How would my organization use Twitter and other social media tools? Would you like to be able to quickly inform and update the community of fire emergencies in the area? Twitter can help you do that. Check out the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Napa City Fire Department. Here is another article about how [...]
The Cosmopolitan Urbanist
Ideas, People, Communities
Author Archives: monicarolevans
Social Media: An explanation for public organizations (Part One)
Social Media. Does your organization need it? Do you have customers, clients, or citizens or other audiences with which you want to communicate? Do you wish your message could reach a wider audience? Do you sometimes need to get information disseminated quickly? Are you looking to engage and enable your base? Do you want [...]
Things I’ve Learned at Work: Technology is our friend
In my current work, I’m a management consultant and internal performance auditor for a state agency. Simply put, I analyze existing state programs and service functions; I investigate their strengths and weaknesses, and identify strategies that can help them to be the best they can be. I love my job. Finding ways to make stuff [...]
Thank You for Your Contribution and Service
I, like many others, have had a slight obsession with the Kennedys. The Kennedy Family, for longer than I’ve been alive, has been a cornerstone in American politics and popular culture. My obsession started years ago, and developed as I tried to understand how so many fighters for the common good could spring from such [...]
THE best explanation of the credit crisis that I’ve seen.
I’ve heard everyone- professors, media, finance people, government officials, non-profit leaders (all with their many-armed diagrams) try to explain how the housing/credit crisis all started. Best case scenario, those presentations are boring. Worst case scenario, they leave you more confused than when you started! Today, I discovered this video, done by a graduate student, explaining [...]
People make the place. Change the people, change the place.
A new job has brought me to Atlanta, and I’m in the process of looking for a new home. In Atlanta, sprawling metropolis that it is, where you live largely determines what you do. It’s fun to be young and professional in a city, but it is only fun if you live in the right [...]
Redwood City Events: Downtown Done Right
On a recent trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, I had the opportunity to visit Redwood City for the first time. In the past, I’ve seldom ventured outside of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. Let me tell you, my visit to Downtown Redwood City on Friday night was a pleasant surprise. The experience: [...]
Uses for Neighborhood Stabilization Funds: A Reaction
A recent report done by Enterprise Community Partners found that communities are going a good job of finding creative way to utilize Neighborhood Stabilization funds.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the report’s findings. I must say that I am impressed with the different ways the report said that communities are using the funds, however, some of them can still be problematic. Let’s take them one by one.
Take the time to design
I want everything I own, sit on, drive in, drive on, drive through, play with, touch – use in any way-to be well and thoughtfully designed. That doesn’t mean I need 18k gold chairs. It means that I want the things I buy and use to be purposeful and pretty.
