Amid election deniers and political polarization, it's easy to overlook the times when democracy is actually working. We do that this week in a hopeful conversation about resident-centered government. Elected officials and administrative staff like city planners often have the best intentions when it comes to development and redevelopment, but political and professional incentives push them to pursue projects that lure in outsiders rather than serving people who live in their communities.
Our guest this week is Michelle Wilde Anderson, a professor of property, local government, and environmental justice at Stanford Law School and the author of The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America. The book tells the stories of revitalization efforts in Stockton, California, Josephine, Oregon, Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Detroit, Michigan. In each instance, residents organized to fix small problems that turned into large-scale change. It's a model that anyone can replicate and our democracy will be stronger for it.
The Fight to Save the Town by Michelle Wilde Anderson
Is common ground hiding in plain sight?
When four threats to democracy collide
Wynton Marsalis on democracy as jazz and The Ever Fonky Lowdown
News deserts are democracy deserts, too
The Supreme Court's politics and power
The perfect storm for election disaster
The 2020 election from WPSU's Take Note
Hong Kong's fight is everyone's fight
Sheriffs 101
Students learn, students vote
A dark side to "laboratories of democracy"
A fall preview — with a new cohost!
YIMBYs and NIMBYs in a democracy
After 100 years, there's still no "woman voter"
She Votes! — Susan B. Anthony and "voting while female"
Reason in politics and hope for democracy
The people who choose the President
Broken Ground: Robert Bullard on environmental justice
The world's most punitive democracy [revisited]
Suspect citizens in a democracy [revisited]
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