When Government Fails

I tell people that a book that has a great deal of influence on my thinking is The Future Once Happened Here, published in 1997. It's a book about the decline of cities, using DC, LA, and NYC as case studies. A lot has happened in 10 years. But it is still a scary read.

The book is widely considered to be "conservative," a kind of blaming the victim piece, and it gets excoriated in progressive circles.

But I consider it to be a tome to learn from, to be warned by, and accurate and descriptive.

It's true that as Marion Orr writes in Black Social Capital, that urban political systems have been yielded to African-American control during a time when for the most part cities were abandoned by national political policy and resources were meager and constrained.

But there is still no excuse for not demanding excellence and accountability. "The People" can't afford failure.

See for example, "A violent tempest in New Orleans," from the Los Angeles Times, about rampant crime in New Orleans, and how the District Attorney dropped the murder case against someone who allegedly killed 5 teenagers because the office couldn't find the only witness. But the reality was they never tried. They didn't phone the witness or bother to go to her house or place of work.

This is but one example of why rebuilding New Orleans may be doomed.

What do you do when democracy fails?


LA Times graphic