After the Nov. 5, 2024 vote, we must learn to rebuild our “civic muscles” – reading and discussing local news, learning the issues at stake, getting engaged in decisions. Read More
Thomas Paine Redux
Can A City Be Governed Without Corruption?
At the turn of the last century, progressive “muckraking” author Lincoln Steffans asked this question of major American cities. Tammany Hall reigned in New York. Kickbacks to city officials were common for work done in the cities. He concluded the real problem was the people living in the cities who didn’t care enough to learn… Read More
The Cost of Corruption
There is growing evidence of corruption in our governance structures. And it is time for citizens to demand transparency and investigate. Life is complicated. Managing kids, partner. Getting food onto the table. Keeping appointments. Staying on top of the email inbox. So paying attention to those people who oversee the purity of our drinking water,… Read More
Cities & Parks- Can They Coexist?
With the world’s population topping 8 billion people and decent, safe, affordable housing becoming increasingly hard to find urbanists and housing advocates are pushing hard for the development of more housing units, creating images of more dense neighborhoods in municipalities. At least on the coastal states of the USA where the pressure for housing is… Read More
Expressing Gratitude in Tribal Languages
This is created to celebrate Thanksgiving, November 24, 2022. It intends to honor the home locations of the people attending Thanksgiving celebrations this year in two New England towns, Waterbury VT and Salisbury CT. The hope is that learning to say “thank you” in the words of the native people on whose land we celebrate… Read More
An 1863 Message From Gettysburg PA Defines Us
19 November 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA But Lincoln had no such confidence. By his time, the idea that all men were created equal was a “proposition,†and Americans of his day were “engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.†Standing near… Read More
Is Governance the Issue? Do We Care?
Our nation, according to media reports, is as divided as it has been since the Civil War. But it is hard to know what divides us. Are our agencies of government causing the problem? Or do we have conflicting understandings of what governance, the process of implementing our laws and policies, is? Do our country’s… Read More
Our Common Purpose: Dramatically Expand Civic Infrastructure Capacity
This article is based on a report, OUR COMMON PURPOSE, produced in June, 2020, by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In his New Yorker article of 11/16/20, Evan Osnos likened the report to the civic equivalent of the 9/11 Commission Report. It offers bipartisan recommendations in the form of six Strategies, with between two and eight… Read More
Smart Cities Projects Launch
The Smart Cities Council has the following annual program rewarding cities that offer winning proposals for “smart city” improvements. The finalist projects, listed below, offer suggestions for possible “smart cities” technology improvements to local governments everywhere. Read More
Santa Ana Police and John Birch Society
In 2020, after the horrific killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, viewed around the world on public media, the question of police reform is again on the minds of legislators and policy makers at the local, state and federal levels. A familiarity of the evolutionary history, tracing how a municipal department could,… Read More
Bringing Police Back Under Municipal Control
The US is entering a new wave of police reform intended to shape a police department that is responsible to the community it serves. But this in not the first time in America that municipal policing has undergone reform. Understanding the reasons for prior reforms and what went wrong, may help the country to get… Read More
Cities, MIT Test Corona Virus Tracking App
Municipal governments find themselves on the front line managing the space between policies protecting citizens’ health and policies generated at the state and federal level to promote often conflicting responses to the corona virus. Some municipalities are participating in an MIT led test to track the virus. This leadership role for municipalities is leading to… Read More
For Better or Worse, Algorithms Help Control Local Communities
Written by Beryl Lipton What is the chance you, or your neighbor, will commit a crime? Should the government change a child’s bus route? Add more police to a neighborhood or take some away? Governing bodies throughout the United States are turning to automated decision making systems in an attempt to make their operations more efficient,… Read More
FIVE US Cities Could Run Out of Water
Cape Town, South Africa came close, saved by a rainfall, from running out of water in early 2018.  Climate change brings water shortages to many areas in the Middle East and Africa. America is not immune from water shortages. Polluted water strikes closer to home with Flint, Michigan as an example. In America population growth… Read More
What SMART Stuff Are Cities Buying Now?
The concept of “Smart Cities” has crossed the threshold of most US City and Town Halls. But there are many different interpretations of what “SMART” might mean. And there are more criteria for what is urgent, affordable and practical. For those municipalities who may be wondering what others are investing in, Nick Schiffler has put… Read More
Court Says Citizens Can Sue Feds for Clean Water
A federal judge ruled on Friday (April 19, 2019) that residents of Flint, Michigan, can move forward with a lawsuit against the federal government regarding the city’s lack of clean drinking water. The government is not immune from legal action, ruled Judge Linda Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. … Read More
Arlington Continues Master Plan Discussions
The citizens of Arlington engaged in an active and well publicized discussion about all the elements of a proposed new town Master Plan. These discussions took place in well attended public meetings held, primarily, at the Senior Center/ Central School’s main public meeting space. They were held in a series of meetings, each meeting considering… Read More
Russia Revitalizes Urban Spaces
from Charlemagne:  What a campaign to revive Russia’s urban spaces means for civil society, Economist, 8-11-18 SOVIET SQUARE in Voronezh no longer looks especially Soviet. Children dart through a dancing fountain. BMX bikers barrel across new tiles. Grassy groves play home to picnicking teens. “It’s practically Spain,†gushes a pensioner. The newly reconstructed square is one… Read More
San Francisco’s New Mayor
London Breed is set to become San Francisco’s first black female mayor.  Breed now joins the ranks of the mayors of 15 largest cities in the United States; she’s the only woman currently in that group, and the fourth person of color. If you expand the selection to the top 20 cities, she’s got some company:… Read More
Pittsburgh: Built on Public-Private Partnerships
In 1994 when Tom Murphy became Mayor of Pittsburgh the city had been in decline for 50 years. He looked at his assets: 300,000 residents (half of what it had been), thousands of acres of empty or underutilized land, a significantly below average cost of living index, Carnegie Mellon University, an entrepreneurial culture, a tradition… Read More