The Demise of the Public Hearing
Technology is changing the way citizens interact with local government.
Authors
How Generation X is Shaping Government
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.
Baby Boomers’ Impact on Elections
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.
Larry Salci: Transforming Transit
Sometimes in public life, the best politician for the job may not be a politician. That, at least, is the gamble that St. Louis-area public transit is taking with Larry Salci.
Betting on the Bulldozer
If Philadelphia can just clear away the rubble of its abandoned buildings, whole new neighborhoods might spring up. But it will cost a fortune, and there's no guarantee it will work.
Mee Moua: Breaking In
No one could accuse Mee Moua of lacking political courage. This spring, just weeks after the Democrat won a special election to the Minnesota Senate, she jumped feet-first into an emotional debate over whether the state ought to mandate reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools.
Ray Nagin: Creole Crackdown
Ever since the July day when Mayor Ray Nagin announced that 84 arrest warrants had been issued in a massive campaign against public corruption, New Orleans has been a changed city.
Southern Discomfort
When they come to power in the South, Republicans often find a new enemy: each other.
George Zoffinger: Shaking the Stadium
George Zoffinger has never had much trouble telling people what he thinks. "Sometimes," says a friend and colleague, "we cringe."
John McKay: The Tax Man Cometh
An election year is a notoriously awkward time to push contentious legislation. Why irritate powerful special interests--let alone some portion of the electorate--when your colleagues want everything to be as calm as possible?
Speaking Up
For years, Philadelphia Councilman Brian O'Neill sat quietly and minded his own business. Then he was handed some power.
Sleeper Speaker
The November elections were very good to New York City's Gifford Miller, who has come a long way in a short time.
Connecting The Suburban Dots
Hub-and-spoke transit systems reflect old commuting patterns. A few metro areas are planning suburb-to-suburb rail lines.
The Lone Comptroller
Fellow Republicans in Texas don't think Carole Keeton Strayhorn is much of a team player. That doesn't bother her a lot.
Bill Sizemore: Initiative King
Two years ago, Bill Sizemore got drubbed in Oregon's gubernatorial election. Running as a Republican against the incumbent Democrat, John Kitzhaber, he didn't even attract a third of the vote.
Not-So-Smart Growth
One way for communities to expand is to grab any piece of unattached territory nearby. But compulsive annexation carries a high price.
Rudderless in Hartford
Connecticut's capital city seemed on the verge of a comeback, but the recovery has largely stalled. The problem may be the structure of its government.
Tom Coleman: Safe Driver
Almost half a century ago, after he'd gotten home from the Korean War, Tom Coleman found himself selling chemical fertilizer to the farmers of south Georgia.
Shirley Franklin: Old Hand, Fresh Appeal
For someone who grew up in Philadelphia, Shirley Franklin has the perfect Atlanta pedigree. That may explain why she managed a few weeks ago to win the city's mayoralty without a runoff, and will take office next month as Atlanta's first female chief executive.
The Massachusetts Mess
Politics has always been rough in the Bay State. These days, though, meanness sometimes seems like an end in itself.
Jim Brulte: Doing It All
Midway through his first year in the California Assembly, Jim Brulte decided the place wasn't for him. It was 1991.
The Lonely Leap
So far, Kansas is the only state to have outsourced child welfare on a large scale. It is still grappling with the consequences.
Gridlock Guru
Want to drive in Manhattan at rush hour? You'll have to pay for it if Sam Schwartz gets his way.
The Big Easy's Makeover Mayor
Ray Nagin is taking a businesslike approach to changing New Orleans' image. But much also depends on how well he masters the art of politics.
Upside Down on Long Island
Democrats won a big victory in Nassau County after years of defeat. Now they have to find a way to keep the county from going broke.
Yesterday's Legislature
In the old days, legislatures were secretive and autocratic. In Albany, the old days continue.
