Rob Gurwitt

Recent Articles

• The Demise of the Public Hearing
• Oct 1, 2013
• Technology is changing the way citizens interact with local government.

• How Generation X is Shaping Government
• Apr 30, 2013
• Overshadowed by baby boomers on one side and millennials on the other, it’s Generation X that’s actually shaping the way government and citizens interact.
• 13 Comments

• Baby Boomers’ Impact on Elections
• Aug 31, 2012
• They hold tremendous influence -- more than half the voting-age population is now over 45 -- but baby boomers and their role at the polls are a bit hard to pin down.

• Divorce, Arkansas-Style
• Jun 1, 2010
• Governor Mike Beebe has split up his state's huge health and social services agency after a painful two-year experiment with consolidation.

• Eminent Reluctance
• Jun 1, 2010
• When Virginia reacted to the Supreme Court's eminent-domain decision, no one had a trickier balancing act than Governor Tim Kaine.

• A Rift Runs Through It
• Jun 1, 2010
• Nine years ago, voters in Dallas opted to remake the riparian no- man's-land in the center of the city. Now its leaders are fighting over what they meant.

• Turnpike Tempest
• Jun 1, 2010
• Governor Ed Rendell wants to lease out the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Things could get ugly along the way.

• Blunt Instrument
• Jun 1, 2010
• Nobody questions Ed Blakely's credentials as an urban thinker. New Orleans just wants him to think before he talks.

• Bleak Outlook for State Finances
• Dec 31, 2009
• The coming year will be excruciating for state budget-makers not just because revenues continue to decline and new rounds of budget cutting are necessary, but...
• 6 Comments

• How Much Reform Can Providence Handle?
• Nov 30, 2009
• The Wu Tang Scram of tofu, bok choy, Napa cabbage and cashews served at Julian's, a restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island, might not seem like...
• 2 Comments

• How Bureaucracy and Bickering Brought Down Niagara Falls
• Aug 31, 2009
• Down an overgrown path along the bluffs above the Niagara River gorge, a couple of miles downstream from the breathtaking cataract that gives Niagara Falls,...
• 4 Comments

• The Two Sides to Niagara Falls
• Aug 28, 2009
• Read more about Niagara Falls in "Decline and Falls" in the September 2009 issue of GOVERNING.

• The Sisterhood of Auditors
• Jul 6, 2009
• When she took over as Los Angeles controller in 2001, the most trenchant piece of counsel that Laura Chick received from her predecessor, Rick Tuttle, was...

• Laura Chick Is Watching
• Jun 30, 2009
• It took Laura Chick barely a month in Sacramento to start making waves. As California's new inspector general charged with overseeing how the state spends...
• 2 Comments

• Bordeaux vs. Budweiser
• Apr 30, 2009
• There are people in Johnsburg, New York, who still won't set foot in the Tannery Pond Community Center, even though it was built in part...
• 2 Comments