Every Wednesday, the TFG Blog posts a series of articles published over the previous week that discusses topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!
Seattle Adopts an Old Way to Pay for New Parks
Seattle is joining cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C., and nearby Tacoma by funding its parks through the creation of a metropolitan park district. The crucial difference between funding parks though a metro park district and the regular way is that the taxes it collects will bypass the general fund and go directly to parks. Park advocates consider this a huge win, but the model has its drawbacks. Read more…
3 States Consider Ways to Maximize Existing Transportation Money
Voters in Louisiana, Maryland, and Wisconsin will all weigh in on proposals that supporters say will make existing transportation resources go further. Louisiana lawmakers want to create a state infrastructure bank. Meanwhile, Maryland and Wisconsin legislators want to seal off transportation money from being used for other purposes. Read more…
Gaming: A New Way to Engage Citizens in Problem-Solving
Sometimes there’s no better way to kill citizen engagement than by actually engaging citizens. Using gaming to increase engagement has been propelled by the Engagement Lab, a research unit house at Boston’s Emerson College that focuses on the development and study of games technology and new media to improve civic interaction. Read more…
USDOT Local Government Safety Plan to Reduce Pedestrian and Bicyclist Accidents
Last month, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a national road safety improvement campaign to cut down on the increasing number of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities across the country. If local governments follow this 18-month strategy, DOT expects traffic crashes to reduce by an average of 29%. Read more…
Next-Gen 911: Two States, Two Approaches to Implementation
Connecticut and Kansas are working to install next-generation 911 telephone systems, which may become necessary for all in an ever-growing wireless mobile society. The next-gen system has the capacity to receive mobile texts and videos to 911 centers, which can then be passed to police and emergency responders before they arrive on location, creating seamless information sharing between 911 centers and response teams. Read more…
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