Collaborations, Part I

One striking element of working in the nonprofit world is the need to work in collaborations. In my previous life as a trial lawyer working in an equal partnership with others was the exception, not the rule. A lawyer may have local counsel in a jurisdiction where he or she has a case, or be local counsel for another, but that’s not a relationship between equals. Someone’s in charge and everybody knows who it is.

The same power relationship normally also exists within a law firm on any particular matter. A partner will be in charge of a case and have one or more associates working for him or her. In a really big case, there may be a junior partner working for a more senior partner, but there is never doubt about who’s calling the shots.

The nonprofit world is very different. I work all the time with people who are my equal in position—leaders of other nonprofits. Sometimes the organizations are larger, sometimes smaller than ours, but we are all equal in dignity. No one is in charge. This isn’t always easy.

I’ve met some people from the for-profit world that imagine that all leaders of nonprofit organizations are selfless and egoless; motivated solely by the desire to do good. Would that it were so!

After a couple of decades of law practice and ten years now on the nonprofit side, my experience is that business people are much easier, on the whole, to deal with than nonprofit leaders. Business is, in its own way, simple. It’s about money. Law suits were about money. Law firms are about money. Anybody can keep score, you just need to count the money. Life could not be simpler.

It’s a lot more complicated on the nonprofit side. Leaders of nonprofits are almost uniformly very capable people; people who could make a lot more money somewhere else, working for a profit. Nonprofit leaders have sacrificed (at least in money) to take their position. They are committed; driven to change the world; and they almost always have a very particular vision of the change they want to implement.

In short, when you deal with nonprofit leaders (except for me of course!) then you are dealing with smart, determined people whose goals and motivations will be completely obscure to you. Worse yet, from my standpoint, those goals and motivations are likely based on spiritual, philosophical or political principals that I might not even understand. In other words, in many nonprofit collaborations, you have to really work hard to understand each other even before you can start working on the problem you’re addressing.

Still, these collaborations are necessary if we’re going to get things done. At least the process is usually educational. How hard it is depends a lot on how the collaboration got started, a topic I’ll come back to after I think about it a little longer.

Dis-Connected

More than twenty-five years ago, I should have realized that the world had changed. When I was a very young lawyer, I overheard a partner at the firm berating another young (but slightly older than me) lawyer because he hadn’t returned a telephone message from that morning until late afternoon.

The lawyer returning the call was on vacation, camping with his family at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. It didn’t matter that this was well before everybody had a cell phone, that it was during vacation, or that most campsites don’t have telephone service. The partner expected him to be available and he wasn’t, so he was in trouble.

Topping Out

I’ve never seen a topping out ceremony for a single family house in the United States—they probably still occur but aren’t standard anymore. Apparently in Europe, especially in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, topping out ceremonies are more common, even in residential construction.

In the United States, topping out ceremonies now occur only for significant buildings—like downtown high rises. That makes topping out parties a specialty of ironworkers, members of The International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Ironworkers to be more specific yet. Those are the workers that deal with the big steel.

The moment celebrated isn’t the completion of the building. It’s when the highest point of the structure is in place and the frame of the building is complete. The ceremony is held at the moment when completing the building is in site; when the highest roof beam is placed and the work is all downhill. We don’t celebrate our work and accomplishments enough most of the time. A big job done well deserves a bit of relaxation and self-congratulations.

Re:Vision Dallas—The Real Estate Council’s Technical Assistance Teams

Last Thursday was the first meeting of the technical assistance team that The Real Estate Council of Dallas is putting together to help review the designs for Re:Vision Dallas and the meeting was very encouraging—we’re adding more than another dozen experienced, intelligent minds to the project with all sorts of skills we wouldn’t have available otherwise..

I want especially to thank Ann Allison at The Real Estate Council for her help in putting the technical assistance team together and Celeste Fowden at CB Richard Ellis for agreeing to chair the committee.

Here’s how the team is organizing itself, as set out in an email from Ms. Fowden:

“Thank you all for joining us today in our initial meeting for the Re:Vision project, we appreciate your willingness to participate. Below is a summary of what we discussed today with action items at the bottom.

