To the Next President: Go Local to Fix America
As we enter the 2016 convention season with more partisan division than ever, a new cities-first localism could improve the country and help fix political gridlock.
Pairing Republicans' penchant for local control and the reality that urban areas are often Democratic proving grounds for progressive policy (think the minimum wage hike in Seattle or the recent soda tax for Pre-K funds in Philadelphia), localism is a smart and politically palatable agenda for the next president's first year in office.
Congress might be more disheartening than ever, but cities and metros have been hard at work forging ambitious, bottom-up solutions in nearly every area of national importance.
If the next president wants to start the first term actually getting something done, she or he could make a big impact on issues from children’s well-being and climate change to infrastructure and economic growth by recognizing that the local level already provides much of the funding and leadership on many issues and helping local leaders do more with what they've got.
What does this localism look like?
More transparency with regard to federal and private investments.
- Issue an Annual Metropolitan Investment Statement
- Pioneer a City Children’s Budget
- Test a Public Asset Inventory
- Create a new Office of Metropolitan Finance in the Treasury
- Explore new tools for unveiling the public, private, and civic capital (e.g. underleveraged real estate) in cities
More flexibility in how cities use public resources, traded for more accountability.
- Emulate the “City Deals” and devolution agreement process underway in the United Kingdom
- Mirror recent successful bipartisan reauthorizations of major federal education, transportation, and workforce investment programs in ways that provide cities with greater flexibility with federal resources
More tools to leverage private and civic capital for transformative projects.
- Give small investors access to equity crowdfunding
- Expand financing for transit-oriented development
- Expand financing for large water and wastewater infrastructure projects
The takeaway? The next administration should use its executive power and localism's bipartisan appeal to leverage the large amount of fiscal and democratic resources at the local level.
If it does, it can make immediate impact on many of the United States’ most pressing issues. It also just might start rebuilding bipartisan consensus from one of the few places where it hasn’t completely disappeared, local communities.
This post is adapted from a paper written for the University of Virginia's Miller Center's First Year Project, entitled Go Local: Help cities pursue the New American Localism to break partisan gridlock.
Marketing Executive, Entrepreneurial Leader, Technology Enthusiast, Aging Hockey Player
8 年Bruce, great post. Would love to know more about the geoff spatial analytics you have in mind. Can you point the way to articles on this or provide more information?
retired
8 年Obamalamadingdong and his co-horts have turned America into a violent, violent ghetto. The gangs are rampant, drugs are rampant, corruption is rampant, race relations are getting worse and worse by the day, and domestic terrorists like Black Lies Matter and Muslim refugee hidden terrorists, have lots of blood on their evil hands. I don't think any man out there is strong enough to change any of this. There's too many of them now. Our government is corrupt and greedy. The only things going on in their little brains is "money" and "power" and their own penises. Change won't come from the government. They created all of this. My vote is for Trump. If anyone can make any changes, Trump will. He's not a lying, corrupt politician. Trump doesn't need to be secretly paid to do anything. Trump will put America and Americans first, which is something this country hasn't done in decades. It may be too late though. America is pretty much gone. Freedom is gone. Free speech is gone. Jobs are gone. Privacy is gone, there are cameras everywhere now. The Constitution is being chipped away little by little. There is no such thing as "We, the people...". It's "We, the sheeple...". Bunch of damned sheep in what's left of America.
EAAS Accountant at DFAS
8 年All this just sounds like more micro-managing. Way to go – let’s create more wasteful, non-value adding federal jobs tracking the progress and “accountability” of the local programs. If anything – we should be aiming at achieving less of that, and not the opposite.
Proud Neanderthal-American. And, Gina was right. SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!
8 年Too bad we couldn't have a community organizer running for president instead of some rich guy that employs people in neighborhoods.