Governing: State and local government news and analysis
Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., are using bus-mounted cameras with AI technology to better enforce parking violations, hoping to clear transit lanes of vehicles and make public transit faster and safer.
It’s happening in red and blue states alike: Policymakers and civil servants are increasingly relying on evidence to transform how taxpayer dollars are spent.
Investing in poor neighborhoods or dispersing the poor citywide each have their proponents. But place-based strategies — improving neighborhoods — may be our only feasible option.
Planting trees along small streams is a simple idea with big consequences for watersheds.
Is your law enforcement agency accredited? Probably not, but it ought to be.
The National League of Cities has created a task force to make presidential candidates aware of local concerns — and to forge relationships with officials who'll move from the campaign into the next administration.
Future in Context
A recap of 2023's pivotal trends in gov tech: transportation transitions, cybersecurity challenges and strides in digital inclusivity.
While moderate and liberal candidates did well in recent school board elections nationwide, experts say it's too soon to call these results a permanent change to extreme partisanship in school board politics.
For years, a conservation-focused legal foundation and a nonprofit housing financier have partnered with local governments, investors, researchers and developers to lay the foundation for healthy neighborhoods.
There are no easy solutions to America’s growing immigration challenges, but Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and New York Mayor Eric Adams should be recognized for the decisive action they have taken.
Adie Tomer, a senior fellow at Brookings Metro, says implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is on track. But it will take years to understand its economic impact.
The warrior mentality is perpetuated from generation to generation. An ex-cop’s thoughtful new book suggests pathways for reform.
Office workers’ exodus should be countered with wiser state and federal tax incentives, and there’s a novel municipal bond angle to promote. But cities themselves must step up to stem the urban maladies that feed public fears.
Two Native American communities have received 2023 Culture of Health awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Their work is rooted in reviving practices outside forces had disrupted.
The sale of electric utilities to corporate investors has brought more power outages and rate hikes. Local ownership has the potential for lower rates, better service and a quicker transition to renewable energy.
The cancellation of two of the biggest offshore wind projects in the east highlights challenges in the fledgling industry and the obstacles to coastal states’ clean energy goals.
Democrats at the local, state and federal levels are all using freedom as a catchall, believing the value helps promote their various policy ideas.
States around the country are enacting common-sense, bipartisan reforms that will help break the cycle of poverty, crime and incarceration, making our system fairer and our communities safer.
One of the hallmarks of effective homeless response is coordinated effort. Mayors met in Los Angeles, the nation's homeless capital, to figure out how they can work together to reduce the entrenched problem.
Tight labor markets can be hard on corporations. But they can help marginal workers find jobs.
Voters backed the sale of Cincinnati Southern Railway, the only city-owned interstate railroad in the country. The city plans to put $1.6 billion from the sale into a trust fund for infrastructure maintenance.
One scholar thinks we have carried our penchant for urban tree-worship a bit too far, giving nature too much credit for city-dwellers’ mental health.
Latinos accounted for more than half of U.S. population growth in the last two decades. Understanding of this community hasn’t kept pace, but a new resource from the Latino Policy and Politics Institute could help change that.
States are passing new laws to combat retail theft, though government data doesn’t show that it is actually increasing. None of the new laws are likely to reduce crime and could disproportionately impact marginalized groups.
New Jersey becomes the latest state to sign a bill centering media literacy in schools, raising further awareness of the need for widespread media literacy policies. But more needs to be done, say experts.
Swinging between drought and flooding, the river needs coordinated oversight. But nobody is setting priorities or getting scores of federal agencies, states, towns, tribal nations and NGOs to sing from the same hymnal.
Getting everybody housed requires multiple systems to work together, tapping the collective power of state, local and federal policymakers supported by the faith community, the business sector and philanthropy.
The Safe Streets for All program is awarding millions of dollars directly to cities and counties to improve roadways for all users. Many are applying multiple times.
The question is whether this is a one-year blip or part of a more concerning shift, but it reflects hard truths about the state of our infant and maternal health care.
Rapidly developing AI-powered technology is making it easier to appropriate the public sector's financial information for proprietary uses. Businesses that slice and dice this data should be renters, not owners.
