A superb lesson in DC "growth machine" politics from Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)

Food Court: Mall developer Miller woos politicos via lavish receptions.(Photo by Darrow Montgomery, Washington City Paper). A la Animal Farm, some "voters" are more important than others...

I am a fervent proponent of the Growth Machine thesis, first laid out by sociologist Harvey Molotch, in the seminal article, City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place. From the abstract:

A city and, more generally, any locality, is conceived as the areal expression of the interests of some land-based elite. Such an elite is seen to profit through the increasing intensification of the land use of the area in which its members hold a common interest. An elite competes with other land-based elites in an effort to have growth-inducing resources invested within its own area as opposed to that of another. Governmental authority, at the local and nonlocal levels, is utilized to assist in achieving this growth at the expense of competing localities. Conditions of community life are largely a consequence of the social, economic, and political forces embodied in this growth machine.

Political scientist Clarence Stone, a professor at University of Maryland has a competing thesis, that of the "urban regime." I don't think these theories are competing so much as different sides of the same coin. "Growth Machine" theory explains the motivation of "the land-based elite," and "urban regime" theory explains in detail how the land-based elite operates and functions.

Professor Stone was kind enough to send me his recent paper, "Now What? The continuing evolution of Urban Regime analysis," from 2005. He writes:

An urban regime can be preliminarily defined as the informal arrangements through which a locality is governed (Stone 1989). Because governance is about sustained efforts, it is important to think in agenda terms rather than about stand-alone issues. By agenda I mean the set of challenges which policy makers accord priority. A concern with agendas takes us away from focusing on short-term controversies and instead directs attention to continuing efforts and the level of weight they carry in the political life of a community. Rather than treating issues as if they are disconnected, a governance perspective calls for considering how any given issue fits into a flow of decisions and actions. This approach enlarges the scope of what is being analyzed, looking at the forest not a particular tree here or there. (emphasis added, in this paragraph and below)

In discussing Atlanta, Stone writes: "Land use, transportation, and housing formed an interrelated agenda that the city's major economic interests were keen to advance;" and

By looking closely at the policy role of business leaders and how their position in the civic structure of a community enabled that role, he identified connections between Atlanta's governing coalition and the resources it brought to bear, and on to the scheme of cooperation that made this informal system work. In his own way, Hunter had identified the key elements in an urban regime – governing coalition, agenda, resources, and mode of cooperation. These elements could be brought into the next debate about analyzing local politics, a debate about structural determinism.

Getting back to DC...

"Loose Lips" is the local politics gossip column in the Washington City Paper. For years it was the key column that explained the ins and outs of DC Politics. E.g., the original columnist coined the phrase "Mayor for Life" to refer to Marion Barry.

The current Loose Lips columnist, James Jones, maybe got off to a rocky start as he replaced a popular columnist (Elissa Silverman who now writes for the Washington Post) and he had some evident errors in his first column.

He made up for all of that and more with the current column, which is probably one of the absolute best Loose Lips columns of all time (or at least, the 19 years I've been reading the City Paper).

"Miller Time," an "exposé" of Herb Miller, president of Western Development Corporation, explains what the DC Growth Machine is all about--keeping local politics and politicos subservient to the land use and development agenda of business elites.

If you want an explanation of DC's governing coalition, agenda, resources, and mode of cooperation, it's all there in "Miller Time." From the article:

The big deal of late for Miller is baseball. He firmly believes the stadium deal will kick-start development in the ballpark area of Southeast and yield huge benefits for the city. His company is also one of four firms overseeing the building of an entertainment and retail complex on the stadium site. These four companies will split the proceeds on a multi-billion-dollar venture.

And who knows what council actions may be needed to move the development along? Miller isn’t taking any chances. He seems bent on pulverizing the council’s already diminutive liberal wing, which consists of sometimes-feuding councilmembers Adrian Fenty, Phil Mendelson, and Jim Graham. Mendelson is up for re-election this year, and Miller wants the NIMBY sensibility off the dais.

Last week, D.C. Council at-large candidate A. Scott Bolden, who’s battling Mendelson for his seat, was the guest of honor at a Miller-compound fundraiser. Bolden has all the professional bona fides he needs to woo the pro-business crowd. A partner in the Reed Smith law firm, the Penn Quarter resident was once president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.

Bolden hopped an easy ride on the money train. All he had to do was convince Miller that he supports the baseball-stadium deal.

It's ugly, but that's the way it is.

And if you don't understand the DC Growth Machine, prepare to be schooled in the coming election. The Growth Machine wants every seat on Council, every one... because nine seats out of thirteen aren't enough!

Thank you City Paper! Thank you "Loose Lips!"
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Disclosure: my recent email thread about public urination a/k/a "pissing" was covered in a recent City Paper "City Desk," blog entry. (So I guess I'll have to add the City Desk link to my blog. I had been holding off, because I still think the City Paper's cover stories have room for improvement, especially when compared to other papers such as the Baltimore City Paper, Philadelphia City Paper, and Philadelphia Weekly.)