GOVERNING Magazine June 2018

THE STATES AND LOCALITIES June 2018 Rough Road Ahead Mississippi’s crumbling bridges and the ﬁ ght to ﬁ x America’s rural infrastructure

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24 CAUGHT IN 46 THE EDUCATION THE MIDDLE OF SCOTT WIENER When a neighborhood isn’t California’s go-for-broke rich—but isn’t poor—govern- legislator failed this year in ment tends to forget about it. his bid to spark a revolution By Alan Greenblatt in housing policy. He’s ready to try again. 34 BRIDGE OUT By Liz Farmer How long can a state go without repairing its roads 52 FOR MONEY OR Philadelphia is and bridges? Mississippi is FOR GOOD? ahead of other about to ﬁ nd out. Can eff ective homelessness major cities By Daniel C. Vock programs actually make when it comes money for investors—and to thinking about 42 CONFRONTING should they? what “middle THE COSTS By J.B. Wogan neighborhoods” In the wake of recent events, need. there’s been a grim rise in “active shooter” insurance for schools. By Natalie Delgadillo PHOTO BY DAVID KIDD; COVER PHOTO BY JAMES PATTERSON PHOTO BY DAVID June 2018 | GOVERNING 1

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4 Publisher’s Desk 6 Letters APIMAGES.COM

OBSERVER 9 What’s the Age to Marry? Some states are considering higher age limits for marriage.

10 White Flight Returns It’s happening all over again. But this time, it’s from the suburbs. 14 12 Do State Takeovers Work? Some studies have found they do little to improve schools. PROBLEM SOLVER POLITICS + POLICY 58 Behind the Numbers New data show how pervasive evictions are across 14 Assessments the United States. Are there more scandals or are we trying harder to ﬁ nd them? 60 Smart Management A growing number of governments are limiting access 16 Potomac Chronicle to public records. Popular yet ineff ective programs APIMAGES.COM are hard to get rid of. 61 Better Government Addressing racial equity bodes well for cities in terms 16 17 Politics Watch of long-term outcomes. The California GOP can’t agree on how to stop its “death spiral.” 62 Public Money The real money in public-private partnerships is not in 18 Health roads and bridges. It’s in people and services. Spurred by opioids, drug take- back programs are spreading. 64 Last Look Baseball is back at the Corner in Detroit. 20 Green Government As storms worsen, many coastal states aren’t prepared.

22 Economic Engines Physical retail is surviving, but what’s being sold is changing.

23 Urban Notebook Preempting local laws is no longer just a red state trend. SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

60 2 GOVERNING | June 2018

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PUBLISHER’S DESK

Publisher Mark Funkhouser

Executive Editor Zach Patton Managing Editor Elizabeth Daigneau Senior Editors Alan Ehrenhalt, John Martin The Real Housing Issue Chief Copy Editor Miriam Jones Copy Editors Kate Albrecht, Lauren Harrison espite what you might think given recent media coverage, Staff Writers J. Brian Charles, Liz Farmer, Alan Greenblatt, the U.S. city with the worst aff ordable housing problem Mattie Quinn, Daniel C. Vock, J.B. Wogan is not San Francisco. Far from it. When you rank cities by Correspondent John Buntin median gross rent as a percentage of household income, Contributing Editor Penelope Lemov D Columnists Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene, Scott Beyer, San Francisco actually does very well, coming in at No. 582 on a list of 600 cities, according to Census data. Aside from a few college William Fulton, Mark Funkhouser, Peter A. Harkness, Donald F. Kettl, Justin Marlowe, Alex Marshall, Aaron M. Renn, towns, most of the cities experiencing an aff ordable housing crisis Frank Shafroth are those that are struggling in today’s economy. Flint, Mich., for

example, is No. 9. Its households pay a median of 42.2 percent of Senior Editor, Governing.com Caroline Cournoyer their income for rental housing. Web Producer, Governing.com Natalie Delgadillo There are two primary culprits in the housing aff ordability Data Editor, Governing.com Mike Maciag crisis: the cost of housing and the amount people earn. The latter is the bigger driver, as data cited by Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Chief Content Ofﬁ cer Paul W. Taylor Institution illustrates. Applying the standard that housing should Director, Governing Institute Julia Burrows consume no more than 30 percent Chief Design Ofﬁ cer Kelly Martinelli of household income “implies Photo Editor David Kidd that renters in the lowest income Graphic Designer Kale Mendonca quintile can only aff ord to spend Production Director Stephan Widmaier $310 per month on rent,” Schuetz

writes, adding that “the decline in Founder & Publisher Emeritus Peter A. Harkness cash income for the bottom quintile over the past 15 years exacerbates Advertising 202-862-8802 this challenge.” Associate Publishers Shelley Ballard, Kim Frame, Stacy Ward-Probst Policies that aim to give workers Strategic Account Directors Paige Helling, Noel Hollis more of a share of increases in busi- Chief Customer Success Offi cer Arlene Boeger ness productivity and gross domes- Offi ce Manager Alina Grant tic product would have to be largely Marketing/Classifi ed [email protected] Mark Funkhouser, Publisher national in scope—despite many e.Republic Inc. laudable local attempts, such as CEO Dennis McKenna minimum-wage increases and living-wage ordinances. But there’s President Cathilea Robinett no evidence such policies are coming anytime soon. Therefore, Executive VP Alan Cox state and local leaders concerned about housing aff ordability need CFO Paul Harney to use other tools at their disposal, such as land use policies. CAO Lisa Harney What’s more, Schuetz and Cecile Murray argue in another Reprint Information recent Brookings report that we must acknowledge that “we can’t Reprints of all articles in this issue and past issues are available indefi nitely rely on new construction of low-density, single-family (500 minimum). Please direct inquiries for reprints and licensing to housing.” As Governing’s Liz Farmer reports in this issue, California Wright’s Media: 877-652-5295, [email protected] state Sen. Scott Wiener is trying to turn that attitude around. Not Subscription/Circulation Service surprisingly, his legislation to override local zoning limits to allow Eenie Yang [email protected] high-rise housing near transit stations has stalled in the face of www.governing.com/subscribe powerful opposition. We may be several decades into the 21st century by the time Governing (ISSN 0894-3842) is published monthly by e.Republic Inc., with offi ces at 1100 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 1300, Washington, D.C. 20036 and at 100 Blue we have housing policies that fi t today’s circumstances, but it will Ravine Road, Folsom, CA 95630. Telephone: 202-862-8802. Fax: 202-862-0032. happen. The rising generation of voters will see to that. A recent Email: [email protected]. Periodical postage paid in Washington, D.C., and Politico article on the Seattle housing market laid out the plans at additional mailing offi ces. Copyright 2018 e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is of young activists to change the rules by changing the rulemak- prohibited. Governing, Governing.com and City & State are registered trademarks ers in this fall’s municipal elections. Those activists may not win of e.Republic Inc.; unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Postmaster: Send address changes to Governing, 100 Blue Ravine Road, Folsom, CA, 95630. Subscribers: this year, but smart leaders see the future coming and fi nd ways Enclose mailing label from past issue. Allow six weeks. Member: BPA International. to accommodate it. Made in the U.S.A.

4 GOVERNING | June 2018

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but your inclusion of that issue is valuable the-nation bipartisan carbon tax bill, and serves as “frosting on the cake.” cosponsored by a Democrat and two —Steve Turcott, Eastern Washington Republicans. For somewhat complicated emergency manager, Washington Depart- internal reasons, the bill didn’t get much ment of Transportation publicity until after the session ended, but it did get introduced and will hopefully be Your article is a fantastic emergency reintroduced next year. (I was fortunate to response primer that should be mandatory help a bit with the economics of the bill.) reading for public offi cials everywhere. Climate action in a right-leaning state As former chief of staff to Virginia Govs. like Utah isn’t easy, but it isn’t easy in a Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, I served in left-leaning state like Washington, either. a capacity responding to more than my I learned that lesson firsthand as the fair share of crises. Warner dispatched founder and co-chair of the Initiative 732 me to Louisiana to assist Gov. Kathleen campaign in Washington state in 2016. Blanco post-Katrina. A major part of my The initiative, which was rejected, would responsibility there was getting the EMAC have imposed a steadily increasing tax on system in order. Too many other gover- emissions of carbon dioxide and used that nors were dispatching help and causing revenue to off set other taxes. problems with self-deployment. I saw —Yoram Bauman, Ph.D., The Best Kind of Response self-deployed fi re crews calling national Salt Lake City In the March cover story “States of press to fi lm them idly playing football Emergency,” Daniel C. Vock wrote about and complaining they weren’t being Overdoing Licensing the Emergency Management Assistance used. An underwater demolition team In his April Better Government column Compact (EMAC), which is a mutual aid fl ew in from Israel and then complained “What Sunsetting Is Good For,” Mark pact among U.S. states and territories no one met them at the airport. All the Funkhouser suggested that occupa- that allows them to reach out to each self-deployed teams compounded our tional licensing requirements need some other—instead of the federal govern- logistics of helping those we had been serious scrutiny. “A few years ago, it ment—to get the resources they need asked to assist. In desperation, we had was reported that Texas required 2,250 during major disasters. Two readers the National Governors Association and hours of training to be licensed to teach wrote in to praise Vock’s attention to Council of State Governments send out hair braiding,” he wrote. “A Tennessee detail, specifi cally regarding the issue of letters to their members imploring them barber—ineligible for a license because he “self-deployment.” “Emergency managers to utilize EMAC and direct all off ers of didn’t have a high school diploma—was warn that ‘self-deployment’ outside of the assistance to their respective emergency hit with $2,100 in fi nes and fees when he EMAC process causes more harm than operations centers to be matched with was caught using a fake license.” Readers good,” Vock wrote. “It’s a lesson that was tasking orders from Louisiana. overwhelmingly agreed the requirements reinforced in the aftermath of Hurricane You have captured the evolution and were excessive. Katrina, when volunteers swarmed the criticality of EMAC so well. Your article disaster area without clear instructions.” is a major and very necessary contribution Even if improperly done hair braiding is to the emergency management fi eld and to dangerous, there have to be better ways I was the Federal Emergency Management public leadership generally. of protecting the public than license Agency planning section chief for —Bill Leighty, partner, DecideSmart requirements. Hurricane Harvey prior to leaving the LLC, Richmond, Va. —Dan Wylie-Sears on Facebook agency in January for my current position with Washington state. I’m often disap- It’s Actually 11 Something like an eight- or 12-hour class pointed with what I read or hear about In the April Green Government article on hygiene is entirely appropriate for emergency management and major inci- “Coming Soon: Carbon Taxes,” Elizabeth cutting hair and similar [jobs]. But 1,600 dent responses, but you provided a rare Daigneau looked at the 10 states consid- hours is bull. and much appreciated balance of excep- ering bills this year that would tax green- —Ryan Borman on Facebook tional clarity, accuracy, thoroughness. house gas emissions. She left out one. For example, your article would have A more complete article would not be been excellent without addressing self- Thanks for your article about state-level talking just to economists, but also to state deployment and the need for jurisdictions carbon taxes, but you forgot to include departments of health. to send resources only when requested, Utah! This year it featured the fi rst-in- —Ronald C. Shelby on Facebook

6 GOVERNING | June 2018

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How Old Is Old Enough to Marry?

CHILD MARRIAGES ARE more common to imposing higher age limits and to adding a judge. “The bill keeps the court in the than you think . Roughly 200,000 minors have safeguards for minors allowed to marry, such loop,” says state Rep. Bill White, “to make gotten married since the start of the century. as parental consent. Florida and Kentucky sure the marriage is not coerced and is Nearly 90 percent of those child marriages both passed laws this year raising the fl oor in the best interest of the kid, or kids.” involve a young bride, under the age of 18, for child marriages to 17 and 18, respectively, The fact that two kids may be marrying and an older man—sometimes decades following similar actions taken since 2016 in each other is one objection some legislators older. Under such circumstances, says Ari- Connecticut, New York, Texas and Virginia. and religious groups have raised. They say zona state Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, “it’s not States shouldn’t sanction relationships the recent spate of child marriage bills are diffi cult to think of all the potential abuses.” they would punish if marriage weren’t overly broad and harm responsible couples. Legislators have heard testimony from involved, opponents of child marriage con- If a young Romeo wants to marry his Juliet, women who were forced to marry their tend. “Some even condone marriage when it why is that a problem for the state? rapists when they were as young as 11. results from statutory rape,” writes Nicholas The other concern that’s commonly There have also been scattered reports of Syrett, a University of Kansas professor raised about strict limits is that they may marriage being used as a tool in child traf- and author of American Child Bride: A His- prevent a pregnant 16-year-old from mar- fi cking. Ugenti-Rita sponsored a new law, tory of Minors and Marriage in the United rying the father of her baby. “By denying enacted in April, which banned marriages States. “In many cases, district attorneys them the ability to get married, we’re deny- for children under the age of 16, while have been willing to waive prosecution if a ing the children fathers or mothers,” says requiring 16- and 17-year-olds to receive girl’s statutory rapist agrees to marry her Arizona state Rep. David Stringer, who permission from their parents. When a minor and her parents are also supportive.” opposed Ugenti-Rita’s bill. “I don’t think the is getting married, the age gap between In Missouri, which has seen not only its government should be stepping in and tell- the bride and groom, under the new law, own minors marry but also “tourist mar- ing people the right age to get married.” can be no greater than three years. riages” involving mostly girls brought in from Given the concerns about abuses, Advocacy groups such as the Tahirih Jus- out of state, state Rep. Jean Evans wanted however, the movement to curtail child tice Center and Unchained At Last are push- to ban marriage under the age of 17. That marriage clearly has momentum. Child ing states to raise the minimum age for mar- turned out to be too strict a standard for marriage laws are so lax as to be practi- riage to 18, without exceptions. Last month, many of her colleagues, but the House did cally nonexistent in about half the states, Delaware became the fi rst state to fully ban pass a bill raising the age to 15. Kids who but that’s changing fast. “We have age child marriage, even with parental approval. are 17 would need a parent’s approval, limits on voting, purchasing lottery tickets, But it’s proving to be a tough sell elsewhere. while 15- and 16-year-olds would have to alcohol and cigarettes,” Ugenti-Rita says.

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM Lawmakers have shown themselves open get permission both from their parents and “Marriage should be no exception to that.”

June 2018 | GOVERNING 9

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SHUTTERSTOCK.COM than 3,000 of them experienced white minority groups often act on that desire, percent and 21 percent, respectively.”

