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Alan Ehrenhalt

Alan Ehrenhalt

Contributing Editor

Alan Ehrenhalt served for 19 years as executive editor of Governing Magazine, and is currently one of its contributing editors. He has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and op-ed page, the Washington Post Book World, New Republic and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of four books: The United States of Ambition, The Lost City, Democracy in the Mirror, and The Great Inversion. He was also the creator and editor of the first four editions of Politics in America, a biennial reference book profiling all 535 members of Congress. Alan Ehrenhalt is a 1968 graduate of Brandeis University and holds an MS in journalism from Columbia. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard from 1977-1978; a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987-1988; a Regents’ Lecturer at UCLA in 2006; an adjunct faculty member at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, at the University of Richmond, from 2004 through 2008; and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Public Policy in 2009. In 2000 he received the American Political Science Association’s McWilliams award for distinguished contributions to the field of political science by a journalist. He is married, has two daughters, and lives in Arlington, Virginia.

He can be reached at ehrenhalt@yahoo.com.

Sometimes they work, producing public revenue and neighborhood development. But some of them turn out to be civic disasters. Is there a formula for mixed-use magic?
Allowing greater building height hasn’t proved consistently successful for cities, and it's a fantasy that Washington's city center could ever resemble Paris’ stately boulevards. But perhaps it’s time to try some experimentation.
It took a long time for the state’s unique system of governance to fall into the hyperpartisanship that so many states have experienced. Can Nebraska find a way back?
A state can try to compel its cities to build more, but the results are at best modest. As Gov. Jared Polis learned, even getting zoning reforms enacted can be an insurmountable challenge.
It’s not easy to get a smaller city that’s been losing population growing again. Every town can’t be a high-tech hub. But an urban scholar has some ideas that might help some of them.
In attempting to regulate use of social media by young people, the state has pushed the idea the furthest, and other states may follow its lead. Will it work? And will it survive the inevitable legal challenges?
There are lots of ideas out there for bringing the numbers down. But so far nothing seems to work better than simply getting a roof over their heads, even if it’s only a dilapidated motel room.
Pledging greater efficiency, lots of governors (and candidates for the job) want to reorganize their states’ administrative structures. Sometimes they pull it off, but usually the reforms don’t last.
Some center cities are coming back from the pandemic, with residential populations increasing even as many continue to work from home. While restaurants and retail are still suffering, it seems fair to speculate that something meaningful is happening.
With its residents upset by crime, homelessness and high taxes, it’s become a depressed and discouraging place. Can it once again be a shining exemplar of modern urbanist success?