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Christopher Swope

Christopher Swope

Former Editor

Christopher Swope was previously GOVERNING's executive editor. Currently, he is the Project Director, Information, at the Pew Center on the States.

While the two regions’ poverty problems are difficult to compare, both places have ignored the needs of their struggling populations -- until now.
It isn't easy, but some suburbs are converting aging shopping centers and their acres of asphalt into vibrant, mixed-use town centers.
Now that NYC's West Side stadium is dead, the NY Times today asks a good question: is it possible to build big stuff anymore? Surely ...
What does Newark, NJ (pop. 245,000) have in common with Newark, Missouri (pop. 100)? Nothing more than the name, of course. Apparently, that's enough for the mayor ...
Don't you sometimes just want to blow the head off a bighorn sheep from the comfort of your living room? Not in Pennsylvania, if a ...
Will somebody just cut up Kwame Kilpatrick's credit card? This time the Detroit mayor is in trouble for charging a trip to the Bahamas on ...
Parks are there for people to use them, right? Then why is it so hard for cities to figure out how many people actually hang ...
Los Angeles County this year has worked extra hard to get as complete a count as possible of the homeless people on its streets and ...
Even Wal-Mart seems willing to admit that its traditional gray-blue mega-box stores are ugly. The question is, what do you do about it? Too many ...
So you thought Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of NYC was out of touch with common folks? Think again. The NY Times reports today that ...