Everything is Local if Your Arms are as Big as The World

Local participation is vital to American politics. Many have lost the ability to manage up.

The original North American settlers built a reputation upon local government after escaping a very-not local government; it’s in American political DNA that we should ground decision-making at the smallest form of government and that we should grant powers to a larger government only by the will of the people. This sensibility has been warped by time and the ossification of history; no one alive remembers the struggle for self-governance and we’re bound to history by text and interpretation of text. When local democracies—borne from town halls—lose their ability to self-govern by the sheer complexity of need, which many have, they must rely on larger governments to help organize and pay for infrastructure, welfare, and necessary services. We’re focused on infrastructure here, so let’s dive into what has happened, and eventually what we can do about it.

Metropolitan Planning Organizations to the rescue?

When government works well, it’s invisible. It should act proactively to get out in front of big issues: some people call it a safety net. It should respond to current needs before they become crises. We know America’s infrastructure is crumbling and old and we know that the collapse of a bridge in Philadelphia is one of many dominos to fall. We probably know where the next one will be. When I say, “we,” I’m proxying metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that exist at the regional level. It’s hard to say whether their relative invisibility is by design or by mistake. As it stands, MPOs are the most important organizations that exist out of reach for many small towns. 

MPOs are federally mandated and funded regional organizations for “metropolitan areas” of more than 50,000. As of 2023, there are over 400 such organizations in the United States. If you live in a city, there’s an MPO that sits on top of the collection of local governments that helps to draft a coordinated regional plan called a Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) every four years that ensures that there’s regional coordination among local projects and that parochial interests are folded into a vision for the future. 

If you live in a big city, your MPO is likely dominated by big-city politics and projects; if you live in a medium city, your MPO is likely beholden to a cabal of suburban, disgruntled communities hell-bent on preventing urbanism from leaking; if you live in a small town, your interests likely fall under the political Mendoza line—the futility of attention for small projects is hardly documented at all. Some MPOs make it a point to do outreach to tiny towns; we commend them. Often the outreach is bundled with other pressing needs for lack of time and for lack of a shared language. If there’s such a thing as death by a thousand cuts, then there’s also such a thing as life by a thousand band-aids. A modern MPO should do its best to embrace the needs of small places and these small places should make it their concern to have their concerns be known by the organization with the power to do something about it.

The Toxic Discourse

This “discourse,” a conversation among local and regional partners, has a blueprint for success, but it has become increasingly challenging to navigate. The discussion should look like this: 

• The MPO and its local partners should develop a shared language to help define problems that are in the way of regional economic, social, and environmental success. This language should be reevaluated often, as often as conditions change. 

• Projects should develop in response to local need, regional sustainability, and a shared responsibility to cost, maintenance, upkeep, and eventual replacement.

• Projects should then be prioritized based on an apples-to-apples comparison of benefits and costs. Context continues to be key, however: as part of a regional evaluation when deciding between two projects, or among a larger suite, an MPO might ask which one has a larger, immediate effect on the citizens of a place. Is that the deciding factor or is it the basis for comparison? 

• Successful projects should be monitored and operations and minor capital improvements should be adjusted accordingly.

But there are many hurdles and obstacles in the way for this process to proceed everywhere—anywhere. Let’s talk through what’s stopping us from a frictionless development process:

• Distractions—we only have so much room in each of our brains and only so much time to dedicate to any given pressing issue at one time. Some of these distractions are on purpose—bad faith actors know very well how to capitalize upon a negative energy or campaign. See: the Nashville transit referendum, which voters overwhelmingly rejected. Why? More transit is good, right?

• Some “distractions” are not distractions at all—the modern world has us inundated with distraction upon event upon thought upon influencer. There’s only so much room for more even though we want to fill the cup to the brim. A sidewalk or a pothole can seem like the least of our worries with everything else occupying our minds. The question becomes not, “How do we care about potholes when I can’t pay rent,” the question must instead be, “How does fixing a pothole help me cover my rent?” Better: “How does adding a sidewalk help me access more services and jobs?”

• Complicated, interwoven problems—the interconnectedness of our systems, transportation and not, has made a mountain out of solving even a simple idea like a molehill of filling a pothole. Depending on where you live, many factors can play into why the roads continue to deteriorate, and why we can’t build rail or transit in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

The MPO was (and is) a great idea, but it’s still not working at being the switchboard between local problems and state funding sources. Why? Communications pathways have not been resilient in the face of all of the above. The language isn’t consistent up and down or left and right and different, well-meaning agency personnel do not communicate efficiently or effectively to correctly identify the problems that need to be solved, let alone navigating the above. 

What can you do about it?

It’s a tough question but all is not hopeless. It’s often hard to break into MPO-world without an agenda, and if the MPO doesn’t take input seriously, it’s equally hard to tell the MPO what your problems are as a citizen if you don’t speak the language—the funding, the exacting language needed to shoehorn a project into a TIP or a STIP or a grant. 

• Find your MPO here. Don’t live in an “urban area” of more than 50,000 people? Here’s a resource to get you started. A key difference, if you’re wondering, is MPOs are required and RTPOs (regional transportation planning organizations) are simply allowed. Many states encourage and foster them to help uncover barriers to access for people living outside of the dense urban cores.

• See if there’s a way to join or form a committee to audit and catalog your community’s problems—start at the block level; no, start by gathering your neighbors in civic duty. Engagement starts at one: Send an email to your neighborhood listserv (or create one); engage on Facebook (at your peril—or delight!); be engaged on Nextdoor or a similar goings-on community.

• Ensure that the group understands how projects are built—at least at a rudimentary level—in your state and region. Know the roadblocks and prepare to help get around them. The easier your community is to work with the more likely your community will be looked upon favorably by funders and builders. 

• While pursuing this exercise, as with anything, be on the lookout for bad actors and opportunists. If there’s a list, someone will try to push bad projects onto the list and pull good projects off of the list for a variety of reasons; bad information, moneyed influence—lots of reasons. There is a difference between a project you disagree with or a problem that’s been misidentified and one that’s on purpose. Get smart—that’s all there is to it. If you want to see positive change in your community, the best way is to shrink the length between your arms and your center for power and infrastructure money.

Sam Sklar is the author and community builder behind a semi-regular newsletter called Exasperated Infrastructures where he writes about institutional transportation reform and conducts interviews with industry experts. He has twelve years of experience building community and working for equity and dignity in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.