It’s Diane here. I can hardly believe it’s been 5 years since Save Your City first found its way into the hands and hearts of concerned civic leaders and citizens in communities. What a journey it’s been! The book tour grew into a seemingly never-ending civility tour that continues to this day.
To mark this anniversary, a new, updated and illustrated citizen's edition of Save Your City has been published. The new cover, designed by Italy's Dolce Vita Design reinforces the book's focus on the "human infrastructure" of community building and renewing the art of living and working (governing) well together. This award-winning edition also includes a poster Roadmap to Renewing Civic Culture that guides us through 5-steps to foster the type of culture that can sustain us, our democracy and our planet.
Reflecting on these past years, my in-depth discussion with veteran broadcaster and senior executive Chris Eddy on the Local Government News Roundup podcast helped me draw out some of the lessons I learned and my diagnosis of where we are in addressing incivility and toxic culture in our communities, as well as where we are headed. We dove into why I wrote Save Your City and the importance of nurturing civic spaces rooted in respect, compassion and ethical relations.
When I began this journey, Canadians were in widespread denial that we had an incivility problem in our communities. Today it is undeniable. My article last week, "Enough is enough: Say no to abuse of civic officials and staff", on the heels of the resignation of the City of Gatineau's Mayor France Belisle due to a toxic political environment and death threats, was supported and endorsed by hundreds.
This new edition is my way of saying thank you. Thank you for believing in a vision of communities led by compassion and servant leadership. Thank you for rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work. And thank you for every conversation, every challenge faced, and every small victory celebrated along the way.
As we step into the next chapter of our journey with Save Your City, I invite you to continue spreading the word, challenging the status quo, and being the change in your communities.
Please leave a book review, sharing your thoughts and experiences. Your stories, your struggles, and your successes have been the real inspiration behind every page of this book. Save Your City has made it to #3 on Amazon's urban best seller list!
So here’s to us, to our ongoing journey towards healthy and vibrant communities with civic cultures that foster human flourishing—places that support us being the best that we can be, together.
With all my gratitude and hope for the future,
Diane