Sonoran Streetcars, Thumbs Up for Scandinavia and a BIG Middle Finger to Georgia 🌵 👍 🐦

The past few weeks have been weird. We’re now in an awkward limbo period between the pandemic, (which isn’t actually in the least bit over), nearly a quarter of U.S. adults now vaccinated, fears of a fourth wave, and both progress and regression on the fronts of the BLM movement, voting rights/suppression, DEI and more. One step forward and two steps back, and the landscape changes daily.

Many of us had gotten used to the new norms and rules of engagement for dealing with COVID-19, and then the vaccines started rolling out. States like Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Mississippi, Texas and West Virginia reopened or rolled back safety measures and mask mandates, sending mixed signals, putting businesses at odds with their customers and creating a whole lotta headaches for proprietors who want to continue vetted safety protocols. It’s a big messy quagmire for towns and districts whose ratepayers rely on customers, but don’t want blood on their hands. Don’t even read the comments on social media without a scotch and soda by your side. As we creep and peep into April and the ongoing drama unfolds, we hope that all of you are safe, sane, and doing your best by your constituents. Except for Brian “Jim Crow” Kemp, the blatantly racist governor of Georgia, to whom we give a big middle finger. Eat the bird, dude.

– Your Bright Brothers Team

Can you hear me now? All things “audio” are trending these days, and once again, the Scandinavian home décor deities over at IKEA have pushed the edge of the envelope with a 2021 audio catalog. In a laudable move, we applaud IKEA for killing the wasteful paper catalog in favor of digital versions. As we see an increase in audio platforms everywhere from audio-based social media entities like Clubhouse, to a pandemic-fueled increase in podcast consumption, to those sexy 15-second YouTube audio ads and more, it sounds like (see what we did there?) audio is the way to go. The 2021 IKEA catalog is available for your listening pleasure on Audiobooks.com, Spotify and YouTube and include snappy snippets about design, lifestyle and more. Give it a listen and let us know whatcha think. We’re all ears!

Photo credit: Devon Divine, Unsplash 

We’re still seeing abhorrent practices like a Black Georgia legislator being arrested for trying to fight voter suppression while the governor literally signed into law reprehensible voter suppression legislation last week, there are some bright points to note nationally. Last Monday Evanston, IL City Council approved a reparations plan designed to distribute $400,000 to Black residents (up to $25K per) with ties to the city’s Black community between 1919 and 1969. This first-in-the-nation plan is expected to serve as a blueprint for other initiatives, with cities like Chicago following suit.  In Seattle, a ”Fund for Inclusive Recovery” has been set up with the aim of raising $50 million over the next five years that is intended to address “…the widening inequities placed on BIPOC community…” during the pandemic. Issues of inequality exist in every city and district, and if your organization is looking for ways to address DEI, right the wrongs, and be on the right side of history, lessons can be taken from Evansville and Seattle right now.

Photo credit: Clark Tibbs, Unsplash

Did you know that you can put AI to use for your own good?  If you have an Alexa device in your home, you can get it to do all sorts of practical and productive things like make domestic phone calls to landlines and mobile numbers, find your phone, play the news or an audiobook (perhaps that new IKEA catalog!), watch out for burglars, play white noise to lull you to sleep and more. As artificial intelligence weaves its way into our daily routines, it’s best to get to know how to use it to your advantage. This roundup from USA today offers 15 interesting things you may not have known Alexa could do. We’re just over here waiting for the Door Dash skill so Alexa can order us up a Big Mac at lunch time!

Photo credit: Alex Knight, Unsplash

Zoomed out? We all are. As humans, our need for personal connection is strong, and the pandemic has sincerely hindered our ability to meet face-to-face. But, that’s where technology saves the day, right?  Wrong. Turns out that old joke about “meetings that should have been emails” has gone “full-on AV” during the pandemic. Some employees are now reporting the inability to get work done at all because they’re sitting on hours-upon-hours of soul-sucking video chats. Technology comes to the rescue with software called Zoom Escaper that make it seem like it’s better off for you to get off the call altogether. While we don’t condone hoodwinking your boss, or Carole in accounting (who can’t seem to understand how mute works), you might want to back-pocket this baby for a true time of need.

Photo credit: Charles Deluvio, Unsplash 

Tempe, Arizona is soon to be the fifth city in the nation to run Brookville Streetcars on its new design-build-test Tempe Streetcar system, slated to open later this year. The decade-long development is an interesting exercise in transportation and mobility. It will connect outlying parts of the city, formerly serviced by bus and limited public vehicles to the bustling downtown core, anchored by its ever-growing Arizona State University main campus. By plugging into Valley Metro’s existing light rail service, it enables residents from far-flung Mesa and North Phoenix to traverse the city; including an emerging employment corridor along Rio Salado Parkway and even Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The cars themselves were manufactured in western Pennsylvania, then transported by truck to the Sonoran Desert. Similar off-wire-capable streetcars are already running in other cities such as San Francisco, Detroit, Oklahoma City and Milwaukee. The total project cost is $192.4 million, which includes $75 million in FTA infrastructure grants.

Photo credit: Valley Metro