We tried something different this week at the first meeting of the Council's Government Performance and Finance Committee and it worked. Ignite talks are being used around the country to communicate information quickly. At Ignite events, presenters share their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes.
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Current Readings
Eric Liu & Nick Hanauer: The Gardens of Democracy: A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government
Another values-driven read from two local authors. Read it to discover a new way of looking at the economy and our politics. It's an inspiring essay.Anthony S. Bryk: Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago
In 1988, Chicago public schools decentralized, granted parents and faculty resources and authority to reform. This book reports on a seven-year study of what happened and identifies the practices and conditions that were essential for improvement of student academics. The authors arrived at their conclusions by researching 100 elementary schools that improved and 100 that didn't. The five essentials—school leadership, parent/community ties, professional capacity of faculty/staff, student-centered learning environment, and instructional guidance system.Franklin E. Zimring: The City that Became Safe: New York's Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)
What's really happened with New York crime? Nationwide, crime dropped about 40% in the 1990s. But from 1991 to 2010, a period of two decades, New York City crime declined 80%, twice the national average. Why? What factors explain this amazing reduction in urban city crime? Zimring gives his perspective in this new work, lessons Seattle can learn from.David M. Kennedy: Don't Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America
Kennedy has shared his ideas with us and Seattle police successfully used his Drug Market Initiative along 23rd Avenue to stop decades of open drug trafficking. Now, Kennedy's new book tells the whole story, from the beginning to today. It's a story of reform, hard work, determination, and guts. It's about justice in the true sense of that word, a justice that infects a community and spreads. It's about the police and how their pursuit of excellence can inspire all of us. It's about cities and specific neighborhoods and how to create peace and community. If you want safe streets and sidewalks, if you want to end mass incarceration, if you want racial equity, if you want truth and fairness returned to the justice system, read this book!Jan Gehl, Architect and Urban Quality Consultant: Cities for People
Gehl is a global expert on urban places. His firm's 2008 conclusion that Seattle should move as many vehicles as possible underground and work to reduce surface traffic is a compelling argument. Read Gehl's book at the same time you read Edward Glaeser's "Triumph of the City." Both authors present persuasive arguments for city planning that focuses on people.Edward L. Glaeser: Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier
This is a very exciting, visionary, provocative book on the future of cities. Lots of good application for Seattle.Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
If you read it carefully and with an open mind, this book will cause you to get a knot in your stomach. It did me.Charles M. Payne: So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools
This is a very interesting book. Payne traces the American experiment with public education, especially related to African American children living in urban poverty. Solid recommendations on how to improve.Anthony A. Braga & David L. Weisburd: Policing Problem Places: Crime Hot Spots and Effective Prevention (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)
An excellent examination of police patrol practices, why they are often misguided and recommended changes. This book could revolutionize police-community relationships.Alan Khazei: Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America
A get-involved, make a difference shout out. Practical, yet inspiring and motivating. Khazei is the founder of CityYear, the youth volunteer movement.Diane Ravitch: The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education
Ravitch was despised by some when she advocated for No Child Left Behind. Now she's seen as a defender of teachers and traditional education methods. I find her to be a careful researcher and historian who adapts as necessary to focus on what's best for our children.William Antholis and Strobe Talbott: Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming (Brookings Focus Book)
Quick, pithy, rock solid argumentation for action on climate change and global warming.Jonathan Alter: The Promise: President Obama, Year One
If you love the "inside baseball" aspects of government, this book is for you. The President's first year in stark detail.David Remnick: The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Detailed, insightful, sweeping in scope. The more I read the more I like Barack Obama.John Heilemann & Mark Halperin: Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
Great story. Moves quickly. Intimate insights. Reminds us of human frailties.Atul Gawande: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Amazing lessons on why keeping checklists makes things better. I can see all kinds of applications beyond medicine and aerospace.Tom Vanderbilt: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
Interesting, sometimes counterintuitive, observations about how we drive and use roadways. Good insight as we work to solve our transportations challenges in Seattle.Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Powerful facts and stories about the oppression of women around the world, and hopeful examples of those changing this reality.Mark A. R. Kleiman: When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment
Intelligent, progressive, fact-based criminal justice reform recommendations that honor the role of the police yet push hard on innovation. This is change that will work to reduce crime, lower prison populations, and restore our neighborhoods. A must read for those who are tired of the old ways of policing and punishment.The Mom & Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving
A wonderful read by a Seattle author on the value of small businesses, true customer service, and economic growth.
Say It: Government is Good
February 03, 2012
December 08, 2011
Thank Goodness for Government
At exactly this minute—17 minutes and 43 seconds past eight o'clock in the morning—one week ago today, the alarm sounded at Fire Station 18 in Ballard and Seattle firefighters jumped into action and headed for their rigs.
They were on their way to bring my friend, Dave Carlstrom, back from the dead.
Recent Posts
- Three Mondays in May Start Tonight
- May Day, Anarchists and a Woman from China
- Gardens of Democracy
- Let Your Voice Be Heard
- The Next Fifty and Free Opera
- Saving Millions Through Tight Fiscal Management
- Could You Survive Extreme Senior Management Turnover?
- Roxhill Stars Rock!
- Goldman Sachs Bails After Investments in Human Trafficking Exposed
- More Steps to Stop Human Trafficking
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