Cutting Through the Red Tape

reviewing expectations: my first week in the City/Parish of Baton Rouge

CHF Team — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:27:00 GMT

by Emily Patrick, 2011 Baton Rouge Fellow

Months before I started carrying boxes up to my second floor apartment or scoped out the local grocery stores the Sunday before work began, my thoughts had revolved around the Red Stick City. For the first time I would be living an extended period of time out of my home state of Virginia. Personally I had very little anxiety about the possibilities that lay ahead even as friends and family weighed in their opinions on what I could expect.

When I relayed my impending move to Louisiana, people’s reactions spanned from mild surprise to downright incredulity. I had friends’ parents confide that the government was indeed very corrupt “down there,” and that working for the government would be “trial by fire.” Equally fervent though were people’s positive reactions to the culture. More than once after describing my move I was wished good luck in New Orleans and asked if I had any space for them to come for Mardi Gras. Despite these opinions and past experiences, I was determined to move in open-minded and ready to learn.

The first day alone was enough to exceed any expectations I had. After having just met the fellows and our wonderful program director, Kathy Fletcher, we were whisked away to be welcomed and introduced to the city by none other than Mayor-President Holden. In the days that followed we had warm receptions from every business leader and government official that took time out of their busy schedules to describe to us their role in local government. Some of our week’s activities included meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, touring the Exxon-Mobil oil refinery plant, listening to the history of Baton Rouge from the state museum, looking behind the scenes at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and hearing about the great initiatives Southern University has for its students. Immediately our cohort could see the connections and the need in some instances for groups to talk to one another across sectors. At times different groups clearly had different ideas. The Department of Tourism would love for Baton Rouge to be known for its phenomenal (which I hope to experience soon) football tailgates. On the other hand, LSU's long term plans for tailgating include risk mitigation and expansion of safety measures. All groups however were proud to call Baton Rouge their home and desired to make it a better place.

As orientation progresses, I look forward to exploring the physical layout of the city and continuing the great dialogue among our cohort. I can honestly say that I know more about Baton Rouge than any other city I’ve ever lived in and I look forward to spending time within a community that has received us all with open arms.

Social Cities

CHF Team — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:11:26 GMT

by Miki Litmanovitz, 2010 San Francisco Fellow

A major responsibility of cities is to engage with their residents and keep them involved, and cities have been turning to social media to help them achieve that goal. The City of San Francisco has always been at the forefront of technology and social media. Mayor Gavin Newsom was even recently named America’s Most Social Mayor for his use of social media.

How can other cities and nonprofits use social media to their advantage? Is Twitter the answer? Or is it Facebook? Blogging? YouTube? Cloud computing? What's the next trend in bleeding-edge technology, and how can NGOs be prepared to use it?

I recently attended a training on how to use social media in the public and nonprofit sectors, and here are some best practices I learned:

Remember that the purpose of social media isn’t to talk about you; it’s to get information about your organization. Keep your personal accounts and your organization’s accounts separate.
Make sure you pick names that are intuitive, like the name of your organization. (Good example: Unicef)
Keep your posts short, no more than a few very short paragraphs. (Good example: World Wildlife Fund)
Your Twitter and Facebook accounts should contain unique information, not just link to other social networking sites. (Good example: Red Cross Twitter, Red Cross Facebook)
Make it easy for people to donate! Include relevant information on your website/blog/etc. regarding how funding is used. (Good example: PETA)
Take the extra time to make sure that all the links on your website work. Having inoperable links on your website looks unprofessional and makes it harder to find relevant information about your organization.

Training the People Who Transform Our Neighborhoods

CHF Team — Fri, 07 May 2010 23:58:00 GMT

by Bethany Rubin Henderson, Founder & Executive Director, City Hall Fellows

Recently I was asked to guest author a blog for the Pepsi Refresh Project. Here's my post, republished in full from the Refresh Blog. This was originally posted on March 16, 2010.

Every week, each of the Refresh Ambassadors brings in a new voice to take stock of the ideas populating their category and to gather up a “playlist” of their favorites. Bethany Rubin Henderson, Founder and Executive Director of City Hall Fellows, weighs in.

Most of the time when people talk about improving their communities, they focus on programs. Fix this road here. Build this community center there. Clean up that park. Start a new youth program. But the critical factor that is often left out of the discussion is human capital. Who is going to do the work of improving our communities? Not just today, but tomorrow and next month and next year and next decade? Three Pepsi Refresh projects are preparing the leaders our communities desperately need.

Next American Vanguard is convening the country’s best and brightest urban advocates age 35 and under to share ideas and connect to experts in their fields.

The New Orleans Citizen Participation Project is developing a systematic, community-driven approach to engaging local residents in the government decisions that affect their lives.

And right outside our nation’s capital, the Neighbor Corps is training diverse, low-income, tenants to become community leaders.

Margaret Mead is right that “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” Imagine what lots of small groups of thoughtful people, trained by organizations like the ones above, could do!

Bethany Rubin Henderson is the Founder and Executive Director of City Hall Fellows, a non-partisan nonprofit working to solve the talent gap in America’s cities by empowering diverse recent college grads to solve the problems in their own hometowns.

the convergence of local economic impact research and politics

CHF Team — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:52:00 GMT

By Shyamali Choudhury, 2010 San Francisco Fellow

As a research analyst in the Controller’s Office, I work in a division called the Office of Economic Analysis (OEA). We look at economic impacts of proposed legislation and frequently field requests for data analysis from various departments. Still, this fall when a request from the City Attorney’s Office came through, it was unusual enough to stir up considerable excitement in our tiny office of three.

The San Francisco City Attorney San Francisco City Attorney successfully moved to intervene on the plaintiff’s side of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a challenge to the voter-passed Proposition 8 banning gay marriage in the state of California, which was being heard by District Court Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker. Judge Walker allowed the City of San Francisco to intervene because of his interest in hearing how Proposition 8 would affect city budgeting in terms of higher government costs in health care and social services. To demonstrate this, the City Attorney called upon my supervisor, Ted Egan, as a witness to support a 2008 report from our office on the economic impact of same-sex marriage in San Francisco.

