Reducing Waste. Eliminating Fraud. Promoting Civic Responsibility. At least that’s what the city bureaucrats said.
The Case for Lowering Your Expectations
It may be the key to happiness and sustainable performance
Reclaiming the Smart City: Personal Data, Trust and the New Commons
Why and how city governments are taking a more responsible approach to the collection and use of personal data.
Rethinking the Smart City: Democratizing Urban Technology - RLS-NYC
Following the celebration of the “creative city” (as described by Richard Florida), the “smart city” has become the new flavor of the month—and a brand. It makes clever use of resources, and it attracts money, corporate power, and private industries. Offering us cheap, effective solutions to social and political problems, the smart city is functional, […]
Trust in the Federal Government Makes People Less Likely to Help One Another, Study Finds
But trust in local interventions boosts civic engagement.
Common Knowledge: Citizen-led data governance for better cities
Key lessons from the DECODE pilots and tips on how other cities and governments can apply the technologies and methods.
Reducing car dependence: benefits, strategies, unintended consequences, and future directions of post-car urban transitions
This paper presents the state of the art of post-car urban transitions. It begins with an overview of the impact of automobility on planetary and human well-being. The benefits of post-car cities a...
City Snapshots — For The People
Did you know that Las Cruces, New Mexico spends 870 times more on policing than libraries? Our new publication, Budgets Are Values, gives an overview of how 15 public library systems are funded, governed, and used by communities, and highlights the stark and indefensible contrast between funding for
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You Have the Right to Think
Epistemic Status: Public service announcement. We will then return to regularly scheduled programming. Written partly as a response to (Robin Hanson): Why be Contrarian, responding to the book Inad…
Grow like Trees: An Organic Approach to Societal Regrowth
2026 is the year that system breakdown became impossible to deny. Democratic norms, societal norms, rule of law, the fabric of the social contract tearing as we watch. Or hide, unwilling or unable to face the unravelling. The hopeful among us see opportunity through the dark. Tentatively or boldly we
Opinion: Losing the Local Journalism Initiative leaves communities in the dark
With more outlets vying for federal funding, why are national outlets opening up new bureaus in communities with healthy media ecosystems?
The Four Factors for Organizations - Future Mending Radio
When I pick an organization for the podcast or the map at Futuremending.com, I’m not just picking businesses out of a hat – I have a system for evaluating orgs which I call the Four Factors for Organizations. The Four Factors are Multi-solving, Sharing, Sufficiency and Transparency.This episode is in two parts. The opening minutes are a bit of an emotional check-in to see how people are processing the unprecedented political turmoil in the United States. The second part of the podcast discusses the Four Factors for Organizations and why seeking out certain vectors of change makes more sense than trying to lay out a detailed plan for a better future. Read about the Four Factors: https://www.futuremending.com/whatMatt’s Blue Sky account: https://bsky.app/profile/mattliepaehlke.bsky.socialWired Magazine coverage of the crisis in the U.S. : https://www.wired.com/tag/elon-musk/Rebecca Solnit’s newsletter: https://meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io/welcome-to-meditations-in-an-emergency/ Google's AI Policy: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/05/google-owner-drops-promise-not-to-use-ai-for-weapons Future Mending Map: https://www.futuremending.com/toronto Music Credits:'Epilogue' by The Slow Motions. Used with permission of the artist.‘Fashion’ by Alex Productions. Creative Commons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV1miCgT7J4‘Miss you’ by Middle Child. Creative Commons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dayIKHEIYqY‘Opening’ by Phillip Glass. Arr. by Karl Michelson. Performed by The Union Guitar Trio. Used with permission of the artists.Union Guitar Trio on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/2E0NidLjIzBAO7t0BBPFUDUnion Guitar Trio on Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-union-guitar-trio/1592543833Sound Effects:BBC News November 9th, 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjNz1lvXgzUwood hit low glass bowl 3.mp3 by ascap -- https://freesound.org/s/242388/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0Brightness by sonically_sound -- https://freesound.org/s/632762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
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CivicPulse
CivicPulse is a nonpartisan nonprofit seeking to promote more effective local and state governance through improved access to reliable data and research.
We will discuss this paper in the civic participation journal club. Cannot wait to read it at lunchtime tomorrow🍎
Brihi Joshi
Reasoning about the "why" behind user behavior can improve LLM personas! ✨🧠📈 📝Excited to share our new work: Improving LLM Personas via Rationalization with Psychological Scaffolds 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2504.17993 🧵 (1/n)
