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Town: California

113 posts
Image of children playing around a water tower, with bright paintings on it and the message "You Have Found Lost Hills"
View Post
  • Civic Life

Finding the City of Lost Hills

  • Deborah Fallows and James Fallows
  • June 4, 2025
California's agricultural Central Valley—so rich in output, so poor in median income—is the focal point of trends in immigration, in education, in political trends, in sustainability.
Library building on a sunny day in San Diego.
View Post
  • Libraries

How Libraries Are Becoming ‘Sustainable’

  • Deborah Fallows
  • August 6, 2024
An ambitious goal of "making choices that are good for the environment, make sense economically, and treat everyone equitably."
Children doing nature drawings, in antique photo.
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

Sustainability: Suddenly the action is local.

  • Deborah Fallows
  • May 9, 2024
Ten years ago, we were searching for examples of local-level sustainability efforts. Now they are everywhere.
Seven people sitting on stage for a panel discussion.
View Post
  • Civic Life

‘Change is in the Air – in Redlands!’

  • Ben Speggen
  • March 15, 2023
A panel of residents, business owners, and community stakeholders discuss the southern California city then, and now.
Logo for "Inside Our Towns" with black background.
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

Inside Our Towns: Erin Sanborn

  • Ben Speggen and Evan Sanford
  • February 21, 2023
Erin Sanborn discusses service and sustainability and the role the University of Redlands plays in the community and beyond with Evan Sanford in this episode of the Inside Our Towns podcast.
View Post
  • Education

‘Uniting Americans through Service: How California is Leading’

  • Ben Speggen
  • January 19, 2023
California's Chief Service Officer discusses the California Volunteers' initiatives -- the impact CalVols is having in the state, and how it serves as a model nationwide at Jefferson Educational Society Global Summit event at the University of Redlands.
Logo for "Inside Our Towns" with black background.
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  • Civic Life

Inside Our Towns: Josh Fryday, California’s Chief Service Officer

  • Ben Speggen and Evan Sanford
  • December 7, 2022
National division might grab headlines, but the story of uniting citizens through service in California is growing.
Logo for "Inside Our Towns" with black background.
View Post
  • Civic Life

Inside Our Towns: Allen Carroll and Story Maps

  • Ben Speggen and Evan Sanford
  • September 16, 2022
Evan Sanford explores the origin and evolution of Esri’s story maps with the innovative storytelling tool’s creator, Allen Carroll.
Logo for "Inside Our Towns" with black background.
View Post
  • Local Institutions

Inside Our Towns: Project Fighting Chance

  • Evan Sanford and James Fallows
  • August 8, 2022
Evan Sanford and James Fallows talk with Ian Franklin and Terry Boykins about Project Fighting Chance -- a boxing gym that is more than a boxing gym in San Bernardino. They discuss how it got started, how it has grown, and an immediate challenge it faces today.
A wall canvas reading GIS -- Mapping Common Ground, as seen at the Esri 2022 User Conference in San Diego
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

‘Mapping Common Ground’: What I learned this summer in San Diego

  • James Fallows
  • August 3, 2022
New reason to “think globally, and act locally.”
Tolliver’s barbershop in Los Angeles is a place for conversation.
View Post
  • Health & Well-Being

A Safe Place to Talk: Raising HIV Awareness through Barbershops

  • Patrick Waechter
  • April 29, 2022
Barbershops are often hubs for conversation in Black and Latinx communities. DKBmed’s Fade Out HIV initiative strives to make use of these gathering spots to destigmatize HIV education and save lives.
The Fisk/Burgess House in Redlands is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of 20 noteworthy sites fourth-graders experience along the Smiley Heritage Tour. (Courtesy A.K. Smiley Public Library)
View Post
  • K-12

Never Too Soon: Engaging America’s Youngest Citizens Early and Often

  • Allie Kuroff
  • April 18, 2022
Americans know that retaining their young people requires getting them involved in the civic process early and often.
Old factory building, labelled Greenville SC
View Post
  • Civic Life

Why Story Maps Matter

  • James Fallows
  • April 11, 2022
People understand the world through stories. People absorb their stories in ever-expanding ways. Here is a preview of a powerful, emerging form of digital story-telling, which we’ll be using frequently in this space.
Baker Precision Cancer Medicine Building at Mission Bay on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, in San Francisco. (Photo by Noah Berger).
View Post
  • Health & Well-Being

American Institutions That Still Work

  • Orville Schell
  • March 17, 2022
Everyone knows about the parts of America that are so polarized and divided that they have lost touch with their basic functions. Here’s a look at some of the people, institutions, and collaborative cultures that provide examples, and lessons, for the rest of us.
Bellevue, Iowa on the Mississippi River. (Courtesy Community Heart & Soul)
View Post
  • Citizen Engagement

Fountains of Youth for Towns

  • Deborah Fallows
  • March 15, 2022
The life and spirit of any town or city depend on its ability to attract and retain people. In a time when many worry about brain drain, how communities keep their young people, or bring them back, or attract newcomers illustrates a place's sense of and attention to renewal.
The University of Charleston, through the mist, in a scene from Our Towns. (HBO)
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  • Civic Life

The Past, the Future, the Present: Updates from Coast to Coast

  • James Fallows
  • January 28, 2022
A Fellow named, college services goes big, and scenes from a Day of Enlightened Living—here are three updates on stories we've been following on this site over the years.

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