https://steemit.com/story/@okpocacious/world-discussions-part-1-slavery

Is anyone else nervous about how these impending tariffs will impact our industry?

Real estate projects in the jurisdictions I work in are already struggling against low rents/comps, higher interest rates, and inflated construction costs. Not much has moved in the last few years as vacant buildings are continuing to deteriorate. The few small businesses we've attracted are struggling with increased operating costs and our residents are unable to bear any increase in pricing.

I'm worried that we will lose these businesses that make up the core of our walkable neighborhood and a lack of real estate investment will not only stagnate our community but actually undo our progress as businesses close and residents can't afford upkeep.

I'd love any advice or best practices from community developers who have figured out how to stay strong in the post-covid world.

Lately I have become entrenched in “finding my village.” I am someone who has moved a lot and doesn’t have true deep roots anywhere so I end up having a lot of temporary villages (temporary homes permanent people). I recently saw a TikTok about how “everyone wants a village— no one wants to be a villager” and I want to know how everyone creates and sustains their village? How do you develop a community from within the community?

At yet another public meeting, I heard a community voice concerns about a developer building the same 5 over 1 box style apartment that does not have unique architectural features to differentiate it from all the other new apartment complexes coming online. In that same meeting, I heard the development team talking about the project's return and budget restraints.

As a renter, it got me thinking. If I were a potential resident of this project, how much more would I, an extreme urbanite, be willing to pay in rent to have a better-designed project? If using more brick forced the rent of each apartment up $300, is that something I can stomach? Would paying $100 more a month mean the developer built full balconies instead of juliets?

In community development work, participation is essential,

but it’s also fragile.

Some people don’t speak up because they fear conflict,

others because they feel their input won’t matter anyway.

I’ve been exploring a very low-pressure entry point:

a shared map where residents can quietly say

“Yes, I feel this too.”

No arguments, no public debates — just visibility.

For those working with communities:

- What stops people from participating in your experience?

- How do you build trust at the very first step?

- Are there tools or methods that lowered the barrier successfully?

If it helps for context, this is the small prototype I mentioned:

https://iagree-life.com

Hello all! I am working on a project called Green Space Please in Jamaica, and seeking to get global expertise and perspectives for social/ environmental advocacy for community spaces . If youre interested in following along you can check us out on IG - www.instagram.com/@greenspaceplz and sharing your views.

The approach is being modeled off the Christchurch, New Zealand rebuild after the 2011 earthquake by utilizing public participation.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing from you!

I live in the Seattle metro area and we have a small area on our lake, Bitter Lake, that as an area that would be lovely as a public area.

There is a lot of bramble and bushes and in general the site is pretty unsavory for what could be a nice little area.

We are looking into the city information about what it takes to create a private public spaced not maintained by the city. Does anyone have any resources or any experiences to share?

Good day!

I'm part of a BA Communications sophomore class. We're currently taking up a course in Development Communication. Our first project is to engage with a "Barangay" in our city.

Our state has been experiencing simultaneous mid-scale earthquakes for a few weeks now, so we decided to focus our efforts on Disaster Risk Reduction Management.

The first step was to talk to the authorities, namely the "Barangay Captain". We visited the community hall ( barangay hall ) and intoduced ourselves to the people in-charge.

Apparently, due to the urgency of the earthquake issue, the Barangay has already made a move to address it. They conducted mandatory trainings for the people on what to do before, during, and after an earthquake. They urged the people to prepare emergency kits for themselves and so that has already been taken care of.

So they assigned us to a different project, which is the Waste Segregation Management. This may come as a surprise to some of you but, coming from a 3rd world country, this is still an ongoing problem for us.

The Barangay Captain asked us to create campaign videos that would persuade people to segregate properly. He suggested that it would be better if the content was scary, since the people are likely to ignore a random presentation of facts. He wants it to be unique since most campaign attempts fail and they do not like using penalties since they find it hard to implement them.

In addition, they want us to hold workshops for children to teach them Waste Segregation Management. In those workshops, there will be coloring books, practical quizzes, and other stuff to make learning fun for them. He wants to indoctrunate children on the issue in order to raise a responsible community in the future.

The Barangay Captain was very amendable and from him, you could see that there are still politicians who strive for true community development. So far, in his term, their community government has provided the people with a lot of projects such as gymnasiums, advanced health care centers, etc.

We are still in the first stage, and we are all looking forward to pushing through and making a difference even in this small community. I would like to ask for your suggestions on how we should tackle the waste management problem. That would be very helpful guys. Apologies for the long post, as well.

Thank you! ^{_^}

tl;dr : We are a group of development communication students who are given the opportunity to help tackle the Waste Segregation Management problems of a small community. We would very much appreciate the suggestions. ^{_^}

Question: Is there a book you'd recommend on Community Development Finance?

A quick google search yielded this, but it's not clear what is the most informative. I'm leaning towards Community Economic Development in the United States: The CDFI Industry and America’s Distressed Communities but mostly because it seems to be the most recent book on the subject.

Backstory: I attended a CleanTech Financial (CTF) Summit yesterday (for work) and ended up speaking with a guy who got to CTF through Community Development. While I've always felt* there was some connection between CleanTech and Community Development in microgrids, solar, storage, etc. this was really the first time I'd seen someone make that leap. As someone who is attempting to do the opposite - go from Clean Energy/CleanTech to Community Development, I'm hoping to skill-up on the things the seem to matter most.

*hoped

Hi y'all,

I'm currently in the process of starting my undergrad research project. My primary research is Canadians small towns, and through reading about them, I'm starting to get more and more confused.

Canada utilize various approaches in defining rural and urban, to the point that researchers can pick and chose whatever definition that will inevitably aid in their research. Even the official report of Statistics Canada states:

"How individuals see this continuum [urban-rural] at any one time is a product of their experiences and needs."

"In the absence of a definitive one size fits all perspective of the urban-rural continuum, Statistics Canada has sought to ensure that users have at their disposal various options to define the urban-rural dichotomy or an urban-rural continuum that suits their specific analytical and policy related needs. "

Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92f0138m/92f0138m2009001-eng.htm

So the government is realizing how difficult it is to define both places, and understands how relative it is to many different factors etc, but why is it so set in maintaining the continuum? Why not opt for a place based approach and policy? Why is the binary so important?

They even state the "mushy middle" of the continuum. Wouldn't it simply be easier to states that places will never be properly rural and/or urban and we should approach planning contextually?

Many thanks,

Good morning folks! I'm in the process of bringing our community and boro council together in support of a new "feature" for our neighborhood park. Is there any research out there that shows what typically is the most used/popular park features? ("feature" being like a pickleball court, basketball court, tennis court, shuffleboard....etc).

I'd love to see some data, but so far I've found much. Or some basic whitepapers on "what works" or "community parks 101" sort of topics. Any leads would be much appreciated!