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Carl Smith

Senior Staff Writer

Carl Smith is a senior staff writer for Governing and covers a broad range of issues affecting states and localities. For the past 30 years, Carl has written about education and the environment for peer-reviewed papers, magazines and online publications, with a special focus on conservation and sustainability. He has guest-edited special issues of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health focused on the Precautionary Principle and the human rights dimensions of environmental degradation. Carl attended the University of Texas and the University of Georgia. He can be reached at carl.smith@governing.com or on Twitter at @governingwriter.

Following labor unrest with writers, actors and hotel workers, a one-day strike by city workers in Los Angeles was aimed at getting stalled negotiations going again. It also reflected a desire for respect.
They can help public health departments overcome staff shortages and reach those most at risk. Food programs in San Antonio are a case study in what’s possible.
Current government budgeting processes are not up to the demands of a world where the future looks less and less like the past.
Shifting demographics and changing migration patterns have impacted the city, moving it toward the future with programs that reflect the country’s history of blending cultures.
They can help clear the air over UFO sightings by letting residents know if they live near military operations airspace, says a new RAND report. Public help is most needed to spot and report human misbehavior.
What can Phoenix, the hottest large city in the country, teach local governments about managing extreme heat?
Before Jane Gilbert took on the job for Miami-Dade County, no city in the world had a chief heat officer. What can others learn from the work she’s doing?
A new edition of a book by a former government official argues that human-centered steps taken before technology implementation are the key to success.
A year ago, six jurisdictions were selected as the first participants in an incubator project designed to help them harness the economic power of publicly owned land and buildings. Atlanta is ready to use what it learned.
In The Three Ages of Water, Peter Gleick traces the history of a resource humans can’t do without. While there’s enough water to go around, he says, state and local leaders from both sides of the aisle need to act now on what we know.