How Did the Capitol End Up There?

The history of Juneau becoming the capital of Alaska is pretty straightforward.

The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 Million (I’m sure the Russkies wish they could take deal back). The original Alaskan territorial capital was in Sitka due to Russians originally settling there and the city served as a hub for commercial activity, mainly whaling and fur trading. However, the Klondike Gold Rush changed Alaska as over 100,000 prospectors traveled north between 1896 and 1899 with the hopes of riches. Juneau quickly became the most prosperous city in Alaska because of the mining industry and it made total sense to move the territorial capital to Juneau in 1906. Alaska was admitted as a full blown state in 1959 and Juneau was established as the 49th state capital.

But the story isn’t how the capitol ended up in Juneau. It’s about its consistent struggle to hold on to the capitol.

You see, there is no road that connects to Juneau. So the only way to get there is by plane or ferry (and the ferry takes a minimum of 4.5 hours). That can be an issue for any state capital, but particularly when your state is the largest by land area. It would be an understatement to say that state legislators from outside of Juneau do not care for the commute.

Their answer? Try to move the capital somewhere else. Here is a quick summary of the times that the rest of the state has pushed to relocate the capital out of Juneau…

• 1960 - First attempt to relocated due to how isolated Juneau is from the rest of the state. The goal was to move it to Wasilla, which is about halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks (where majority of Alaskans lived at this point). This ballot measure failed.

• 1962 - Ballot measure to move the capital to unnamed location in Western Alaska. Failed.

• 1974 - Statewide referendum to move the capital from Juneau to a location at least 30 miles from both Anchorage and Fairbanks. This one actually passes and the Alaska Capital Site Selection Commission is formed to pick a new capital location.

• 1976 - Referendum to determine where the new capital should be. Voters pick Willow.

• 1978 - Now the hard part….paying for it. A ballot proposition is presented to issue $966M in bonds to build the new capital in Willow. Voters hate this cost and the proposition fails spectacularly.

• 1978 - The FRANK (Financial Responsibility Act for a New Capital) proposition passes that requires that all future capital move costs be publicly calculated and approved by voters before any money can be spent.

At this point, most figured the case was closed on moving the capital from Juneau. But some people would not let their dream of an easier commute to govern die. Let’s keep going.

• 1982 - Voters are presented with a ballot measure for a $2.8B plan to relocate the capital to Willow. Voters reject it decidedly.

• 1994 - Another ballot measure to move the capital, this time to Wasilla. Fails.

• 1994 - FRANK initiative is fortified and voters require any bond to be approved by the electorate that covers all relocation costs before any funds are spent.

• 2002 - Measure is put on the ballot to move the legislature activities, but not the capital itself, to Matanuska-Susitna. Voters say no.

• 2022 - Three Alaskan legislators in the State House put forth a bill to move the capital to Willow. The bill died in committee.

State Senator Jesse Kiehl, who represents Juneau in the legisature, puts this issue best: “As long as we remain dedicated and vigilant, I think we can continue to hold this off and keep this smelly old zombie that tries to shamble out of the crypt periodically from threatening the town,” Kiehl said. “But you’ll never stop it from getting reanimated by somebody somewhere.”

The Arc

The population “exploded” in Juneau from 1960 due to two factors: first, the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the Greater Juneau Borough in 1970. This expanded the size of Juneau to 3,255 square miles, making it the largest capital and second largest city in the US by land area. The second factor was the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay, located in Northern Alaska, which is the largest oil field in North America. The explosion of this industry increase population across Alaska, including Juneau.

It’s somewhat frightening how flat the population has been over the last 25 years. More on that later.

My Experiences with Juneau

Like so many Americans that haven’t taken an Alaskan cruise, absolutely none.

What’s Working

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think it would be as easy as it was to write this section. There are a surprising amount of things working in Juneau’s favor.

Civic infrastructure

We don’t often touch on education here, primarily due to the historical challenges that most school districts in cities face. But Juneau stands out for its strong public schools, highlighted by a 96% four-year graduation rate in 2024. This is a great way to attract young people and families to your city.

Juneau does have a fairly diversified economy (at least compared to other small capital cities). While government is the largest employer, there is a considerable amount of private sector activity due to tourism, mining, and seafood/fishing. This allows there to be balance when one sector is down which is pretty rare when you look at the capital cities with populations under 100,000 people.

I’m sure we will touch on this with Honolulu, but Juneau has been responsible with how far it goes with the tourism economy (the ills of which were covered in Santa Fe). The city caps the number of daily cruise passengers to create a strong tourism economy that doesn’t overwhelm the natural charm of Juneau or makes the housing market completely out of wack.

