Farm&City seeks to be a truly independent nonprofit think-and-do tank working on behalf of all Texans — providing fair, transparent research, education, convening, and advocacy at the intersections of transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and equity.
Over the course of our first decade as a startup organization, we proved the strength of our theory of change. We demonstrated that a small, focused, and independent organization could have outsized impact by working across issues, geographies, and political lines — especially in spaces where no other organization was positioned, or even conceived, to succeed.
The next chapter of this work cannot look the same as the last.
Farm&City is currently paused. While we have done profound work and seen many successes, we did not build a structure that allowed a broader team to invest in the organization itself, and fundraising too often rested on a single set of shoulders. We paid staff for the first three months of this year, and then had to pause. Since then I have been volunteering my time to handle the administrative realities that come with a decade of work, while also continuing to take on policy, media, and strategic opportunities that felt too important to let slip away.
This pause has meant that real opportunities are being missed. At the same time, all is not lost. The work we’ve done over many years still matters, still shows up in policy decisions, and still creates leverage — even in a lean moment.
Emerging from this pause will require a new team of leaders to step into Board of Directors roles, professionalize management, and adopt a more resilient organizational development strategy — one that moves beyond a primarily single leader development model and allows the work to scale and endure.
That future board needs to reflect Texas. We need Republicans and Democrats with real experience in Texas policy change. We need Houstonians and Metroplex leaders sitting alongside people from the Valley, West Texas, East Texas, the San Antonio–Austin corridor, Corpus Christi and the Coast, the Panhandle, and the State Capitol — people who recognize one another as peers. We need advocates, public servants, business leaders, labor leaders, and decision-makers working together to improve public policy in this state.
Looking Ahead: Conversations to Listen, Learn, and Decide What Comes Next
During this paused period, I’m beginning a simple but important next step: talking with people.
Over the coming months, I plan to spend time traveling around Texas and reconnecting with folks who care deeply about the issues Farm&City has worked on over the past decade. Some of these conversations will happen over coffee, some by phone or Zoom, and some — ideally — over a great meal at a Texas restaurant I might not have discovered on my own in your part of the state.
I want to hear how our work has looked from your perspective over the last ten years. I want to talk about what you think Texans need most in our policy arenas over the next ten years — in transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and equity — and how you think we can do a better job meeting those needs. I’m especially interested in honest reflections, lived experience, and ideas that don’t fit neatly into existing boxes.
Some of these conversations may eventually lead to leadership roles in the future of Farm&City. Most will not — and that’s perfectly fine. Their value lies in helping build our shared body of knowledge, sharpening strategy, and improving the chances that this transitional moment leads to something durable and worthwhile.
At the very least, I hope these conversations will be thoughtful, enjoyable, and rooted in our shared interest in making Texas work better for more people.
If that sounds like a conversation you’d enjoy, I’d genuinely love to hear from you.