Talking Headways Podcast: Metro Areas — True Laboratories of Democracy
This week I’m joined by Bruce Katz, vice president of the Brookings Institution and founder of its Metropolitan Policy Program. We chat about devolution in Great Britain –the idea of moving power away from national bureaucracies and towards metropolitan governance — and the power of metropolitan areas around the world.
There is much that America could learn from Britain’s move towards more metropolitan control. States with several metro areas could follow the UK example by moving more power to local authorities, and cities already may have more power than they realize. We also talk about what mayors want from federal policy and what kind of leaders and coalitions are needed in U.S. regions to make change.
“For folks who care about transit, intercity rail, or infrastructure,” says Bruce, “the next decade is going to be a tough decade for the U.S. in particular, because so much of the funding is going to be shifted to entitlement programs. The U.S. is becoming a health care company with an army.”
Take a listen and — extra bonus — hear what Bruce thinks of the coming year of presidential politics.
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
Comments are closed.
