Out of the Rubble and Towards a Sustainable Future: The “Greening” of Greensburg, Kansas

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/7/2302Following a devastating tornado there in 2007, the tiny city of Greensburg, Kansas has engaged in a sustainability-oriented recovery process through which it hopes to serve as a model for other communities planning for a sustainable future. This article uses innovation theory to consider how and why the sustainability focus emerged in Greensburg and to explore the potential transferability of those factors to other contexts. An analysis of 535 newspaper articles reveals key factors as: the shared vision of persistent local leaders, the framing of sustainability as an “opportunity” with an energy efficiency focus, community pride and resilience, and a “clean slate” rebuilding effort with substantial available funding. While Greensburg’s future is intimately connected to the specifics of its recent past, the analysis does reveal lessons that other communities can draw from in crafting sustainability plans of their own

Farmers and Rural Kansas Communities: Planning for the Future

This is the published version.Rural communities everywhere face ongoing questions about their resilience and plans for their futures. This study analyzes the perceptions Kansas farmers have of their communities as a basis for considering how rural planners might address such questions. Drawing primarily on interviews with 149 farmers across the state, as well as on a survey and Census data, the study finds that farmers perceive a variety of recent demographic, social and economic changes in their communities. The majority of these perceived changes are negative. Farmers in smaller, shrinking communities in the western part of Kansas were least optimistic about what is to come. Despite these perceptions, more than one in four farmers could not articulate ideas for desirable change. Planners in rural communities may need to engage residents in visioning exercises, and are likely to find that strategies for rural self-development and regional centers are most compelling to these residents

Who Cares? Arnstein’s Ladder, the Emotional Paradox of Public Engagement, and (Re)imagining Planning as Caring

Problem, research strategy, and findings: What should planners do when members of the public “care loudly” at them? Planning scholars have recently called for more attention to the emotional dimensions of our profession. In the context of reflecting on Arnstein’s “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” we identify the emotional paradox of public engagement. This paradox arises because our emotions often motivate us to plan so that all people in our communities can flourish rather than suffer, but our instincts, reinforced by our education, training, and professional norms, may lead us to try to control or avoid emotions altogether in the actual work of planning. Our research strategy involves critically analyzing the language of Arnstein’s article for its emotional content. We systematically review contemporary sources of guidance and training for planners (including from the APA, the AICP, and the Planning Accreditation Board) to determine whether and how the emotional dimensions of planning are addressed. We synthesize insights on contending with emotion from the psychology and neuroscience literatures and also synthesize practice-oriented resources for leveraging emotional and social intelligence to overcome the emotional paradox. We find that Arnstein’s article evocatively reveals the emotional paradox. Our review of the contemporary knowledge, training, and skills available from major planning organizations demonstrates contemporary pervasiveness of the paradox. Research from psychology and neuroscience demonstrates, from a basic scientific standpoint, that trying to maintain the paradox is impossible, which helps to explain common pitfalls that planners fall into when doing their work. Takeaway for practice: Planners should reflect deeply on how they engage emotions in their work and how their approach constrains and enables their effectiveness. Deepening emotional, social, and cultural intelligence holds considerable potential for meeting our field’s aspirational goals of fostering more compassionate and inclusive communities.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1751696

Stormwater Quality and Local Government Innovation

Local governments need innovative practices to address nonpoint source pollution, which has proven to be the Achilles heel of efforts to improve surface water quality in the United States. Studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that 45% of assessed lakes and 39% of assessed rivers in the nation are polluted, and that agricultural and urban runoff were the primary sources of these problems (EPA, 2000, 2002). New approaches to address runoff are clearly necessary, and their success will depend on local government practices, yet we know little about how and why local governments innovate, particularly in response to a federal mandate. Thus in this article, we study innovation by Kansas local governments responding to Phase II of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater program, a direct effort to spur new activities by local governments. This Clean Water Act program addresses urban runoff pollution by requiring localities with small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) to develop plans and adopt best management practices (BMPs) in six areas, called minimum control measures (MCMs). Local governments that meet established criteria then receive permits allowing them to continue to discharge stormwater runoff into U.S. waters. This program represents a new approach to addressing nonpoint source pollution in the United States.1 Because the NPDES Phase II stormwater program allows flexibility in how MS4s respond, local governments can satisfy the six MCMs with existing activities. In previous research we analyzed Phase II compliance (White & Boswell, 2006), but not the extent to which Phase II led local governments to adopt new practices as opposed to relying on activities already in place. We aim in this paper to identify the degree to which this mandate produced new activities, whether communities that adopted most of their stormwater BMPs prior to the Phase II planning deadline differ from those that adopted them in response to the mandate (after the deadline), and the possible links between innovation and stormwater management plan quality

Planting Food or Fuel: Developing an Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Role of Culture in Farmers’ Decisions to Grow Second-Generation Biofuel Feedstock Crops

Recent interest in biofuels as an alternative energy source has spurred considerable changes in agricultural practice worldwide. These changes will be more pronounced as second-generation biofuels, such as switch grass, gain prominence; this article examines the cultural factors associated with the decisions U.S. farmers face in targeting crops for fuel production instead of food. Through an interdisciplinary assessment of the dynamics of farmers' behavior, developed herein is a theoretical framework to analyze how farmers grapple with shifting expectations of their function.National Science Foundation EPS-0903806, KU-Transportation Research Institut

Out of the Rubble and Towards a Sustainable Future: The “Greening” of Greensburg, Kansas

Following a devastating tornado there in 2007, the tiny city of Greensburg, Kansas has engaged in a sustainability-oriented recovery process through which it hopes to serve as a model for other communities planning for a sustainable future. This article uses innovation theory to consider how and why the sustainability focus emerged in Greensburg and to explore the potential transferability of those factors to other contexts. An analysis of 535 newspaper articles reveals key factors as: the shared vision of persistent local leaders, the framing of sustainability as an “opportunity” with an energy efficiency focus, community pride and resilience, and a “clean slate” rebuilding effort with substantial available funding. While Greensburg’s future is intimately connected to the specifics of its recent past, the analysis does reveal lessons that other communities can draw from in crafting sustainability plans of their own

Out of the Rubble and Towards a Sustainable Future: The “Greening” of Greensburg, Kansas

Following a devastating tornado there in 2007, the tiny city of Greensburg, Kansas has engaged in a sustainability-oriented recovery process through which it hopes to serve as a model for other communities planning for a sustainable future. This article uses innovation theory to consider how and why the sustainability focus emerged in Greensburg and to explore the potential transferability of those factors to other contexts. An analysis of 535 newspaper articles reveals key factors as: the shared vision of persistent local leaders, the framing of sustainability as an “opportunity” with an energy efficiency focus, community pride and resilience, and a “clean slate” rebuilding effort with substantial available funding. While Greensburg’s future is intimately connected to the specifics of its recent past, the analysis does reveal lessons that other communities can draw from in crafting sustainability plans of their own.sustainability; innovation; disaster recovery

Planning for Water Quality: Implementation of the NPDES Phase II Stormwater Program in California and Kansas

In the United States, the federal government is increasingly relying on local governments to implement policies that address the nation's lingering environmental problems. Yet, little is known about the factors that influence local level implementation of a federal mandate. This paper explores local government response to the NPDES Phase II Stormwater Program in California and Kansas by investigating local conditions, perceptions of the federal program, and implementer characteristics. The study found that fiscal resources, a well-educated public, positive perceptions of the federal policy, and co-operative planning efforts lead to better compliance with the mandate and a higher quality response.