Assessments

Assessments

How much authority should governments have to protect people misbehaving in ways that are, in most cases, dangerous only to themselves?

Assessments

Lawmakers in much of the country will be doing their work next year by remote control. That will make a tough job even tougher.

Assessments

By defining the downtown Loop more than a century ago, elevated trains and tracks gave the city a vibrant economic and cultural center. It's a core element that other cities don't have.

Assessments

Charlotte's majority-millennial city council has accomplished a few things, but mostly what its members have done is squabble with each other. Succeeding as a 'change agent' is harder than it might seem.

Assessments

One state took a small step this week , but we're a long way from eliminating noncompetitive districts and partisan malfeasance.

Assessments

It may depend on what millennials really want. But none of the ideas aimed at that generation would make more than a dent in America's acute housing shortage.

Assessments

Efforts to merge municipalities make a lot of sense, particularly in this virus-plagued, cash-poor moment. But they usually don't succeed. Three struggling Illinois towns are about to try it anyway.

Assessments

It means different things to different people. In the end, it doesn't really mean much at all. And there's very little that politicians or government can do to uphold or restore it.

Assessments

Cities keep lurching between electing their governing bodies from districts and choosing them at large. The district approach is gaining, but its fragmentation doesn't promote a broad view of community needs.

Assessments

Over a half-century in office — and running for office — this man of paradox broke virtually every rule in the politico's rulebook. Californians loved him for it.

Assessments

They've been trying for a long time to attract city dwellers by installing amenities that urbanites crave. COVID-19 fears are providing them with a new opportunity to get it right.