Our office’s involvement energized my interest in the case and provided a reason to visit the courtroom during my supervisor’s testimony. As we worked to update the report, the potential impact of our research was apparent. The convergence of our office’s research and this important political event was a significant moment for my year in city hall. Though it was an uncommon opportunity in city government, it is characteristic of San Francisco’s leadership on social issues.

lead-ing the way: public health, clay pots, and potential lead-poisoning

CHF Team — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:43:00 GMT

By Minh Nguyen, 2010 Houston Fellow

In 2009, the Environmental Health Division of the City of Houston’s Health and Human Services Department (HDHHS) began the Flea Market Initiative (FMI) to investigate venues that it does not typically address - flea markets.The initiative itself was successful in curbing existent public health violations and even brought to bear another public health concern: pottery containing high lead levels. This initiative is a great example of how multi-disciplinary teams and committed public health agencies can work together to improve a community’s health. Recently, the actions of the Department culminated in a press release manifested from coordination at the local and federal agencies warning the public of the potential health concerns of the pottery brand. This is truly local government at its best.

Flea markets have not beenroutinely inspected because flea market vendors in Houston are not required to have permits,although the number of public health violations did not go unnoticed. HDHHScreated the FMI to curb these violations. The FMI acted to document violations,educate vendors, and re-inspect eight different flea markets to proactivelyprotect the attendees of these markets. Based on its initial findings, the multi-disciplinary team achieved a 52% overall reduction in food, animal, lead, and smoking violations. Additionally, the FMI allowed the health inspectors the opportunity to identify Mi Patria’s clay pottery as a potential health hazard, especially since people may use them to cook, store, and serve foods and beverages (Note: High levels of lead in blood, particularly for children, can lead to learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and mental retardation, to name a few).

From the lead-positive findings ofthe few pieces from the flea market, the escalation of actions from the Environmental Health Division was superb. They purchased additional Mi Patria pottery pieces from localstores where they performed lab tests. They worked with a representative of the brand to test 23 other pieces (11 containedor exceeded lead-level limits) then proceeded to work in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Trade Commission, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many conference calls, exchanged emails, and tests later, the coordinated efforts resulted in a press release disclosing the unsettling concerns. HDHHS had already raised enough concern fora few stores to voluntarily un-shelve the product line. The press release (and, later, news coverage) increased the profile of the Department’s findings.

Although more work is needed, HDHHS showed incredible discernment in their actions. This is an example of how local government can act as the eyes and ears of Federal regulations. As those closest to the citizens and businesses, local government is the first line of defense. It has the authority and duty to challenge businesses to act above reproach to serve their consumers. This is why city government matters.

energy efficiency & economic development

CHF Team — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:32:00 GMT

By Sara Mansur, 2010 HoustonFellow

I am serving my Fellowship year in the Office of SustainableGrowth here in the City of Houston.While my work for the year pertains mostly to renewable energy andenvironmental sustainability policy, I have had the opportunity to observe the operationof the City’s impressive Residential Energy Efficiency Program (REEP), which isalso run out of my office.

REEP was created in 2006 as part of a comprehensive plan toreduce energy consumption throughout the City of Houston.After Hurricane Katrina and the widespread infrastructure damage itcaused, residents saw a spike in their electricity costs. Mayor Bill Whiterecognized the need to reduce these costs in order to allow residents to beable to pay their electricity bills and remain in their homes.

In 2006, the City of Houstonbegan an extensive public-private partnership program to offer a comprehensivesuite of energy efficiency upgrades to low-income homes in Houston. This program, entitled REEP, offersinsulation, caulking, and weather stripping to low-income residents’ homes, toreduce energy consumption and lower electricity bills.

The City of Houston,in partnership with CenterPoint Energy, has weatherized over 7,000 homes,through a total expenditure of $7 million. In July, the City received a further$23 million in ARRA Federal Stimulus Funding, through the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program. These funds will be used to expandthe currently operating REEP program to weatherize 6,000 more homes. Uponexpiration of the DOE’s funds, the City hopes to continue its program withlocal funding, to weatherize a total of 20,000 homes.

Not only has REEP dramatically increased the quality of lifeof individual residents, by significantly reducing their electrical bills inthe hottest months of the year, but also it has played a large role instabilizing the low-income neighborhoods on which it focuses. By allowing residents to pay their electricitybills and remain in their homes, the program ultimately stabilizesneighborhoods as a whole.

are city health centers offering a healthy work environment for employees?

CHF Team — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:27:00 GMT

By Rachel O’Shields, 2010 Houston Fellow

Recently, as part of my Fellowship, I conducted an assessment of the morale among the Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS) Nursing Staff. The purpose was to assess retention, to ascertain a current demographic profile of Health Department nurses, and to allow for accurate HDHHS staff forecasting and planning based on retirement eligibility. This information was intended to lead the department to new retention and recruiting strategies, among other courses of action.

Of the indicators of morale, there are several key statistics. First, only about 20% of city nursing staff feel that their pay is adequate enough to meet the financial needs for themselves and their families. Second, only about 50% of city nurses feel that their peers treat each other with courtesy and respect and only 50% feel that they get the respect they deserve from their supervisors. It is interesting, however, that despite the current state of our economy, 28% of nursing staff said that working with the community is their primary reason for their continued employment with HDHHS, while only 12% responded that their primary reason is “Job security”. Also, 49% said that they would recommend someone close to them to work for HDHHS, while 61% said they felt comfortable having someone close to them receive care from HDHHS.

Another key observation that directly correlates to morale is the level of resistance I met from nursing staff while conducting the survey. There was a great deal of skepticism surrounding the anonymity of the survey, despite the guarantee of anonymity I vocalized prior to my administering the survey at each Health Center. Also, I was informed by several members of the nursing staff that they were reluctant to believe that any actual changes would be made.

There are several note-worthy demographic characteristics among the 2009 Nursing Staff. To begin, 100% of those who responded to the survey indicated that they were “Female”. As for the racial distribution among nursing staff, the Hispanic/Latino population has increased almost by the same amount that the African American population has decreased and, in addition, the Asian population decreased significantly from the last survey, administered in 2002. As for age among nursing staff, 85% are over the age of 40 and 11% are over the age of 65; and the average age of an RN in HDHHS is about 5 years older than the national average age (Fraleigh, “RN Magazine's 2009 Nurse Earnings Survey”). Furthermore, the percentage of those who have worked with HDHHS for over 10 years has grown from 35% in 2002 to 48% in 2009.

