Evaluate the political and policy environment of the community and try to identify the public interest when it comes to the question of the new NASA facility. Please remember that you are evaluating the community for the purpose of determining whether a NASA research facility to investigate the new microbe should be placed there. Not much is understood about this new life-form, so you should be asking yourself at each point what risk there might be to the community and whether the community is equipped to handle such risk. As you are evaluating the community, make sure to consider both its strengths and weaknesses.
Make sure to address all of my questions in the prompts below.
After conducting research into your community, you should write a 750 to 2,000 word report that does the following:
Describes the information you found (from at least 5 sources cited in APA style) and include examples as evidence;
Explains what that information means (i.e., is an average temperature of 65 degrees in the winter hot or cold?);
Evaluates what the information you found means for the viability of the community as a place to build the NASA facility. Make sure to do this for all topics discussed.
Below are the criteria that you should discuss in this report. Make sure to address all of the questions in each topic.
Local Political Environment
Describe the political environment of the community. What is distribution of political affiliation in this community(i.e., Democrat, Independent, Republican)? What are the voting rates in national/state/local elections? Is this is a politically engaged community? You may have to use county-based data to address some of these questions.
Local Policy Environment
Describe the policy environment of the community. What are the major issues discussed by the local media (press or social media)? What policy issues do the members of the community seem most concerned about? Are these local or national issues? Is there a national border near the community? Are there any American Indian reservations nearby? If so, which tribes? Does having a border or Indian reservation nearby impact the policy environment?
Local Council Meetings/Elections
What issues does the community’s governing council discuss? Make sure to review minutes/notes from multiple recent council meetings. Were any of its members recently elected or is there an election in progress? If so, what are the major issues that candidates emphasize? Do these reflect what is up for discussion in the council meetings?
Boards and Commissions
What kinds of Boards/Commissions have been created and what is their purpose? Who serves on the boards/commissions? What kind of work do they do? You may have to review local news stories, council meeting minutes, and/or the minutes from board/commission meetings to find this information.
Public Interest/Economic Impact
Do you think this community would receive well the news that this facility will be built there? What economic impact of the facility adding 750 – 1,000 jobs to the community do you anticipate (understanding that some of the professionals working at the facility would be moving to the community from elsewhere)? Is that a lot of jobs for this community? Or, would it be barely noticeable? Make sure to discuss evidence from your research in this section.
