Zach Patton

Recent Articles

• Grading Agencies' Open-Government Plans
• May 7, 2010
• Federal agencies released their Open Government Plans last month. Some of them were a lot better than others.

• Poverty Comes to the Suburbs
• May 1, 2010
• Poverty is encroaching on suburban enclaves -- even the most affluent of them. Many are ill-equipped to meet the new social-service needs.
• 4 Comments

• NASCIO's Midyear Conference: The Consolidating Game
• Apr 29, 2010
• Consolidation. That was the watchword as the nation's top public-sector technologists gathered in Baltimore this week for the midyear conference of the National Association ...
• 1 Comments

• Sensors Make Cities Smarter
• Apr 1, 2010
• Call it City 2.0: a metropolis where officials instantly monitor all of the urban environment's constantly changing dynamics--the outside temperature; snow or rainfall; traffic; and perhaps...

• Suburban Poverty and the Geography Problem
• Mar 23, 2010
• I'm working on a story for an upcoming issue of Governing that takes a look at the increasing rates of poverty in suburbs across ...
• 5 Comments

• Keeping Government Green
• Mar 1, 2010
• As the economic crisis deepens for states and localities, many governments are being forced to delay investment in new green IT products and initiatives. Thanks...

• News of Public-Private Partnerships' Death May be Exaggerated
• Feb 3, 2010
• Yesterday I mentioned the idea -- voiced by Dan Borut at the National League of Cities, but supported by several others -- that the era ...
• 1 Comments

• Mark Zandi: State Fiscal Outlook is "Dark"
• Feb 3, 2010
• Mark your calendars, everybody: Feb. 11, 2011. That's the day Moody's.com economist Mark Zandi says the economy will shift from financial recovery to a &...
• 1 Comments

• States Face Huge Deficits, But Also Opportunities to Transform
• Feb 3, 2010
• **From GOVERNING's Outlook in the States and Localities 2010** The fiscal outlook for cities and counties may be bleak, but it's nothing compared to ...
• 1 Comments

• Another Nail in the Coffin of the Big Public Sell-Off
• Feb 2, 2010
• **From GOVERNING's Outlook in the States and Localities 2010** If consolidation is the watchword for what cities and counties will do to help manage during ...

• The Push to Consolidate
• Feb 2, 2010
• **From GOVERNING's Outlook in the States and Localities 2010** "Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate." If there was one overarching theme of the first day of ...
• 1 Comments

• Stemming the Tide of Homelessness
• Feb 1, 2010
• Last year, when the city of Raleigh, N.C., partnered with Wake County to announce a new program to help homeless families find housing, officials...
• 1 Comments

• Should States Get In On This "Move Your Money" Idea?
• Feb 1, 2010
• If you read the Huffington Post at all, you've no doubt read about this "Move Your Money" notion they've been pushing. ...

• Is There Really a 'New Face' of Homelessness?
• Jan 26, 2010
• In the February issue of Governing, I have a story about the rise of family homelessness in the United States. Over the past couple years, ...

• Why Every City Supervisor Should Say the F-word in Public Meetings
• Jan 12, 2010
• San Francisco City Supervisor Chris Daly is getting a lot of attention for his New Year's resolution to drop the F-bomb at every city ...
• 8 Comments