Good Afternoon,
Urban Governance - as employees or students of public service, we are bound to hear this term at least a few times, if not as a recurring theme ...At first, I was eluded (by this question) in terms of how it was relevant to a think tank - particularly the Morrison Institute. Soon I realized, think tanks are vital organizations for incorporating representativeness, participation, citizen duties and rights, fairness, accountability, and legitimacy (http://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/governance-define.html).
As a publicly funded policy based think tank, the Morrison Institute seeks to address the most pressing needs of the state. This means citizen representativeness is at the heart what is being advocated. In other words, many of the projects center around citizen engagement, voter participation, i.e. how to get potential voters more involved, and ensuring more fair and representative policies and laws are legislated.
My supervisor is very involved with municipal issues and governance, particularly issues associated with disability, citizens rights and engagement and homelessness. In a previous post which discussed the Citizen's Initiative Review - the Morrison Institute wanted to address how to incorporate more people to participate in everyday society (citizen engagement). Moreover, this particular study, as well as the more recent study which looked at Arizona's Independent Voters examined what propels individuals to vote for particular candidates. Many of the themes centering around urban governance are directly linked with the consumer survey that I have been helping to disseminate. This survey is looking to address whether citizens feel like they are being treated with fairness, if there is accountability within Phoenix City Services and whether service delivery needs to be improved. Hopefully, this survey will lead to improvements within city services (police, fire, mental health agencies) and individuals with mental health issues.
Transparency can often be a problem for governments, at any level. Technically, information and data are within the reach of all citizens, however to obtain this information is not always an easy task. As Erica McFadden mentioned when you are trying to gather information from city officials, whether that be about a particular decision that was cast, or the official # of people killed during a flash flood, it can sometimes take several days. Anyways, local governance is an ever-evolving field and one in which the Morrison Institute has been contributing with various projects and will continue to do so in the future.
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