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DURING THE SECOND HALF of the state and federal levels. “The fragmenta- 20th century, no city symbolized the rise tion that has long characterized the political $ trillion of automobile-driven development more structure of Southern California has also 1. 4 than Los Angeles. Despite its reputation for been plain to see in the way we produce our The funding defi cit for state public sprawl, however, L.A. is actually the densest public infrastructure,” Hawthorne wrote in pension systems in fi scal 2016, which is a record high and a nearly major city in the country. It will grow even his farewell column in the Times. $300 billion increase from 2015. more crowded over the coming decade, Hawthorne describes his role as less of with voters having approved billions in new a czar seeking to get his way by fi at than of spending on housing, parks, transit and an advocate attempting to “nudge” agencies other infrastructure ahead of the return of in a more favorable direction. Toward that the Summer Olympics in 2028. end, he intends to broaden the conversa- What will the city look like then? tion, making sure agencies do a better job Answering that question is now largely the of listening both to residents and designers responsibility of Christopher Hawthorne. The through public forums and competitions. longtime architecture critic at the Los Ange- Ultimately, he hopes to make the case that 3 les Times stepped down earlier this year better design is not only more inclusive but The number of to take on the newly created post of chief can be more effi cient and save dollars. states California design offi cer under Mayor Eric Garcetti, Such concepts have become inscribed could be divided who, like other mayors around the country, in the DNA of planning departments in into if voters approve a proposed some cities. This hasn’t been the case in has grown fond of appointing “chiefs” to ballot measure. tackle issues such as sustainability, streets Los Angeles, and it’s largely why Garcetti Supporters say they and data. In this case, Hawthorne will be is seeking to break the mold. As a critic, have collected enough expected to break down the silos between Hawthorne was sometimes a lonely voice signatures to qualify forr agencies when it comes to urban planning. in terms of thinking about the public realm the November ballot. That’s easier said than done. writ large. His perch within city hall gives Different agencies have different prerog- him a different platform from which to make atives and priorities. The new generation of his case that design is threaded through chiefs may be able to say they’re the may- everything a city does and makes. “A real or’s point person on a particular issue, but hallmark of his work at the Times has been without control over budgets or other real to really push the big picture and try to prod power, they can’t force action from those Los Angeles to think about itself in larger entrenched in city government who view terms—21st-century terms and urban 20 35% them as a fad. To create a more coherent terms,” says John King, the architecture The rate at which researchers say vision for L.A., Hawthorne will not only have critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. “If opioid-related overdose deaths are to win over leaders in the city’s transporta- there was an architecture critic in the United undercounted in America. tion, engineering and planning departments, States where this transition would make

but also other actors scattered at the county, sense, Chris is the one.” NEWS SOURCES: THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE , REUTERS, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS KAISER HEALTH

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SINCE FEBRUARY, the school board in cited as the main rationales for take- Latinos, meanwhile, serve on school Newark, N.J., has been meeting to set overs, other factors are at play, suggests boards than in any other political offi ce. policy. That may sound like the most Domingo Morel, a political scientist His argument, however, that minor- mundane occurrence imaginable, but at Rutgers University-Newark, in his ity political power is weakened by state it’s a big novelty in Newark. The schools new book Takeover: Race, Education takeovers is undercut by one of his own there are now being run locally for the and American Democracy. Morel sees case studies. Hispanics held no political fi rst time since a state takeover in 1995. takeovers as an especially emblematic offi ces in majority Latino Central Falls, New Jersey was the fi rst state back example of states centralizing power R.I., when the state took over its schools in 1989 to pass a law allowing take- at the expense of local governance. in 1990. But three Latinos were quickly overs of local school districts. Since As states have become increasingly appointed to the revamped school then, states across the nation have responsible for footing the education board, and James Diossa currently appropriated more than 100 districts, bill in recent decades, they have sought serves as the city’s fi rst Latino mayor. including those in major cities such greater authority. “Perhaps more so Another concern with state take- as Baltimore, Detroit, Memphis, New than any other policy domain, control overs is the loss of control to outside Orleans and Philadelphia. And with over public education became a cen- groups. Foundations, for instance, tend the federal Every Student Succeeds tral point of contention between state to put their money into districts that Act requiring states to identify and and urban localities,” Morel writes. have been taken over to encourage improve poor-performing schools, As his subtitle suggests, Morel experimentation, such as the expansion that trend is not about to die out. sees race as a major force. Nearly 85 of charter schools. Most famously, Face- But states don’t possess a secret percent of the districts that have been book CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged formula for making schools succeed. taken over by their states have had $100 million to the struggling schools Far from it. Test scores and gradua- majority black or Latino student popu- in Newark back in 2010. But like the tion rates don’t suddenly skyrocket. lations. States are much more likely, state takeover of schools in Newark, that A recent Harvard University study of when they do take over majority white largesse failed to produce miracles. Too schools in Lawrence, Mass., did fi nd districts, to leave their local school much money was spent on consultants “sizable achievements in math and mod- boards intact, abolishing them only 4 and too little eff ort was devoted to build- est gains in reading.” But other studies percent of the time compared with 33 ing support among parents and teachers have been more negative, arguing that percent in majority black districts. for new approaches. “School districts state takeovers do very little if any- Morel views this racial dynamic are more likely to improve educational thing to improve student performance, through a political lens. Participation outcomes when there is collabora- while dramatically driving up rates of in school politics has been a “catapult” tion,” Morel writes. “Why would states turnover among teachers and staff . for black political power, he notes, with pursue policies that lead to political Although poor academic perfor- school board members going on to serve disruption and hostility between local mance and mismanagement are often on city councils or as mayors. More communities and state government?”

12 GOVERNING | June 2018

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By Alan Ehrenhalt

Just How Rampant Is Corruption? It’s hard to tell whether there are more scandals or we’re trying harder to ﬁ nd them.

Former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley resigned after it was discovered that he used state funds to conceal an extramarital affair with a female staffer. APIMAGES.COM

ack when I was a history student, Take New Jersey, for example. The past alarming number of offi ceholders—and I came across a dispute between few decades have witnessed an unending especially governors—have found them- two prominent scholars who series of criminal indictments in the state selves undone by humiliating scandal. Bdisagreed about the condition against mayors, county executives, state When you make a list of the governors of the streets in colonial Boston. Carl legislators and members of Congress. Now, who have gotten themselves in trouble Bridenbaugh wrote that the streets must there’s no disputing the existence of quite a over the past decade (and it’s a pretty have been a mess, because letters and news few bad apples in the Garden State barrel. long list), you begin to notice something sheets were fi lled with complaints that But it’s worth pointing out that New Jersey surprising. Most of them weren’t caught no one was sweeping up the growing dirt is home to some of the most sophisticat- raiding the cookie jar. They were caught on public thoroughfares. David Hackett ed political reform groups anywhere in up in misdeeds involving sex, or at least Fischer countered that the streets probably America, from New Jersey Citizen Action inappropriate romantic relationships. weren’t that bad. More likely, he wrote, the and the Good Government Coalition to Eliot Spitzer of New York paid clan- Bostonians were overly fussy Puritans—a institutes at its universities. To that, one destine visits to a prostitute in a down- bit anal-retentive, to use a term that wasn’t must add a string of prosecutors who have town Washington hotel. Mark Sanford very familiar in the 1700s. endeavored to build political careers out of South Carolina made secret trips to It isn’t one of the epic debates in of putting the state’s politicians in prison. South America to cavort with his mistress. American history, but I’ve remembered it Chris Christie was the last one to do that, Robert Bentley of Alabama used state ever since. It has colored my attitude, oddly but he was far from the fi rst. funds to conceal an extramarital aff air enough, toward the question of corruption Perhaps New Jersey is a vile cess- with a female staff er. John Kitzhaber of in American public life. Practically every pool of public corruption. But perhaps it Oregon handed out state favors to his fi an- day, the media assaults us with news about might be described more accurately as a cée’s consulting business. Those aren’t the scandals and misdeeds among elected of- state with a broad array of public institu- only ones, but I’ll stop there. (If I wanted fi cials at all levels of government. Is cor- tions carefully programmed to pounce on to keep going, I could point out that while ruption really worse than ever? Or have we anything that looks suspicious. That’s not the vast majority of these perpetrators are become more attuned to fi nding it, like the an easy issue to resolve. Still, it’s one that governors and male, not all of them are: New Englanders who couldn’t stop notic- seems relevant to the current condition Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry re- ing unwashed cobblestones? of state politics across the country, as an signed in March and pled guilty to theft

14 GOVERNING | June 2018

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______Designer ______Creative Dir. 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 ______Editorial ______Prepress www.erepublic.com CMY grey T1 T2 T3 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 Page # ______Other ______OK to go BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN of public funds after it was revealed that offi ce in the fi rst place. I ended up con- mainstream Portland papers of the 1960s she’d been engaged in an aff air with the vinced that there was no such thing as a have chased that story down and published head of her security detail.) political personality. The 535 members of it? I’m pretty sure they would not have. To be clear, the fact that more of these Congress refl ected pretty much the whole Or take the case of Bentley in Alabama. abuses are coming to light is a good thing. range of personality types that existed in He was undone by his decision to fi re the Offi cials who misuse public funds or oth- the outside world. I still think that’s true. head of the Alabama Law Enforcement erwise break the law should be held ac- Agency, who then leaked details about the countable. And many of the most recent governor’s aff air with a staff member and scandals involving the #MeToo move- ut what if the crucial issue isn’t his use of state resources to conduct and ment aren’t about potentially embarrass- what sorts of personalities seek cover it up. The information was leaked ing sexual dalliances, but rather about public offi ce? What if it’s the way to the website AL.com, a consortium of serious harrassment, abuse and—in the Bpolitical power aff ects the people Alabama newspapers and broadcast media. case of allegations against former New who attain it? After all, as Henry Kissinger All of those news organizations were in York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman rather famously said, “power is the ulti- business a generation ago, but would they and Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, for mate aphrodisiac.” have gone for the story? I don’t think so. example—sexual violence. Rooting those Todd Shackelford, who teaches psy- Reporters in the 1960s and 1970s were out is undoubtedly for the good. chology at Oakland University near Detroit, willing to pursue cases of fi nancial corrup- Still, we’re now faced with two nagging has been studying issues like this for more tion in public offi ce. Sexual misconduct questions: Is this sort of corruption worse than a decade. He believes that power is, in was something else altogether. Either the than it used to be? And is something fact, a male aphrodisiac and that men who reporters felt that exposing it was breaking wrong with the psyche of all these leaders attain high-ranking offi ce are frequently an unwritten code, or they didn’t want to that led them to risk career and reputa- tempted to play sexual games they never jeopardize their access to those in power, tion on what seem like inexplicable acts would have played before. He sees this as or they didn’t think the public would want of stupidity? a fact of evolutionary life whose relevance to read about it. Or, perhaps, all three. Social psychologists and political scien- can be traced all the way from prehistoric One weekend in December 1970, a tists have spent much of the past century caves to the governor’s private bedroom. state car carrying Maryland Gov. Marvin debating and theorizing over the mental “We shouldn’t be surprised,” Shackelford Mandel was in an accident in the dead of health of people who are drawn to public told me recently. “It’s part of the male night on a rural road nowhere near the office. In the 1920s and 1930s, heavily evolutionary psyche. When men achieve capital. Mandel was seriously injured. One infl uenced by Sigmund Freud and psy- power, they attempt to turn that into sexual person was killed. The governor explained choanalysis, scholars posited that poli- access. They get access to power, and they he’d been on “offi cial business” attending ticians suff ered from an ego defi ciency. begin to feel entitled.” a meeting, but the entire state press corps They were unusually needy people who Shackelford thinks it’s unlikely that and much of the state’s senior workforce courted the approval of the public to make sexual misconduct among politicians is knew what the business was: a secret visit up for private feelings of inadequacy. In the much worse than it was a generation ago. to his mistress. Still, not a word about the more optimistic 1950s, a consensus devel- It’s just being brought into the open in a circumstances of the incident appeared in oped that precisely the opposite was true: way that it rarely was before, and it has print or on the air. Only years later, when Politicians were people with exception- become more socially unacceptable when Mandel’s wife charged him with adul- ally healthy egos. Without a strong sense it is revealed. “We pin them for it far more tery and evicted him from the governor’s of self-importance, they wouldn’t be able than we used to,” he says, “because people mansion, did Mandel’s illicit relationship to deal with the stresses and insults that a are less willing to let it slide.” become a public issue. Today the juicy political career necessarily entails. This brings us back to what I will call details behind the car wreck would have I spent nearly 20 years watching poli- the Boston streets question: Is it the dirt, been in the next day’s Washington Post. ticians up close as a reporter covering or is it our growing awareness of it? A matter of conjecture, to be sure. But I Congress, and I became convinced that The closer one looks at recent scandals, think there’s enough evidence to conclude both of these theories were off the mark. the more it appears that enhanced public that we are seeing a combination of new Hanging out in the press gallery and in scrutiny explains them better than esca- media appetites and new attitudes about the speaker’s lobby adjoining the House lating mischief. Not just public scrutiny— sexual misdeeds, not an unprecedented chamber, I saw plenty of self-centered ego- media scrutiny. It was Willamette Week, epidemic of misbehavior among elected tists who seemed to need the approval of the alt-weekly in Portland, Ore., that broke offi cials. We have opened Pandora’s Box. everyone they encountered. I saw others the news about Kitzhaber steering govern- The contents were in there all along. G so mild-mannered and diffi dent that you ment work to his fi ancée. Fifty years ago, had to wonder how they ever got into Willamette Week didn’t exist. Would the Email [email protected]

June 2018 | GOVERNING 15

GOV06_12.indd 15 5/16/18 8:18 AM

By Donald F. Kettl

Just Say Know Popular programs such as D.A.R.E. persist even when there’s evidence they don’t work.

n early April, the fi fth graders at West kids can repeat back D.A.R.E.’s central such a good idea. A 1979 documentary on Side Elementary School in Worland, message: Just say no. the program won both an Emmy and an Wyo., celebrated their graduation from But there’s one problem. Study after Oscar. It spawned programs across the Ithe school’s D.A.R.E. program—short for study has shown that D.A.R.E. doesn’t country, as well as a long-running televi- Drug Abuse Resistance Education—with work. Most analyses have found that it sion show on A&E. But despite the pro- certifi cates and T-shirts. County Sheriff has little to no impact on reducing drug gram’s popularity, the evidence is clear: Deputy Colleen McClain was proud of use—and one study even showed that use The program did prove eff ective—in pro- the program. “It’s giving them ways to help increased. “I don’t get it,” one D.A.R.E. ex- ducing more criminals. Eff orts to scare them not do drugs,” she said. ecutive director said of the fi ndings. “It’s kids straight not only failed to keep them Eff orts like McClain’s have a big fan like kicking Santa Claus to me.” out of jail, but it also, in some cases, in- in Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who Another favorite program, Scared creased the odds they’d end up behind told a D.A.R.E. conference last year that Straight, which pulls at-risk kids off the bars. he fi rmly believes the program saves lives. streets and puts them in prison for a day, Still, many state governments doggedly “Your eff orts work,” he said. D.A.R.E. pro- has also been found to be ineff ective. The stuck with the program until the Justice grams date back to the 1980s, and at one idea behind the program is to show kids Department warned they could lose point, three-fourths of the nation’s school what life behind bars would be like—to, in federal funding if they remained commit- districts had them. A generation of school eff ect, scare them straight. It seemed like ted to something that the evidence proved was ineff ective. Today, South Carolina alone still has a version of a Scared Straight program. The federal Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking has been campaigning to bring more—and better—analysis to policy decisions. It has pointed in particular to the value of randomized controlled trials, or RCTs, where individuals are assigned to control groups to test whether a program actually works. RCTs produced the fi ndings on D.A.R.E. and Scared Straight, and they’re widely considered the “gold standard” for policy analysis. But most state and local governments can’t afford them: RCTs are very expensive, in large part because they require skilled analysts. As a result, many local government offi- cials get sucked into programs backed by strong constituencies but that off er no evidence of ef- fectiveness. These governments

essentially end up pouring APIMAGES.COM

16 GOVERNING | June 2018

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By Alan Greenblatt

enormous amounts of money into programs that don’t work. California GOP’s ‘Death Spiral’ The GovEx center at Johns Hopkins University believes its “Roadmap for Policy The party can’t agree on how best to stop it. Change” can help communities do better. The roadmap advances a viewpoint that’s California Republicans haven’t had a good year since 1994. They’ve been shut considered heretical in some parts of the out of power in the legislature and lost nearly all statewide races. Former Gov. world of analysis. It says: “When you can’t Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the last Republicans to win statewide election, get rigorously tested, experimentally veri- once described the state party as “dying at the box offi ce.” fi ed information, it is appropriate to work This year could be even worse. Thanks to the state’s primary system, which with what we do have.” sends the top two fi nishers into the general election regardless of party, Repub- The roadmap suggests communities licans will almost certainly fail to land a look to others for stories about how they’ve slot in the U.S. Senate race, and could fall cracked tough problems and how they’ve short in the gubernatorial contest come Former Republican navigated tough local political battles. June 5. Lacking any sort of party repre- Gov. Arnold GovEx certainly doesn’t argue against so- sentation at the top of the ticket will likely Schwarzenegger phisticated analysis. But it contends that result in fewer Republicans turning out is pushing for the cities have to start somewhere, that they in the fall and therefore hurt other candi- California GOP to don’t always have the time or talent for dates. “That will mean more losses down- be more moderate. mega-studies and that they often need to ballot,” says Jack Pitney, a professor at act before the big guns of policy analysis Claremont McKenna College. have produced big fi ndings. The GOP, whose share of voter regis- For example, Kansas City, Kan., was tration in California has slipped to about looking for fresh ideas to address urban a quarter, faces several challenges in the blight. Its local government staff fanned state. An anti-immigrant ballot measure in out across the internet and, armed with the 1994 worked in the short term, helping Republican Gov. Pete Wilson win reelec- results of Google searches, dug up eff orts tion, but has soured the state’s growing Hispanic population on the party ever in other cities such as Baltimore, Mobile, since. Conservative inland areas are consistently outvoted by the increasingly lib- Ala., Memphis and New Orleans. But after eral coastal population centers. And by November, the number of voters registered they put the results through a fi lter—Did as independents is likely to surpass the self-identifi ed Republicans.

