Commentaries

Commentaries are contributed, non-commercial and educational articles that subject matter experts write for American City & County. If you would like to submit an exclusive commentary, click here to view our guidelines.

Highlights

Can street lights provide a solution when it comes to rural broadband connectivity?

The pandemic gave many Americans the opportunity to work remotely from home during the lockdown....

Key power backup solutions for the active storm season ahead

While Disney’s Frozen Princess Elsa could conjure up ice and snow, the hurricane sharing her...

Repurposing closed landfills to alleviate constrained budgets and meet sustainability goals

Among the many disruptions the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about, one issue that has been...

Can street lights provide a solution when it comes to rural broadband connectivity?

The pandemic gave many Americans the opportunity to work remotely from home during the lockdown. Now, with more people than ever being able to work from anywhere they can get online, many have taken the opportunity to rethink whether they want to live in big cities or crowded suburbs—and they are flocking to exurban communities, […]

Commentary

Key power backup solutions for the active storm season ahead

While Disney’s Frozen Princess Elsa could conjure up ice and snow, the hurricane sharing her name recently brought a different type of storm to cities and counties up the East Coast. With 75 mph winds and heavy rains, Hurricane Elsa became one of the earliest forming fifth-named storms on record in the Atlantic and portended […]

Commentary

Repurposing closed landfills to alleviate constrained budgets and meet sustainability goals

Among the many disruptions the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about, one issue that has been exacerbated is the budget strain among municipalities of all sizes across the nation. A Pew study of 13 American cities found that all of them had budget shortfalls for 2021, most ranging between 4.5 percent to 17 percent. With many […]

Commentary

City governing: A guide to approaching economic growth like a business

As we shift to a post-pandemic world, city leadership is more crucial than ever. Residents and businesses alike depend on their local governance to implement practices that support growth and strengthen the community. Approaching leadership from a business perspective yields more business expansion, retention and synergy within a community—all of which are critical components to […]

Commentary

Decorum and civility in the public sector

In a two-part set of articles, we look at an issue confronting agencies at their highest levels—the elected body engaged in increasingly bad behavior and what can be done to guide them back to decorum and civility. The first article identifies some of the issues confronting agencies and provides a foundation for addressing the issues—educating […]

Commentary

Four strategies every municipal leader should consider as local economies rebound

As vaccination rates rise and the pandemic becomes more manageable, mayors, city administrators and other municipal leaders have their work cut out for them. In the months ahead, local leaders must shift some of their attention from public health to economics—that is, rebuilding Main Street after a year and a half of shutdowns, closures, layoffs […]

Commentary

The value of putting data at the center of your operations

When our team at Pima County, Ariz., formed the Department of Analytics and Data Governance in January of 2018, the goal was simple: modernize our data operations so that our leadership could make faster, more informed decisions to better serve our nearly one million residents. We knew we were sitting on this treasure trove of […]

Commentary

Optimizing the citizen experience with interactive portals and one-door entry policies

IT leaders are rethinking citizen communications as the pandemic has led constituents to use hundreds of services online. From employment-related information to updates on the pandemic’s impact on communities, residents are hungry for information that is often culled from numerous sources including federal, state and local organizations, hospitals, insurance companies and more. As these services […]

Commentary

When it comes to autonomous vehicles, it’s time municipalities got into the driver’s seat

As the host of the “Connected and Autonomous Vehicles 101 National Roadshow,” I have conducted seminars for planners, city administrators and municipal employees in many metro areas around the country. The one thing that everyone who attends these seminars wants to know is: while we wait for self-driving cars, what should municipalities, counties or MPOs […]

Commentary

Can this new technology make planting trees an affordable way for cities to clean-up contaminated sites?

Cleaning up contaminated sites can get messy for municipalities. Local governments are constantly struggling with industrial contamination sites and how to appropriately—and affordably—clean up the land. Even when these pollutants fall on private land, the public agencies with oversight still bear the negative effects as that contaminated land could stymie future development for years. These […]

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Commentaries

Commentaries are contributed, non-commercial and educational articles that subject matter experts write for American City & County. If you would like to submit an exclusive commentary, click here to view our guidelines.

Highlights

Can street lights provide a solution when it comes to rural broadband connectivity?

Key power backup solutions for the active storm season ahead

Repurposing closed landfills to alleviate constrained budgets and meet sustainability goals

Can street lights provide a solution when it comes to rural broadband connectivity?

Commentary

Key power backup solutions for the active storm season ahead

Commentary

Repurposing closed landfills to alleviate constrained budgets and meet sustainability goals

Commentary

City governing: A guide to approaching economic growth like a business

Commentary

Decorum and civility in the public sector

Commentary

Four strategies every municipal leader should consider as local economies rebound

Commentary

The value of putting data at the center of your operations

Commentary

Optimizing the citizen experience with interactive portals and one-door entry policies

Commentary

When it comes to autonomous vehicles, it’s time municipalities got into the driver’s seat

Commentary

Can this new technology make planting trees an affordable way for cities to clean-up contaminated sites?

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