Another significant characteristic of this survey’s results is the decrease in number of nursing staff over the past seven years. The number of nursing staff who participated in the 2009 survey is nearly half the amount that participated in the last survey in 2002, although the response rate was higher in 2009. In 2002, 140 out of a possible 224 responses were collected. In 2009, 75 out of 88 responses were collected and, accordingly, the response rate for the 2009 survey is 85.2% as compared to the 2002 survey’s response rate of 62.5%. This drastic decrease in staffing has left many nurses feeling overworked.

To prepare and plan for future departures, Nursing Administration closely paid attention to the numbers of nursing staff eligible for retirement. About 19% of those who responded to this question are eligible for retirement today. If 19% of the nursing staff retired today, based on having 88 total nursing staff, about 17 people could potentially retire today. Additionally, about 52% are eligible within the next 5 years. If those people retired in the next 5 years, HDHHS would lose about 46 nursing staff over 5 years, or half of the total nursing staff.

My recommendations for Nursing Administration, based on the survey results, were to:

Establish more open lines of communication.
Stress the importance of employee encouragement to all supervisors.
Increase technical and educational competencies.
Invest time and other resources in staff planning and recruitment.

It is my opinion that many of the poor morale indicators stem from a feeling of disconnectedness within the department as a whole. Limited communication among programs, health centers, and the administrative office leaves employees feeling uninformed, disengaged, and isolated. Additionally, there are very few built-in reward systems for employees. Although financial incentives are most likely not an option for the city to employ, it would be highly beneficial for some thought to be given to other ways in which to reward employees. New employee incentives could not only increase and maintain morale, but also could improve efficiency and the level of care offered to the community.

The San Francisco UrbaNexus

CHF Team — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:02:00 GMT

By Rance Graham-Bailey, 2010 San Francisco Fellow

In February, with tremendous help from the Craigslist Foundation , I planned a lunch-time panel discussion entitled “Community Benefit Districts: The Future of San Francisco Development?” The event was part of URBANEXUS, a series of conferences on urban issues taking place across the country at the initiative of Next American City magazine.

Community benefits districts (CBDs) are San Francisco’s version of business improvement districts. CBDs impose a special assessment on some combination of either property or business owners to address the needs of a particular geographic area. In San Francisco, CBDs are formed with the consent of the City’s Board of Supervisors and empower a non-profit organization to addressed localized community needs such as public safety, sidewalk maintenance and community branding and marketing.

From the beginning, I sought to organize a group of three panelists to represent four perspectives which I thought could provide an insightful examination of any public policy topic: government, academic, neighborhood and business.

For the government perspective, the panel featured Lisa Pagan, a Project Manager with the City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Ms. Pagan presented a great overview of the different types of CBDs that exist in San Francisco, from the citywide tourism district encompassing hotels to the Fillmore District CBD promoting that neighborhood’s vibrant jazz scene to the North of Market/Tenderloin CBD that provides employment benefits to residents in the process of cleaning streets and sidewalks. See her presentation.

For the academic perspective, the panel featured Professor Robert Stokes of Drexel University in Philadelphia. Professor Stokes is an urban planner and sociologist by training who has conducted extensive research about the abilities of these types of districts to mitigate crime across the country, most recently in the largest-of-its-kind CDC-financed RAND institute study. Professor Stokes’ findings suggest that CBDs can be attributed with decreased criminal activity by building relationships with public partners and increasing crime prevent efforts and economic development. See his presentation.

Lastly, as a case study of the potential for CBDs in a new neighborhood with specific needs, Kate Sofis shared her work with Urban Innovation SF in leading the effort to create the Production, Artisan and Creative enterprise (PACE) CBD in the Southeast portion of San Francisco. This CBD is squarely centered on economic development and is custom-designed for its neighborhood, the exact individualized advantage that CBDs are meant to provide. See her presentation.

With over 50 audience members at the American Institute of Architecture San Francisco's beautiful space, the event was an absolute success. While it was only an 80-minute panel, San Francisco’s recent launch of PolicySF, a new initiative to spread good ideas across communities, should impress upon all of us how important thought leadership is and how information exchange can increase the innovation capital of our cities.

Sustainable Energy Financing: Bringing Solar to Houston’s Residents

CHF Team — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:59:00 GMT

By Sara Mansur, Houston Fellow '10

In cities across the nation, a new model for solar financing is popping up. This model, called PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy), allows municipalities and city governments to provide the upfront financing for property owners to purchase and install solar panels and energy efficiency improvements on their homes. Property owners repay these low interest rate loans over an extended period of time, as a line item on their property tax bills. PACE Sustainable Energy Financing Districts are rapidly proliferating in municipalities across the country, from Boulder County, CO to Berkeley, CA to Austin, TX. The crux of any PACE program is that it eradicates the highest barriers that property owners face when trying to enter the market for solar energy: high upfront costs.

Land-secured financing districts are commonly used tools in municipal finance. In traditional assessment districts, a municipality issues bonds to fund projects that are explicitly in the public interest, such as streetlights, sewer systems, etc. Typically, each resident in the land-secured district will pay a special tax towards these improvements. The PACE program allows a local government to establish a voluntary assessment district, such that only those property owners who wish to take part in the program will “opt-in” to the district. These property owners will then pay back the loan they have received from the government in the same way as their property tax bills. This allows the municipality to offer a loan to its residents without tapping into its General Fund, while minimizing risk of default. In turn, property owners are afforded access to a low-interest rate, long term loan for solar installations and energy efficiency improvements that would not normally be provided by the free market.

I believe PACE presents an opportunity for the City of Houston – where I am serving my year as a City Hall Fellows - to encourage the proliferation of an innovative technology across its residential and commercial sectors. In Berkeley, the pilot program reached capacity enrollment within the first 15 minutes of the opening of applications. By establishing a market for solar renewables and energy efficiency initiatives, the City of Houston can attract stakeholders in the industry across the supply chain, from manufacturers to contractors and installers. A PACE consultant recently estimated that a PACE program brought a 9% increase in positive job growth to the construction industry in Southern California. Such a program can provide immediately tangible results for Houston, in the form of economic development and sustainable employment across the city. Most crucially, however, PACE would be an important step towards encouraging the proliferation of clean energy alternatives among property owners and ultimately addressing climate change in the City of Houston.