any of these ideas seem to make sense for A lot of that loss is due to moderate Republicans becoming disenchanted with SHUTTERSTOCK.COM Kansas City?—they discovered that eff orts the party. Unlike in some other blue states, the remaining party faithful in California in Chicago suggested they revisit local aren’t moderates. GOP offi cials such as Schwarzenegger and state Rep. Chad vacant building ordinances. Mayes—who was ousted as the party’s Assembly leader last year after working Randomized controlled trials can with Democrats on a climate bill—are trying to make the case that the party needs certainly help cities stage a major break- to revamp its image to be more competitive. That argument doesn’t convince through, like Denver’s innovative social many party loyalists, who note that statewide candidates who have presented impact bond to attack the problem of themselves as moderates still lost. “The remaining Republicans are the diehards,” homelessness. (See “For Money or For says Renee Van Vechten, a political scientist at the University of Redlands. Good?,” page 52.) That’s proven a big When Democrats started struggling in the South a quarter-century ago, their success, and the results are backed up candidates tried hard to differentiate themselves from the party’s leaders in Wash- by an RCT. But when big problems chal- ington. For a while, it worked there. But in today’s more partisan climate, this lenge small staff s and when systematic approach isn’t taking root in California.“The national Republican brand is an alba- policy analysis simply can’t be done, a tross around the party’s neck,” says Ethan Rarick of the University of California, smart roadmap—learning from other cities Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. and working carefully with the evidence The party has done a good job of recruiting candidates who can be competi- on hand—may help lots of communities tive in local races in parts of the state and enough legislative districts to deprive around the country do better. It can help the Democrats, some years, of supermajorities in Sacramento. But they can’t them avoid the D.A.R.E. trap of chasing seem to do much more than that. Party loyalists won’t support anyone who is nifty ideas that, in practice, just don’t not a staunch conservative, and that kind of candidate simply doesn’t fare well in work. G California. “That’s what a death spiral looks like,” Pitney says. G

Email [email protected] Email [email protected]

MonthJune 2018 | GOVERNING 17

GOV06_16.indd 17 5/11/18 3:12 PM

By Mattie Quinn

The Killer in the Medicine Cabinet Spurred by the opioid epidemic, drug take-back programs are spreading.

ike millions of people across the country, Strom Peterson help prevent overdoses, suicides and poisonings. The growth has a personal connection to the opioid epidemic. The of the programs in recent years ﬂ ows from a change in federal Washington state representative lost a cousin to a heroin regulations: Until 2014, DEA rules allowed only law enforcement L overdose. That tragedy, he says, led him “to really dig in agencies to collect unused opioids. That authority has now been and see what could be done.” expanded to states, local governments and agencies other than Eventually he decided to champion a statewide drug take-back law enforcement. Peterson says the expansion was key in getting program. He sponsored a bill to create secure spots around the his legislation passed. state for people to drop off their unwanted and expired prescrip- While the bill received bipartisan support, there was a big ob- tion medicines. It was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in March. stacle in the way: the pharmaceutical industry. Lobbyists, object- But there’s a twist: Under the law, drug manufacturers themselves ing to costs and regulatory burdens, initially fought hard against must fund and implement the program. it, but eventually worked with the legislature to produce compro- mises, such as allowing the drugmakers, rather than a government agency, to run the program themselves. “They told us that if they were going to fund it, they wanted to be able to run it, and I felt that was a fair compromise,” Peterson says. “Getting them to neutral was a big thing.” In the end, the cost of the program for the drug companies is expected to be negligible—about one- tenth of 1 percent of their $5.7 billion in annual sales in the state. Of course, getting unused and unwanted pills out of people’s homes won’t by itself rein in the nation’s roughly 65,000 annual overdose deaths. Washington’s health secretary, John Wiseman, calls the new take-back program just one piece in a huge jigsaw

APIMAGES.COM puzzle that will require action “from all Until 2014, federal rules only allowed law enforcement agencies to collect of us, from mental health profession- unused opioids. als to medical providers to law enforcement, and yes, the drug manufacturers.” While Washington is the fi rst state to create a statewide take- Initiatives like Washington’s aren’t the only way that govern- back program, the concept isn’t new. The Drug Enforcement ments are pushing back against the pharmaceutical industry. More Administration (DEA) got the go-ahead to establish safe disposal than a hundred city, county and state governments have fi led law- sites in 2010. Dozens of cities and counties nationwide have already suits against drug manufacturers and distributors, seeking reim- created their own programs (there were three county programs bursement for their costs in dealing with opioid abuse. Experts in Washington state when Peterson’s bill passed), and last year say that this marks a new chapter in the opioid fi ght, one in which CVS introduced disposal kiosks in 750 of its pharmacies. Once governments are increasingly putting pressure on drugmakers for Washington state’s program gets up and running, pharmacies and their role in the epidemic. “There was some willful ignorance,” law enforcement agencies are expected to be the primary sites for Peterson says, “and now there needs to be fi nancial consequences dropping off unused drugs. to that.” G The main idea behind the take-back programs is to encourage people to safely dispose of their unused medication and, thereby, Email [email protected]

18 GOVERNING | June 2018

GOV06_18.indd 18 5/14/18 9:06 AM

By Elizabeth Daigneau

Building Up Resilience As storms worsen, many coastal states aren’t prepared.

une is the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. And accord- The states rated best and worst don’t fall along partisan politi- ing to researchers at Colorado State University, it’s going to cal lines—or along the lines of climate change activists vs. skeptics. be a busy one. They have predicted there will be 14 tropical Florida, for instance, is rated the highest with 95 points. But the Jstorms; seven of which are expected to become hurricanes. state’s Republican governor has repeatedly demurred when asked But not every community is prepared for another active season—at about climate change, saying, “I am not a scientist.” Meanwhile, least not when it comes to the resilience of their buildings. Delaware, which has the lowest rating with 17 points, is one of Eight out of the 18 hurricane-prone coastal states along the Gulf several blue states to join a coalition of governments promising to of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast are highly vulnerable, accord- tackle climate change despite President Trump’s decision to with- ing to a new report from the Insurance Institute for Business & draw from the Paris Climate Agreement. Home Safety (IBHS). The report, Rating the States: 2018, is the Extreme weather events are only expected to become more institute’s third in six years. It evaluates the states on 47 factors common. “We have extensive scientifi c evidence that extreme that include whether residential building codes are mandated events are increasing around the world, and will continue to in- statewide, whether states and localities enforce those codes, and crease as climate change gets worse,” Noah Diff enbaugh, a pro- whether licensing and education are required of building offi cials, fessor of earth system science at Stanford University, recently contractors and subcontractors. told The New Republic. Overall, the institute found “a concerning lack of progress” This, along with Florida’s tested building codes and last year’s in the adoption and enforcement of updated residential building storms, is why the report stresses the importance of mandatory code systems across most of the states examined. “There’s not been statewide codes. While some local jurisdictions within the eight much movement from [the fi rst report] in 2012 to today,” says Julie states rated below 70 may have strong code adoption and/or en- Rochman, who stepped down as CEO and president of IBHS in forcement programs, it’s not enough, says Rochman. April. “There’s some inertia.” Take Houston, which in April passed new building rules No state achieved a perfect rating based on the 100-point scale. for fl ood resilience. Hurricane Harvey was one of the But Florida, Virginia, South Carolina and New Jersey all received costliest hurricanes on record, infl icting nearly $200 90 or more points. Meanwhile New York, Maine, New Hampshire, billion in damage to not only Houston but also sur- Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Delaware received less than 70 rounding areas. Houston’s eff orts are good. But, 54 points. None of these eight states mandate statewide building codes. says Rochman, “Mother Nature doesn’t stop The institute, which is a nonprofi t organization supported by at a city boundary.” G 46 property insurers and reinsurers, conducts scientifi c research to 64 identify and promote best building practices. “The importance of Email [email protected] 81 strong, well-enforced codes was clearly demonstrated in 2017,” the 89 87 report says, when, over a two-month period, three devastating hur- 90 ricanes each caused billions in damages. In a new ranking, only four This was particularly apparent in Florida, which has a statewide states received 90 or more 78 mandated building code that’s regularly updated. “Florida really points—out of a possible 100— proved itself with Hurricane Irma,” says Rochman. “You had a dev- for hurricane preparedness. 94 astating storm that came up the entire peninsula, subjecting homes to high winds and fl ooding. The 83 state performed really well.” An IBHS study after Hurricane Charley in 92 2004 shows just how well Florida’s homes have stood up over time. The study 27 68 28 found a 60 percent reduction in resi- 83 dential property damage claims fi led 34 and a 42 percent reduction in the se-

INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR BUSINESS & HOME SAFETY verity of damages claimed. 95

20 GOVERNING | June 2018

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Wash hands with soap and water to help prevent germs.

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By Alex Marshall

The Mutation of Main Street Brick-and-mortar stores are surviving, but what they’re selling is changing.

etailers are middlemen, for the right in front of them. Her store closed How can this be? I think it’s about trust, most part. They don’t usually this January. “The web is going to ruin relationships and expert advice. I get most make stuff themselves. Mostly regular retail,” Jenkins told me recently. of my books electronically from the library, Rthey just buy it from elsewhere “It is a tragedy, but probably unavoidable. which my taxes pay for but is eff ectively and then make it available to the passerby. It is now second nature to order online, free. But I also patronize these new physi- Increasingly, of course, that shopper is and people can’t help it. You can combat it cal bookstores. Through their selections virtual, surfing along an online street. in a small local store, but it is taking more and knowledgeable clerks, they “curate” Rather than heading downtown or to a and more eff ort to keep people coming into my shopping experience, something that suburban mall, customers fi re up their your store.” curiously seems more needed when almost computers or phone apps, make a purchase And the University Place mall where everything is available at anytime online. and then wait for the cardboard box to be her store was located? Opened in 1973, What’s true with books will be true delivered. it consists more and more of businesses with other things in which the personal It’s hardly news that this trend en- selling services rather than things. You touch is valued. You can still get handmade dangers some brick-and-mortar stores, walk in and fi nd people who will prepare shoes and a tailored suit, for instance, but whether they sell pants, cat food, eyeglass- your taxes, coif your hair, hem your pants it will cost you. es, mattresses, shoes, printers, televisions, or make a meal for you. It no longer has Experiences are also key. People trav- novels, hammers or toothbrushes. It’s a department stores. What’s true with a eling for fun have the time and the money fact city leaders must wrestle with as they mall like University Place is also true for to shop. I often buy a new shirt, or even watch their malls go dark and their Main just about every Main Street. Where once a piece of artwork, while on vacation, Streets mutate into new roles—or try to. stood hardware stores and clothiers now because I have the time and headspace Martha M. Jenkins opened her stand bars, coff ee shops, beauty parlors and to do so—more than when I’m scurrying Kitchenworks store in 1984 in Chapel Hill, restaurants. Having a meal with friends is around in day-to-day life. N.C., and made money for more than three one of the few experiences that still can’t Money and travel will help explain decades selling muffi n pans, fi sh poachers, be made in China and ordered online. the success—if it is a success—of the new coff ee makers and dish brushes. As online So is all physical retail destined to die? Nordstrom department store that is sched- sales began to take off , she started her own Not necessarily. There are countertrends. uled to open next year in New York City. retail website, while in the store she em- Against predictions, for example, indepen- The Seattle-based chain is spending a phasized personal service—even as she dent bookstores have been sprouting up all reported half-billion dollars fi lling seven watched customers question a clerk for over the country, even though the books fl oors of a 1,500-foot skyscraper under

RENDERING FROM NORDSTROM NYC 30 minutes and then order an item online they sell are available for much less online. construction on West 57th Street, as well

People traveling for fun have the time and the money to shop. That’s what Nordstrom is hoping with its new store scheduled to open in New York City next year.

GOV06_22.indd 22 5/11/18 2:48 PM

______Designer ______Creative Dir. 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 ______Editorial ______Prepress www.erepublic.com CMY grey T1 T2 T3 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 Page # ______Other ______OK to go BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN www.erepublic.com 916-932-1300 Folsom, 95630 CA 100 BlueRavine Road 5 25507595100 BLACK GOV06_22.indd 23 CMYgrey T1 T2 T3 Email [email protected] Email [email protected] a littlesomething. to go out and mingle and, while there, buy animals, andthere willalways betheurge cessity change. We humansstillare social to survive andthrive, even asit mustby ne- day, Iexpect Main Street inallitsforms pass suchalaw andseehow itgoes. I’d like toseesomeAmericantown orcity in front ofacomputerat11p.m. or2a.m. social experience, donewith others, not They emphasizethatshoppingisbesta laws andthelifestyle theyhelpedpromote: cally 6p.m. Ifoundmyself admiringthese ing stores to close at a certain time, typi- impulse. Paradoxically, allhadlaws requir- seemingly untouchedby theclick-and-buy year, andallhadthrivingshoppingstreets and large citiesinHolland andSweden last street-level shoppinghabits. Ivisitedsmall I don’t believe mostNew Yorkers willdo. and buy a $2,000 sports coat—something come to town, they may stop the elevator owners from Moscow, São Paulo orDallas above theNordstrom store. Whenthe apartmentswillbe multimillion-dollar quently toout-of-towners. Many ofthose ments sellingforastonishingsums, fre- city sprouting soaringtowers withapart- merchandise, high-end isinapartofthe the street. as three fl oors ofanotherbuildingacross likely to be linear. But at the end of the 5 25507595100 None ofthesetrends are simpleor There are other ways toreinforce The newNordstrom, withitsultra- YELLOW G 5 25507595100 MAGENTA been goingonfordecades, datingbackatleasttothe1980swhenReagan admin- challenging thestatelaw. in Orange andSan Diegocounties—are joiningtheTrump administration’s lawsuit itself from the state’s law. Other localities—including a number of local governments ernments. ThesmallcityofLos Alamitoshaspassedanordinance claimingto exempt California’s sanctuarystatelaw hasrunintoresistance from conservative localgov- recently failed in the California Legislature. Meanwhile, to blocklarge apartmentconstructionnearpublic transit emption eff ortsgoboth ways. Abilltolimitcities’ability cities where mostmayors are Democrats. to thestates, butrefusing topushpower furtherdown to manding thatpower bedownshifted from Washington are often criticized by liberals for being hypocritical—de- ing attemptstocurblocalregulations. Indeed,red states it,” Abbott said, shortly after he was elected, in defend- being California-ized,andyou mightnoteven benoticing often seensimplyasared statevs. bluecityissue. “Texas is for example, Florida’s banonlocalgunregulation—are bans failed,butitmightsucceedincourt. the requirement. A state prohibition on local plastic bag and Lyft drivers tobefingerprinted, thestateoverrode bill prohibiting suchbans. WhenHouston required Uber Texas cities. Afterthecollegetown ofDentonbannedfracking, thelegislature passeda many examples duringAbbott’s tenure ofthestategovernment clippingthewingsof of Austin, ashehasrecalled, charged himafeetoreplace thetree. tree inhisyard thatwas inpoorcondition and hadlostmostofitscanopy. Butthecity In 2012, Greg Abbott,then theattorneygeneral ofTexas, wanted tocutdown apecan Preempting locallawsisnolongerjustared statething. Power Struggle Email [email protected] but it’s notgoingaway anytime soon. forcing thestate-level politicalmajoritytostrike back.It’s notanencouraging trend, who ruleislandsofred orblueare calleduponby theirown constituentsto#Resist, more ideologicallydivided,sohave thelocalpoliticians. Soincreasingly, thepoliticians of red inbluestatesandred states. Andasthelocalconstituentshave become separating themselves basedontheirpoliticalviews—we seemore andmore enclaves but tofocusongettingthingsdone. they have acitytorunandare soclosetotheir constituentsthattheyhave nochoice the luxuryofengaginginpure partisanpoliticsallthetime. Astheargument goes, a welcome oasisfrom ideologicalbattles. Mayors andotherlocaloffi cialsdon’t have of localgovernments—and how ideologicalthosebattleshave become. is theaggressiveness with whichstategovernments are tryingtocurtailthepower istration tangledwithmostlyDemocratic stategovernments. Whatisnew, however, loss by plantingnewtrees rather thanpayingamitigationfee. Thatlaw isjustoneof | URBAN NOTEBOOK In a way, none of this is new. Power struggles between the feds and states have But recent events in California have revealed that pre- But as local jurisdictions are aff geographically ected by “TheBigSort”—people Such eff Five years later, Gov. Abbottsignedabillallowing property owners tooff settree During thisextremely partisanera, localgovernments have often beenviewed as 5 25507595100 orts tooverride localordinances—including, CYAN Page # G By William Fulton By William June 2018 California’s sanctuarylaw. ways. Citiesare fi Preemption efforts goboth ______Other ______OKtogo ______Editorial ______Prepress ______Creative______Designer Dir. | GOVERNING ghting ghting 5/11/18 2:49PM

