Neal Peirce / Feb 07 2010
For Release Sunday, February 7, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
Are we ready to retire the old bugaboo that any American mayor better think twice before visiting a foreign city — that the press back home will pillory him or her for “junketeering”?
Just possibly. “Gotcha” stories about foreign travels are still feared by mayors. But they’re dangerous anachronisms. Our cities’ economies and wellbeing actually require inventive foreign connections. Trade opportunities and enriching local economies still top the list. But new considerations are flooding in — for example the well-advertised global competition for the footloose young professionals, looking for “live” local scenes and cultural diversity.
The hands-down American regional leader on learning from abroad has been Seattle with its array of highly export-oriented firms. For 17 years Seattle has sent sizable delegations (70 or more) of business, political and civic leaders to see first-hand how a major foreign city and region really “clicks.” I’ve personally accompanied three of those visits — to Sydney, Hong Kong and Berlin — and discovered they’re significant eye-openers. Recently Seattle delegations have visited such cities as Fukuoka and Abu Dhabi — hardly our grandparents’ world city list.
Read More »
Neal Peirce / Feb 01 2010
For Release Sunday, January 31, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
Swimming in red ink, deficits rolling in as far as the eye can see, what are America’s state governments to do?
The “realists,” notes government reform expert Ted Kolderie, “tell us the only options are to cut and to tax.” Their clear message, he suggests: “With more we can do more; with less we have to do less. We don’t do ‘different.’”
But they’re bitter consequences, especially in a recession. Budget cuts reduce vital services. Increased taxes just take money out of peoples’ pockets, perversely making economic recovery all the tougher.
Raymond Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association, hears lots about the monstrous budget dilemmas the 50 state governors face. The time’s at hand, he believes to “to look at new and different governance models for the delivery of services.”
I asked him for examples and he didn’t hesitate. Read More »
Neal Peirce / Jan 25 2010
For Release Sunday, January 24, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
“This may be the most calamitous fiscal year states have known in decades,” reports Rob Gurwitt in Governing magazine, the 23-year old bible on coverage of state and local governance across the continent.
And the coming fiscal year, experts are predicting, may be almost as grim as the states run out of budget gimmicks, rainy day funds and the infusion of federal stimulus money that helped them, finally, to balance their current budgets. The states’ cumulative 2010 and 2011 budget shortfalls may be about $350 billion–a third of a trillion dollars–estimates the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Read More »
Neal Peirce / Jan 16 2010
For Release Sunday, January 17, 2010
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
WASHINGTON — Most everyone agrees that efficient roads, rails and air service are vital for our economy and our quality of life. Most of us see that without them, America will have a hard time competing against rising powers worldwide.
So why is Congress stalling? Representatives and senators know well that the federal transportation program expired last September. They keep passing temporary extensions without facing up to core issues–for example the federal gas tax stuck at 18.4 cents a gallon, unchanged for 17 years, despite escalating asphalt and concrete prices.
And why do we keep on paving over more and more of our landscape instead of embracing a “fix it first” strategy? Can’t we make our roads and transit investments match our housing choices in a “post-sprawl” era? Why aren’t regions being told that they had better link roads, rail and available air service for a smarter “intermodal” future? Read More »
Neal Peirce / Jan 09 2010
For Release Sunday, January 10, 2010
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
NEW YORK — Why can’t humans–intelligence officials, for example–communicate better? And what’s a possible cure?
The close call on an airliner Christmas Day has resurrected and underscored a problem already targeted in the 9/11 investigations: highly trained officers failing to share critical intelligence clues across agency lines.
Why are we repeating the same errors? How do we “fix” the system?
A week after the near-disaster of the Detroit-bound jet, an intriguing remedy–at least a possible answer–cropped up. And not in official Washington, but rather in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s third-term inaugural address in New York City. Read More »
Neal Peirce / Dec 31 2009
For Release Sunday, January 3, 2010
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
WASHINGTON — The World Bank is becoming more pro-city. The strategy seems a major departure for an institution that long leaned toward rural areas, many of its governing officials and affiliated governments subscribing to the view that aid to the countryside would somehow stem the massive tide of people moving to cities in search of jobs and opportunity.
The new policy, officially announced by World Bank president Robert Zoellick at a November meeting in Singapore, boldly defines urbanization as the 21st century’s defining phenomenon. Manage the growth of developing world cities well, he said, and the challenges of climate change, jobs, poverty reduction and health can be dealt with proactively, and more effectively. Read More »
Neal Peirce / Dec 26 2009
For Release Sunday, December 27, 2009
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
Are skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants the economic stimulus that America needs? Could lowered barriers help regions like the country’s Rustbelt prosper again?
That’s the audacious case that Cleveland immigration attorney Richard T. Herman and his journalist co-author, Robert L. Smith, make in their new book– “Immigrant Inc.”
The mere thought that immigrants are an American asset, not a liability, puts a whole new face on the Lou Dobbs-style attacks on America’s 12 million undocumented immigrants that CNN so long tolerated, and right-wing media still promote. Read More »
Neal Peirce / Dec 18 2009
For Release Sunday, December 20, 2009
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
WASHINGTON — Can you imagine several hundred of this capital city’s policy wonks turning out for a two-hour discussion of bicycling?
A decade ago, it would have been unthinkable. But last week it happened, sponsored by the esteemed Brookings Institution, at a prime U.S. Capitol-view room of the fancy new Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue.
It may have helped that the program included musician-artist-cultural innovator David Byrne, whose decades of observing cities worldwide–often from the seat of his bicycle–is reflected in his book, “Bicycle Diaries” (Viking).
But the new buzz about cycling is clearly a mark of the times. You can credit snarled traffic, ennui with driving, rising oil prices and/or concern about greenhouse gas emissions. Then there’s growing popular desire to revoke the monopoly control cars and trucks have on our streets and public spaces. There’s a clear tie to the “Complete Streets” movement, advancing the ideas of shared urban turf long espoused by such groups as Partners for Livable Communities and the Project for Public Spaces. Read More »
Neal Peirce / Dec 12 2009
For Release Sunday, December 13, 2009
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
Copenhagen isn’t just host to the global climate summit this month. The Danish capital offers proof positive of a way to reduce greenhouse gases: build a district heating system.
The setup in Copenhagen, created by a regional accord of five mayors in 1984, captures heated water from electricity production that would normally be pumped into the sea, and channels it back into homes and businesses for heating through a 1,300-kilometer system of underground pipes.
The result: 97 percent of the region now gets clean and affordable heating with sharply reduced carbon emissions. The system’s steadily switched from coal to natural gas and biofuels such as straw and wood pellets. Plus, it taps waste heat from incineration plants. Read More »
Neal Peirce / Dec 05 2009
For Release Sunday, December 6, 2009
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
WASHINGTON — In the 1930s, America underwent its grinding, years-long Great Depression. Now, at a minimum, we have the Great Recession. It’s the severest downturn in 70 years. And without a fiscal lifeline to struggling cities, it could conceivably get even worse.
This is the alarming conclusion of last month’s joint study and conference of the Brookings Institution and the National League of Cities (NLC), including a panel of mayors from across the nation.
It’s true, many economists now say our recessionary downward spiral has stopped. But, warned the NLC’s Christopher Hoene, past recessions show that “the low point for cities,” in terms of their revenue and expenditure numbers, “typically comes 18 months to 24 months after the low point of the recession” –a particularly disturbing fact because, economists tell us, the current recession’s “low point” has just been hit.
The delayed impact occurs because property tax collections, the revenue mainstay for most cities, don’t decline until after an entire cycle of reduced assessments to reflect declining house values. Read More »