Goals:
1. Define subcommittees – Deadline July 24th
– award specific jobs/tasks within subcommittees – Deadline July 31st

2. Questions to Designers if any – TBD

3. Identify major flaws with the designs which will determine if they are realistic to pursue further

4. Designs with flaws that can be fixed, has designer re-design

5. Review of remaining designs

6. Summary report

Subcommittees: (please let me know if I missed some)

1. Site Analysis – includes legal, zoning, environmental, infrastructure, etc.

2. Design/Engineering

3. Finance/Development

4. Project Budget – within the $60MM total project costs

5. Power/Energy Generation – might need to recruit for this committee

6. City Council/Manager Liaisons”

I’ll be sitting ex officio on the Site Analysis, Finance/Development and Project Budget subcommittees, and Brent Brown, Executive Director of the buildingcommunityWORKSHOP will sit on the Design/Engineering and Power/Energy Generation subcommittees.

I looking forward to getting the work underway and, once again, thanks to TREC and its volunteers for this effort. We couldn’t buy this kind of expertise, and if we could buy it, then we couldn’t afford it!

The Raise in the Minimum Wage

The minimum wage rose today from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour, the final step in a series of raises that have taken place over the past few years. I hope that didn’t affect too many of you, because if it did then you’re struggling to get by. Seeing this news in the morning’s paper reminded me that a couple of years ago I debated the wisdom of the legislation raising the minimum wage on the McCuistion Show on the local public television network, KERA. (The picture isn’t from the show I was on, but gives you an idea of the format—that’s Mr. McCuistion holding the microphone).

I probably spent more time preparing for that appearance than I did studying for the bar exam, largely because I was placed on the show to argue the “pro” side of raising the minimum wage while the extremely distinguished economist Robert McTeer (you can read his blog here: http://taxesandbudget-blog.ncpa.org/) had the “con” side of the argument.

This had all the makings of a classic Joe versus Pro confrontation. In the final event, Professor McTeer wasn’t out to embarrass anybody, or maybe I wasn’t worth the effort of embarrassing, and the hour show passed both quickly and without much in the way of pain, at least to me. I can’t answer for the audience.

One surprising thing Professor McTeer and I ended up agreeing on, however, was that although the raise in the minimum wage would help a few people a little, and perhaps hurt a few people whose jobs got cut, in the end it wouldn’t effect very many people one way or another.

The reason is simple, even after it was raised to its current $7.25 per hour, the minimum wage is still so low that almost everybody working is paid more than the minimum wage. After all, you can only earn $15,000 in year working full-time at that pay rate, and that’s barely enough for a single person to keep body and soul together.

Here is part of the chart I made for that show that shows the effect of the raise in the minimum wage on total wages, depending on how many workers lost their jobs because employers couldn’t afford to pay the higher minimum wage:

As you can see, three years ago 863,000 workers in Texas were making $7.25 per hour or less, and even if 25% of them lost there job because of a rise in the minimum wage, total wages would still rise. Of course that would be much comfort to people who lost their job. That number has gone down over the past couple of years as the minimum wage rose, but there are still 262,000 working Texans (as of last year) for whom making $7.25 per hour will be a pay raise.

More Tenant Interviews for CityWalk

This morning we did three more interviews for CityWalk@Akard–or rather, Judy Lawrence who handles all our properties did them while I ran back and forth between answering the telephone and dealing with urgent emails. Here is what she wrote after the interviews:

“We’ve had 3 interviews for CityWalk already this morning. Each interviewee impressed us in so many ways….two young woman with awful experiences in their lives – just trying to turn their lives around and one older man, currently living in his truck who, when we mentioned the one community room that was set up as a rehearsal room, eyes lit up and excitement filled his face and resonated in his voice. He was a song and dance man. He still loves to sing and dance – sang at festivals throughout Texas and the prospect of being able to do that again brought tears to his eyes. His voice cracked as he talked about how much he’d love to do that again and he ended by saying…I don’t know what to say to which we responded…it is what Rev. King said…keep hope alive. He just left the office and he thanked us for giving him hope. Our response, no sir, it is you who gives us hope and we need to translate that hope into a reality.

All three people had lost hope – that is what CityWalk is all about. Take the politics out of it. Take the rhetoric out of it. Simply listen to the heart and it says it all.”

I only really ended up sitting in on the last interview, but I hope you will think about the bare facts of that gentleman’s situation. He has been living in his truck for a full year while waiting for us to complete CityWalk so he could have a place to live. Think about the strength and discipline it takes to keep working to get your life back or just to keep appointments without a real place to live. I don’t know if I could do that.

There may be some people who prefer living on the street, but the people that come to us show amazing persistence and effort towards getting a home.

