A new report from IBM argues that the health of the country depends on the health of our cities, but the current “business model” of most local governments is not sustainable in the current environment of budget cuts and little to no local revenue growth. Local governments’ current problems, the report’s authors argue, are structural, and not totally a symptom of the recession, and the provision of public infrastructure cannot be financed with existing public revenue streams.
IBM
Dear Cities: IBM Wants to Hang Out
From the Personal Democracy website, an article describes an IBM project (“Smarter Cities Challenge”) to send 100 IBM employees to cities around the world to use technology in addressing a specific problem or opportunity.