23 APIMAGES.COM CAUGHT IN T When a neighborhood isn’t rich—but isn’t poor—gover

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regory James bought his house what forces are pushing them that way. Middle neighborhoods way back in 1972. As he looks have a lot working against them. Most are not especially close to around at the stone-fronted row- downtown and lack the anchor institutions such as universities or houses that line either side of his hospitals that spur new investment. Residents of middle neighbor- street in the Mt. Airy section of hoods generally don’t receive assistance from poverty programs. Philadelphia, he considers himself a At the same time, they don’t have access to capital, either. Half of relative newcomer. Out of 72 houses on the residents of Philadelphia—and many in Mt. Airy—have credit the block, he counts 15 that are still oc- scores below 650, perilously close to the point where banks won’t cupied by the families who were already even bother looking at a loan application. The city’s denial rate for residing there when James arrived. Back home improvement loans is 62 percent, well above the national in the 1970s, this part of Philadelphia was average of 37 percent. a choice neighborhood for middle-class blacks who were able to Most of the factories that middle neighborhood residents used move themselves out of rougher parts of town. to walk to, or ride streetcars to, have long since closed, taking their Now the homes in Mt. Airy are aging, and so is the infrastruc- jobs with them. Aging residents on fi xed incomes are unable to ture around them. The houses may be structurally sound, but keep up their properties as well as they might like to. These once- not enough attention is being paid to the condition of things like aspirational neighborhoods have been bypassed for the suburbs by driveways, curbs and retaining walls. James complains that the younger generations. But what’s pushed middle neighborhoods city itself sometimes ignores his community. There are certainly closer to the edge, counterintuitively, is their high rate of home neighborhoods that are worse off , but you don’t have to travel far ownership. Many residents have been victims of predatory lending, to fi nd others where services such as trash pickup are noticeably better. “When you go further north, it’s better, and when you go south, it’s worse,” says James. “If you stay here, you’re caught in the middle.” There’s a sense in Philadelphia, as in many major cities these days, that it’s divided between the affl uent folks who are driving Once a choice up condo prices in and around downtown, which is known as neighborhood for Center City, and those being left behind in parts of town plagued middle-class blacks, by blight and drugs. Philadelphia has received considerable atten- the homes and tion in recent years as one of the nation’s top magnets for educated infrastructure in Mt. millennials. At the same time, it has the highest poverty rate of Airy are now aging. any major city, at 25.7 percent. But left out of the equation are places like Mt. Airy, where most people have decent-paying jobs as schoolteachers, as utility company workers or, like James, as nurses. Or they’re part of a generation that was able to retire with decent pensions. Neighborhoods are a little like seesaws. Some are rising to the top, while others seem to be stuck at the bottom. No one seems to pay attention to what’s in the middle. Middle neighborhoods have been off the nation’s policy radar for decades. While many of them are relatively stable, others have become shaky in recent years, due to a lack of interest from governments and the private sector. That has left large shares of urban America at risk, particularly in older cities. In Philadelphia, 41 percent of residents live in what are defi ned as middle neighborhoods, where most people earn between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income, which in the Philadelphia region is $66,000. Nationwide, 48 percent of urban residents live in such neighborhoods, which tend to be more diverse than either wealthy or low- income areas. “There are huge chunks of our cities that are not seeing rapid growth, nor are they completely desolate, economically isolated places,” says Jeff rey Verespej, who runs a community development corporation in Cleveland. “They’re not as sexy as high-investment, high-growth neighborhoods and lack the moral imperative to help those who are truly needy.” But they’re increasingly under threat. The reality is that no place stays exactly the same year after year. All neighborhoods evolve. The question is what direction they’re moving in, and

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or even foreclosure. There are indicators that will tell you if a arker, whose conversational ﬂ ow is like an unstoppa- neighborhood is beginning to gentrify, such as increased occupan- ble freight train, has spent her entire life in northwest cy and investment. If you ﬂ ip those numbers on their head and look Philadelphia, residing on the same block since college. at areas that are trending down in those categories, you’re looking As a city council aide, she promoted economic devel- at an enormous share of many cities. “There are a lot of nega- Popment projects for the area and helped craft an anti-predatory tive forces working in these neighborhoods,” says Alan Mallach, lending law considered to be among the nation’s toughest. She was a senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress, “and very the youngest African-American woman ever elected to the state few positive ones to counterbalance them.” House, and served there for a decade prior to winning her council The danger is that they’ll slip further. Once a couple of prop- seat in 2015. She now seeks to convince colleagues that, while their erties are left vacant on a block, neighborhoods can get caught districts may be dominated by the desperate or the affl uent, all of in a downward spiral that’s diffi cult to reverse. Adjacent to the them also represent middle neighborhoods. elementary school near James’ house, a volunteer-run food pantry Parker, who is 45 years old, says in trying to address the issues hands out donated meat and canned goods to 850 residents, many facing middle neighborhoods she’s long felt “like a lone wolf of them seniors taking care of grandkids. The pantry puts 50 to 60 howling in the wind.” Every city has to triage its funds. Devoting more people on a waiting list each week. “We will do ourselves resources to areas where residents are doing just well enough not a disservice if we don’t pay attention to the middle now,” says to qualify for assistance, or a little bit better, has not been seen as Philadelphia Councilwoman Cherelle Parker, who represents Mt. an imperative. Even the term “middle neighborhoods” evokes an Airy and neighborhoods like it. “If we don’t want the middle to image of relative prosperity. “One of the criticisms I’m hearing become part of that deep poverty, we better invest now.” about even raising this issue of middle neighborhoods is whether it

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“If we don’t want the middle to become part of that deep poverty, we better invest now,” says Philadelphia Council- woman Cherelle Parker.

will take money from distressed neighborhoods,” says Paul Brophy, addressing early warning signs before they fester into more serious an economic development consultant who edited a volume about problems. In Cleveland, Verespej’s group buys and rehabilitates such neighborhoods called On the Edge. homes while organizing neighborhood engagement eff orts such as Still, a growing number of mayors and other city offi cials are block clubs and crime watch. A pooled private fund in Baltimore realizing that it might be better to off er middle neighborhoods is providing grants and loans for home rehabilitation in 42 neigh- an ounce of prevention, rather than waiting until they need a borhoods. In Philadelphia, Parker and Council President Darrell pound of cure. The type of help middle neighborhoods can use Clarke convinced colleagues to create a $40 million home improve- is typically a lot cheaper and may be more cost-eff ective than ment loan program to assist people in middle neighborhoods who seeking to ameliorate poverty in more desperate parts of town. have been denied credit in the private market. Under the auspices of the American Assembly at Columbia When thousands of Philadelphians are living in homes that University and the Federal Reserve, Brophy is helping to coor- have leaky roofs or lack heat, it’s a tough sell to ask for public re- dinate a nascent movement among policymakers to think about sources to help people repoint bricks or install a new bathroom. ways to shore up middle neighborhoods so they can remain a No politician wants to get caught between the have-nots and what healthy part of urban life. “These are neighborhoods that are Parker calls the have-a-littles. “You want to tell me we should still strong, but there are things around the edges that need to direct everything toward those who are living in deep poverty,” be addressed,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney says. “We need she says, “versus trying to preserve those who are right over the to put resources into these communities to make sure that they line. That is a challenge.” continue to be productive.” Although designed to beneﬁ t individual homeowners, a smart Some cities and nonproﬁ ts are starting to take what might be program of investment can pay larger dividends. If enough people called a “broken windows” approach to neighborhood stabilization, have homes that are more attractive and desirable, that’s a boon for

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the neighborhood and, by extension, the city as a whole. It’s similar out. During the Great Recession, Philadelphia slashed funds for to the logic that applies when city hall underwrites megaprojects to clearing abandoned vehicles and vacant lots, along with other pro- help the downtown. In this case, it’s an attempt to preserve neigh- grams that off ered assistance to neighborhoods, including those borhoods that have gotten along without much government assis- in the middle, such as graffi ti removal and street cleaning. At the tance for years, but may not remain viable forever if they’re left to same time, Philadelphia’s high rate of homeownership made it a fend for themselves. “You have to help these neighborhoods,” says prime target for predatory lending. “You started to see a decline Dwight Evans, who represents Philadelphia in Congress, “because not only in infrastructure, but also the ability to maintain homes if you don’t, there won’t be a tax base to run the city.” in a lot of these communities,” says Clarke, the council president. There was a time when Washington thought about middle- “There was not a lot of attention paid to these areas.” income neighborhoods. Under President Jimmy Carter in the The reputation of middle neighborhoods as the city’s ne- 1970s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development glected stepchildren can be overstated, insists Anne Fadullon, (HUD) actually had an Offi ce of Neighborhood Development. Philadelphia’s planning and development director. Lots of city After cities began creating neighborhood services programs, programs are available that beneﬁ t people in such neighbor- which sought to link communities with city hall, Congress followed with a charter for a Neighborhood Reinvestment Program, which is now known as NeighborWorks America. Its programs combine self-help at the hyper-local level with lending and code enforcement from the city. But most NeighborWorks affi liates, as well as community development corporations, concentrate their eff orts in the poorest parts of town, not those in the middle. Most HUD guidelines, which states and localities tend to follow, limit program eligi- bility to people earning less than 80 percent of the area median income, cutting out those a few rungs above them. The enterprise zones and empowerment zones of the Reagan and Clinton years were similarly focused on distressed communities. As federal spending on cities in general started to diminish in those years, and homelessness became a serious The city’s redevelopment authority is overseeing a problem, the policy lens focused more nar- program that directs money to middle neighborhoods rowly on housing. Middle neighborhoods, for home improvement loans. and neighborhood-oriented policies, have been largely neglected since then. “An awful lot of the ‘solutions’ that come out of government, including the federal programs that are available for neigh- hoods, she says, such as spending on schools, parks and recre- borhoods, are not neighborhood solutions but aff ordable housing ation centers. The reality, however, is that while Philadelphia is solutions,” says Mallach of the Center for Community Progress. now growing again, its budget has not recovered fully from the “These are tools that are important, but not tools that actually recession. “Unfortunately, regardless of what area we’re seen as stabilize neighborhoods.” focusing on,” Fadullon says, “there are just not enough resources In Philadelphia, there was a time in the not-too-distant past to deal with issues across the board.” when the numbers of vacant homes and abandoned cars both reached into the tens of thousands. The city was also shedding people—400,000 between the 1960s and early 1990s. When ost of the homes in Philadelphia’s middle neigh- Edward Rendell became mayor in 1992, he concentrated on borhoods are old. Many of them are either large pulling the city back from the brink of ruin, in large part by re- with lots of unused space, such as front rooms, or viving Center City. It worked. Directly across the street from city else too small for current tastes. Rowhouses are hall, the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton has hoisted a huge banner Minherently sturdy and effi cient, buttressing one another and requir- boasting of $275 million in sales. ing less money to cool and heat than stand-alone homes. But they Rendell’s successor, John Street, looked outward from down- weren’t designed for today’s buyers, which is a problem with much town, pursuing an initiative to deal with vacant properties. The of the housing in middle neighborhoods across the country. “It’s eff ort was funded largely by bonds, and the bond money has run the ‘All in the Family’ neighborhood, with two bedrooms upstairs,

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one bathroom,” says David Erickson, director of community de- storefronts gone sloppy. Getting anyone to invest in improving velopment at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. the properties along his strip is diffi cult, he says, because there’s That’s what motivated Parker and Clarke to direct money to often a disconnect between the absentee landlord and the owner home improvement loans. Philadelphia has a backlog of thousands of the business. Philadelphia has matching grant programs to help of homes that need basic system repair—replacement of water pay for security cameras and storefront improvements, but it’s hard heaters or removal of mold that causes health problems. The ma- to get anyone interested, Brown laments. “You get a blank stare, jority of bond money being raised from an increase in real estate the Philly shrug,” he says. transfer taxes is going to those more Sticks might work better than carrots, dire needs, but homeowners earning he believes. Brown sometimes warns his up to 120 percent of the median metro neighbors they risk getting fi ned by the income, with credit scores as low as 580, In a city city if they let their storefronts atrophy. will also be able to apply for remodel- But there he runs into a classic middle ing loans. Fifteen thousand dollars spent seemingly neighborhood conundrum. The city’s adding a bathroom might add $50,000 Department of Licenses and Inspections to the value of a home. “You’ve got to divided between is oversubscribed. If you call enough think about our area, not just the new, times to complain, someone might come sexy neighborhoods,” Parker says. pricey hipster out to inspect a property, but the depart- The city’s redevelopment authority ment is concentrating on tearing down hopes that once the program is set in villages and hundreds of buildings considered “im- motion and more homes are fi xed up, minently dangerous.” Given the con- private lenders will see middle neighbor- decaying straints, regular inspections are a pipe hoods as a market they want to enter. But dream. A middle neighborhood corridor when the agency initially asked banks to slums, middle like Brown’s might have issues, but they lend their own money, with the city pro- simply aren’t urgent enough to demand viding a guarantee, none were interested. neighborhoods offi cial attention when there are more In a city seemingly divided between pressing problems elsewhere. pricey hipster villages and decaying off er a forgotten slums, middle neighborhoods off er a forgotten trove of aff ordable housing. But trove of aff ordable it takes more than spruced-up homes hen it comes to dealing to make a neighborhood successful. housing. But with the city, Joe Plenty of residents being priced out of Sannutti refuses to take gentrifying areas such as Fishtown and it takes more no for an answer. He Northern Liberties are good candidates Wruns a funeral home a few blocks from the for mid-range places like Mt. Airy, but in than spruced-up Delaware River, in Philadelphia’s Tacony order for these communities to be attrac- neighborhood. It’s the kind of place where tive, they need to be better connected to homes to make parents often live across the street from transportation and jobs, show some im- their adult children. But a lot of people provement in their schools, and have a a neighborhood have been moving out in recent years little more life in their commercial cor- and home values have slipped. Sannutti ridors. People want cafes where they can successful. is a near-daily visitor to his council mem- sit outside and non-chain restaurants ber’s district offi ce on Torresdale Avenue, where they can sit down, period. People having learned over the years that asking in middle neighborhoods talk nostalgically of the days when their for help from a city agency once is never enough. He’s become a main shopping streets were home to bakeries, pharmacies and full- conduit for complaints from his neighbors, who know he’s learned service grocery stores, along with accountants, lawyers and others where to knock. providing professional services. Nowadays, they’re more likely to Sannutti is compulsive about picking up bits of trash as he walks encounter nail salons, take-out joints, smoke shops and storefront down the street. He writes down the license plate numbers of child care centers. They off er bare services to residents and no cars that have been parked for too many days. When newcomers reason for outsiders to come exploring. “A lot of these neighbor- to Tacony fail to keep up their yards, Sannutti off ers to lend them hoods came to be or thrived in the middle of the 20th century,” a lawnmower. If they don’t take the hint, he calls 311. “I tell the Fadullon says. “The customer of the future wants to be able to neighbors, this is what’s expected of you,” Sannutti says. walk to things in their community.” Until last month, he was the longtime president of the Tacony For the past 33 years, Dr. Louis Brown has operated a derma- Civic Association, a local business group that sponsors summer tology clinic on Rising Sun Avenue in Philadelphia’s Lawndale concerts and festivals. The association, along with the Tacony section. Every day, he sees problems with trash pickup and Community Development Corporation, makes sure that area

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Joe Sannutti was president of the Tacony Civic Association for 35 years before he stepped down in May. His group makes sure business owners in his community know about and take advantage of the storefront improvement program.

business owners know about and take advantage of the storefront come piecemeal through a variety of programs that Philadelphia improvement program, along with any other services the city makes still needs to fi gure out how to braid together to create quality available. The development corporation helped convince the city places. “I don’t think in government we have been strategic in our to devote $6.7 million to a renovation of the local library branch, thinking about these neighborhoods,” says Congressman Evans. which now hosts a program devoted to boosting small business- Fadullon is surely right when she says government can’t solve es by off ering them access to databases fi lled with market analy- the problem all by itself. Repairing and uplifting middle neighbor- ses and demographic information. Alex Balloon, who directs the hoods will require a variety of approaches. Homes and civic infra- Community Development Corporation out of the library building, structure need renovation. Individual neighborhoods need to learn is always looking for ways to make a visible impact with a modest how to market themselves to potential homebuyers and shoppers, amount of money, hoping for that snowball eff ect whereby tree developing a mix of stores and services that will strengthen com- planting leads to storefront improvements, which lead to new mercial corridors. All of this requires money and, by their nature, tenants and customers. “We’ve worked to tip the scale in terms of middle neighborhoods are bound to lose out to more vibrant areas greater investment,” Balloon says. “When they are investing, get when it comes to attracting private capital, and to lose out to more them to invest a little bit more.” depressed areas when it comes to government intervention. In its efforts to think about what middle neighborhoods Still, middle neighborhoods are at least starting to see fl ickers need, government in Philadelphia is ahead of its counterparts in of offi cial attention. Some mayors and city councils realize neigh- almost every other major city. Still, they’ve just been baby steps. borhoods that continue to be neglected and plunge into poverty The home improvement loan program is just getting underway can put entire cities at risk. “If, 20 years from now, we look back and won’t come anywhere close to meeting the demand from at these communities and they are not stabilized,” Parker says, “if the estimated 20,000 residents who have been turned down by we see intense levels of poverty here, it will be the fault of elected banks. Philadelphia’s offi ce of business services has only recently offi cials like me.” G assigned managers to concentrate on specifi c middle neighborhoods. The dollars the city devotes to these neighborhoods have Email [email protected]

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Head-On in Texas George Spencer Todd Kimbriel

The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) recently announced a comprehensive Managed Security Services (MSS) contract that gives state agencies, local governments, school districts and other public entities cost-eﬀ ective access to powerful resources for helping to protect vital systems and data. Government Technology recently spoke with Texas CIO Todd Kimbriel and George Spencer, AT&T Public Sector Assistant Vice President – Texas, about how the MSS contract helps Texas agencies respond to an increasingly hostile security environment.

