Downtown revitalization creates `urban rooms’

Brea, Calif., is nearing completion of an 11-year effort to revitalize its downtown district. The $100 million-$150 million project involves construction of eight buildings on Birch Street, to include retail stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and loft apartments, and reconfiguration of a two-block stretch of Brea Boulevard that will incorporate superstores for media and clothing retail chains.

By Lindsay Isaacs • Sept. 1, 2000

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Tips on passing a bond referendum

Local officials are confronted with capital improvement needs – building new schools, repairing aging sewerage treatment plants or expanding the park system – that require passage of bond referenda.

By Matt Zieper • Aug. 1, 2000

Neighborly night lights:Ball fields that don’t spill the beams

When Fort Lauderdale, Fla., decided to build fields for soccer and football at the edge of city-owned Holiday Park, officials were concerned about the possibility of sports lighting intruding on nearby residents.

By Sharon Colley • April 1, 2000

Theater move sets international record

The term “wide load” has new meaning for Minneapolis. Last summer, the city completed a salvage effort that entailed moving the Shubert Theater to a new site a quarter-mile away.

Dec. 31, 1999

Chicago gets a little bovine intervention

Chicago residents have welcomed 300 "udderly" surprising additions to the downtown area with the "Cows on Parade" public art exhibition. It may seem odd,

Aug. 1, 1999

Greenwood Gulch project enhances recreation area

In a project that may serve as a model for erosion control initiatives in other cities, Greenwood Village, Colo., has stemmed a severe erosion problem at Greenwood Gulch, a stream running through town. Moreover, the project has had a significant additional benefit — preservation of a recreational and wildlife habitat area.

March 1, 1999

Buying fleet vehicles: Options are standard

Buying a car is not as simple as it used to be. The Internet, price guides, rebates, incentives and a proliferation of late model, “off-lease” vehicles are among the wild cards that can complicate vehicle acquisition. With a diversity of makes, models and specifications, the purchasing job is not getting any easier.

By Tom Black • March 1, 1999

PARKS & RECREATION/Cooperation results in community-built playground

When Webb Bridge Park opened in Alpharetta, Ga., in 1998, it had no playground facilities, a fact that did not distinguish it from other area parks. “We got so many calls from people asking where the playgrounds were,” says Mike Perry, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “But we really had nothing.”

By Christina Couret • Feb. 1, 1999

Business Man: Dennis Gorski is the County Leader of the Year

Dennis Gorski has spent his political career raising eyebrows. A lifelong Democrat, he has become, as county executive of Erie County, N.Y., closely identified with issues like welfare reform and tax freezes, issues often considered “Republican.”

By Janet Ward • July 1, 1998

New Mexico forms corporation to help purchasing officials

New Mexico has formed an association to provide professional development, training, communication and networking for public purchasing personnel from federal, state and local government agencies.

June 1, 1998

Roadside memorials: Public policy vs. private expression

“It seems good to mark and to remember for a little while the place where a man died.” John Steinbeck wrote those words in “The Log from the Sea of Cortez,” and, as evidenced by roadsides across the United States, people have taken them to heart.

By Chris Ross • May 1, 1998

America’s covered bridges: Spanning the years

As the 20th century draws to a close, fewer and fewer quaint remnants of America's past exist to remind us of a simpler, slower time.

By Tom Black • March 1, 1998

Mixed Signals: How the Telecommunications Act affects you

Human interests spoil Utopia - a familiar scenario, and anyone with a 10-year-old child knows this version: a remote island is populated with dinosaurs.

By Harold McCombs • Aug. 1, 1997

Low bid alternatives

Historically, cities and counties have awarded construction contracts for public works projects to the lowest responsible bidder. The successful contractor.

By Edward Markus • Aug. 1, 1997

Mayor Paul Helmke: Unconventional wisdom

Mayor Paul Helmke has a history of reaching out to minorities. He recently appointed an openly lesbian woman to a city human relations commission.

By Tom Black • June 1, 1997

Performance zoning helps key city’s comeback

Havana, Fla., was once a thriving tobacco town. Twelve miles north of Tallahassee, the town sat at the junction of the Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railroads and was a center for the production of shade tobacco, which is used to wrap cigars.

June 1, 1997

Products and services-2

Accounting(*) AMERICAN FUNDWARE Flagship Co., 1385 S. Colorado Blvd., Ste. 400, Denver, CO 80222. (800) 551-4458; (303) 756-3030; FAX: (303) 756-3514.

April 30, 1997

Products and services-3

Water Meters, ResidentialABB KENT METERS, INC., 953 NE Osceola Ave. (34470), P.O. Box 1852, Ocala, FL 34478. (352) 732-4670; Outside FL (800) 8740890;

April 30, 1997

USPS decertifies mechanical meters

Washington, D.C. — Tampering that was costing the U.S. Postal Service — and ultimately U.S. taxpayers — more than $100 million a year has prompted the USPS to decertify all mechanical postage meters. A recall is underway.

March 31, 1997

The handwriting’s on the wall: Cities can win the graffiti war

Community involvement, a broad base of support and dogged persistence are among the ingredients that make for a successful graffiti-fighting program.

By Tom Black • March 1, 1997

Building your fleet To buy or not to buy? That is the question

Many municipalities are taking a hard look at leasing as a way to replace aging fleet vehicles without breaking the bank. But while that practice is on the rise, buying is still the rule.

By Tom Black • Jan. 1, 1997

URBAN REVITALIZATION/Livable City Initiative succeeds in New Haven

Like many old cities in the industrial Northeast, New Haven, Conn., has suffered considerable population loss during the 1990s. An estimated 7,600 people left the city between 1990 and 1995, leaving it with a current population of about 122,000.

Jan. 1, 1997

Houston neighborhoods program gets top honors

In just four years, the neighborhoods to Standards program has galvanized Houston's inner-city neighborhoods, improving the quality of life by concentrating

Dec. 1, 1996

Fungi help reduce transplant failures at the roots

It is estimated that transplant failures of trees and other plantings in grounds and roadside projects cost city and county governments millions of dollars

By Marx Donald • Oct. 1, 1996

City calls Mother Nature’s bluff with landslide project

After a landslide destroyed several homes and closed a vital highway, the seaside town of Dana Point, Calif., led the two-year effort to rebuild and strengthen the collapsed bluff, reopen the road and safeguard the area’s coastal beauty.

By Shapard Rob • Aug. 1, 1996