January 2, 2009 – 12:14 pm
For Release Sunday, January 4, 2009
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
An economic stimulus plan is one thing. And unless one’s mired in a Herbert Hoover-type mindset, it’s tough to question the need for strong, immediate fiscal measures to reverse the course of the dangerously deepening recession we’re now witnessing.
But how about a [...]
January 2, 2009 – 12:14 pm
For Release January 4, 2009
Citiwire.net
By Curtis Johnson
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law was much praised at the time of its passage in 2001, especially its ambitious goal to bring disadvantaged and minority school achievement into the mainstream. NCLB was seen as a rare example of bi-partisan federal policy making.
Yet now this [...]
December 26, 2008 – 2:22 pm
For Release Sunday, December 28, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
Rail enthusiasts, for decades spurned by presidents of both parties, were elated by the news that Barack Obama will travel to Washington for his inauguration by train from Philadelphia.
“The symbolism is magnificent and the message very positive for all of us who [...]
December 26, 2008 – 2:21 pm
For Release December 28, 2008
Citiwire.net
By Alex Marshall
While Congress gets ready for a rancorous debate over guidelines for spending billions in infrastructure stimulus funds, some states and cities are already getting deadly serious–not so much about bigger and fancier infrastructure projects, but smarter infrastructure systems.
Just this month, for example, New York City joined a group [...]
December 18, 2008 – 3:55 pm
For Release Sunday, December 21, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
It’s time to celebrate happiness. The chemistry of positive, joyful human interaction. Physical spaces that help lighten lives.
Seriously? What’s to be celebrated in a Christmas week that finds Americans wincing in the face of corporate collapses and the deep [...]
December 18, 2008 – 3:55 pm
For Release Sunday, December 21, 2008
Citiwire.net
By Kim Walesh
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Our city, the “capital of Silicon Valley,” is known chiefly as America’s continuing birthplace of high technology ideas and products. But we also care passionately about the arts and their creative power for our people and future. Our goal is nothing less [...]
December 12, 2008 – 12:27 pm
For Release Sunday, December 14, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
WASHINGTON– Are we ready to repeat repeal?
December 5th marked the 75th anniversary of America’s decision, in 1933, to re-amend the Constitution and set ourselves free from alcohol prohibition, a 13-year failed experiment.
So is it time to free ourselves once more from an [...]
December 12, 2008 – 12:27 pm
For Release Sunday, December 14, 2008
Citiwire.net
By Bill Dodge
In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner bemoaned the closing of the western frontier. Until then, unfettered expansion onto free land had been the nation’s development dream, even though it required forcibly dislocating its Native Americans. By the 1890s Census, however, the unrelenting flow of humanity, along with [...]
December 4, 2008 – 12:36 pm
For Release Sunday, December 7, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
WASHINGTON — Even as America plunges into recession, a bright shaft of light has appeared.
It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity, driven by a popular president-elect, to mount a massive national infrastructure rebuilding program.
There’s no doubt we need it: estimates of our deferred spending on [...]
December 4, 2008 – 12:36 pm
For Release Sunday, December 7, 2008
Citiwire.net
By Manuel Pastor, Jr.
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. We have elected the first president in decades from urban America–and he seems to get the regionalist mantra. Running a campaign that tied together voters from cities and suburbs, he promoted a metropolitan prosperity [...]