Anthony Flint says that we have a lot of work ahead of us to retrofit America for the next century, from replacing water heaters to replacing old government structures with new, more regional ones.
"At the local level, a more regional approach is necessary to marry land use and transportation, for example. 'How else would we govern, except the way that we have settled?' asks Portland Metro councilor Robert Liberty in the recently released documentary film, Portland: Quest for the Livable City.
But it is the federal government that truly needs a version 2.0, to meet the energy, climate, transportation, and economic development challenges of the 21st century. After a few weeks on the job, Xavier de Sousa Briggs, associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is astonished at how Washington's agencies were 'invented for 1977.'
'We cannot partner [with cities] better unless we're more integrated in how we function,' Briggs said [...]"
FULL STORY: A Government Retrofit: Federal Coordination
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