机汇

All of this is playing out in real time with Opportunity Zones. A tax incentive created by the federal government to channel market capital to areas of disinvestment is being routinized only partially by the traditional route, i.e., the promulgation of federal rules. In addition, cities and investors are creating norms and models that could drive a new system of community development (see here). Already we are seeing new community regeneration visions (e.g., the “street corner” thesis), new market tools (e.g., Investment Prospectuses), new mechanisms for building “capital stacks” or community desired projects (e.g., financing charrettes) and new community institutions (e.g., the Baltimore Neighborhood Impact Fund, the Erie Downtown Development Corporation) that bode well for the future.

Our federal republic, of course, is far from perfect. There are functions – creating a strong safety net, for example, and closing the widening gap between sluggish incomes and raising prices – that can only be performed at scale at the national level. And the local institutions we do have can be dramatically improved and strengthened. As Luise Noring and I recently wrote for CityLab, countries like Denmark and Germany have created powerful local institutions that are better at leveraging publicly owned land and buildings than US counterparts. And the Danish cooperative structure has enormous potential to share benefits rather than extract wealth (see here).

All of this is true. And there is much work to be done. But I return home marveling at the special DNA of this messy, maddening, divided nation.