion of implementation. The third entry was a brief, illustration-free bicycle plan for a smallish city.
I disagreed with other judges by advocating for the latter, citing the specific nature of the recommendations, the explicit listing of the agency or agencies required for implementation, and a range of costs and discussion of how they could be financed. The other judges outnumbered me, but I stand by this opinion.
If your plan doesn't at least make an educated guess about who will need to be involved in implementation, who should take the lead, and a ballpark
estimate of how much it might cost and how long it might take, it's just a wish list, a puff piece, or an exercise in creating something clever. Nothing wrong with these things, but they do not add up to a plan.
We received and answered one question from website visitors this month, and a timely one it was. If this is topical in your location, see the page on zoning for data centers.
Below is our summary of some of the best resource organizations to consult as you go about the business of making and keeping a good community. Almost all of them have newsletters you can subscribe to, if you find a specific organization to be relevant to your own work. Here are our favorites.
Community Heart and Soul, for small towns and cities
Asset-Based Community Development Institute, an approach relevant to simply everyone world-wide
Weave: The Social Fabric Project, which sounds wonky, but the down-to-earth strategies that people across the U.S. are implementing to get to know and built trust with their neighbors are for everyone.
Smart Growth America, for
those interested in the pattern of growth in your region
National Complete Streets Coalition, a resource about making streets work for everyone, including vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists
Shelterforce, aimed at professionals in housing-related fields, including community development, but also helpful to the most involved citizen leaders on those topics
Bloomberg CityLab, which reports on cutting-edge practices in cities, slanted toward bigger places
American Planning Association, the professional planners association, but resources under the In Your Community tab may be helpful to "citizen planners," a fancy name for folks like planning commissioners. Also you can see the headings even
where access is restricted to members; your city's professionals could recover those materials for you.
NeighborWorks, a network of 250 organizations working toward and advocating for better communities. They are also noted for rigorous professional training.
Community Opportunity Alliance, which incorporates the former National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations and its People and Places Initiative. This association of local housing and community development organizations and their allies sponsors meaningful convenings.
Last and not least, your own faith tradition may provide excellent materials helpful to you as someone interested in community development. It's worth investigating.
We expect this to be the last issue of Good Community Plus. If you would like to communicate with the website's principal author, email Nancy using the address plan.agoodcommunity at gmail. She will be delighted to hear from you.
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