“The problems we have as a country don’t go away because the federal government leaves the stage,” says Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, CEO of Accelerator for America, on the latest episode of How To Really Run A City. “All this stuff lands on the front steps of City Hall.”
And then what? That’s what hosts Kasim Reed (former mayor of Atlanta) and Michael Nutter (former mayor of Philadelphia), along with Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt, explore with Brown University Professor Marc Dunkelman, author of the new book, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress — and How to Bring It Back.
“We need to rethink the balance between our impulse to empower central authority and the attempts to ensure that power doesn’t do damage,” says Dunkelman.
Dunkelman highlights the push and pull of centralized power in U.S. politics, tracing a line from the Progressive Era of the late 19th century to the destructive anger of modern MAGAism.
Reed weighed in with his experience. “Fair is harder,” he says. “I believe in action-oriented leadership. Move faster. Be decisive. Be more inclusive, yes, but by god, do something.”
Join us for an unvarnished discussion about why trust in both politics and infrastructure continues to be broken in this country, along with steps we can take to actually make things work.
As Dunkelman says, “There’s a fantasy that if you just get everyone around a table, they will eventually come to an agreement. The truth is, we need deciders. That’s why we have elections.”
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As cities go, so goes the nation!
