Community Development Savvy
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Here you'll find practical advice about common neighborhood aggravations or serious problems. We're geared toward people whose day job doesn't involve community improvement, but who work hard in a community organization or who have identified one problem or opportunity they'd like to pursue.
Years as professionals and consultants give us wisdom to share. But we love being volunteers and leaders in our own communities too.
Let's start. We'll be conversational as we put the U into Useful Community Development, abbreviated to just CD on the buttons on the left. Click the button or link below that's closest to your interest.
And when you send us your community's "how we did it" stories, we'll feature the best ones prominently.
| A Definition of Community Development That Encompasses Everyone Most volunteers believe an awkward definition of community development centered only on lower-income neighborhoods. Broadening your vision will open your eyes to new projects in your back yard. |
| Community Organizations Can Improve Any Neighborhood Learn how to form temporary or permanent community organizations to tackle a problem or situation in your community. The trick is focus on achievable goals, not trivia. |
| Housing Mix Is Critical to Neighborhood Viability and Revitalization Housing is the best indicator of community viability or neighborhood revitalization, especially when affordable and mixed income solutions are blended skillfully into the community. |
| Economic Development from the Community Perspective Many local economic development efforts zero in on pie-in-the-sky activities that don't attract an economic base that brings money into the community. Learn the best options. |
| Land Use Zoning, CC&Rs, Deed Restrictions, Regulations, and Codes This page introduces land use zoning, subdivision regulation, codes, covenants, and CC&Rs, with links to more detail about current common issues. |
| City Planning or Even Small Town Visioning Overview for Non-Planners City planning for land use and transportation in the public interest is helpful to all communities and neighborhoods. But the coolest plans are often unconventional. |
| Redevelopment Re-Uses Land Creatively Redevelopment of vacant, abandoned, or underutilized land can bring new vitality to a neighborhood or city. Downtown and mixed-use projects are among the best examples. |
| Environmental Sustainability for Neighborhoods Your neighborhood can be the coolest green community around. Environmental sustainability requires attention to water, energy, and resource use. |
| Crime Prevention and Safety for Your Neighborhood Crime prevention is central to success in many neighborhoods. Learn the best ways to organize neighborhood watch and traffic calming. |
| Beautification of Your Community Matters This page describes how to leverage some simple beautification steps to enhance community appearance and pizzazz needed to compete in the marketplace. |
| Suburban Sprawl and Its Real Impact on Your Community Suburban sprawl impacts urban, suburban, and rural areas in devastating ways. Effects of urban sprawl on metropolitan community issues and economics are wide ranging. |
| Volunteerism Questions for Self-Awareness and Resources to Find Opportunities Volunteerism meets many community service and service learning needs, while also fitting goals of teens, senior citizens, scholarship seekers, and job seekers. |
| Share Your Community Improvement Story Submit screening form for telling the story of an organization, community, project, or initiative on www.useful-community-development.org |
| Sitemap for useful-community-development.org This sitemap consists of links to existing pages and a listing of future pages. |
| Communicate with useful-community-development.org This page allows you to send messages to the useful-community-development.org folks. |
| About Us The writers of this website want you to know a little about us, so you'll appreciate that these simple-sounding solutions represent the voice of experience. |
