On July 26th, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser gave a speech declaring that the Suez Canal was being nationalized.  At the same moment, Egyptian forces raided and took control of the important trade route.  

While in many ways it was disastrous for the British politically, one of the biggest blows was what it...

So you have started some element of a City Transformation Movement!  Congrats!  

Now you need to figure out how to fund it!  

Barf.

Fundraising for City Movements can be a tricky adventure.  The reality is, especially when starting out, a leader can spend a significant amount of time fundraising throughout the year, which...

I recently gave a Tedx talk on our country’s need for a new narrative (link here) and the three underlying qualities we see in successful cities we work with are civility, humility, and commonality.  

When I think of commonality, I continue to go back to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals, a biography of Abraham Linc...

February 20, 2017 was a tragic day for Whittier, California.  Officer Keith Boyer’s life was taken in the line of duty. Whittier has not lost a police officer since the late 1970’s, so the news of this was shocking and heartbreaking. Boyer had been a police officer for twenty-seven years, and was close to retirement. He was...

Growing up in the Bay Area, when I think about great cities, I automatically think of San Francisco.

I first think of the landscape, the rolling hills cascading into the Bay.  The fog rolling in and out.  

Then I think about the bridges, and the historical landmarks.  Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, the Mar...

I don't think I've ever been a part of a more productive, more God honoring 50 minute meeting than the one I was humbled to witness tonight. 

First, the backstory.

Love Escalon was started by a stalwart of a Pastor in the community.  Under his leadership, Love Escalon thrived for many years.  In a cruel turn of events, the Pa...

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before:

A large church in the community decides it wants to start an initiative to help the city.  They come up with a catchy name and tie in their own church logo.  They launch a pilot project and it goes well.  The church invites other groups to a meeting at their church to talk about expan...

… then start with a city wide volunteer day.  

Love Our Cities had grown to about two dozen cities in Northern California when we were contacted by Jay from Fullerton in Southern California.  Jay is a pastor who left his church to start a non profit, OC United, to be a convener of multiple churches across Orange County to me...

It’s remarkable to think that future centuries will look back at this time in history, our time, as the great shift from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.  This is the era that birthed the knowledge economy as well as GIF’s, memes and the Mannequin Challenge.  

The ability to access a world of knowledge fr...

What is better than having an idea that you make a reality? How about when the reality works! Some months ago as my husband and I were on a weekly clean-up walk, I despaired over all the cigarette butts littering the neighborhood bus stop. We do not pick up dead butts for almost the same reason we leave dog feces on the gro...