How has the cybersecurity landscape enabling agencies to address weaknesses before Q shi ed over the past few years? cybercriminals exploit them. This category also includes services to help agencies understand and Kimbriel: Cyber threats continually evolve and we now comply with complex security regulations. know that cybersecurity is a lifetime commitment. The sophistication of attacks requires thoughtful planning These capabilities are provided through a pre- and response. This has led to a growing maturity and vetted, pre-competed contract for security services. awareness across Texas. Our state leadership has made Agencies can go to the DIR portal, identify the it clear that cybersecurity is a priority. We just had a services they need and place an order for them. 22-page cybersecurity bill pass that outlines 16 new This model also simplifies the management of requirements and is driving new activity for DIR around security services because DIR monitors vendor expanding reporting and managing risk. Cybersecurity is performance and sees to it that contractors comply part of the underlying fabric of everything we do, and as a with contract terms. state we have decided we would prefer to respond rather than react. Why is the MSS contract so important Q versus going it alone? What security services are available Q through DIR’s MSS contract? Kimbriel: Consistency of service and strategy is an important component for us. Some of our agencies have Spencer: The MSS offering consists of three major the resources and capabilities to manage cybersecurity components — security monitoring and device in house and some don’t, so how do you protect the management, incident response, and risk and state in that environment? One of the things we provide compliance — each of which includes multiple through this service is assurance that the contracts we services that agencies can choose to meet their IT issue with organizations like AT&T have been thoroughly security needs. vetted so the customers using these don’t have to do that themselves. Another advantage is having a bird’s Security monitoring and device management eye view of the whole environment. For instance, if our includes network and web application firewalls, managed security services vendor delivers a certain intrusion detection and prevention, and end-user cyber service to one agency and detects a threat, it device management. Incident response includes immediately can apply a solution to all agencies who services that help agencies plan and prepare use its services. Or there may be an advanced persistent upfront to manage security incidents. It also offers threat against several agencies but it only impacts each an automated service that lets agencies request one minimally and wouldn’t catch the attention of an incident response help through DIR’s MSS portal. individual CISO. The managed security services provider Risk and compliance includes penetration testing to has the bigger picture to intervene and improve the analyze where security vulnerabilities might exist, overall security posture.

GT18 Q&A AT&T_Texas_2.indd 3 5/18/18 8:04 AM

Explain how AT&T can provide this The MSS contract gives government entities Q ‘bigger picture’ threat intelligence. throughout Texas easy access to powerful threat intelligence and security capabilities through a Spencer: As a global network provider, we’re simplifi ed procurement model. It also delivers long- uniquely positioned to understand the cyber threat term benefi ts because agencies only pay for the environment. The AT&T global network carries more portion of a service they use, and they don’t need to than 200 petabytes of data traffi c on an average make a big capital investment in capabilities they business day. A single petabyte is like streaming may not need. an HD movie for 45 years — it’s a phenomenal amount of data. This traffi c is monitored in our Can this be applied to any type of Global Network Operations Center, where we can Q infrastructure? see early warning signs and react quickly to threats. From that vantage point, we can spot changes in Kimbriel: There is no particular type of worldwide network traffi c and identify potentially infrastructure targeted for this. We have a harmful activities, and then share that intelligence consolidated data center program that many state and take steps to help mitigate potential attacks. agencies participate in that’s based on an on- In addition, AT&T has eight Security Operations premises infrastructure, and this contract can deliver Centers (SOCs) worldwide that operate 7x24x365 to services to those customers. We also have our protect our managed security services customers. hybrid cloud where we connected the on-premises There’s really no way a single government agency consolidated data center program to five cloud is going to get that perspective on its own. environments and these services are also available to any customers that participate in that. For the Who can participate in the most part, the infrastructure environment is not QMSS contract? relevant to the services available. Kimbriel: In addition to state agencies, the MSS What does the cyber landscape look like contract is available to any taxpayer-funded Q in the future for Texas state and local organization in Texas. This was a key part of the governments? strategy because smaller, funding-challenged organizations, for example, may not know what Kimbriel: Cybersecurity will continue to be a key area to do when they experience an attack. To have a for us; and mitigating risk associated with cyber will qualifi ed incident response team step in and guide continue to be high on the priority list. We are looking their reaction is monumental. We don’t expect forward to interacting with state leadership and everyone to be interested in the services, but it’s giving them the information they need for informed advantageous to those organizations that don’t policy decisions. The bill from last session required have a CISO or trained cyber professional on staff . us to set up a Texas ISAO (Information Sharing and Analysis Organization), so we are looking for our Why is it important for small and cybersecurity coordinator to spearhead that eff ort. Q medium-sized agencies to strengthen This ISAO will deliver threat dissemination services, security protection? forensic analysis and other services — many of the same capabilities off ered through the MSS contract Spencer: There was a time when agencies could — but this is through a nonprofi t organization that do cybersecurity by obscurity because they were is primarily focused on the private sector. We haven’t too small to be a target. But with the automation seen anyone else put together something as broad of threats, everyone is at risk. The bots and or comprehensive as what we are envisioning, so it’s malicious programs aggressively come a er all exciting to see that come to reality and bridge the vulnerabilities. gap between public and private sector.

To learn more about the Texas MSS contract, please visit the following resources: > MSS catalog: att.com/texasmss > MSS contract page: http://dir.texas.gov/View-Search/ Contracts-Detail.aspx?contractnumber=DIR-MSS-SCP-001

GT18 Q&A AT&T_Texas_2.indd 4 5/18/18 8:04 AM

How long can a state go without repairing its roads and bridges? Mississippi is about to ﬁ nd out. Bridg By Daniel C. Vock Photographs by James Patterson

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ississippi’s increasingly paramedics from getting to residents quickly. “Everybody agrees unreliable infrastructure— that we have a crisis, and it needs to be addressed,” Simmons says. its crumbling roads and “The problem is, we need to fi nd the ways and means to pay for it.” hundreds of deteriorat- Many states face tough questions about how to improve their ing bridges that have been roads, particularly in rural areas. These dilemmas are the driving closed or weight-limit- force behind President Trump’s call for rural infrastructure im- ed—is straining the state’s provements. But even the president’s plan demands increased businesses and local gov- state and local funding, and Mississippi, more than most places, ernments. It’s no wonder, has struggled to come up with the money to keep its roads and then, that they, along with bridges in usable shape. Since 2012, for instance, 30 states have transportation advocates boosted their transportation spending, most by raising their gas and their allies, have pressed the legislature to do something tax. Under the eagle-topped dome in Jackson, however, that idea Mabout it. Yet year after year, lawmakers in Jackson have come up has been a nonstarter. The last time the state raised its gas tax rates empty-handed. was in 1987; only Alaska and Oklahoma have gone longer without This year was no diff erent, even though lawmakers came tan- touching their fuel tax rates. talizingly close to a road improvement package. A week or so after Mississippi’s 1987 gas tax hike is the stuff of local legend. It they failed to pass a fi x-up plan, Gov. Phil Bryant announced that started when Gov. William Allain tried to pressure lawmakers the state Transportation Department would immediately shut into eliminating the state’s elected transportation commission- down 83 locally owned bridges. Federal inspectors had found ers. Allain had reshaped Mississippi government to consolidate that the bridges—most of which were built with timber parts and power within the executive branch and didn’t want another group located in rural areas—were defi cient and unsafe for vehicular of offi cials calling the shots at the highway department. But one traffi c. Since then, more bridges have been added to the list. All of the commissioners rallied the business community to oppose told, some 500 across the state are out of service. Allain’s maneuver and, in the process, came up with a plan to build “It is probably the No. 1 problem the citizens are talking about four-lane highways around the state. At the time, only interstates today,” says state Sen. Willie Simmons, a Democrat who chairs and a handful of highways had four lanes, which made it diffi cult the chamber’s Highways and Transportation Committee. Two to haul freight to far corners of the state. The group’s goal quickly of the counties in Simmons’ Mississippi Delta district shut down became to make sure every Mississippi resident lived within 30 more than 30 bridges each. Those closures can reroute residents miles or a 30-minute drive of a four-lane highway. They promised on 40- to 50-mile detours, and they can prevent fi refi ghters and it could be done with just a nickel hike in the gasoline tax.

Christian Gardner works as an engineer for three counties, each of which has 25 or more closed bridges.

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Several powerful lawmakers joined the cause and were able to scrape together enough votes in the House to send the legislation to the governor’s desk. Allain vetoed it. The bill’s backers had to scramble to fi nd enough votes to override him. In the end, both the House and Senate narrowly rejected the veto and the measure became law. The state gas tax went up to 18.4 cents a gallon, identi- cal to the federal rate set in 1993. Through 2002, the fuel tax hike brought in $2.6 billion, which was used to build 1,088 miles of four- lane highways. Those highways, Mississippi offi cials say, helped lure manufacturers like Nissan and Toyota to the state, because they made it easier to ship goods and equipment through the region. But the law had some features that, over time, transportation advocates have regretted. First is that the per-gallon tax was fi xed, and did not automatically adjust for infl ation. Meanwhile, vehicles have become far more fuel-effi cient, which means motorists don’t need to buy as much gas. So by 2015, Mississippi only collected 1.6 percent more in gas tax revenue than it did after the 1987 law passed. But infl ation had grown by 108 percent, and construction costs by 217 percent. The second, and perhaps most glaring, shortcoming was that, while the 1987 law guaranteed a source to pay for new construction, it did not set aside any money for maintenance once the new roads were built. “There has been no signifi cant change in state revenue for roads and bridges since 1987,” says Melinda McGrath, the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. “This has caused many Mississippi highways to crumble past the point of repair, and they now require complete rehabilitation.” The department has told lawmakers that it needs a permanent increase of at least $400 million more a year to bring the state’s road network into good shape. In order to focus on maintenance and repairs, the agency has had to put off most road expansion projects that would handle population growth or support economic development. Transportation advocates within the government have looked back at the 1987 victory and tried to use some of the same organizing tactics. The legislature’s transportation committees have worked to rally the public by traveling around the state, either to Critical hold public hearings or see the operations of the state transporta- Closures tion department fi rsthand. As of this spring, more than 540 bridges in Mississippi have been Outside allies have also tried to help. Two years ago, the closed. In some counties, as many as 30 bridges were shut down,

Mississippi Economic Council, the state’s biggest business group, rerouting residents on 40- to 50-mile detours. OF TRANSPORTATION AID ROAD CONSTRUCTION AND MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OFFICE OF STATE lobbied hard to persuade legislators to increase gas taxes to pay for better roads. Mike Pepper, the executive director of the Mississippi Road Builders Association, says raising the gas tax is the logical way to fi x the problem. When he talks to his colleagues in other states, they tell him they have “all gone through the same thing Those arguments, and the lobbying eff orts behind them, have of trying to fi nd a way to do this without raising the gas tax. They pressured lawmakers and the public to talk about the condition of beat their heads against the wall and gnash their teeth, but they the state’s roads. But no new funding has come as a result. The 1987 always come back to the gas tax. It’s the fairest, most equitable playbook isn’t working for a variety of reasons, starting with the way to pay for transportation.” overhaul of the political landscape in Mississippi over the last three That’s been the story in conservative states as well as liberal decades. In 1987, a Democratic legislature overrode a Democratic ones, notes Pepper. “There’s nothing conservative in ignoring the governor to pass the law. But Republicans took complete control state’s investment in infrastructure,” he says. “If shingles were of Mississippi state government in 2011. blowing off the roof of your house, you would put new shingles Today, anti-tax groups like Americans for Prosperity are very on. You wouldn’t wait until the deck is rotten before you replaced infl uential in Mississippi. That organization, for example, spent at them. Well, the shingles are off .” least $10,000 last year on direct mail and digital marketing to praise

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hile state lawmakers wrangle over potential funding sources, local governments—particularly counties—are bearing the brunt of the shortfalls. W As in many states, the responsibilities for keeping up roads in Mississippi is split between the state and localities. The state Transportation Department controls interstates and highways. A separate state agency helps localities maintain “state aid” roads and bridges. The state also gives some gas tax money directly to counties. While the bulk of traffi c is on state-owned roads, most of the road miles are owned by counties. They are responsible for 52,000 miles of roads with nearly 10,000 bridges. Christian Gardner, who works as a county engineer for three counties, says he’s watched the slow deterioration of roads. When Gardner got out of college in the early 1990s, the new road bill had been passed, and counties could replace bridges, do maintenance and still have money left over for new construction. By the early 2000s, however, new construction “disappeared,” but counties could at least maintain what they had. “Fast forward to 2010,” he says, “and it’s clear that most counties are not going to do any improvements.” They’ve fallen behind on bridge maintenance and there’s been no new construction. In fact, nearly half of county roads are in poor or very poor condition. Today, Gardner says, “I walk into my board meetings and say, ‘We’re going backwards.’” How did that happen? Well, for example, in 1987 the cost of resealing 47 miles of road was $981,000. Nowadays, because of inﬂ ation, the cost has more than tripled. But transportation money for the counties has remained relatively ﬂ at, and counties don’t have many options to make up the diff erence. They’re basically limited to property taxes since counties can’t impose sales taxes or gas taxes. And property values through most of the state have not gone up, which makes it diffi cult to hike the tax. Even if they could justify an increase, offi cials at both the state and local level in Mississippi tend to be tax averse. For most roads in poor condition, it will take about $50,000 to $70,000 per mile to bring them back into good shape, says Gardner. But the cost is higher if counties fail to do regular maintenance.

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ryant’s decision this spring to shut down bridges jolted the Mississippi political establishment, but it was in the works for more than a year. In fact, Simmons, the head Bof the Senate transportation committee, warned his colleagues about the heightened federal scrutiny and the likelihood of closures as the chamber was wrapping up its spring session a year ago. The confl ict with the Federal Highway Administration started with routine spot checks of about a dozen rural Mississippi bridges in early 2017. FHA offi cials were concerned with the state of the bridges and recommended that several be shut down. The federal government doesn’t have the authority to close bridges on its own, but it can withhold federal transportation money if states don’t keep their road systems in good repair. Bryant’s emergency declaration applied to a handful of counties that refused to shut down bridges that didn’t meet federal standards; he ordered the state to close the bridges that counties wouldn’t on their own. (Two counties sued Bryant in May, arguing that he overstepped his authority by shutting down county bridges.) Simpson County, southeast of Jackson, was one of the fi rst places the federal inspectors went. No one knew they were coming, says Rhuel Dickinson, the county administrator. The sheriff ’s offi ce called Dickinson asking what they should do about people who had parked an unmarked van on the road and were climbing around a bridge. “I kept them from getting arrested,” Dickinson says. The county closed 18 bridges after those inspections. Most of them were old and had timber components. They had been checked every other year by the county’s inspectors, who noted the same defects that the federal inspectors highlighted. But the feds seemed to use more sophisticated methods, such as drilling through wood pilings rather than just sounding them with their hammers. Where county engineers might recommend a lower weight limit for a bridge and order repairs, the federal engineers would push to close it completely. “I’m not saying that’s wrong, but that’s not how our local engineers have been doing it for years,” Dickinson says. The new inspections, though, come with their own costs, in both money and opportunity. Simpson County had to spend $20,000 to buy barricades, signs and refl ective barrels to shut down

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Mississippi’s crumbling roads and bridges are “probably the No. 1 problem the citizens are talking about today,” says state Sen. Willie Simmons. “The problem is, we need to ﬁ nd the ways and means to pay for it.”