We’re Just Not That Into Us

Unfair Park is back with another little piece on Re:Vision Dallas. It’s here: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/07/apparently_the_rest_of_the_cou.php. The theme is that the rest of the country is more into Re:Visioning Dallas than Dallas is itself.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the truth. I don’t think it’s just the Re:Vision Dallas project, lately it seems to me that the people of Dallas are suffering from some sort of general malaise; from a feeling that nothing exciting is going to happen here—it will always be some place else.

I think we need to shake out of it. Sure there have been some disappointments. The Cowboys went to Arlington. The Trinity Project seems to go on never endingly without any progress being made.

But we’ve got a lot to get excited about. The Super Bowl is coming, as is the NBA all-star game. Even if you just look at building projects around Downtown Dallas, there is a lot happening. The Woodall Rogers Deck Park is going to be a reality.

As is at least one Calatrava Bridge, and the new Convention Center Hotel (even if I have to admit I’m not enthusiastic about the renderings).

There is also the new Natural History Museum, but it hasn’t unveiled its exterior design yet, so we can only look at the preliminary exhibit designs:

That’s a lot to look forward to and these are all projects that are funded and either under construction or about to get under construction. None of these are pipedreams.

The Winspear Opera House and the Wyly Performing Arts Center are now a reality—go Downtown and look if you want to be impressed. Or if that’s too much trouble, then you can log on to a live link showing the current state of the building: http://www.dallasperformingarts.org/mediacenter/camera1.aspx.

There is a lot more as well. Main Streets Garden is under construction. The new DART Green Line to Deep Ellum and Fair Park will be operating by fall—I’ve seen the trains on their practice runs on my way to the office. The tracks are their and the trains are real.

I haven’t even mentioned some wonderful projects that have been completed in the last few years, like the Nasher Sculpture Garden and the Bridge, the new homeless shelter. Central Dallas CDC’s own CityWalk@Akard will be completed this fall.

The truth is not only can we do projects like these, and like Re:Vision Dallas, we have done them and we are doing them.

Some of you may have noticed Dallas isn’t blessed with mountains or a sea shore. We only have what we make ourselves and if we only believe in ourselves, then we will continue to make a great city.

So open your eyes, look around, and believe!

The Dallas Neighborhood Revitalization Corp

Purpose: To revitalize a distressed ten-block neighborhood in the City of Dallas by taking to scale the methodology pioneered by the buildingcommunityWORKSHOP in the Congo Street Initiative.

Description of Method: In the Congo Street Green Initiative the buildingcommunityWORKSHOP pioneered a new approach to revitalization of distressed urban neighborhood. Prior revitalization efforts have usually relied on one of two approaches:

1. Slum clearance—The slum clearance approach, now largely outdated and abandoned, treated entire neighborhoods as a blight, acquired relatively large tracts (often through eminent domain), which were then cleared of all existing structures, and attempted to create a new neighborhood on the old site. While there was some value in the comprehensiveness of this approach, it had very significant downsides. It failed to value the existing social and built structure of the neighborhood. It treated people and social structures as fungible. Even when successful in creating a new neighborhood, those neighborhoods often did not include the former residents of the site and the new neighborhoods often had little or no social cohesion and as a result suffered from high crime rates and an entire lack of social cohesion.

2. Urban Infill—The urban infill approach emerged as a reaction to slum clearance. In this approach vacant lots or houses in need of demolition are filled with new construction, one home at a time. This approach respects the integrity of the neighborhood and its existing physical and social structures. Sometimes this approach is couple with efforts to improve or repair existing homes. The problem with the urban infill approach is its lack of comprehensiveness. One new house does little to reclaim the neighborhood (and may be difficult to sell) if it is located between two decaying structures. In many cases the rate of construction of new homes fails to exceed the rate of decay of existing structures, and the neighborhood as a whole fails to improve.

3. The Congo Green Street Initiative—Working in partnership with residents of Congo Street in South Dallas, the buildingcommunityWORKSHOP has developed a new idea for neighborhood revitalization based on the concept of the “Holding House”. The Holding House is a new infill home built in the neighborhood, but rather than being sold to a new or existing residence, the Holding House is used as a temporary residence within the neighborhood for neighbors to live in while their home undergoes repair or replacement. After a two or three month stay in the Holding House, the neighbor will return to their own, newly refurbished home and the next neighbor will move into the Holding House while work is done on their home.

This strategy combines the best features of the two previous methods. It is comprehensive, although its strategy to become comprehensive is temporal rather than spatial. It keeps neighbors in their own neighborhood, retains social cohesion, makes as much use of the existing physical structure as is feasible, and benefits the current residents of the neighborhood, not some hypothetical new residents.