Civil Lawsuits: A New Approach to Suppress Crime

CHF Team — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:05:00 GMT

By Mercedes Sanchez, Houston Fellow '10

    Gang crime and violence is gradually becoming a pressing problem in our society. Who is to blame for such a rapid increase? And how can our justice system eliminate this problem? The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that there are more than 800,000 gang members and 30,000 gangs in the United States. In response to the fast proliferation of gangs, law enforcement has been exploring new ways to suppress gangs and their violence. Because traditional means of combating street gangs have not been enough, law enforcement has looked for alternative tools such as civil gang injunctions. But, is this truly the solution to our problems?

    Civil gang injunctions are court-issued restraining orders that prohibit named gang members from participating in a variety of specified activities. The gang injunction is filed by district or city attorneys under the law of public nuisance, which is meant to protect the greater good of the community by suppressing minor offenses. Under the assumption that street gangs’ presence interfere with the rights of the community, gang injunctions become protective orders for those neighborhoods infested with such crimes. The nuisance law is applied to gangs because as an organization, its’ members must be held accountable for their actions. Nonetheless, the way injunctions are currently in place allows law enforcement to imprison gang members for suspicious activities rather than actual crimes.

    Civil gang injunctions vary throughout districts, cities, and states. The injunction is drafted to address the specific problems a neighborhood is facing and it is up to the prosecutors to decide what they want to include on the injunction. Prosecutors must decide the area covered by the injunction, known as the safety zone, as well as the individuals who will be included on the injunction. Once the injunction is in place, it can be reinitiated, modified, expanded, and names can be added to ensure the injunction fits the problem area.

    Injunctions allow judges to prohibit enjoined individuals from engaging in activities that would otherwise be legal. For example, by law, gang members who are enjoined could potentially be prohibited from associating with any other known gang members, required to comply with curfew hours, banned from local restaurants or bars, or restricted from being around drugs and alcohol. These activities are restricted because they are thought to facilitate the performance of criminal activities; therefore, the law is willing to create injunctions that can result in the arrest of people in the absence of a crime – for example, simply for having lunch with a friend in a banned establishment.

    In order to be bound by the injunction and its terms, a gang member must be made aware that the injunction has been enacted. This notification is imperative, because violating the injunction is treated as criminal contempt of court, a Class A misdemeanor, which under the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code 125.066, can result in maximum fine of $10,000 and/or confinement in jail for up to 30 days.

    Gang injunctions are seen as an innovative way to disrupt everyday gang activities due to their suppression and preventive effects. Currently, gang injunctions are taking a voracious suppression approach, basically incarcerating as many criminals, gang members, and even potential gang members as possible in an effort to prevent possible future crimes. However, gang injunctions are not the sole solution to eradicate gangs. Gangs are multifaceted, with various layers of involvement, and in order to truly hinder their criminal activities, gangs must be attacked from different angles. It is necessary to combat the root of the problem - the reason that individuals are joining gangs - as well as reform those who are criminally active. Regulatory measures should be in place to ensure a fair and effective way of using this tool. A balance must be applied. In other words, a compromise amongst all services needs to be in place, so that law enforcement cannot be in a position to be given the opportunity to abuse their power by depriving gang members’ everyday civil liberties; however, at the same time, they should have enough tools to maintain order and safety in the community.

More than just a bus ride

CHF Team — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:24:00 GMT

By Adeel Iqbal, San Francisco Fellow '10

It was 12:45, and I had 30 minutes to get to San Francisco General Hospital & Trauma Center, where San Francisco City Hall Fellows’ seminar for the week was being hosted. I Googled the address, and pasted it into 511.org – a free, one-stop phone and web source for traffic and transit in the Bay Area region: I wanted to know the quickest way via public transport to get to the hospital.

From City Hall, the 511 web application directed me to take the MUNI 9, so I made my way to the nearest bus stop off Market Street. Another Fellow had hopped on the same bus a couple stops earlier and we began chatting about what we had been up to that morning as soon as we saw one another. Within a few stops, we were forced to speak a bit louder – noise and the number of people on the bus had quickly elevated as we got closer to our destination. Little did we know that more than half of our fellow riders would be getting off with us.

As soon as the MUNI 9 stopped on Potrero Avenue at 22nd street, 70 percent of passengers trickled out, and all of them walked to the hospital entrance. Watching this pack of people walk in a single file line for their appointments was our first lesson about the importance of SFGH – owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health – to the city and its residents.

Our subsequent discussions with some of the hospital’s leading doctors and nurses and tour with the Chief of Medical Staff would only add to our understanding. We would learn that SFGH is the only Trauma Center (Level 1) in San Francisco. That it provides the only Psychiatric Emergency Services in the city. That it takes 30 percent of all ambulance traffic in the city. That more than 60 percent of its patients are uninsured or covered by Medi-Cal (as compared to approximately 20 percent citywide). And that it is where each of us and our families would go for treatment if injured in a natural disaster in the city.

As I saw and heard about the populations served by SFGH and learned about the innovative programs developed by the hospital to address San Francisco residents' diverse needs, I began to consider the impacts of not having SFGH in San Francisco. How would the gap be filled? What alternatives would the city’s poor and uninsured have? If a natural disaster struck and hundreds of thousands of people were injured, where would they go?

No doubt, our visit further opened my eyes to the pertinence of solid public health services and medical infrastructure within a municipality. I was inspired by the level of planning conducted by the city government to address unique needs of residents and visitors. And from the start of my trip when I turned to 511, each experience of the day helped me to better appreciate everything our cities do for us – much of which we rarely even stop to consider.

At-Risk Teen Turns Life around Thanks to City Government: a True Story

CHF Team — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:55:00 GMT

by Mercedes Sanchez, Houston City Hall Fellow '10

Imagine…you are a 16 year old kid who wakes up to find your best friend dead next to you. The previous night you were both at your house playing video games, smoking weed, and taking Xanax—a common drug among teenagers.

How would you feel?

Looking back, you might remember all the good times you had growing up; you had been best friends since you were 8 years old. You might think about the time when you were in elementary school and he defended you from the bully who was picking on you. Or the endless hours you two spent playing basketball at the YMCA down the street from your house. You might think about his family, and how every time you would visit they welcomed you into their house. You might remember your plans for the future, how you were both going to conquer the world together. You were going to be best friends forever.

Now imagine this. Today is his funeral, and your friend’s mom has forbidden you from attending the service. You feel guilty about his death, you feel like it should have been you instead. You have had sleepovers and done drugs many times, what went wrong this time? The weeks that followed the burial you didn’t care about anything. The pain and guilt keeps intensifying. It feels as if life has no meaning for you anymore.