its bridges—it only owned enough equipment to close three at a much more sweeping $1 billion plan that would have used some time. By the time all of the closed bridges are reopened, the county of the state’s rainy day fund to pay for road improvements. The will likely spend $150,000 to $200,000 for repairs. Dickinson says package would have included issuing bonds and setting new fees it will be borrowing from next year’s road budget to make the on electric and hybrid vehicles. But it also would have required payments. Meanwhile, a bridge project that was ready to go is cities and localities to chip in for projects in their jurisdictions. now on hold, because the county had to pay for the repairs and Eventually, House and Senate negotiators met to try to work out inspections instead. their diff erences. They got 85 percent of the way there, says Sen. Connie Rockco, a Harrison County supervisor, says the lack of Joey Fillingane, a Republican who leads the ﬁ nance committee, road money is also preventing Gulf Coast communities like Biloxi but they couldn’t agree on whether localities should pay more to and Gulfport, which she represents, from building new infrastruc- get a bump in state funding. The House insisted that cities didn’t ture to accommodate population growth and to provide more hur- have the money to spend more on roads. Senate negotiators dis- ricane evacuation routes. That’s obviously a major concern for an agreed. “We’re supposed to be good stewards of state resources, area that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But bigger and we’re not doing that by allowing the state to pay 100 percent cities like hers never beneﬁ ted much from the 1987 highway bill of those projects,” says Fillingane. “Either you make infrastructure since they were already served by major highways. a priority or you don’t.” Rockco toured the state in a “road show” last year as the head In some ways, the Senate’s proposal mirrors the infrastruc- of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, trying to drum up ture push by the Trump administration in Washington. Just like support for a statewide road funding package. Engineers talked President Trump, state senators want other levels of government— with legislators and county offi cials about road conditions. The su- in this case, cities and counties—to provide a match. The troubled pervisors pointed out that neighboring Tennessee had just raised bridges are on county roads, says Fillingane. “They’re not the its gas tax rates in order to fund projects that would promote eco- state’s responsibility, but we do try to give them state funds when nomic development. “We tried to make it more palatable to the we can aff ord it. It really comes down to the counties.” legislature, but they just didn’t want to raise taxes,” Rockco says. Simmons, the Democrat who serves with Fillingane in the “We’re going to ultimately have to raise taxes, because they won’t.” Senate, agrees that localities ought to pony up more to improve Ironically, the biggest issue that lawmakers could not resolve roads. But he says any of the ideas bandied about in the legislature this session was whether local governments should have to put this year “would simply be a start.” Even the Senate proposal would up more of their own money in order to get more help from the only raise a quarter of what is needed to bring Mississippi’s roads state. Early this year, the Mississippi House unanimously passed back into good shape. Still, after 30 years of waiting, a new start a bill to dedicate $108 million to roads, which would come from would be something. G the state’s use tax (basically a sales tax that online retailers volun- tarily collect and give to the state). The Senate came back with a Email [email protected]

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fter every mass shooting, more calls come in: from private companies, from large stadiums, and— increasingly—from government agencies and public A schools. They all want to talk about the same thing. “We probably have seen a tenfold increase in inquiries since Parkland,” says Paul Marshall, an insurance broker for McGowan Program Administrators, an underwriter based in Ohio. “People just feel vulnerable when [a shooting] happens. And that’s when we get phone calls, because it feels inevitable and very diffi cult to manage.” Since the February attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which killed 17 and launched a nationwide push for additional gun control measures, at least seven South Florida school districts have purchased about $3 million worth of “active shooter” coverage from McGowan. This kind of coverage, which the insurance broker ﬁ rst began off ering in 2016, is a small but rapidly growing slice of the company’s portfolio. There’s no database that tracks which school districts carry this type of coverage, but Marshall says his company is consistently seeing 20 percent increases in the number of inquiries month over month. Other insurance companies are also seeing an increase in inquiries and purchases of this type of insurance. Over the course of one week shortly after Parkland, Hugh Nelson, senior vice president at Southern Insurance Underwriters Inc., says he received half a dozen inquiries. According to Reuters, while some insurance companies have off ered these policies since 2011, many more have sprung up since 2016. APIMAGES.COM BY NATALIE DELGADILLO

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It’s one trend following another, deeply troubling one: The as a person walks onto the organization’s property and commits a incidence of active shooter events is going up. According to FBI targeted attack, and they generally cover attacks with any weapon, data, the average number of shootings per year jumped from 6.4 such as guns, knives, bombs or vehicles. Coverage pays for a host between 2000 and 2006 to 16.4 in the period from 2007 to 2013. of expenses associated with these events as well, including victim (Overall, active shooter incidents, which the FBI defi nes as events expenses, particularly medical bills; agency costs, like extra se- in which an individual is actively engaged in attempting to kill curity and business income losses; and traditional liability costs people in a populated area, claimed 1,043 lives between 2000 for lawsuits. and 2013.) In 2014 and 2015, that number rose again, to 20 shoot- Some insurance companies that off er this kind of coverage also ings per year. About 10 percent of those occurred on government off er risk assessment and mitigation strategies to organizations property, while an additional 24 percent occurred in schools. In trying to prevent an active shooter attack, says Nelson of Southern fact, according to data recently compiled by The Washington Post, Insurance Underwriters. “Many governments are already doing since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, this type of [risk mitigation and preparation] thing, but they want Colo., some 208,000 children at 212 schools have experienced gun to see what more can be done,” Nelson says. violence on campus. McGowan’s risk mitigation policies also make up a substantial Some of the deadliest of these incidents have happened in just part of its coverage, though Marshall says some governments and the past six years. In addition to the Parkland shooting in February, agencies already feel like they’re doing enough to secure their there’s been a mass-casualty shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, properties. Marshall says one prominent city parade hired risk- which killed 58; in the Pulse night club in Orlando, which killed mitigation services from McGowan this year, which included social 49; in a San Bernardino, Calif., city center, which killed 14; and at media monitoring and coordination with local police. According Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, which killed 26. to him, it was the fi rst year the parade didn’t have to deal with a Aside from the loss of life and the pain these events infl ict on a violent attack threat. community, deadly shootings also have fi nancial costs that can be That aspect of the coverage was one of the main reasons that diffi cult for governments, especially small or struggling munici- Palm Beach County School District, the fi fth largest district in palities, to bear. San Bernardino had already fi led for bankruptcy Florida and the 10th largest in the country, decided to purchase when it had to pay $4 million for the response to the terrorist active shooter insurance last summer. Dianne Howard, the dis- attack at the Inland Regional Center. Connecticut gave the city trict’s director of risk and benefi ts management, says Palm Beach of Newtown $50 million just for the costs of rebuilding Sandy was one of the fi rst jurisdictions to adopt this kind of insurance in Hook Elementary School. The total costs from the 1999 shooting her state. “We wanted the risk assessment and training service” at Columbine High School also came to roughly $50 million. In that came with the coverage, Howard says. “Sometimes, depart- Parkland, the Florida Attorney General’s Offi ce paid for funeral ments tell you that they’re doing everything they need to do, but costs, and the school district plans to tear down and rebuild the part of the school where the shootings occurred. The tangible costs alone can overwhelm a government: litigation, compensating victims, paying for funerals, providing trauma counseling, reconstructing or refurbishing buildings, and investing in new security measures to prevent another attack, to name a few. The impact of intangible costs to a community—reputa- tional damage, loss of tourism revenue and high turnover among workers—is impossible to measure, according to experts. “These events are very expensive in so many ways. People are so trau- matized by responding to the event that they leave the fi eld. I’ve talked to people who’ve left education because of this,” says Mike Dorn, a school security expert at Safe Havens International who is currently working on his 13th active shooter case. Dorn was also a school district police chief at Bibb County Public Schools in Georgia for 13 years. In the face of these potentially huge costs, there is debate about whether and to what extent general liability policies will cover active shooter events. Marshall, the McGowan insurer, says that A terrorist general liability policies typically have what’s called a “duty to attack at the defend” clause, meaning that they require a lawsuit to be fi led in Inland Regional order to activate coverage. That’s a process that can take months Center cost San or even years. And general policies will not provide victims with Bernardino the kind of compensation that’s likelier to stave off litigation. $4 million.

In contrast, active shooter policies tend to go into eff ect as soon APIMAGES.COM

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when you look at other places where [attacks] have happened, you that issued mini baseball bats to teachers. “Great idea. Now some see there was actually a problem. So I wanted an outside perspec- kid gets mad and gets ahold of the bat and beats up another kid tive to see what else we could do.” and we have a $4 million lawsuit on our hands,” Dorn says. Howard purchased the district’s insurance from McGowan, He says behavioral interventions—like identifying potentially and she said the company found some “areas where we could violent students and intervening before anything takes place—are improve” in terms of mitigating risk. She purchased $1 million by far the most eff ective strategy for stopping violence on school in coverage, which she said she hopes to increase. (According to property. They’re also less expensive than physical solutions Marshall, many others have done so since the Parkland shooting.) such as bulletproof glass and metal detectors. “If you’re a school Some risk mitigation techniques, however, can actually inter- without strong behavioral approaches [to preventing violence], fere with their insurance policies. Arming teachers—an idea that you’re extremely vulnerable to litigation, because this is so well has received support mainly among Republicans in Congress and established. It’s like a standard of care,” Dorn says. “You can spend in statehouses—is one such security strategy. When some Kansas $5 million [on extensive security measures] and still have a shoot- school districts considered letting teachers and campus adminis- ing because you didn’t spend a tiny fraction of that on good be- trators carry concealed weapons after the Sandy Hook massacre, havioral approaches.” their insurance companies pushed back. “Concealed handguns on As the diffi culty of preventing violence becomes clearer to the school premises pose a heightened liability risk. We have chosen public, and if violent incidents like Parkland continue to become not to insure schools that allow employees to carry concealed more common, Marshall and Nelson both say they expect that this handguns,” EMC Insurance Companies wrote to Kansas districts. portion of their insurance practice will continue to grow. Just re- Several districts abandoned their plans to arm teachers as a result. cently, Marshall says, a large municipality ﬂ ew him out for an infor- “We don’t recommend arming teachers in the United States,” mational presentation and decided immediately to buy coverage. Dorn, the school security expert, says. “Trying to teach people to And insurance companies keep updating the coverage they [use a gun against] an active shooter is even harder than just teach- off er in response to tragic events. A year ago, McGowan did not ing them how to use a ﬁ rearm.” Dorn says that even police offi cers off er coverage for vehicle attacks. Now it does. The sorts of cov- sometimes don’t respond appropriately in emergency situations. erage that insurance companies provide will continue to evolve, In Parkland, a campus police offi cer notoriously stayed outside of says Marshall. “At this point, [people feel that] everyone is kind the building even as he heard gunshots inside. of a target.” Attackers today, he says, have become more likely “to Dorn also cautions against similar solutions, like the handle disputes in a violent manner, with guns, knives, vehicles, Pennsylvania superintendent who suggested students were pro- bombs. It’s very concerning to people.” G tected from active shooter situations thanks to a bucket of river rocks in the classroom, or the other Pennsylvania school district Email [email protected]

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California’s go-for-broke legislator failed this year in his bid to spark a revolution in housing policy. He’s ready to try again. BY LIZ FARMER APIMAGES.COM

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o California Sen. Scott Wiener, nothing epito- mizes his state’s housing failures more than the seemingly endless fi ght over a fi ve-story condo building at the corner Tof Valencia and Hill streets in San Francisco’s Mission District. The area is in the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan, which rezoned a third of San Francisco in 2008 to increase density near transit and to make housing more aff ordable. The lot was formerly home to a fast-food restaurant whose neighbors included several three-story apartment buildings and the historic Marsh theater. Shortly after the Neighborhoods Plan took eff ect, a developer proposed a 16-unit building with two aff ordable housing units on the site of the restaurant. Although it adhered to the new zoning plan, the 1050 Valencia project was to be the tallest building for many blocks, and Mission District residents moved to stop it. In addition to complaining about the project’s height, they insisted the modern building would damage the historic character of the neighborhood. This was despite the fact that the stucco and wood-shingled restaurant there at the time was neither historic nor aestheti- cally appealing. In addition, the Marsh theater owner was concerned that construction noise and a proposed fi rst-fl oor bar would disrupt theater business. It took years for the condos to be approved. The developer agreed to miti- Mission District residents in San Francisco opposed the building of a fi ve-story condo on gate the noise impact and reduce the number character of the neighborhood. of units from 16 to 12. Not satisfi ed, the opponents turned to the Board of Permit around transit stations. The bill died in a legislative committee in Appeals, which sympathized with them and lopped off the top April, but the issue isn’t going away. And neither is Wiener. story of the building. That reduced the number of units from 12 Actually, what happened to the Mission District condo project to nine—and eliminated the two aff ordable units. “Welcome to and to Wiener’s crusade reveals quite a bit about the problem of housing policy in San Francisco,” wrote Wiener, who was then a building in California. The same power struggles have repeated member of the city’s board of supervisors. “A policy based not so themselves many times and in many places. Mountain View, a much on our city’s dire housing needs but on who can turn out wealthy South Bay suburb, is another textbook case. Housing the most people at a public hearing.” activists who say Google worsens congestion by running buses After an outcry from Wiener and aff ordable housing advocates, for its employees between San Francisco and its headquarters in the board reversed its decision a few months later, in 2014. But Mountain View have called on the company to build aff ordable that still wasn’t the end of it. In mid-2015, the project was halted places for its employees to live. But in 2012, the Mountain View when a judge suspended construction following a petition from City Council—citing a need to protect the city’s burrowing owl Neighbors for Preservation and Progress. It fi nally opened to resi- population—explicitly forbade Google from doing just that. In 2016, dents the following year. By then it had been nearly a decade since Los Angeles voters overwhelmingly approved a tax increase to the project’s initial proposal. provide $1.2 billion for 10,000 units of new housing for the home- Wiener left local government for the California Senate in late less. Nearly two years later, developments have stalled because of 2016. But he continued to push on the housing issue, as well as a requirement that they receive a letter of support from the local many others. This year, he became something of a national celebrity city council member. among urbanists by introducing S.B. 827, a bill that would override Similar scenarios are playing out in dozens of cities around the local zoning laws and allow more height and density in the areas country. For decades, Boston’s triple-decker units housed the city’s

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in San Francisco can sell for $700,000; teardowns in the Silicon Valley town of Cupertino can go for $2 million after one day on the market. When housing costs are factored in, about 1 in 5 residents in the state lives in poverty. It’s no surprise, then, that local governments in suburbs and cities are grappling with large numbers of people sleeping in cars and others living out of motorhomes, transforming entire city blocks into makeshift—illegal—RV parks. California’s lack of high-density building may be having an eff ect beyond the state’s borders and even on the environment that most local building ordinances seek to protect. “If you say no to housing near transit, you’re still building housing somewhere else,” says Harvard economist Edward Glaeser. “But instead of in California, that new project gets built in Houston or Las Vegas, where carbon emissions are higher.” California is awash in single-family homes. Seventy percent of San Francisco is zoned single family. Build more condos and apartments, even luxury units, most economists say, and prices will ease up. But local governments stand in the way. S.B. 827 would have overridden most local zoning limits. It would have allowed for much higher building heights and a higher density of new projects within a half-mile radius of any transit stop. It was radical. Even its supporters believed Wiener’s eff ort was destined to fail. And it did, falling short on a 6-4 vote in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. But

GOOGLE MAPS (LEFT); STEPHEN ANTONAROS a simple solution to a complicated problem is ndo on the corner of Valencia and Hill streets, arguing it would destroy the historic always a hard sell—at least the ﬁ rst time.

young families. Now, those families are being pushed out by prices iener, who is 47 years old, is an unusual char- that have nearly doubled over the last 10 years. Renting is less and acter for a politician, especially for a seasoned less an option for them as the larger units are scooped up by college one who has—on more than one occasion— students and unmarried millennials living in groups. Local offi cials thrust himself into the public spotlight. To are trying to come up with some sort of remedy. The Seattle City begin with, attention doesn’t seem to be some- Council is in the midst of a heated debate over sweeping changes Wthing he craves. He’s 6’7” but is more comfortable folding himself to the zoning code that would allow apartments and condos in into a chair and talking policy to a roundtable of college students single-family zones with increased heights and decreased setbacks. than he is standing behind a podium and making speeches. In Colorado, a group called Better Boulder has successfully pushed He doesn’t have much patience for the small talk that is an un- that city’s council to pass a home co-op ordinance to allow up to 15 avoidable part of political life. If he thinks he has a solution to a people to share homes so that they are more aff ordable. problem, he pushes it, appearances be damned. “I think I’m drawn California is simply a lot further along in its housing debate. It to things that matter,” he says. “And sometimes those things are has been many years in the making: Housing unit construction, controversial.” especially in coastal areas, has lagged behind since the 1980s when The last time Wiener sparked this much controversy was in compared with metro areas across the country. Over the past eight 2012, when he was a San Francisco board supervisor and proposed years, the state’s population has grown by 3 million. Economists a restriction on public nudity. In most cities this would have been say that, to keep up, builders would need to add about one unit for a pretty easy pitch. But San Francisco is diff erent. A signiﬁ cant every three new residents. The state has generally fallen far short constituency there sees nudity as a form of self-expression, and the of that goal, although it has done a little better in the past couple of proposal actually spurred more nakedness in the form of protests. years. Housing prices, meanwhile, keep going up. A burnt-out home But Wiener’s bill, which limited nudity to authorized events such

