Don't delay your registration for the League’s first-ever Town & State Dinner, scheduled for May 29 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Raleigh Convention Center.
Space is limited for this exclusive advocacy event, providing you the opportunity to be with your legislators in a more intimate environment perfect for networking and strengthening relationships. Join us in celebrating state and local leaders who have worked so hard to advocate for municipalities and their residents. Members will hear the latest policy updates from Gov. Roy Cooper, House Speaker Tim Moore, Attorney General Josh Stein, and fellow leaders.
This League sponsored dinner gives you the chance to spend time socializing with your legislator. While the League will be inviting legislators, a personal invitation directly from their constituents means more. After you register yourself, be sure to give your legislator a call and personally invite him or her to join you for dinner. The League is extending electronic and printed invitations to legislators directly. Legislators do not need to register; instead they can RSVP directly to
Town&StateDinner@marianneangelirodriguez.com. For this year’s legislative short session, the Town & State Dinner is being held in lieu of Town Hall Day.
A lack of access to high-speed broadband affects communities of every size in North Carolina, and the League invites you to learn the fundamentals about community-led broadband. Join NCLM Legislative Counsel Erin Wynia on Thursday, May 10, at 10 a.m., for the Community-Led Broadband Basics webinar. The webinar will include highlights of the League’s new broadband report: key terms, explanations of technology, broadband public-private parnterships, the state's legal landscape, and tips on how to bring broadband networks to your community. Register in advance. Instructions for joining the webinar will be included in your registration confirmation.
Of all the political, economic and cultural concerns of today, the “urban-rural divide” is no slouch. But sometimes it’s oversimplified, devoid of nuance, or turned into an adversarial narrative (i.e. “urban vs. rural”), instead of carefully analyzed for greater-good fixes. On this episode of Municipal Equation -- the League's biweekly podcast about cities and towns in the face of change -- we delve into a recent report that pulls apart that narrative and gives us a different way of looking at this “divide,” and shows us how urban and rural may be more linked than one might think. Christiana McFarland of the National League of Cities joins us.
New to the podcast? The latest episode is a great place to start, but we have heaping topics in our bank of past episodes: broadband; police recruitment; public outreach; generational change; the sharing economy; driverless cars; craft beer; creative economic development; and many more. Have an idea for an episode? Or feedback on one we've already done? Reach out to host/producer Ben Brown.
The Economic Census is just ahead, and it's a vital collector of business data for economic development. Conducted every five years with the business sector, "it is a cornerstone of many Census Bureau and other federal statistical programs that provide timely information on the health of the U.S. economy," said a Census Bureau
newsletter this month. Local officials should encourage businesses in their area to respond. The Bureau has created a number of
explainers and promotional materials to help.
Now, for the first time, the Economic Census will be conducted almost entirely online for accessibility and ease, a change from the paper-and-mail system of before. The Census Bureau has, however, sent letters to nearly 4 million business locations to inform them that the process has begun. The Economic Census "provides industry and market statistics at the national, state and local levels and gives businesses the information they need to make informed decisions," according to program literature.
