Something New Starts Tomorrown Here at Civic Capacity
Vol. III, No. 269 - A New Resource for our Contributing Subscribers
Tomorrow morning, something new lands in the inboxes of Civic Capacity paid subscribers. It is called The Deep Brief. It publishes every Friday. And it is the natural next step in work that has been building since May 2023.
Before I tell you what it is, let me tell you what this publication has already done.
In the past 32 months, Civic Capacity has been read nearly one million times by residents across the world, but most of our readers are here in Miami County. That number did not happen because of algorithms or advertising. It happened because residents in Troy, Piqua, Tipp City, and the communities around them are hungry for honest, specific information about the place they have chosen to call home. They are tired of press releases dressed up as transparency. They are tired of being told to trust a process that is rarely explained. And they keep showing up here because this publication treats them as intelligent adults who deserve the full picture.
This publication has covered budget decisions that didn’t add up. We have tracked zoning changes before they became done deals. We have named the questions that weren’t being asked at public meetings and given residents the context they needed to ask them. We have written about annexations, development projects, rental property concerns, street closures, and the compounding pressures facing downtown businesses that have weathered more than most people realize.
This week, we published a detailed analysis of a city proposal that would have charged roughly 60 downtown Troy property owners — some of them more than $10,000 — for new sidewalks as part of the city’s 2026–2027 Downtown Safety and Streetscapes Replacement Project. We examined the city’s financial position, the equity questions a council member had been raising for seven months, and the case for the city absorbing the cost itself. Four days later, the Streets and Sidewalks Committee voted unanimously to do exactly that.
That is what an informed public looks like in action.
The Deep Brief is where that kind of work will be promoted. Every Friday morning, paid subscribers receive one subject — fully sourced and analyzed. Not a longer version of the daily newsletter. Something structurally different. The kind of piece that requires scouring documents, attending meetings, and going deeper. The Deep Brief will be looking at those comments that don’t get answered in a press release or a city memo. It will feature more personal reflections on the issues of the day facing our communities.
This week’s first edition covers exactly what happened Monday night at Troy City Hall — the numbers behind the decision, the council members who drove it, the business owner who showed up even though she had nothing financial at stake, and the seven-month backstory that made the outcome possible.
That reporting is behind the paywall. It is available to paid subscribers for $5 a month.
If the last two years of Civic Capacity have been useful to you, The Deep Brief is the next level of that same work. The first edition publishes tomorrow morning at 7:57 a.m.
Civic Capacity runs on one thing: readers who believe local journalism matters. If you want to support this work without a subscription, you can now make a one-time contribution through Buy Me a Coffee — or in my case, Buy Me an Iced Tea. Click the button below. Every contribution goes directly into the work you read here every day.