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as parades and festivals, was a sign of how much San Francisco, groups for the sake of progress. It happened during the Gold Rush and the Castro district in particular, had changed since the free- in the mid-19th century and has happened in every boom time wheeling 1970s. Wiener, who represented the district, introduced since. The advocacy group Causa Justa has documented recent the proposal after hearing complaints for a year about increasing tech-boom displacement, noting that the Mission District lost displays of public nudity on the part of neighborhood residents. As 1,400 Latino households between 1990 and 2011, while adding much as he insists he “didn’t want to be the guy banning nudity in 2,900 white households. Causa Justa, Asian Americans Advancing San Francisco,” it was an obvious solution to a problem. It passed. Justice and other activist groups lined up in opposition to the Six years later, on the housing issue, Wiener was once again at bill, saying they didn’t want to leave the crisis in the hands of a the center of a battle to change an established practice. But there real estate market designed to put profi ts ahead of shelter. These was very little coalition-building. Wiener’s approach seemed to groups are pushing a ballot measure that would repeal a 1995 be to throw his idea out there and see what stuck. The initial pro- state law limiting the type of housing covered under local rent posal included no aff ordable housing requirements, which made control laws. most housing advocates come out in reluctant opposition. The Others agree that California’s housing crisis is too complicated defi nition of transit was also ambiguous, leading cities and towns to be left entirely up to the market. If homes and apartments are that provide only bus service to wonder if they’d be subject to the too expensive now, building more won’t suddenly make them af- bill. Wiener eventually amended S.B. 827 to bring more groups fordable so that teachers, fi refi ghters and sanitation workers can on board—the automatic height allowance was toned down to live near their jobs. A solution might require new buildings to be four- and fi ve-story buildings, rather than permitting eight stories, made almost entirely into modest-price housing. Developers can’t and Wiener clarifi ed that just the area around rail, subway and make money doing those projects unsubsidized, and they won’t ferry stops would be subject to the full height allowances. (The produce them. “California can’t build its way out of an aff ordable bill still permitted somewhat higher density—that is, multifamily housing crisis,” says George “Mac” McCarthy, president and CEO housing—around bus stops.) Those changes helped bring around of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. “We spend a lot of time groups such as the Non-Profi t Housing Association of Northern whining about aff ordable housing challenges, but we never really California and the Natural Resources Defense Council. But by marshal the political will to do something about them.” then, a lot of damage had already been done. To McCarthy, the key to solving the problem lies in more The proposal also stirred up bad blood about California’s long control over who’s investing in the real estate market to begin history—particularly in San Francisco—of pushing out minority with. He points to Toronto, which has discouraged outside capital

A lack of affordable housing in Mountain View and other California cities has led to thousands living in makeshift—illegal—RV parks. APIMAGES.COM

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by implementing a 25 percent surcharge on any real estate purchases made by foreign companies. “It’s a public policy question people fail to ask,” McCarthy says. “Do we want to supply shelter or do we want to open it up to global capital?” Cities and towns, dozens of which opposed S.B. 827, say localities are being made into villains for no reason. A joint letter, submitted by the California State Association of Counties, Urban Counties of California and the Rural County Representatives of California, pointed out that many localities had already come up with their own prescription for increased density via their master plan process. Case in point: Mountain View may not have allowed Google to build housing for workers, but it did increase height limits and density elsewhere along major roads in its 2030 development plan. All told, the localities said, S.B. 827 “under- mines the intent of state policies requiring community engagement in land use planning, especially in disadvantaged communities.” In the end, Wiener’s legislation died because too many groups felt as if they’d been left out of the process. “There were so many diff erent factions with so many concerns and everyone had their own pet issue,” says San Francisco-based transit consultant Jeff Wood. “The bill got killed by a thousand diff erent cuts.”

hanks to national coverage, S.B. 827 has helped open up conversations in many California cities Wiener’s bill exposed not regarding their approach to meeting housing demands. just California but the whole country to the divisions that exist on housing. That qualifying residents making $84,900 or less for a family of four. attention has opened up or expanded a conversa- The size and the aff ordable housing component changed the de- Ttion in many cities about their own approach to meeting housing velopment enough to make it eligible to be fast tracked. Long demands. The failure of S.B. 827 is a reminder that fear, vulnerabil- delayed by local residents worried about traffi c, it will likely be APIMAGES.COM ity and history often render one-stroke solutions dead on arrival. approved under the new rules. Wiener knows this. Wiener plans to take the conversation started by S.B. 827 and In 2016, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed legislation to streamline have another go at it next year while “incorporating what we have and speed approval for local housing projects. It was ultimately learned since we introduced it.” Undoubtedly, that will include deemed too aggressive. So Wiener, as a new legislator in 2017, far more coalition-building. Just bringing around his former col- introduced a similar bill but gave it a local twist: Only cities that leagues on the board of supervisors and activist politicians in weren’t meeting their state-mandated housing goals would have Los Angeles would go a long way. But Wiener is not expected to to fast-track approval for certain multiunit housing developments. alter his bill dramatically, and does not accept the criticism that It was only after the bill was passed that a state housing depart- his market-based approach only lines the pockets of developers. ment analysis revealed that some provisions of the bill would To him, that’s “an ignorant, short-sighted and cynical argument. apply to nearly every city in California. If someone comes up with a viable way to do this without de- Still, that legislation may be having an eff ect. In March of this velopers, I’m all ears,” Wiener says. “But until then, I’m going to year, the promoter of a mall redevelopment in Cupertino used call B.S. because I don’t think anyone can come up with that.” G the new law to amend the project and quintuple the number of housing units to 2,402. Half of the units would be reserved for Email [email protected]

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID KIDD

or most of his career, Sander Schultz has observed The experiment is ongoing, but it’s already had a positive a frustrating disconnect between what emergency impact on emergency responders, Schultz says. It’s not that responders expect to do on the job, and what they EMS personnel have stopped encountering people with behav- actually do. “You get into this business to help people,” ioral health challenges. “It’s that you don’t have the same one for says Schultz, who coordinates emergency medical seven years running,” he says. “Once somebody comes onto the services (EMS) in the small coastal city of Glouces- radar and becomes an issue, we deal with them. We target them F ter, Mass. Most of the people his crew picks up are for services that take them out of that frequent-fl yer category.” familiar faces who experience repeated crises related What’s happening in Gloucester is happening in cities all over to addiction or mental illness, or both. “They’re not bleeding or Massachusetts, as part of a concerted statewide eff ort to house up waving a gun around or on fi re.” to 800 individuals who had been chronically homeless and keep The common thread most of this population shares? They’re most of them housed for six years. As in Gloucester, the goal is to homeless. Until recently, people in Schultz’ position faced a frus- provide low-barrier access to housing and a network of health, trating reality. They could stabilize the person temporarily, but social and employment services. they couldn’t provide permanent solutions. “Treating frequent It’s an ambitious initiative that puts Massachusetts among fl yers and the behavioral health of this population is incredibly the leading states in terms of addressing chronic homelessness. fatiguing on police, fi re and EMS,” he says. But there’s something else that makes this program unique: If But around 2014, a local nonprofi t joined a statewide experi- everything goes according to plan, some investors stand to make ment to use public rental vouchers and Medicaid dollars to house a profi t from it. and treat long-term homeless individuals in the city. The initiative That’s because the program uses a funding mechanism known was a “housing fi rst” approach, meaning that people didn’t need as “pay for success,” a type of performance-based contracting in to be sober or meet other common preconditions before moving which private investors pay the upfront costs of a social program, in. Tenants would be assigned a caseworker to help them address reducing the risk of experimentation for government. Under the whatever led them to homelessness in the fi rst place. The ser- arrangement, the investors stand to recoup their costs, and pos- vices, which would be tailored to the individual’s needs, could sibly profi t, from positive social outcomes. If the program doesn’t mean everything from literacy classes to job training to addiction work, the government avoids a major fi nancial loss for trying counseling. something new.

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Since Massachusetts introduced its program, a growing number of places have started their own version of housing the homeless, each slightly diff erent but premised on the same basic concept that if governments can put homeless individuals into permanent housing, social benefi ts and cost reductions will follow. It’s too early to know if all the projects will succeed, but the results in Massachusetts are encouraging. Out of 678 individuals who’ve been housed, 92 percent remain in their unit or had a “positive exit,” such as moving into another apartment. Pre- liminary data from the project’s fi rst year showed a dramatic drop in tenants’ use of services from the six months before getting housed and the six months afterward. The group as a whole spent fewer days in jail, in hospitals, in detox and in emergency shelters. Ambulances picked them up on fewer occasions, too. In a cost-benefi t analysis, the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance—the housing provider for the project—found that the reduced use of those public services resulted in a net benefi t of $2.2 million. Massachusetts isn’t the only place reporting promising results after combining a housing-fi rst model with psychosocial support

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services for tenants. In Santa Clara County, Calif., which is also than initiatives that use the same fi nancing mechanisms for other running a pay for success project, about two-thirds of program populations, such as preschoolers and incarcerated youth. participants—who, by defi nition, had been chronically homeless and high users of hospitals and other public systems—have stayed housed for at least two years and are now contributing about 30 he fact that housing the homeless has become a focus for percent of their income to rent. In Denver, another pay for suc- so many early pay for success projects is no coincidence, cess site, nearly every person who could have retained housing for says Fraser Nelson, a managing director at the Sorenson the fi rst six months of the project did so. Perhaps it’s no surprise T Impact Center, a think tank in Utah. Before joining the that at least six pay for success projects focused on housing the center, Nelson worked for the Salt Lake County Mayor’s homeless have come online since 2014. Offi ce, where she led pay for success projects on housing, crimi- Yet the early positive results and the excitement they’ve gen- nal justice and early childhood education. “If you’re a mayor of erated have also sparked some pushback that housing programs a county or a city and you’re looking at where the big pressure aren’t money savers in the long run, and shouldn’t be. And if that’s points are in your budget, you’re likely to stumble upon behav- true, it raises related questions about what the goal of a pay for ioral health, homelessness and the criminal justice system,” Nel- success project ought to be—to reduce public spending or to raise son says. “Pay for success is a fi nancing tool that allows jurisdic- social impact? Regardless of whether the housing programs lead tions to look at areas in the budget where they’re spending a lot to lower health-care and criminal justice costs, the early data sug- of money but not necessarily getting the outcomes they want.” gests that they keep people housed, an achievement in itself. In Compared to other policy ideas being tested by pay for success that respect, social policy experts are already studying projects projects, the combination of housing fi rst and supportive hous- like Massachusetts’ to understand what makes it more eff ective ing already has a relatively large body of evidence that suggest

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they work, particularly for people who’ve been on the streets or in shelters for a long time. “You’re talking about a program that has been tested in multiple places, has demonstrated results in a lot of places and is something that has proven to be pretty repli- cable,” says Justin Milner, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who studies pay for success projects. “You can’t say that for a lot of other social programs.” In many ways, housing is an ideal fi t for pay for success fi nancing, Milner says. The arrangements require coordination between banks, nonprofi ts and government, a connection that’s already common in the housing industry. They also demand timely data to track services and outcomes, which can be challenging if investment in one policy area—early childhood education, for example—is supposed to produce results in another policy area, such as public safety or employment. But most state and local governments know who receives housing assistance. “It is both an output in that you’re providing a service, and the service is housing,” Milner says. “But it’s the outcome that you care about, too, because the stable housing can be a platform for making sure that individuals are not ending up in jail or emergency rooms.” The timeframe of housing programs also dovetails well with the goals of pay for success projects, which tend to require some proof of impact within a few years. And for public offi cials who back these fi nancial arrangements, it’s helpful to have some encouraging results to report by the next election. By comparison, services that seek to change the long-term trajectory of a young person’s life might have equal merit, but would face challenges in producing meaningful results within a matter of years. For all the upside of using pay for success fi nancing for housing, some homelessness experts worry the projects are being marketed too much as money savers. Even in cases where housing fails to produce net savings, “it doesn’t mean housing isn’t a critical need or isn’t something that you should do,” says Barbara still advocated for using a housing-fi rst approach, but cautioned DiPietro, senior director of policy for the National Health Care for proponents to take a more nuanced view of its benefi ts. the Homeless Council. “From our perspective, the pay for success “I’ve been getting the same criticism for a decade,” says Joe model is still based on fi nancial return on investment. We’d like Finn, president and executive director of the Massachusetts to see more of a moral justifi cation.” Housing and Shelter Alliance. His organization pioneered a small- Two years ago, a group of physicians wrote an article in the scale precursor to the commonwealth’s pay for success project New England Journal of Medicine arguing that proponents of in 2006, which inspired the statewide experiment happening housing-fi rst projects were actually overpromising the fi nancial today. He’s familiar with the concern that a strict before-and-after benefi ts. They noted that most of the demonstrations linking cost snapshot doesn’t prove causality or eff ectiveness. “This idea of savings with a housing-fi rst intervention used weak study designs. ‘controls’ and ‘regression to the mean’—they’ll dole out all of this In general, evaluators took snapshots of what happened to home- stuff to say, ‘You haven’t demonstrated anything.’ Well, I disagree.” less people before and after they received housing and other help. Last year, he coauthored a journal article showing a 64 percent It was hard to say whether reduced demand for emergency ser- reduction in spending on emergency services six months after vices was due to housing, or some other factor that coincided with participants received housing. Even after accounting for the hous- the time people received help. For those who became homeless ing program’s costs, net spending was down 36 percent. due to a temporary crisis, stable housing and a reduced need of “Wouldn’t it be great if legislators and people who allocate public services were part and parcel of people getting back to budget resources were able to grasp the moral and ethical value their normal lives, something statisticians call a “regression to the of housing the mentally ill who walk our streets? But the truth of mean.” More sophisticated experiments that provided the hous- the matter is that they don’t,” Finn says. In the context of all of ing and support services at random, and compared results against the other competing priorities in a state budget, “there has to be a similar control group that did not receive the same assistance, some sense on their part that what they’re investing in has some did not fi nd that housing fi rst resulted in net savings. The authors sort of return on investment,” he says.

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like diabetes. When you stabilize them in housing, part of the goal is to help them address some of those issues, and that does cost money. That’s a good thing, though.”

espite the uneven rollout of pay for success projects in the U.S., they’re here to stay. In February, Congress passed a law that sets up a $100 million standing fund D at the U.S. Department of Treasury to reimburse projects that show fi nancial savings for federal, state or local government. While the funding could go to more housing-fi rst initiatives, the law allows a broad range of possible focus areas, from reducing teen pregnancies to increasing the employment of veterans. Housing-fi rst programs are here to stay, too—even ones that don’t incorporate pay for success fi nancing. Pulling together a pay for success project can be complicated, involving a lot of administrative overhead and signifi cant time resources. If governments can move forward on housing-fi rst projects without that funding element, they should, says Milner of the Urban Institute. In some cities, including Chicago, Orlando, Fla., and Portland, Ore., hospitals and health-care networks are donating millions of dollars to housing-fi rst initiatives. “If you don’t have to go through the complexity and the rigors of a pay for success project to expand the service array and the housing units who can benefi t from them, power to you,” he says. In cases where governments don’t use formal pay for success arrangements, they may still borrow some of the outcome-based contracting structure, says Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese. After getting a monthly progress report on Santa Clara’s housing-the-homeless project, county offi cials now want to hold contractors accountable on an ongoing basis for other services, Ultimately, some of the pay for success projects may indeed such as legal aid for undocumented immigrants. In the past, con- show cost savings, says Mary Cunningham, a housing expert at tractors would typically share results at the end of a multiyear the Urban Institute. It will likely depend on who is being tar- grant cycle. “That’s not enough for us anymore,” Cortese says. geted, how severe their needs are, how intensive their current While the county will be keeping closer tabs on results, it services are, and whether they were previously a strain on expen- isn’t as focused on lowering overall costs as it is on shifting those sive emergency services. For all that researchers currently know existing dollars to more eff ective solutions. In its pay for success about the housing-fi rst model, they’re still waiting to see whether project, the county hospital has seen a 55 percent reduction in programs like the ones in Santa Clara County, Denver and Mas- emergency room visits and a 68 percent reduction in the use of sachusetts reduce health-care costs years down the road. emergency psychiatric services by formerly homeless tenants. What the projects are more likely to yield is cost off sets, Cun- Cortese says he’s okay with investing more in housing if it means ningham says. In other words, savings gleaned from reduced less need for emergency health care. “We either pay now or pay use of emergency services might make a housing program less later,” he says. expensive, even if the fi nancial benefi ts don’t exceed the net costs. Santa Clara County’s emphasis on the health and social From the standpoint of improving people’s health and well-being, impacts of its housing pay for success project is part of a broader governments may decide that a housing program with cost off sets, reevaluation of what governments and their outside investors not cost savings, is still worth doing. “People who’ve been living want to achieve. “You’ve seen a shift in the conversation,” Milner on the streets for long periods, they have some cumulative health says, “from a deep focus on cost savings to this broader sense of issues that come from just a lifetime of disadvantage,” Cunning- how can projects lead to better outcomes for vulnerable popula- ham says. “As you’re decreasing your emergency care, you’re also tions. Hopefully, cost savings are part of that, but we’re going to ostensibly upping your preventative and primary care. They may have to see.” G not be winding up in the emergency room for hypothermia or alcohol poisoning, but they may be addressing long-term issues Email [email protected]

