Category: Writing
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SimCity Showed Us Brilliant Civic Tech Interfaces 30 Years Ago. We Should Build Them for Real Now
This article was originally published on Gotham Gazette on May 8, 2019 I was eight years old when I first encountered a computer game called SimCity. The general premise of the game was that you were the mayor of a virtual city, and you would use game money to create a place for communities of “Sims” to live.…
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Madrid Demonstrates Successful Civic Engagement. Let’s Pay Attention as We Launch New York City Commission
This article was originally published on Gotham Gazette on March 24, 2019 Madrid turns its residents’ collective passions and intelligence into tangible improvements to city life. New York should do the same. New Yorkers had until February 22 to apply to join the Civic Engagement Commission (CEC), a new entity that city voters approved last election to manage civic…
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Moving Toward a Metro-Regional Approach to Planning and Advocacy
This article was originally published on Gotham Gazette on December 8, 2018 New York City and its neighbors have a problem. Unlike Los Angeles, Chicago, and the other major U.S. metropolitan areas that fit neatly within the standard city, county, and state political boundaries, our metropolitan area of over 22 million people does not. We’re…
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New York City Shouldn’t Regulate Ride-Hailing Apps – It Should Compete With Them
This article was originally published on Gotham Gazette on November 30, 2018 Smartphones are transforming transit in cities all over the world, and city governments are struggling to figure out how to best manage the change. If the world was looking to New York City’s recently enacted legislation affecting for-hire vehicle companies, then there will be disappointment…