After that, things just keep going downhill; your attendance at school is so bad that you have to repeat the 9th grade. The abuse of alcohol and drugs keeps getting worse. You find yourself hanging out with a pretty rough crowd. At home, your mom’s never there because she is always working trying to make ends meet for you and your little brother. You are hurt, depressed, devastated, and completely distraught.

One day, you decide to finally go to class and during lunch you see that counselor, from the Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office, who is often at school during lunch time. Some of your friends talk to him all the time, so you know what he does. In the past he helped some of your friends with tattoo removal, found jobs for a couple more, sent some to drug and alcohol rehab centers, and others to credit recovery schools. He knew your best friend and he was aware of your situation.

Now imagine that this outreach worker became a dependable person in your life. For two months straight he was there to talk to you. He always listened to you and did not try to impose his ideas on you. Little by little, he was able to earn your trust and helped you realize you were not constructively coping with your situation. He was able to help you receive grief counseling and set up everything for you to be placed in an in-patient treatment facility for 120 days. While in treatment you were able to attend school and catch up with your credits.

This story is real. It is simply one of the many success stories in the Houston Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office, where I am spending my Fellowship. We know the journey does not end just because we offer assistance; there will be hard times ahead, because of the influences of others. However, this client – like many others - now knows that he is not alone. He knows to contact his trusted counselor if times get hard. Because our counselors go out to the local schools and spend time with at-risk youth on their own turf, they are always available to help any client, even those who have completed their programs or have initially rejected help.

This is why city government matters: when this kid had no one to turn to, a counselor from the Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office was able to get through to him and direct him to the services that he needed to put his life back in the right track. These services help deter young people from becoming involved in violent gangs and committing crimes. It is the purpose of government to help its citizens and the Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office serves that function everyday.

local implications of energy policy

CHF Team — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:18:00 GMT

By Rance Graham-Bailey, San Francisco City Hall Fellow '10

January seems to be a sign of a much cleaner future for residents of San Francisco’s Southeast.

This month, Mayor Gavin Newsom received a letter from the CaliforniaIndependent System Operator (CAISO or Cal-ISO) that it anticipates allowingMirant’s power plant at Potrero to close at the end of the year. The closing ofthe power plant would mark the end of fossil-fuel plants in San Francisco; the other at Hunters Pointhaving closed in 2006. Closing the two plants have been environmental justicegoals of the City since the 1990s. Pollution from the plants has contributed torecord-high rates of asthma, cervical cancer and countless other ailments confrontinga historically African American portion of the City.

The CAISO was created by federal regulatory authorities to plan and manage California’shigh-voltage transmission grid, minimize black outs and keep utilities andmerchant generators from exploiting the markets used for sale of energy. TheISO prevents generators and transmission line owners from manipulating marketprices while ensuring electrical reliability in local areas.

For privately-owned facilities such as those at Potrero, CAISO determineswhether power generation is necessary for local reliability and whether it isappropriate to implement Reliability Must-Run (RMR) contracts that legally bindthe power plant owners. CAISO conducts studies annually about how contingencies in theelectrical grid could affect stable delivery of electricity and designatesmust-run status for generating units accordingly. Mirant has even expressedthat it would close the plant at Potrero once the ISO removes itsmust-run status.

Conceptually, I’ve found transmission to be an illusive component of electricpower. As electricity goes from power plant to power outlet, transmission is acritical infrastructure in between. Generators feed power into the transmissiongrid across long distances—sometimes across entire states—until the power isdelivered into a community’s distribution system, the series of power lineslining its streets.

Located at the top of the Peninsula, San Francisco is resource-constrained in that there issimply not enough transmission capacity to reliably import its entireelectrical load. This explains why, after over 10 years of staunch oppositionto the power plants, only one has successfully shut down.

The City’s strategy to close both power plants and get a cleanerelectrical portfolio relies on both renewable energy and reduced electricaldemand, in addition to more transmission capacity. However, the level ofrenewable energy and reduction in demand alone has not matched the generatingcapacity provided by the plants.

This is in part because of the difficulty in integrating many renewable resources.Solar and wind, for example, are intermittent resources whose hours ofoperation are controlled by environmental factors. The ISO cannot turn on theresources at-will as it can with fossil-fuel plants, or even hydroelectric orgeothermal plants. Technological innovation and adoption will hopefully addressthis weakness of renewable energy in the near-future.

In the end, it appears that increased transmission capacity will be largelycredited with eliminating the power plants in San Francisco. New transmission lines andupgrades are what primarily led to the 2006 closing of Hunters Point and arealso cited in this month’s letter to Mayor Newsom about Mirant’s plant. Inparticular, a public-private partnership produced a new underwatertransmission cable that connects San Franciscoto the East Bay.

The San Francisco Power and Utilities Commission (where I am spending myFellowship) has played an important role in implementing these equity-drivenenergy priorities of the City, and it is this leadership that hopefully willsee the release of Potrero’s must-run designation at the end of this year andthe close of the plant in the following year.

Copenhagen maynot have achieved what many would have liked, and even our own Congress appearsto have lost the urgency of confronting energy reform. However, as this examplein San Francisco shows, local governments are stepping up to the plate,thinking globally about the effect of climate change, and acting locally tohelp their own residents who have suffered from poor environmental stewardshipfor far too long.

Houston Redistricting: Redrawing the Council in a changing city

CHF Team — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:25:00 GMT

By Christopher Gustafson, Houston City Hall Fellow '10

    Every ten years, the most important political event of the decade happens. No, it is not an election. I’m talking instead about the event that essentially determines how competitive an election will be. Redistricting is the process by which every state must redraw their election boundaries to comply with new data presented from the decennial census. Ever since I have been active in politics, redistricting has been the political cause of my life. This is not to say that I do not care about other issues - in fact I care a lot about social services and economic justice - but I have come to the conclusion that without a focus on redistricting, there is no way any other issue will come to fruition.

    Why must we redistrict you ask? Well it all goes back to the constitutional requirement to redraw legislative lines and a line of court cases that culminated in the Supreme Court with Baker v Carr. In Baker, the Supreme Court ruled that courts have the power to enforce “one person, one vote”. This term refers to a requirement that all districts (with the exception of the United States Senate) have roughly an equal number of people in them. Therefore, whenever the census results come out, lawmakers must readjust district lines to ensure compliance. This can be done one of two ways: by either slightly tweaking districts or by a full-scale overhaul.