Place

Simply put, Juneau is gorgeous. The city is set between the mountains and water so you can take your pick of how you want to enjoy the outdoors. Extra points for the fact that you can hop on a boat and see humpback whales, orcas, and gray whales.

Juneau also is one of the more sustainable capitals due to the fact that 70% of the city’s electricity comes from hydropower.

Arts & culture

I don’t know about you, but when I started thinking about Juneau, “strong arts scene” was not the first thing that came to mind. However, the city does have a thriving art scene, which is driven by the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which has the mission of perpetuating and enhancing Southeast Alaskan Native cultures. It has built a cultural identity through workshops, exhibitions and artist development with a goal of making Juneau a global hub for Northwest Coast art.

What’s Not Working

Population Trend

From 2000 to 2020, the population of Juneau experienced only a slight increase of 0.2% per year, which is considerably less than Alaska as a whole or Anchorage and Fairbanks. This trend has gotten worse over the last five years, with the city losing 0.6% of its population.

The bigger issue isn’t that Juneau is simply losing population, but the types of population that is decreasing and increasing. The city is aging at a rapid rate, with the number of Juneau residents under 35 dropping more than 8% between 2020 and 2024 while the number of residents 65 and older grew by 21%. This means fewer new households, fewer workers to staff essential services, and fewer “foundational” residents who form the backbone of local leadership (boards, coaches, volunteers,etc). The overall projections show that Juneau is expected to lose an additional 15% of its population by 2050. Not great, Bob.

Cost of Living

Juneau has a very high cost of living and you don’t need to be Benoit Blanc to figure out why. If you’re a city without roads where most goods arrive by ship or plane, you’re going to pay a geography tax on everything from strawberries to extension cords. The numbers are brutal. People in Juneau pay more for groceries and second highest cost for health and “miscellaneous” costs compared to any other place in the country. If housing or transportation was super affordable, this might be balanced out. But they aren’t, which makes the cost of living in Juneau closer to Tacoma or Oakland than your typical small capital city. This is a problem.

Risk of Catastrophic Flooding

Juneau has a risk that has moved from “rare disaster” to “annual scare”, which is glacial outburst flooding tied to the Mendenhall system (specifically Suicide Basin).

The Mendenhall Glacier is a massive glacier that is located about 10 miles north of Juneau. The Glacier has amazing views and hikes and should be a prized asset for the people of Juneau. However, due to climate change, the glacier is rapidly receding and the melted ice from the Glacier is causing annual major flood events in Juneau.

In August 2023, the Mendenhall flood hit a then-record peak of 14.97 feet.

In August 2024, it happened again and got worse: the Mendenhall River gauge crested at 15.99 feet, about a foot higher than the 2023 record.

It’s also not happening in isolation. The broader ice loss has accelerated with the glacier melting roughly twice as fast as it did before 2010.

Flooding was not as bad in 2025, but this is mainly due to the city’s preparedness and response, not the amount of water. Floods are brutal for creating rising insurance costs and reducing property value and require more public infrastructure funding. For a city already fighting population stagnation and high living costs, an escalating physical-risk storyline is the opposite of helpful.

Capitol Persona

Juneau clearly isn’t a city that people relocate to to make their mark. To build real culture you need leaders who are from there and really care about the place. That is Rosita Kaahani Worl.

A survivor of being kidnapped as a child and forced into a Native Boarding School (more on the atrocious history of this practice), her body of work is truly stunning.

• She has served as the President of the Sealaska Heritage Institute since 1998 and has built it into the model for language and cultural preservation. The Institute has very specific focus on continuity: children learning language, communities practicing culture, and institutions strong enough to outlive any one leader, which is critical for a place like Juneau that is aging and losing population.

• Formulated the first State of Alaska Policy on Alaska Natives

• Served as a member of President Bill Clinton's Northwest Sustainability Commission

• Awarded a National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2024 for a lifetime of making Indigenous language, art, and history durable in the modern world

This is what Juneau (and other small capitals) need more of - locally produced leaders who can build things that make the place worth staying in. Truly inspiring.

Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Juneau’s Capitol Score is 4.5

Juneau has a Capitol Score Potential of 5.2

Three Wishes from the Policy Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Keep the Capitol in Juneau

Alaska has bigger problems than where legislators meet, especially when the regular session is 90 days and a lot of the real work now happens through staff, committees, and email anyway. The fiscal cost of moving the capital would be enormous, but the bigger cost is the attention cost: years of political oxygen, administrative effort, and institutional distraction spent on a relocation project that doesn’t actually make Alaskans’ lives meaningfully better.