Man of Precision
Estimating revenue is a task that trips up many state finance officials. West Virginia's Mark Muchow gets the numbers right every time.
Black, White and Blurred
Race is still an issue in big-city politics. It's just not THE issue anymore.
Are City Councils A Relic of The Past?
One of America's oldest political institutions isn't adapting very well to 21st-century urban life.
Richard Howorth: Bibliocrat
In 1979, Richard Howorth moved back to Oxford, Mississippi, to open a bookstore. He had more than simple commerce in mind. Oxford was home to the University of Mississippi and William Faulkner's native turf, yet it remained a cultural backwater, remembered around the country, if at all, as the site of anti-desegregation riots in the early 1960s. Howorth, who'd grown up in Oxford, saw his store as a place of culture, literacy and broad-mindedness that could help the town nurture those values in itself.
Sharp Tongue
Florida legislator Susan Bucher is a woman of strong opinions. She's willing to express them anywhere, anytime.
Mayor Brown & Mr. Bobb
Can a strong mayor and a strong manager find happiness together in a city with big problems? So far, yes.
Larry Bartels: Playing Solomon
For a guy who doesn't vote, Larry Bartels sure knows how to get himself in a political tangle. True, he never intended to thrust himself into the contentious debate over racial fairness in public office. And he certainly didn't plan to put himself at the center of the first major redistricting case of the decade.
Call of The Wild
Alaska's Frank Murkowski left the U.S. Senate to take over a state that's going broke. Why would he do that?
Good Old Boy, Circa 2001
Mississippi's House speaker found he couldn't run the place the old- fashioned way. So he invented a better way.
New Day Under The Dome
Republicans control more legislatures this year than they have in decades. They didn't pick the easiest time to take over.
John Chichester: Governor's Nemsis
Three decades ago, as a young man in his early 30s, John H. Chichester left Virginia's Democratic Party because he thought it had become too friendly to big government. Fifteen years ago, at the mid-point of the Reagan years in Washington, he ran for lieutenant governor as a Reagan supporter and spokesman for his party's conservative wing.
Making New Friends
Ray Allen didn't set out to become an ally of liberal activists. He just happened to agree with them on a few things.
Mel Martinez: Up from Orlando
Last winter, when Elian Gonzalez went to visit Walt Disney World in Orange County, Florida, county workers got a chance to see what a media pile-on looks like. Turns out, it was just a preview.
Mission Improbable
Would you hire a county prosecutor to run a hospital network? If you knew Mike Duggan, you might.
How to Win Friends and Repair a City
Atlanta needs all the help it can get. Luckily, it has a mayor who knows where to get it.
Fast Track
Marco Lopez does things any ambitious young politician might do--he just does them younger and better.
Heir to Power
The speakership of the Massachusetts House has long been a virtual license for one-man rule. Under Sal DiMasi, it may evolve into something a little less autocratic.
The Last One-Term Statehouse
If Virginia governors could serve two terms, they'd get a lot more done. But would the state be better off?
Tabor Repairman
What's more surprising than Andrew Romanoff becoming Colorado's House speaker? His revenue-reform success.
Blunt Instrument
Lillian Koller likes to cut through red tape--even if that means bending a few rules of courtesy.
Motor Trouble
Joel Silverman was asked to reform his state's vehicle license management. Not everyone wanted it reformed.
Easy Enforcer
Terry Tamminen brings a Southern California mellowness to the un- mellow job of reorganizing state government.
Pride of Place
Fred Kent has spent three decades developing a common-sense approach to streets, buildings and human sociability.
Wilder's Last Crusade
Virginia's ex-governor has made a career out of accomplishing the unexpected. He is betting he can do it one more time as mayor of a proud but messed-up city.
Local Avenger
Todd Smith has declared war against the red tape his state imposes on county government.
Power Reclaimed
California's term-limit law was turning Assembly speakers into ciphers--until Fabian Nunez came along.