    The City of Houston will soon be in the midst of a potentially complicated redistricting that involves many factors. Believe it or not, City Council members actually redraw the lines. Many times they are voting on the districts that they will eventually run in. This may seem a bit sketchy, but it is certainly not uncommon. Most states and cities engage in this practice. Currently, there are nine district council seats that are equally proportioned throughout the city. Here is a link to the map: www.houstontx.gov/council/maps/councildistricts.jpg

    While there are many things council members can do to design districts that fit their particular needs, they are bound by the law and must obey many precedents that have been set in the law. Four of the districts, B,D,H and I are protected under the Voting Rights Act, an act passed by Congress that ensures that minority populations living in the same community are allowed to pick a representative of their choice. Do they have to necessarily pick someone who is of the same ethnic group? No, but the law says the state cannot prohibit them from making that choice. This derives from the Jim Crow era policies that made it hard for African Americans to vote in the south. There were many districts where African Americans were the majority of the population, but less than 10% of registered voters. The law is designed to ensure that if a district has a majority minority population, then that population must also be the majority of registered voters. This act was passed in 1965 as a response to racial segregation in the South. Congressional leaders determined that, if a community has a sizeable minority population, then districts should be able to reflect that. In the ideal form, this means that the districts should be proportional to the population. For example, if 25% of the area is African American and there are four districts, then one should be African-American.

    The four protected districts in Houston are composed of 2 African-American and 2 Hispanic districts. The other five districts are not protected because they do not have a majority of one specific minority group in them. This is where the problem occurs. Houston is roughly 44% Hispanic, 18% African American, 25% White and 8% Asian. With only two Hispanic Districts, Houston is not meeting the ideal standard of Hispanic representation. With only two protected districts, Hispanic majority districts lag far behind their city population.

    As of today, this is not necessarily a problem because of the growth in Hispanic population over the last ten years, but the next census may prove more difficult for the current lines.

    By law, when Houston reaches a certain population, it has to add two more district seats to the council. The question is where these two seats are going to go? If we are to take the Voting Rights Act at face value, both seats should go to Hispanic-majority districts because Hispanics represent the largest bloc of inhabitants in the city; however there are many challenges to this. One is that Hispanics are spread out throughout the city; it is very difficult to craft districts that are Hispanic majority because districts would have to reach across entire sections of town to find Hispanic pockets of inhabitants. So what happens if the city council decides not to pursue this? Well, they could potentially face major legal problems. In District F, a district that is almost completely minority, but where no one minority group makes up a majority, an Asian-American has won for the last eight years despite the fact that Asians are the smallest group of citizens in the district. Hispanics make up a large plurality but not a majority, making it difficult for them to elect a member of the Hispanic community because they are the least likely to be able to vote. It is a known fact that a certain portion of the Hispanic community is not eligible to vote, due to the fact they are not citizens of this country in the traditional sense. Still, under the rules of the census, they are supposed to be counted for purposes of representation. So while Hispanics are outnumbered among registered voters, they are still by far the largest bloc of inhabitants in the city. This leads to a very large conundrum - the city is required to accommodate the city population in a way that is fair to all its inhabitants, not simply its voters. Furthermore, three districts, C, G and E, are majority white and have solely elected white council members throughout their history, giving white citizens a substantially higher percentage of representation on the council than their proportionate population. Should these districts be allowed to stand after the census, they City may well face law suits under the Voting Rights Act.

    Finally some people may ask, in the age of President Obama, is it necessary to have districts drawn for minorities? My personal opinion is yes. I believe the nation has an interest in making sure that all its citizens are fairly represented. However, personal opinions aside, the Voting Rights Act is still the law of the land and unless it is overturned, there are things the city must do to comply with it. It will be left up to the courts to decide whether they have properly executed the law.

    It will be an interesting year in the City of Houston because of redistricting. This is the first major redistricting fight the council will see in a generation and could lead to a shift in political power.

obesity prevention: taking menu-labeling local

CHF Team — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:42:00 GMT

By Rachel Deason, Houston City Hall Fellow '10

    Last fall, as part of my Fellowship, I conducted a policy analysis of what is going on with menu labeling legislation at the city, state, and federal level. The term “menu labeling” refers to the mandated posting of calorie information on menus and menu boards at fast food and other large chain restaurants. Many public health experts believe this legislation could help to stem the obesity epidemic, which is taking its toll on Texas and other states around the country.

    According to the Texas Health Institute more than 29% of Texans in 2007 were obese, while two out of three adults in Texas were overweight. These numbers represent an unabated 20-year upward trend in the number of severely overweight residents. Even more disturbing is that obesity rates in Texas have more than doubled since 1990, when the Texas rate stood at 12.3 percent. Children are affected as well, with studies showing that every third child born in 2000 is likely to wind up with diabetes. Diabetes is only one of several chronic illnesses that are linked to obesity. Robert Gould, president and CEO of Partnership for Prevention, said “Today's children face the prospect of being the first generation in history to live sicker and die younger than their parents.”

    Obesity is also costing Texans the big bucks. Recent reports estimate that Texas spends more than $5.7 billion on obesity-related chronic conditions, including hypertension, cancer, diabetes and back problems. If obesity levels continue to surge as projected, Texans will spend more than $23.2 billion on obesity-linked health care in 2018, or about $1,255 per adult.

    Menu labeling legislation will provide consumers with the information they need to make healthier choices. Menu labeling laws have been passed in 4 states, and have been introduced in 25 other states. City government officials have also taken up the fight, with New York City leading the way as the first city to implement this legislation. On the federal level, until June of 2009, there had been two versions of menu labeling legislation, commonly referred to as the LEAN Act and the MEAL Act. Compromise language has been taken from each of these bills, and is included in the health care bill that is currently making its way through the United States Senate. These provisions, if passed, will require chain restaurants with more than 20 locations nationally to post calorie information on their menu boards, drive through boards, and printed menus. This important legislation will be one more weapon with which consumers can fight off the obesity epidemic.

    The most exciting aspect of my research came about after I had already completed my analysis. I had the opportunity, along with my supervisor, to meet with two lobbyists from the American Heart Association to discuss the idea of beginning a grassroots campaign in Houston to promote menu labeling legislation. I hope to be able to serve on this task force and put everything I learned in my research into action!