That doesn’t mean every state function needs to be headquartered in Juneau. In fact, a smarter model is a distributed state: keep the seat of government in Juneau, but intentionally place agencies, service centers, and leadership footprints around the state where they make the most sense. You don’t have to build a new capitol complex, you aren’t lighting money on fire finding office space, and you don’t need to create a multi-year bureaucracy spiral. Focus on the things that matter.

Embrace Car-Lightness

For almost 20 years, I have visited Mackinac Island with my wife’s family. Mackinac is locally known for a number of things, but nationally it’s recognized as the most famous car-free destination in the United States. It’s refreshing to see people who would never think of walking or riding a bike at their hometown really enjoying the ability to just get where they want to without a car.

Juneau can’t be Mackinac Island, but it can absolutely borrow the idea: make it normal (and pleasant) to move around without a car. Juneau already has the ingredients: a compact core, a tourist-heavy economy, and the reality that visitors arrive without their own vehicles. The gap isn’t the concept, it’s the infrastructure and the defaults.

The wish here is to lean into a “car-light” toolkit: better transit frequency, safer pedestrians connections, and a real network for small mobility (golf carts, snowmobiles, e-bikes, scooters, trikes, snowbikes…whatever works in Juneau’s terrain and weather). Pair that with safer street design in the places where people actually walk (downtown, waterfront, key visitor corridors) and suddenly Juneau becomes more charming, more functional, and more memorable. And it becomes something rare: a small U.S. capital that can credibly say, “you don’t need a car to enjoy this place.”

Pay Government Workers More

This is true everywhere, but Juneau makes the case in a 42-point bold font. Recruiting and retaining government talent is already hard in any capital. In Juneau, you’re asking people to take on an isolation premium on top of an already high cost of living. That’s a recipe for vacancies, turnover, and a permanent “acting director” culture, which then cascades into slower service delivery and weaker execution.

So yes: pay more, especially for hard-to-fill roles and mid-career specialists. If Alaska can’t do it broadly right now (and it’s not, given the state’s tightening posture, including periods of hiring restraint tied to oil revenue volatility), then at least do it strategically: location differentials, retention bonuses, housing support for critical roles, and fast hiring for scarce skill sets. Otherwise, Juneau becomes the place where government jobs are available… because no one stays.

What’s Happening in Juneau?

Before I get into (way too many) news links, I have to give a shout out to KTOO for providing an amazing, easy to use news source on Juneau. Please consider making a small donation to their team, we all need to do everything we can to keep small town journalism alive.

After more than 50 years, a family-run shop in downtown Juneau is closing its doors

Too common of a story these days across the country….business that has been handed down from generation to generation and ultimately there is no one left to take over. We need to figure out solutions for this.

Juneau revives task force to tackle big tourism questions

City now accepting ideas for how Juneau spends marine passenger fees

I’ve never worked in a tourist community so the pressures and trade-offs of these decisions are really interesting to me. Juneau seems to have a good handle on this issue.

U.S. Army Corps to hold closed-door glacial outburst flood solution meeting in Juneau next week

From the outside looking in, my assumption would be that “glacial outburst flood solution” would be about as close to a consensus issue that you could find in a local community. But the issue becomes a question of fairness between people who spent money on their own property versus public money being used to protect people who did not.

Juneau leaders begin to grapple with budget shortfall following election tax cuts

Yikes!

Juneau’s 10 strangest stories of 2025

Have to stop now before I get even further in the Juneau rabbithole. So greatly appreciate the Juneau journalism scene.

Final Thoughts

Juneau is a tough one. On paper, it has a lot going for it with real jobs, a relatively balanced economy, and a level of civic importance most cities would kill for. But none of that is translating into population growth. The hard truth is that geography is policy here. When you’re not connected by road or rail, everyday life gets more expensive, slower, and more complicated at exactly the moment modern households expect everything to be fast, easy, and cheap. And hovering over all of it is the very real, very immediate anxiety of flooding tied to a melting glacier. It’s hard to recruit, retain, and invest with that kind of uncertainty in the background. But if it can lean into what it does have, maybe it’s got a better shot that I’m giving it.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Indianapolis, 7.4 (9.7)

3. Santa Fe, 6.9 (8.5)

4. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

5. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

6. Oklahoma City, 6.0 (8.0)

7. Albany, 5.8 (7.5)

8. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

9. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

10. Juneau, 4.8 (5.2)

11. Trenton, 4.3 (6.8)

12. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Our next stop is Lincoln.