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EVICTION EPIDEMIC New data show how pervasive evictions are across the U.S.

or many renters living in “We have economic and racial segregation, More than 1 in 12 of Greensboro’s southeast Greensboro, N.C., a concentration of social issues with bad renter households were subject to eviction changing addresses is an outcomes, and families that are stretched judgments in 2016, one of the highest rates all-too-familiar endeavor. to the limit who routinely are finding of any large U.S. city. The city’s aff ordabil- The mostly low-income themselves in eviction court,” says Stephen ity challenges, though, are by no means Fresidents in these communities of concen- Sills, who directs the Center for Housing unique. As seen in other places, stagnant trated poverty often can’t aff ord to pay the and Community Studies at the University incomes for poorer households haven’t monthly rent and are ultimately evicted. of North Carolina at Greensboro. kept up with steadily escalating rents,

Where Americans Are Facing the Most Evictions County Eviction Filing Rate They’re common throughout many parts of the country, particularly Larger markers represent higher those with large African-American populations. eviction ﬁ lings in 2016 given the number of renter-occupied households. BlackBl k Share Sh of f Population P l ti < 5% >=5% >=15% >=25% >=45%

Note:Note: Not all ﬁ lings resulted in evictions. Courts report data inconsistently. In California, New York and some other

jurisdictions, many evictions are sealed. SOURCE: EVICTION LAB, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEYS 58 GOVERNING | June 2018

GOV06_58.indd 58 5/11/18 3:29 PM

By Mike Maciag

contributing to high evictions in areas all such informal evictions accounted for public housing and outdoor areas within across the country. To make matters worse, nearly half the total in Milwaukee. 25 feet of buildings. a tornado ripped through the city in April, Most of the time, tenants threatened States’ landlord-tenant laws vary displacing many residents. with eviction don’t show up to court widely. Cleveland State’s Hatch reviewed A recently launched Princeton hearings. In Guilford County, where all policies around rules such as how many University database compiled from 83 Greensboro is located, only about a quarter days’ notice landlords must give before million court records dating back to 2000 appeared in court, according to Sills’ re- increasing rent or how long they have provides the fi rst-ever national look at search. A big reason for this is that on top to wait before starting eviction proceed- evictions. The Eviction Lab project is of potentially being evicted, Greensboro ings for delinquent renters. Northeastern led by Matthew Desmond, whose recent tenants appearing in court face the pos- states, along with California and a few Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted sibility of a cash judgment against them. others, maintain the most pro-renter sparked a national dialogue on the issue. Ashley Gromis, an Eviction Lab re- laws. North Carolina and other parts of Data reveal that high rates of evic- searcher, says she was surprised to see the South and Midwest tended to favor tions aren’t just confined to expensive many cases popping up in court systems landlords, according to Hatch’s research. housing markets or high-poverty cities. In with the same landlords and tenants at the At the local level, New York last year Hampton, Va., for example, 1 in 10 renters same addresses. This suggests court fi lings became the fi rst city to guarantee all low- faced a court-ordered eviction. And in are being used as a debt collection tool, income residents threatened with eviction Tulsa, Okla., and Killeen, Texas, the rate with tenants likely repeatedly paying for a the right to legal counsel. Other cities are was 1 in 13. “Before these data, we really landlord’s court fee on top of any late fees. establishing legal aid funds. A Harvard didn’t know just how widespread evictions Landlords further hold the upper Law Review study found that renters were,” says Megan Hatch, who researches hand in terms of legal representation. A assigned legal representation were sig- the issue at Cleveland State University. 2004 study of Phoenix-area courts re- nifi cantly more likely to retain their res- The highest eviction rates were gener- ported attorneys represented landlords idences following litigation than those ally found in jurisdictions throughout the in 87 percent of eviction cases, while not without an attorney. Southeast—and not just in urban areas. a single tenant had legal counsel. Some Another approach that’s gaining mo- Some rural and exurban places across nonprofi t groups provide free legal assis- mentum is “just cause” provisions. To evict the U.S. also experience elevated rates of tance, but there aren’t enough of them. a tenant, landlords must provide a reason eviction. Areas with high concentrations of There’s just one such legal aid fi rm serving specifi cally permitted by a local ordinance. African-Americans reported particularly Greensboro’s low-income renters and the The requirement could also help avoid, say, high totals. rest of the state. large-scale evictions when a new owner Brett Byerly, who heads the Greensboro Byerly of the Greensboro Housing acquires an apartment building. Housing Housing Coalition, a group providing Coalition says it’s particularly diffi cult to advocates also suggest preventing evic- housing counseling and support services, fi nd housing for those with an eviction tions makes fi nancial sense for cities given says an estimated 80 percent of the orga- on their record. That’s because landlords the high cost of providing services to those nization’s clients are black and most are are screening prospective tenants with without a place to live. Some are pursu- women, mirroring disparities elsewhere. third-party companies that collect court ing eviction diversion programs, such as a Governing’s calculations of Eviction Lab’s data. California expanded a state law a few mediation service Denver recently piloted. 2016 data for larger counties suggest evic- years ago that seals many of these evic- The Eviction Lab’s Desmond contends tion rates are strongly correlated with tion cases from the general public to help that an eviction is often a cause, not just African-American populations, more so protect renters. a condition, of poverty. About 77 percent than poverty levels and rent burdens. As in a lot of cities, Greensboro’s top of those evicted in the Guilford County Nationally, Eviction Lab estimates evictor is the local public housing au- housing study, for example, reported ex- suggest 2.3 percent of renters experienced thority. Part of that’s due to the popu- periencing some form of homelessness a court-ordered eviction in 2016. But that’s lation such authorities serve and their immediately following eviction. “We can’t a signifi cant undercount. More than twice large housing inventory. Sills says public nudge this problem away,” Desmond said as many evictions were fi led that never housing residents are also subject to more at a recent event in Washington, D.C. “The led to a judgment. Other instances when inspections and stricter rules than people solution to the aff ordable housing crisis is tenants left after receiving notice or were in private developments. Many worry the aff ordable housing.” G paid to do so also aren’t captured in court problem could worsen with a new federal records. Desmond’s research has found mandate prohibiting smoking inside Email [email protected] SOURCE: EVICTION LAB, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEYS June 2018 | GOVERNING 59

GOV06_58.indd 59 5/15/18 2:31 PM

By Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene

Closing the Books A growing number of governments seem bent on limiting access to public records.

he Holy Grail for government nonprofi t that advocates for the public’s devices,” says Amye Bensenhaver, direc- transparency is making it easy right to oversee its government. “It’s not tor of the Bluegrass Institute’s Center for and simple for citizens to know just coming through legislation, but also Open Government , “then when it came to T what their government is doing through the agencies.” the public meeting, everything could have and how it arrives at its decisions. We’ve In Kentucky, for instance, the attor- already been worked out.” always believed this can be achieved, in ney general’s offi ce decided two years ago Even Florida, long known for its open part, by providing access to public records. that government information transmit- public records law, has begun pulling back. Of course, transparency isn’t open- ted through personally owned devices is The last time a systematic count was taken, ended. Every state has statutes clarifying immune from public scrutiny. In other the state had allowed for over 1,100 exemp- what information must be made public words, if two council members sent emails tions in which information could be con- and what information should be kept back and forth using their own cellphones, cealed from the press and public. sealed. However, in recent years there’s the public would have no right to see those What’s more, although the state’s law is been a steady chipping away at the pub- emails, no matter how much impact the expansive, there is no straightforward way lic’s right to know. “This is a trend,” conversation in them might have on a to make sure it is implemented. “We’re says Barbara Petersen, president of the council decision. “If discussion about a really stuck,” says Petersen. “We’ve got First Amendment Foundation, a Florida dispute was conducted on these private this great law, but no means to enforce it other than through the courts.” Another burgeoning threat to the utility of public records laws is the exemp- tion of legislative documents, a step such states as Iowa, Massachusetts and Oklahoma have taken. The state of Washington came close to enacting just such a bill, but the governor vetoed it and no attempt was made to override the veto thanks to a loud and eff ective outcry from the press. There’s another hitch to openness. Many records that would ordinarily be made public escape examination when the organization that maintains them is not a direct part of government. That is, the records have been transferred to a nonprofi t or for-profi t organization, both of which may not have to comply with freedom of information laws. “This is an issue that every city and state should be aware of in their procurement,” says Alex Howard, deputy director of the

Sunlight Foundation, SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

GOV06_60.indd 60 5/11/18 3:32 PM

By Mark Funkhouser

which advocates for transparency. “They should make sure the public’s right to How Racial Equity Makes Cities Better know isn’t being lost.” Addressing it bodes well in terms of long-term outcomes. These disclosure issues can wind up in the courts, where opinions have varied Race is central to the governance of most American cities. Not just because so many across the states, according to Adam policies and practices continue to have a disproportionately negative impact on com- Marshall, an attorney at the Reporters munities of color, but because those practices also reduce cities’ ability to eff ectively Committee for Freedom of the Press. manage the major challenges they face, such as aff ordable housing, crime and public Some of the factors the courts might take health. And while the assertion I’m making is grounded in verifi able fact, it is largely into account include how much funding invisible to most white people, including most white civic leaders. the entity receives from the city or state, But the centrality of race is not invisible to Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of the functions it performs and the degree to New Orleans. In his new book, In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts which the government controls what the History, Landrieu describes growing up in a very progressive political family. His private entity does. father, Moon Landrieu, was mayor in the 1970s and was a huge force in integrating Another barrier to access exists when New Orleans. a state or locality charges high fees for Still, Mitch did not understand the impact of the city’s Confederate statues on its providing information. For example, in black population. That is until he met with Wynton Marsalis, the African-American Florida, Charlotte County approved one- musician and composer who is a New Orleans native. Landrieu wanted his help in sixth the number of requests for informa- planning the city’s tricentennial. Marsalis agreed, but asked for something in return: tion that Polk County did, yet it collected removal of the city’s Robert E. Lee statue. three times the amount of money, accord- Why, Landrieu asked, was that so important? “Let me help you see it through ing to the University of Florida and the my eyes,” Marsalis replied. “Who is he? What does he represent? And in that most First Amendment Foundation. The reason: prominent space in the city of New Orleans, does that space refl ect who we were, who Charlotte charged $50 for every request, we want to be, or who we are?” Landrieu writes that he felt “blindsided” and wanted no matter how small; Polk, $10 per request. to fi nd a way to tell Marsalis why he couldn’t do what he was asking. In the end, of Clearly, in the best of all worlds, when course, Landrieu did take down the statues of Lee and other prominent Confederates. a citizen is turned down on a request for There is a way to ensure that the impact of race on cities is made visible and ad- public information, she should be able to dressed. It is embedded in the Equipt to Innovate framework developed jointly by seek out people who can help. But states the research team at Governing and the nonprofi t Living Cities. The framework, and localities don’t always publish their which is used to assess cities on their capacity to grow and innovate, is public record stewards’ names. According anchored in seven key characteristics of high-performance government. to a Florida audit, “there’s a substantial But what makes it unique in its usefulness is having at its center a racial absence of so-called public report custo- equity lens. We recently released the second annual Equipt to Innovate dians in the state.” The audit found that report, which you can fi nd at governing.com/equipt. 10 percent of the agencies it surveyed did Identifying and addressing issues of race bodes well in terms of long- not have a designated public records custo- term outcomes. A recent Brookings Institution report analyzing data dian; 10 percent didn’t have the custodian from the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas found that the rela- contact information on their website; and tionship between prosperity and inclusion “grows larger and stronger 1 in 5 said the information was online, but with time.” To me, this only makes sense. In a globally competitive independent auditors could not fi nd it. world, the morally right thing to do—working to create a more inclu-

Technology is becoming a means to APIMAGES.COM sive city—is also the economically smart thing to do. G eff ective gathering and analysis of data that can be used to guide management eff orts. Email [email protected] So, it’s ironic and counterproductive that it’s increasingly diffi cult for the public to Workers remove get to the actual data. “This is becoming New Orleans’ a bigger problem,” says Daniel Bevarly, Robert E. executive director of the National Freedom Lee statue. of Information Coalition. “The public sector is lagging behind the preferences of the people they represent.” G

Email [email protected]

GOV06_60.indd 61 5/11/18 3:32 PM

By Justin Marlowe

A New View of P3s The real money is not in roads and bridges. It’s in people and services.

hese are dark days for public- about an app user’s shopping habits or to P3s raise several concerns. Smartphones private partnerships. President place targeted ads and coupons in front of are a great way to reach low-income Trump’s P3-focused infrastruc- that user. Early results show Fresh EBT Americans, but they can’t reach everyone. T ture fi nance plan was dismissed customers stretch their benefi ts further Like any app, these innovations raise ques- by Congress as a dead-on-arrival proposal. and eat healthier. Either way, it’s an in- tions about data privacy and security, es- Earlier this year, more than 80 organiza- triguing new form of P3 with big impli- pecially around banking records and other tions and trade unions signed a letter im- cations for local public health directors, sensitive information. And some worry ploring the World Bank to stop supporting among others. these tools oversimplify the complex infrastructure P3s. One of the biggest in The ultimate measure of success is social safety net, and that could encour- recent history, the Indiana Toll Road, fell scalability. Food stamps reach 45 million age damaging cuts in social workers and into bankruptcy last year after a long and people and account for $70 billion in other wraparound services. If these P3s are diffi cult ride. annual federal and state spending. That’s to be successful, these are just a few of the Does this mean P3s are a passing fad? why it is no surprise that some of Silicon challenges they’ll need to work through. Far from it. Most trends suggest the U.S. Valley’s top venture capitalists have lined This latest wave of P3s leverages private- transportation P3 sector is just getting off up to invest millions in Propel. sector innovation to change how under- the ground. As long as the private sector Another example is Honor, an app that served populations interact with the social has ideas to help deliver infrastructure serves the $250 billion home care industry. safety net. Perhaps more important, small faster, safer and cheaper, state and local Millions of elderly Americans need some changes at the margins, such as making politicians will be happy to listen. combination of non-medical in-home ser- these programs work more effi ciently and But all this focus on P3s for infrastruc- vices like preventive health care, transpor- eff ectively, could mean billions in state and ture misses a fundamental truth: The real tation and nutrition monitoring. Honor local savings. The possibilities are endless. money is not in roads and bridges. It’s in off ers a wide range of these types of ser- Where is the app to improve on-demand people and services. Today the “Big 3”— vices on demand. Home care providers pay access to paratransit services? Or to help education, Medicaid and corrections— Honor to make their services available on recent parolees fi nd a job? Or to help better account for more than two-thirds of total the app. Better access to home care can manage government fl eet vehicle mainte- state spending, according to the National help keep millions of seniors out of ex- nance? Those may not be the most exciting Association of State Budget Offi cers. By pensive, residential assisted-living units. apps, but they’re the P3s we need now contrast, state spending on capital projects That’s an enticing value proposition for more than ever. G is barely 10 percent. The story is similar state Medicaid directors. in cities and counties, where public safety To be clear, these Silicon Valley-style Email [email protected] and social services are crowding out all other spending. This begs a natural question: Can P3s improve outcomes and drive cost savings in core state and local services? Fortunately, there are a few early examples where the answer is yes. (See “For Money or For Good?,” page 52.) Consider Propel, a tech startup based in Brooklyn. It has developed a mobile app called Fresh EBT that serves food stamp Early results show recipients. The free app allows recipients Fresh EBT helps food to track their spending, develop a grocery stamp recipients stretch budget and fi nd sales at local participat- their benefi ts further ing grocery stores. In turn, Propel makes and eat healthier.

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/FRESH EBT money when retailers pay for information

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They’ve been playing baseball at the intersection of Michigan and Trumbull avenues in Detroit since 1896. The Corner, as it’s known, is synonymous with the game in the Motor City. Tiger Stadium opened on the spot in 1912, was abandoned after an 87-year run and unceremoniously razed in 2009. While the Detroit Tigers got a brand-new ballpark downtown, the old fi eld and base paths were overtaken by weeds and litter. Occasionally, it was cleaned up for kids’ games and neighborhood events. The old fi eld was even a dog park for a bit. But since March, baseball is back at The Corner. The Detroit Police Athletic League recently opened a $21 million headquarters there and refurbished the fi eld. It’s aptly named “The Corner Ballpark.” The grass was ditched in favor of turf and the stands now seat 2,500 instead of the old park’s 45,000. —David Kidd KEITH TOLMAN

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