Local Government and the Decennial Census

CHF Team — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:00:00 GMT

By Richard Whipple, San Francisco City Hall Fellow '10

Every ten years, the federal government conducts the largest civil service mobilization in the nation: the decennial census. Each decade, every single resident of the United States is included in the census enumeration. In addition to providing valuable data sets for researching and understanding the demographic composition of our nation, census information plays a critical role in dictating congressional representation and determining to whom and where over $400 billion in federal funds is distributed. The census enumeration, in many ways, represents the best of effective federal government bureaucracy.

An unsung, yet mandatory member in the cast of census collaborators is local government. Despite all the planning, organizing and well-oiled execution of the Census Bureau, the efforts by the federal government to accurately count the country’s residents fall short. With resources and representation at stake for all parts of the country, the census enumeration is highly relevant to all city governments and community organizations.

For some perspective, the 2000 census efforts represented record funding levels from the federal and state government. Organization on behalf of the Census Bureau and State of California was touted as the best in any census to date. Yet over 100,000 residents were undercounted in San Francisco alone. Though this number was a vast improvement over previous census enumeration efforts, it still equated to a loss of over $300 million in federal funds that San Francisco could, and should, have received.

What can be credited for the improvement of 2000? And what is also needed to close the 100,000 person gap in 2010? I propose that the answer is local government. Of all levels of government, local government is closest to communities and residents. In its best form, local government knows community-based organizations, understands local issues, and has trusted relationships with neighborhood leaders. It knows what kind of messaging will resonate with communities and is more equipped to be responsive to their concerns and challenges. Local government leaders, especially in San Francisco where I live and work, have strong relationships with the communities that they serve. In addition, many local governments provide millions of dollars of funding to community organizations through grants and contracts. Local governments also provide much of the services and infrastructure that residents rely on daily.

So how can San Francisco’s local government tip the scale to maximize results in the 2010 Census? Through enrolling and utilizing trusted leaders in the Complete Count Committee; through entrusted reliable community groups with conducting outreach and addressing specific barriers; and through engaging City employees, departments and leaders to insert census messaging into the many interactions that they have directly with the residents of San Francisco. As I have watched remarkable community leaders work in concert with the census bureau’s strategy, I see how local government plays a critical role in bridging the gap between the individual and the nation. While there will always continue to be challenges and obstacles related to including all residents in census counts, San Francisco has made a remarkable effort to identify and communicate with those most likely to be left out.

Ultimately, the census represents more than a needed demographic analysis of the nation’s residents. If executed correctly, the census can be a starting point for developing a relationship of trust between the undercounted and underserved communities and government. It has the potential to change perceptions about government, and to strengthen citizen participation in the decision making process.

Work Hard. Be Nice.

CHF Team — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:21:00 GMT

By Rachel Deason, Houston City Hall Fellow '10

On December 2nd, the Houston City Hall Fellows were incredibly fortunate to meet with Mike Feinberg, the Co-Founder of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Foundation as part of our learning about local public education. For those of you who are unfamiliar with KIPP, let me give you a brief background. KIPP started in 1994 with a single Academy in Houston, Texas. Today, KIPP is a network of 82 high-performing public schools around the nation serving 21,000 children. Like Teach For America, they are committed to bridging the educational gap that exists in our country. KIPP schools meet for longer hours, and for more months out of the year than typical public schools. Teachers, parents, and students must sign a “Commitment to Excellence” that details expectations for each involved party. These are just a few examples of the many qualities that have made KIPP such a successful endeavor.

Mike was an excellent speaker, and the enthusiasm and passion with which he runs his organization is quite evident. His program has clearly impacted thousands of students across the country, and the statistics of the “KIPPsters” that have come through his schools are impressive to say the least. The stories he shared with us were inspirational, and I’m sure there were hundreds more that we simply did not have time to hear. He served as a wonderful example of someone who has achieved great professional success while at the same time contributing to the community around him.

However, there was one thing Mike said that stood out to me as a recent college graduate still learning to navigate her way through the working world. I have a feeling that this simple statement will serve as a road-marker for me down whichever career path I end up following.

“Work hard. Be nice.” This is one of the tenets of the KIPP Foundation, but it is applicable to any private, public, or non-profit organization and its employees. Too often we are taught that the two must be mutually exclusive; that you can not possibly achieve great success by going around being “nice” to people. I disagree, and so does Mike Feinberg. And while my opinion may not matter, his certainly should, as he has reached the pinnacle of what anyone with aspirations of pioneering social change could hope to achieve. The daily grind would be much improved if we could all keep this simple concept at the forefront of our minds.

I’ll end with a personal anecdote from my placement within the Houston Parks and Recreation Department — Monday morning I was walking into our new office building when I happened to see an older colleague coming down the sidewalk behind me. I wasn’t in a hurry, so without thinking much of it, I stood and held the door open for him. As he walked through, he smiled and said: “A young lady held the door open for me?! This is going to be a great week.” If I can improve someone’s week without saying a word, I can only imagine the results of everyone making a conscious effort to live by Mike’s words of wisdom.

Coping with Sea Change

CHF Team — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:12:00 GMT

By Jason Karpman, City Hall Fellow San Francisco '10

Veteran’s day was this month and I owed my grandfather a phone call. He did not sound good. My mother had told me earlier this week that he had stopped eating because he was depressed. He recently had to stop driving because of health reasons, but his new lack of mobility has only made him feel worse. He said I was the third person he had talked to all week.

He asked about my fellowship and I told him how I have been learning about sea level rise at work. The topic has become of particular concern for me since working in San Francisco’s water department. As tides rise, they will intrude into our city’s storm drain system and potentially flood the city above ground. To make the rise personally relevant for my grandpa, I mentioned that I had been shown a photograph of the old Officer's Club at Fort Ord falling into the beach as the encroaching ocean reclaims it. Since my grandpa had been stationed at Ford Ord during World War II, I felt sort of conflicted about telling him something so dismal, but he said the invitation to reflect upon the past made him feel young again, so it was OK.

The topic of conversation quickly changed from sea level rise to reminiscing about life at an army post. Unlike a lot of other vets, my grandpa speaks fondly of the war. I think it was the closest he ever came to the college experience: he got to travel, continually meet new people, and live in close proximity to all his friends. I think that the desire to approximate that lifestyle again is what attracts many of us to live in cities.

