Civic Philanthropy: How Can Cities Leverage Donations?

I got to thinking the other day: What if more people cared about making their city a better place? What if more people cared enough to actually do something about it, something that involved their money? What if a city got creative and actually courted the wealthy philanthropists within its borders to contribute to its public space? What if businesses and landowners helped build a public transit system?

Hancock Park, in what was previously called "Rancho La Brea" and is now home to the La Brea Tar Pits and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, was donated to the county by Allan Hancock in 1916.

What if the city hired fundraising managers just like non-profits, with the sole purpose of securing private donations, and then allowed these people to get creative with events, campaigns, and other programs?

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Lessons From Seattle part 2: Local Transit

Continuing my with my thoughts from my recent trip to Seattle, I want to discuss local transit within the Downtown Seattle area. My last post centered on Airport Transit, you can read it here.

Seattle doesn’t have a comprehensive regional rail transit system like the ones in New York or Chicago or like Metro is building here in LA. The city does have a number of good options for local transit within the Downtown area, though.

Here, I outline some benefits to the way Seattle has developed a Streetcar, Free Busses, Monorail, and even Parking.

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