Kent Cagle has been a city manager in Texas for over 20 years, and has worked in local government in Texas for nearly 35. He has worked in cities that are growing rapidly, and ones that are built out and having to determine how they can balance a budget with limited resources. He is the current city manager in Killeen, Texas and oversaw the city's recent Comprehensive Planning effort. Kent shares a great deal of knowledge on how he has navigated the changing landscape of local government and provides some useful insight on how to actually get things done. Hint: he's very pragmatic about it all.

If just about anyone tells you that they totally understand zoning codes, they are probably lying to you. Well, unless they are today's guest. Sara Bronin is a Mexican-American architect, attorney, and policymaker. She's also a professor of planning and law at Cornell University. She founded and directs the National Zoning Atlas, a tool that aims to depict critical aspects of zoning codes nationwide in an online, user-friendly map. If there is one thing we love discussing here at Verdunity, it's zoning and how it can be improved. You won't want to miss this episode.

Incremental improvement is a key element to the success of any place. The biggest projects, developments, and infrastructure also come with the biggest collection of dangers and places that something can go wrong. Starting from the bottom and working to solve an immediate need in the most effective way possible can also solve big problems over time, we just need to embrace that way of thinking. Kevin and Colleen Askew discuss just this (and more).

Jason Duff is the Founder of Small Nation which encompasses a group of companies, leaders, and investors who develop places, spaces, and dreams for small towns and small-town entrepreneurs across the county. Jason and his team at Small Nation have completely revitalized the town of Bellefontaine, Ohio. In 10 short years, they have turned a dying town around and helped make it a Best-in-State destination. If you want some serious inspiration for how your downtown can be enlivened with passion and hard work, this is a must-listen.

Andrew Kleine is the author of "City On the Line" and is working tirelessly toward a future in which municipal budgeting produces the results that leaders are looking for. Shayne Kavanagh, the Senior Manager of Research for the Government Finance Officers Association, has spent his career looking at how government policy interacts with the fiscal health of the places in which he works.

To some municipal budgeting is a *Black Box*, but today's conversation aims to make this sometimes confusing topic a little more transparent. Can the budgeting process be communicated to the public in a way that actually helps them understand and be a part of the process? The answer is yes. Kevin, Shayne, and Andrew look seriously at how we can we take a data-first approach to planning for the future and come up with ways that our budget actually produces meaningful results in our communities?

Have you ever heard the phrase "affordable housing" used by 5 different people, but it seems like every one of them is talking about something slightly different? This episode will help shed some light on this sometimes confusing, always complex subject. AJ and Deborah go deep and we are here for it.

On this episode Kevin speaks with Kea Wilson, Streetsblog Senior Editor, about the saga Broadway in San Antonio. What happens when state and local officials disagree about what kind of thoroughfare best serves a community?

AJ interviews Catherine Sak, Executive Director of Texas Downtown. What makes a great downtown? What do we sometimes miss that can influence the way new visitors feel about our downtown? This episode covers it all!

From Kevin Shepherd:

Today I want to take a few minutes to talk about a few themes from our work last year and preview a few initiatives our team at Verdunity has planned for 2022 for us to meet and serve more of you better.

First I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have followed us over the past few years, shared our content, and given us feedback. We are SO GRATEFUL for all of you out there working to cultivate strong neighborhoods, communities, and local economies. Pushing past business as usual is really hard work, and it takes special people like you who are willing to think differently, do research, share what you learn with others, try things out, and keep nudging conversations forward. We’re honored to be one of the resources you come to for tips, feedback, and support, so thank you!

We take this responsibility seriously and want to make our podcast, email digests, and other content as helpful and engaging as possible. To help us better serve you, we need a couple of things. First, we’d love to hear from you about what you’re struggling with in your role there in your community or organization. What worked and didn’t work for you last year? What are you hoping to try in the year ahead? What specific topics, people, or organizations would you like to hear about and learn from? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on our social feeds on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Second, we’re trying to get a better understanding of who follows Verdunity (or members of our team) on various media and social platforms so that we can make sure we do a better job of sharing information and connecting people across these groups. We’ve created a survey that we’d like our followers to fill out - it’s at verdunity.com/podsurvey Please take just a few minutes to give us some feedback. It really does help us help you. As a thank you for completing the survey, we’ll select a random 15-20 people from the responses we get to receive a 30 minute Zoom consultation with me. We can use this to talk one on one, visit with your city council, planning commission, or neighborhood group - whatever is most helpful for you. So as soon as you’re done reading this or listening to the podcast version, hit that link and let us know a few nuggets that can help us make our podcast and other content work more helpful and meaningful to you.

Kevin sits down with Mayor Brandt Rydell and Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis from Taylor, Texas to discuss how and why a fiscally-informed comprehensive planning process can align varying interests in a community and provide a roadmap for growth and development that is financially resilient. The group also explores how education focused engagement efforts can benefit any planning process.