I wondered how different my grandfather’s life would be today if he had lived in a city instead of the suburbs of Southern California. Would losing his ability to drive have had such a profound effect on his morale? Would living in a denser community have provided him with more opportunity for social interaction? It is difficult to predict which of our choices will have the greatest impact on our future happiness, but the quality of our social lives is inextricably linked to the design of our built environment.

I intended to write this post about sea level rise. I thought that my conversation with my grandfather would serve as a revealing anecdote to the terrifying rapidity with which our landscape is already changing. However, my grandfather’s general nonchalance around the loss of the physical structures at Fort Ord and his preference to instead talk about the loss of the social relationships with which took place there, revealed that sea level rise may have been the lesser of two evils. Living alone had already left him feeling stranded well before the water ever hits his door.

Urban policy won’t undo the hardships of growing old, or cure social isolation, but it can mitigate some of their symptoms. What if post-war development had been targeted in cities instead suburbs? What if shared space had also been included in the marketing of the American dream? Would sea levels even be rising if cars hadn’t been so prioritized in urban design? Given the predicament that city governments face in having to plan for sea level rise, we have the opportunity to address those questions and correct previous mistakes. Some parts of our cities will have to be protected, others rebuilt, and some may even be abandoned. New development will likely look very different, but my conversation with my grandfather reminded me that some essential characteristics must be fundamentally preserved: density, pedestrian mobility, and access to public space. It is because of those design principles that nearly every time I leave my apartment that I run into someone I know on the street. Like my grandfather, it’s the potential loss of that interaction that I ultimately find most terrifying.

City government: government of the people, by the people, for the people

CHF Team — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:50:00 GMT

By Elisabeth Wilkins, City Hall Fellow Houston ’10

It is widely accepted that the type of government that most directly affects both an individual and their community on a very constant, and often vital level, is the local government. Whether it is because of the life-saving aid received from local police and fire departments during times of distress, or the issuing of marriage licenses or permits for opening businesses, city government truly has the ability to reach the community faster than any other level of government. This is because city government is not only the direct provider of services to the community, but is comprised of members of that community.

It wasn’t until I began working within city government that I realized the unique opportunity that city government offers: Those who spend their work day dealing with the issues of the city, are able to witness the direct effect their work has on their community. They are doubly invested in the city; as citizens and employees. This is a ray of hope in a time where the disconnect between high-ranking, high-paid state and federal government officials and the people they are commissioned to serve seems to be wider than ever. In the realm of city government, those deciding how the city budget is distributed, where a new park is planted, or how wide a sidewalk is, are those individuals in the car next you during frustrating traffic, preparing their families for the next hurricane in the gulf, or calling 9-1-1 during times of desperate need. City employees are typically residents of the city they serve, and because of this, it is especially important that they have an understanding of the community, its issues and its culture. Who better to run a city than its citizens?

City employees tend to have a vested interest in the jobs they perform and whether they are elected officials or administrators, they unlike many federal government agencies, are literally faced with those they affect on a daily basis. Recently, I had the opportunity to do a ride along with a Houston Parks and Recreation Department park manager. Several times throughout the day, we were flagged down by a park user who requested a moment of our time. Some offered advice on how to improve the landscape, others simply wanted to report a broken branch, or offer a thank you for an improvement to the trail. At one point, we were stopped by an elderly jogger the park manager referred to as “Coach” who after years of using the park’s trail for exercise, was now on a first name basis with most park staff. After the park manager spent a few moments speaking with the man, it was evident to me that “Coach” was confident his suggestions and feedback were not falling on deaf ears. This is just one of the many ways that the city government reaches the community in a very tangible way. It is the duty of city government to carry out legislature, and city employees who are entrusted by the community they are apart of to ethically carry out these statutes.

While many of us can name a government official proven to be an exception to the idea of a devoted and ethical government employee, it is obvious in the local setting when these individuals do not live up to their responsibilities. The community is able to literally walk into City Hall and hear council’s thoughts on neighborhoods, ordinances, spending, and most importantly, they are able to have their voices heard at public session by those who have the power to evoke change. It is not only in the best interest of the city to have ethical workers and officials but is also in the interest of that individual to remain constant and honest in their work. After all, when their work day is over, they are surrounded by the lives they affect daily. With this comes tremendous responsibility as well as the opportunity for immensely rewarding work. City government is truly a government formed by its people.

The Tree on My Block

CHF Team — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:00:00 GMT

by Adeel Iqbal, 2010 San Francisco Fellow

There was a big storm that hit the Bay Area the other day. It reminded me of the monsoon rains I had to regularly deal with while working in the slums of South Asia last year. Sewers overflowed in San Francisco. Roads turned into murky rivers. Trees were knocked down. When I got home from work, I saw that the tree in front of my neighbor’s home in the East Bay had toppled over onto his lawn. Not surprisingly, my gut reaction to all of this was to think about work.

My Fellowship with this year’s batch of San Francisco City Hall Fellows is in the Department of Public Works, which takes care of everything from potholes and sewer repair to graffiti abatement and the maintenance of publicly-owned trees. That means when a storm like the one that hit the other day decides to roll around, the department has got its work cut out. Residents, businesses and visitors call in to report everything that is going wrong. And all of them expect a response within seconds.

In my neighbor’s case, I was pretty certain it would take some time before anything happened. This tree had not fallen on a major thoroughfare. It was not blocking traffic. And it wasn’t a safety hazard. But I was wrong: it’s been less than two weeks since the storm, and the tree is gone.

More striking for me, however, is the fact that this tree had been up since before anyone on the block moved in. My city planted it. My city also planted the hundreds of other trees around the neighborhood. That means that for all the years my family has lived on our street, the city has maintained every one of the trees. Not once had I given that any thought. But the day the storm hit, it was all I could think about.

Even though I once covered city government as a reporter for my campus newspaper at UC Berkeley, I never fully grasped how much our cities do for us. Trees along a street, for example, seem like such a simple thing at first glance. But when I stop to think about it, I realize the natural touch, the colors of fall, the fresh air and the scent of home that all the trees bring to my neighborhood would not exist were it not for my city. Being at the Department of Public Works has enabled me to appreciate the plethora of services a municipality provides in a way I would never have imagined. And that, in and of itself, has already made this year’s Fellowship experience a truly worthwhile one for me.