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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 10/09/2017 - City Manager’s Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: October 9, 2017 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. Time: 4:00–6:00pm Committee Members Present: Wade Troxell, Chair Ray Martinez Kristin Stephens City Staff: Darin Atteberry, City Manager Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Jackie Kozak-Thiel (Staff Liaison) Presenters: Duane Elverum, Co-Founder and Co-Director, CityStudio Vancouver Josh Yates, Director, Thriving Cities Additional Staff Present: Sean Carpenter, Climate Economy Advisor Jackson Brockway, Business Analyst Katy Bigner, Environmental Planner Community Members: Robbie Moreland, Fort Collins citizen Jody DesChenes, Fort Collins citizen Dale Adamy, Fort Collins citizen Nina Bodenhamer, Fort Collins citizen Rob Panos, Community Foundation of Northern Colorado Meeting called to order at 4:07 pm Approval of Minutes: Ray moved to approve September minutes. Kristin seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 3-0-0. Chairman Comments: None 2 Think Tank Item 6-2017: CityStudio – Art of Cities Duane Elverum, Co-Founder and Co-Director, CityStudio Vancouver, presented on the purpose and functions of CityStudio, a nonprofit innovation hub founded in 2011 where City staff, students, and community co-create projects, prototypes and experiments to make Vancouver more sustainable, livable, and joyful.  Goal is to address the Muni-Uni-gap – concept which describes the perceived knowledge gap/disconnect between universities and cities. Students’ connections to the City are nonexistent while students attend university. Most students don’t realize that cities are entities with large employee bases, networks, etc.  CityStudio Model: o Essentially an efficient matchmaking service between municipal plan goals/targets and post-secondary expertise. o Universities are across the top of the model; City of Vancouver’s main strategic plans matched to specific faculties’ interests and capacities and then projects are developed with those relationships. o A “plug and play model”  The model… o Increased citizen engagement o Allows for proof of concept prototypes across the range of strategic goals o Allowed the City to innovate safely with reduced risk o Works to close the muni-uni gap o Contributed to a talent retention strategy – when grads had CityStudio experience, they were more likely to remain in the city. o Engages and energizes staff o Signaled to community and leadership that Vancouver is trying to experiment. o Can fuel economic development initiatives. o Creates new media opportunities – students’ smiling faces representing projects.  5 pieces to the process: o 1) Convene City Staff  Facilitate using strategic design method: break silos of universities, so all courses are integrated. Different faculty come together to teach courses. Leave it up to staff to self-select. o 2) Identify Projects Opportunities  Map the project identity and define staff connections  Staff write biggest question down from their area on spreadsheet and send out to all staff to see who wants to participate in the process. o 3) Test and Experiment in Public  Connect staff, students, faculty, and community groups to experiment on the ground. o 4) Launch Prototypes  Launch the prototypes around the community for 2 months. o 5) Host Showcase and Career Fair in City Hall  Once a year for students to showcase their projects throughout the year.  Sponsors, stewards, students, etc. attend. 3  CityStudio funding: o Fundamentally, a project of the City of Vancouver. $200,000 in kind for collaboration – workspace and one project coordinator. o University is on a prorated FTE basis – provides funding to cover all operational costs. Split between 7 different universities and colleges.  Project Ideas o Since 2011, CityStudio has launched 311 projects in Vancouver, involving more than 4,000 students and over 120,000 hours. o Project examples: gardens, pianos, community concierge, bike repair, etc. o Projects need to be tangible, there needs to be a community steward along with staff, and project can be photographable.  Contextual framework to consider: o How do we tell stories that build community? o How do we increase safety in our cities? o How do we make the most of public space? o How do we experiment in public? And fail? Thriving Cities Josh Yates, Director, Thriving Cities, presented an overview of the ideas behind Thriving Cities, which operates under the basic premise that the goal of a city ought to be fundamentally oriented toward the thriving of every member in every neighborhood.  Shared backdrop o We are in the midst of momentous demographic change in the U.S. o Questions of humans flourishing (“thriving”) are going to continue to play out. o By 2050, 2/3 of the human race will live in an urban environment o With all of these changes, what is the purpose of the city?  Economic growth? Is that enough?  4 Basic Key Needs: 1) Framework for seeing full range of factors that lead to thriving  Thriving is a multidimensional concept that requires a way of thinking that, in the past, we have not possessed. Often trained ourselves to think in linear, segmented ways.  Reintroduction of the wolves in Yellowstone as an example of interdependent interconnected relationships.  In any natural ecosystem, there are keystone species that have a disproportionate impact on the rest of the ecosystem. Wolves were keystone species. Removal of wolves changed the entire ecosystem.  Human ecology works similarly. There are actors who play a keystone role in the system; complexity and system theories can help explain how cities work.  Thriving Cities created an endowment model of a community system. The word ‘endowment’ important because it has a temple dimension to it. Endowments make up the ecology. Call them “fundamental endowments” revolving around fundamental activities of cities. 4  Ask yourself: how are you investing in endowments today that will impact the future? How are you building upon the assets that already exist in your city? 2) Form of assessment – how do you measure it?  Not just a way of thinking, but need a form of assessment that can account for progress and regress on the range of factors that add up to thriving.  Need key measures. Not just quantifiable measures, but measures that express what a full, robust, and rich human life and community is.  Described the indicator explorer tool on the Thriving Cities website that takes 300 of the leading indicators that cities are using around the country and helps cities determine which indicator to use for their needs. 3) Need for strategies for organizational and vocational collaboration and alignment around range of factors and ecology of community.  All of this requires a shift in our understanding of leadership.  The degree in which there are unusual coalitions should also be considered and strategized. Catalysts for unusual coalitions.  Consider: how are you bridging divides within endowments? How are you creating and investing in specific infrastructure in your community? 4) Need to find ways for seeing the value of things we have in common.  Old notion of the commonwealth or the common good.  Talking people through the ecology and civic design creates the space for people to see what they have in common with one another.  Human ecology is like casting a net in your community. Thriving Cities has specialized in going into places where equity is an issue and where civic capacity of community is low.  Consider urban optimists vs. urban pessimists. Cities have historically been incredible engines, but just what they’re powering is shifting. The decisions you make today are going to determine just how your city operates in the future.  Question: Sustainability vs. resiliency. At the end of the day, what are we sustaining? Trend is moving towards resilience and adaptability vs. sustainability. o Question is not whether or not sustainability, question is how does that connect with things we also care about? DO: Next steps  Think about muni-uni gap. Think about where there are gaps we could fill.  How do we associate risk with learning? Model at CityStudio focused on students, so the projects are framed as a learning exercise.  Work on how we, as staff, connect with community.  Consider seeds that are being planted right now and what is being invested with endowments. How are we measuring what matters to us?  The purpose of the city is making sustainable, livable, joyful place to live on the way to being a thriving city. Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative 5  Mayor Wade Troxell reported that a schedule is set for cohort classes as it relates to the HBX. Additional Discussion: None. Meeting adjourned by Wade Troxell at 5:58 pm.