Comment 48137

By highwater (registered) | Posted September 23, 2010 at 21:40:01

I wouldn't be so smug about US cities pulling themselves up by their supposed bootstraps. There's a ton of federal funding available for things like heritage preservation and brownfield remediation in the states that simply isn't available here. Federal governments of all political strips in this country have an abysmal record on supporting cities. I'm not sure which US cities you are referring to exactly that have rebuilt themselves, but if you look closely, I'm sure you will find there were lots of federal dollars involved.

You are certainly ahead of us, but it is not in rugged individualism, but rather in the recognition that investing in cities has an enormous pay off. The successes of Portland and Raleigh that Cooke cites, came through massive forces of political will. In the case of Raleigh's schools in particular, an amazing degree of social engineering was involved that is hard to imagine being accepted in this country. I'm afraid the lesson to be learned here is that government has a huge role to play, and it's high time that higher levels of government in this country stepped up as they have in the states.

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