The Rise of the Progressive City With liberal hopes dashed in Washington, political energy is gather

[Ichingcarpenter]

Indeed, our national politics are so deformed that it’s hard even to imagine the steps necessary to fix things. Last year, The Boston Globe ran an award-winning series, “Broken City,” about the entropy in Washington. The final piece noted that potential remedies for the country’s problems are met with “almost complete indifference in Washington, the world’s capital of gridlock, even when alternative, perhaps better, ways are already at work, some in plain sight.”

At the city level, though, things are very different. Among those who study urban governance and those who practice it, there’s an extraordinary sense of political excitement. An outpouring of books like If Mayors Ruled the World, Triumph of the City and The Metropolitan Revolution hymns urban dynamism. Not all the new urban optimists are on the left, but that’s where most of the energy is. With the federal government frozen, cities are seizing the initiative and becoming laboratories for progressive policy innovation. Amid widespread despair about national politics, cities have become new sources of hope.

“It’s a movement that reflects the paralyzed nature of the political system in Washington right now and the polarization of the political process,” says Neal Peirce, editor of Citiscope, an online magazine about cities that launched earlier this year. “On the local level, you can have these arguments without getting as much into partisan politics. At the same time, we’re having much more discussion about income inequality.” The result is a raft of local legislation intended to address problems that national politicians have let fester. “It’s quite a shift,” says Peirce. “It’s grown dramatically in the last year or so.”

There’s little chance, for example, that Congress will give us a living-wage law anytime soon, but the city of SeaTac in Washington State just raised its minimum wage to an unprecedented $15 an hour, and Los Angeles is considering a proposal to mandate a $15.37 minimum for workers at big hotels.

http://www.thenation.com/article/179145/rise-progressive-city?page=full

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. All politics are local.... take back

the school boards, city state and county seats

The religious right did that and that's why
things are so fucked up.

[Bandit]

3. You can expect that is where most of the Koch money will be spent this year

Not just the Koch brothers either. Almost every very wealthy Republican will be pouring their money into local races. Small town politics will get very spendy from now on. Republicans want a complete takeover of the grass roots of America. And because Democrats are so very much behind the times the Republicans will most likely get what they want.

[loudsue]

7. And democrats have fallen behind BECAUSE the national party has been infiltrated with corporatists

They got rid of Howard Dean BECAUSE he was gathering power at the grass roots IN FAVOR of the populist dems -- who are in direct opposition to the CORPORATIST dems.

We are so friggin' screwed.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. Even Obama said

we must take the power locally.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Been saying this for years

[Laelth]

2. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Autumn]

4. Terrific article. It makes sense.

[Skidmore]

5. You know how that CEO of Mozilla

was dealt with? That strategy needs to be applied everywhere. We all need to have each others' backs and return the favor. Do not let the Rs wnd their sugar daddies play us off against each other. This is a time for action steps based upon the principles tbat we support to lift all people and that reject unfairness and inequality. If we do not rise together, we will fall precipitously. And we cannot abandon regions out of fear. We must stand our ground...yes, coopt the sloga s aynd change the meanings. Turn back the assaults on the people who launch them.

We can do this and on multiple fronts. We must.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Does GOTv support this?

I don't know maybe Mineral man will tell us.

[sabrina 1]

8. Very exciting. And it's true. Here in upstate NY eg, the county we live in wants to separate from

state legislature believing that their issues are very different to the rest of the state, NYC eg. I have to agree, this is a farming area and their issues ARE very different. They don't want to separate entirely from the state, but want the focus here.

Also, the local people here are VERY active now in their schools. More and more are attending meetings, demanding more money for the Public Schools.

It's been exciting to see the people really getting involved on a local level, realizing that if THEY don't do something about the issues, no one will.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. I cover local politics

I no longer bother posting nada about that coverage. And you know what? The level of government dysfunction is inversely proportional to the asshats actually walking the streets every day. There is partisanship even in fixing pot holes, but everybody knows pot hot need to be fixed and arguing over the number of angels on the head of a pin does not happen.

If you are really interested in the subject read "when Mandates Work" and it is about one of the early experiments in this, San Francisco. And if you are truly interested, the locals rise minimum wage started in Baltimore in the 1990s. And be careful of San Jose. One particular study (by the restaurant industry disguised as a think tank) is being peddled and bandied about, even in city councils. (Yes, I pointed that out in the article I never will post here) but it was a weird day, R goes from citing Brookings, to this crap within half an hour.

As to raise in the minimum wage, yes it will bring democrats out, and can't wait for the Lincoln Club and the mayor to attack it.

Of the damn record I also have had email conversations with electeds in neighboring cities. Official line is we will take employers from this large urban area. Off the damn record they realize workers will prioritize job searches in the better paid area. Truly supply- demand and they know that will cost them.

By the way, as far as DU is concerned, this is really not happening since I wrote it. But will be a fascinating exercise to compare local voting rates.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. Nice Rant but

If people are disillusioned from the national shit

They can be a energy of real change with out

GOTV.. hey its not bad but its not local

I think this is progress that we can really win on the local level

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. As I said, if my local city council

Does get that on the ballot (the process is fun to watch, but duck, the crap does fly) it will bring them out. This is a trick the Republicans learned a long time ago. Put red meat on the ballot in primaries (less dems come out to vote) or off year elections.

I think the dems simply don't want to do it, but again, that comes from observing local politics close up and personal. The Rs are very disorganized. The dems less so, yet the Rs put red meat to get people elected to the school district. This cannot be accidental.

[Ichingcarpenter]

14. I was an 'acorn vice chairman in Austin

In the very early 80s We made change for Austin Texas. I made a observation table to the midwifes to plan parenthood who sent midwifes for my son's birth.


Those days are gone I know.... now we need a new concept of change which is old.



The talk about GOTV is fine but it does not support the local level like what is described by the Salon article

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Trust me, I know

And add to that what I hear often now from a large swath of the electorate. "Para qué, no les importa." "Why bother, they don't care." When the NYT wrote that story I was hardly surprised or shocked.

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. Start in the Barrios we should

the ghettos and those without hope. because they have been ignored.


One step at a time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I al a reporter.

I report, but off the damn record I told as much to the Occupy folks in San Diego the barrio kids smiled, theMC kids from the other side of the tract had blank stares.

[Ichingcarpenter]

18. I'm an old fart now working

on a world level for change with the time I have left.

This is not just an American thing....... anymore

The world knows more and more.
and they are pissed

The local thing is where to organize now
not Washington........

I would do that but I live in another world now.

[xchrom]

19. du rec.