To date, the Holding House method has proved itself in a small experimental project. This proposal is to take the method to scale.

Proposal: The buildingcommunityWORKSHOP will work in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, Central Dallas Ministries, the City of Dallas and Central Dallas Community Development Corporation, along with expected additional partners, to revitalize a ten block neighborhood in Dallas. While the neighborhood we will work in is now distressed, buildingcommunityWORKSHOP and its partners believe that with properly conceived approach every owner-occupied home in the neighborhood can be improved, repaired or if necessary replaced and that new construction can fill the majority of the now existing vacant lots. That will require touching as many 160 different pieces of property, but the partners believe that this task can be completed within two years.

Here are the key elements of program:

1. A concentrated effort will take place during the summer of 2009 to meet with the neighbors, explain the program and get the neighborhood enthusiastically behind the project.

2. The buildingcommunityWORKSHOP will recruit the team members for the project, funding the major portion of their expenses through the AmeriCorp program administered by Central Dallas Ministries.

3. After appropriate training, the buildingcommunityWORKSHOP will begin the construction of five Holding Houses, which will house neighbors within the neighborhood while their houses are repaired or replaced.

4. At the same time, two evaluation teams will start to work with neighbors to determine which of three categories their home best fits: 1) basically sound, but could benefit from some weatherization or improvement in energy efficiency; 2) in need of major repair, somewhere between $7,500 and $25,000 in work; or 3) in need of complete replacement.

5. When the Holding Houses are completed, five families whose houses are in need of major repairs or replacement will move into the Holding House nearest their own home for a period of five weeks for major repairs or twelve weeks for replacements.

6. Two specially trained crews will also begin working to weatherize and improve energy efficiency of the homes in the neighborhood that have been evaluated and would benefit from this activity.

7. The repair, replacement and weatherization/energy efficiency work will continue until every owner-occupied home in the neighborhood has received the necessary attention. The necessary time is expected to be eighteen months.

8. While this work is ongoing, Central Dallas CDC, Central Dallas Ministries, and the City of Dallas of Dallas will contact the owner of each rental property in the neighborhood to encourage them to make any needed repairs to their rental property, to assist them in making the improvements if they are cooperative and to make sure that their properties are up to code and properly maintained if they are not.

9. The City of Dallas will also support the project by funding its expenses through its existing home replacement, repair, and CHDO programs to the extent the activity qualifies and funding is available.

10. Habitat for Humanity will, at the same time these activities are under weigh, attempt to acquire every vacant lot in the neighborhood, which is not under active development, and work to construct new homes on these lots. Habitat for Humanity will also support the project by offering low cost mortgage loans for replacement homes, when the new homes cannot be paid for by either the City of Dallas’s home replacement program or other available grants.

11. Central Dallas CDC will provide accounting and financial support to the project and work with the other partners in locating grant funding and other potential partners for the project. Central Dallas CDC will also work to acquire or facilitate the acquisition of rental properties where the current landlord is unable or unwilling to make improvements.

12. All the partners in the project will work to see every home in the neighborhood repainted, the landscaping improved and to implement a home maintenance program to provide low cost services to residents who could not otherwise afford to properly maintain their property.

Timeline:

March through July 2009:
Planning and fundraising

July through August 2009:
Neighborhood meetings; Recruit and Train staff

September through October 2009:
Construction of Holding Houses; Beginning of valuation process; Beginning of weatherization/energy efficiency

October through December 2009:
Complete construction of Holding Houses; Begin Repair Work

December 2009 through May 2010:
Continue Repair and Weatherization Work

The Stimulus Reaches Central Dallas CDC!

Central Dallas CDC will be doing fundraising, managing the grant, documenting the expenditures and working with owners of rental housing in the neighborhood to repair or otherwise improve the rental housing. The bcWorkshop will be designing homes, building houses, managing repair work and working with homeowners in the neighborhood. Central Dallas Ministries will be supplying the labor in the form of forty-five AmeriCorps members, many of whom we hope to recruit from the neighborhood we’ll be working in and providing some of the other services—medical, legal, job training—needed in the neighborhood..

And, for those of you who care about such things, the total administrative cost for improving at least 100 homes in the neighborhood will be no more than $34,781.25. That means the partners in the NRC will put over $670,000 in direct improvements into the neighborhood, which will go a long way with most of the labor supplied at no cost by AmeriCorps members like those that have been working in the Congo Street Green Initiative.

We can hardly wait to get started!

Dragonflies

Next Page »