Emerging Issues

“We Don’t Know What We’re Talking About”
Psst! Quick, what is “sustainability”? Well, then, how about “civic engagement”? “the free market”? “smart growth”? Our political and policy discourse overflows with terms that encompass such a wide and changing range of idiosyncratic meanings that conversation is rendered meaningless and our abilities to address problems or seize opportunities are damaged.
Read the column: http://www.nlc.org/articles/articleItems/NCW083010/emergingissuesvaguelanguage.aspx

May 17: Emerging Issues: City Mysteries Have Their Places

Decades ago, American detective novels were mainly set in New York City or Los Angeles. One observer puts the proportion at fifty percent. Ellery Queen and Nero Wolfe and Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald dominated the detecting field. Not anymore. Now, murder mystery stories are set in lots of places, reflecting the vitality of local cultures, growing interest among readers in the varieties of American life, and the ingenuity of writers who are rooted in distinct places. For example, Sara Paretsky’s altogether wonderful V.I Warshawski sleuths her way around some seedy parts of the city of Chicago. Phoebe Atwood Taylor's Asey Mayo mysteries are set on Cape Cod.

Local color matters and the color in a lot more places matters. For fans of this sort of entertainment, this is a great boon.

Read the column: http://www.nlc.org/articles/articleItems/NCW051710/emergingissuesmysteries.aspx

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April 12, 2010: Trends in Public Administration Affect Local Practice, Outcomes

From new leadership styles to e-democracy to generational change, the “top ten trends in public administration” are affecting city governments, elected officials, and communities. Antoinette (“Toni”) Samuel, Executive Director of the American Society for Public Administration, presented the analysis to the NLC staff at the most recent Staff Seminar speaker series. Her presentation was based on suggestions from James Svara of Arizona State University. The other seven trends are: new governance, strategic management, citizen focus, reorganizing work structure and process, new thinking about service delivery, innovation, and ethics and transparency. The article invites readers to comment on the NLC Blog as to how these trends are showing up in cities around the nation.

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March 15, 2010: Mayors' State of the City Addresses Express Cautious Optimism

Mayors expressed, in early 2010 “State of the City” addresses, a commitment to important local initiatives, cautious optimism about their city's economic future and a sense of the hard work ahead.

Some patterns and common themes emerged from this analysis by NLC staff. The project looked at 33 State of the City and several inaugural addresses that were delivered during the past few months in a cross-section of cities by size and geography.

Read the column:

http://www.nlc.org/articles/articleItems/NCW031510/stateofthecityspeeches.aspx

Click the links below to see most of the State of the Cities Addresses that were used to write this article.

February 1, 2010, The First HUD Secretary

Robert Weaver is surely one of the giants of the field, but his biographer, Wendell E. Pritchett, reports that he is by now an “obscure figure, forgotten by Americans.” Pritchett’s excellent book, “Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City” (University of Chicago Press, 2008) aims to end that obscurity, to place Weaver in the context of his times, and also to exhibit the continuing relevance of his achievements and the dilemmas he struggled with.

Forty-five years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the law establishing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). After four months of delay and dalliance, he nominated Weaver to take the post as Secretary for the new department.

January 11, 2010 The Economic Development Game Has Changed

In an excellent new book, “The Post-American World.” Fareed Zakariah says that, while the United States will remain the sole “superpower” at “the politico-military level,” in every other dimension “the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance.” Bill Stafford, president of the Trade Development Alliance (TDA) of Greater Seattle since 1991, says that these changes have direct, urgent and important implications for American cities and city leaders. Those implications are both negative and positive, but they do demand changed attitudes and orientations. In short, “the game has changed,” and it’s way past time for American players to play by the new rules.

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December 12, 2009 "Emerging Issues: Are We Suckers for 'Warped History?'"

In the policy debates about the current Great Recession — debates in which cities and towns have much at stake — references to the Great Depression and the New Deal play important roles.

Without some understanding of the 1930s, citizens and officials alike are susceptible to arguments from what Washington Post book reviewer Jonathan Yardley calls “warped history that gets us into trouble" To paraphrase Ben Franklin, if we don't know something, we'll fall for anything.

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Oddly missing in the past year of discussions about Federal economic “stimulus” is the idea of a straightforward fiscal transfer to local and state governments. The issue is what works to bring national and local economies out of recessions. Simply stated, the problem is that state and local governments’ legally-required budget-balancing makes the downturn in business cycles worse.
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October 12, 2009 "What Will Be the ‘New Normal’ in Your City?"
Despite dragons, perhaps it’s useful and important to challenge assumptions about the return of previous conditions after the recession passes and to ask: “After the crisis, what comes next? Are there any silver linings in the clouds? How will we deal with whatever the new situation may be?” Some leaders in Kalamazoo MI, recently wrestled with those questions.
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September 7, 2009 "Forms Follow Functions for Municipal governments"
What’s the best form for municipal government --- mayor-council or council-manager? Are those really the only options that city leaders have? Well, no. Recent research shows that local leaders have opted increasingly for mixed forms of municipal government. These adapted and hybrid cities now outnumber the pure form cities.
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July 27, 2009 "Obama Urban Policy Ideas Likely to Have Consequences"
Obama has sketched a set of significant and far-reaching ideas that potentially take us to a Federal policy framework that is more appropriate to 21st century conditions than the ideas that have dominated the field for decades. He has not laid out an “urban policy”; he has outlined key concepts for a foundation on which such a policy might be built. His ideas also provoke some important questions.
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July 6, 2009 "Cities, Regions Respond to Foreclosure Crisis"
A new report examines the ways that leaders have worked together in their metropolitan regions to respond to the foreclosures crisis over the past year.
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June 8, 2009 "Old Hands Seek to Shape New Futures for Cities"
Old hands. New books. Bill Hudnut and Neal Peirce are indeed "old hands" in the municipal affairs world. Each has contributed a new book that looks to the future of cities.
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The most recent "Emerging Issues" column