Can Dallas Govern Itself?
Over the past decade, political chaos and bureaucratic mismanagement turned Big D into a Big Mess. It's struggling to recover.
Restless in Des Moines
Sensing trouble in the fall, Iowa's Senate Republicans have turned to Mary Lundby to bail them out.
Battered School Boards
Reformers dismiss them. Experts call them obsolete. But we can't give up on school boards, because they're needed.
Introducing Our Public Officials of the Year
Urban Outfitter
Helping cities thrive, not just survive.
Ageless Young Turk
S. David Freeman has been shaking up public agencies for half a century. He doesn't see any reason to stop.
Restoration Governor
It's been 16 years since a Democrat ruled Massachusetts. That won't make Deval Patrick's job any easier.
Turnabout Tale
After losing a GOP primary bid for lieutenant governor, Nebraska state auditor Kate Witek is seeking reelection--as a Democrat.
Charter Changeover
After Katrina wiped out one of the worst school systems in the country, New Orleans has seized the chance to redesign its whole approach to public education.
Mellowed Militant
Ron Dellums, the angry Berkeley radical of the 1960s, is making a comeback. But he doesn't sound so angry anymore.
Moving Outside
John Kitzhaber has been to the top in politics. He thinks he may be able to achieve more working from the bottom up.
Brinkshman
As Chicago's transit chief, Ron Huberman is playing some dangerous games. He may not have much choice
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Blunt Instrument
Nobody questions Ed Blakely's credentials as an urban thinker. New Orleans just wants him to think before he talks.
Turnpike Tempest
Governor Ed Rendell wants to lease out the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Things could get ugly along the way.
A Rift Runs Through It
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.
Eminent Reluctance
When Virginia reacted to the Supreme Court's eminent-domain decision, no one had a trickier balancing act than Governor Tim Kaine.
Divorce, Arkansas-Style
Governor Mike Beebe has split up his state's huge health and social services agency after a painful two-year experiment with consolidation.
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Drug Doubter
Vermont prosecutor Robert Sand says what he thinks about marijuana. He's making people uncomfortable.
Cookie-Jar Clampdown
Tougher lobby laws are being discussed all over the country. A few states have enacted them. Whether they will work remains to be seen.
A Taste of the Country
It is more than likely that you've never heard of Calvin Beale, a rural demographer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who died of colon cancer on Monday, at the age of 85. He was a quiet, courtly bureaucrat in a city where those qualities tend to go unremarked.
Bleak Outlook for State Finances
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...
How Much Reform Can Providence Handle?
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...
The Sisterhood of Auditors
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
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...
Mayor in the Middle
During the first week of December 2006, about a dozen Los Angeles hotel workers set up a week-long fast outside the Westin LAX hotel, not far...
Bratton's Brigade
One May night, two police officers bicycle-patrolling their beat in a violence-prone neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island, spotted a car parked near a recreation center....
Welcome Mat
On a sunny fall afternoon, Rafael Ramos pulls up in front of a modest house in a working-class neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. He hops...
Atlanta and the Urban Future
There is going to be a hard-fought campaign for mayor of Atlanta next year, and to understand it better, you might pay a visit to...
Playing for Maps
As the legislature tangles with Governor Paterson's budget, it will be keeping a close eye on a crucial event 20 months away. This is the 2010 election,...
The Ordeal of David Paterson
It seemed, at the time, like an auspicious moment. On a slushy winter's day at the New York State Capitol, David Paterson entered the Assembly...
Postcards from the Edge
Then and Now As the largest newspaper in Connecticut and the paper of record for the state's capital city, the Hartford Courant has long held...
Death and Life in the Pressroom
If you want to know what the dying days of a journalistic era look like, mount the marble steps to the fourth floor of Connecticut's...
Joining Forces
One of the more interesting experiments in maintaining newspapers' traditional capacity to cover state government was announced in November by the St. Petersburg Times and...