as Bob Putnam lays out in Bowling Alone, participation in parent-teacher organizations has dropped from more than 12 million in 1964 to about 7 million. Despite decades of increased urban migration bringing us more physically proximate to each other, we don’t know each other better — instead, our reported feelings of loneliness have shockingly doub... See more

. For those with faith in public policy, the city emerges as the main level for experimentation[287] in a world where the the state has shrunk from its role as a positive agent of change. That’s because most social innovations in history were first implemented at the local level, either by the authorities, by activists, or by individuals themselves

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The most obvious of the three, although it is seldom called a neighborhood, is the city as a whole. We must never forget or minimize this parent community while thinking of a city’s smaller parts. This is the source from which most public money flows, even when it comes ultimately from the federal or state coffers. This is where most administrative

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