I had hoped to get further through the cities that make up this exclusive club of 50, and I appreciate everyone’s patience as the pace has slowed a bit. But once I really got into the project, it was clear that each of these cities deserved more than a once over of a Wikipedia entry and some hot planning takes. It’s been genuinely fascinating to dig through everything from influencers going to shady restaurants, to sizzle reels of amazing places to visit, to Redditors complaining about a city service and learn about each of these places. For smaller cities, I usually feel pretty confident after a few days of reading and watching videos. For larger cities, I’ve mostly gotten comfortable with the fact that I’m going to miss things or get stuff wrong (somehow my Phoenix post took off on LinkedIn’s Phoenix planning algorithm and I got flamed by a bunch of locals there).

First takeaway: I’m really enjoying the process (and wish I was putting out more frequent content).

Second takeaway: Climate is having a huge negative impact on the future of capital cities from Phoenix to Juneau. It reminds you how big this country is when you can talk about cities being too hot one week and the next talk about how glaciers melting are triggering immediate flooding disasters. This all continues to reinforce my belief in being long on the Midwest.

Third takeaway: Housing affordability is a problem everywhere.

Final takeaway: All of these cities have tons of potential. Whether it’s economic development, tourism, or arts, each of these places is its own snowflake, with real opportunities to create a better quality of life for residents. And there clearly isn’t one silver bullet that makes it happen (other than an organization that is a certified CDFI with a venture investment arm. Every city should have this).

City that surprised me the most: Santa Fe
City whose ranking that benefited the most from my experiences there: Indianapolis
City that I was definitely too hard on: Phoenix

It’s been a fun seven months putting this project together, and I really appreciate all the feedback people have given me (yes, even the folks in Phoenix). I’ve written plenty of things that have gone out to the public, but typically a lot of other eyes have seen them first. This is the first time I’ve just sent something out into the world without any other eyeballs on it, and that’s been equal parts fun and terrifying.

Thanks to everyone who gave me confidence at the beginning (here is where I namecheck Janette Sadik-Khan and Nicole Nason being the ones that had the biggest impact), and those who kept me going (most prominently Jonathan Smith and Toby Barlow). I’m lucky to have such a great network of smart, curious people who love cities.

On to 2026 and Juneau!

But that may be changing. Thanks to a distinct shift in approach from Governor Kathy Hochul, Albany is suddenly being treated not just as a seat of government, but as a city worth investing in. And in doing so, the State may be quietly launching a capital rebuild movement with implications far beyond New York.

Let’s get into it.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

Albany is located on the Hudson River, about a 3.5 hour drive north of New York City. This location made it strategically valuable for both trade and the military in the 17th and 18th centuries. The city originally served as an outpost for fur trading by the Dutch West India Company in Manhattan. Fun fact: the city charter for Albany was established in 1686 and still governs the city, which makes it the oldest city charter still used in the United States.

Albany became the center for planning hijinks leading up to the French and Indian War, including the 1754 Albany Congress where Ben Franklin laid out his plan to unify the colonies under one large red, white, and blue umbrella. New York was declared independent in 1776 and the first legislature met all across the state, bouncing around White Plains, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and Albany and eventually settling in New York City, which also was the country’s capital city during this time.

New York City would eventually lose both of these statuses due to residents wanting geographic balance. Upstate New Yorkers got frustrated with the commute to NYC and Governor George Clinton (our most Funkadelic governor) made the push for Albany to become the capital in 1797. However, the bill that authorized moving the capital to Albany didn’t specify Albany as the official recognized capital. This wasn’t rectified until 1971 when Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed a bill officially declaring Albany the capital of New York state.

The Arc

There are two eras of Albany - before Empire Plaza was constructed, and after it.

Empire State Plaza is a one-of-a-kind brutalist government complex. The first time I saw it, I was riding in the backseat with a group of other consultants when it came into view. I immediately told them to pull over so I could get out. The ability to share Empire State Plaza with people who have never seen it before is probably 17 percent of the reason I started Capitol Rebuild.

It is GLORIOUS. Empire Plaza screams “Government Happens Here”.

Empire State Plaza was conceived by Governor Nelson Rockefeller who was “inspired” by the reaction he got when he toured the future Queen of the Netherlands through Downtown. Basically, she did everything put hold her nose and wave her hand in front of it while seeing what Albany had to offer. This burned a hole of embarassment into Rockefeller’s soul.

His response was not subtle. He resolved that no New York governor would ever suffer the embarrassment that he did in front of a future European monarch when showing the city off. The solution: spend a truly staggering amount of public money to build a capital complex that would project power, permanence, and seriousness on a global stage.

The architect of Empire State Plaza was Wallace K. Harrison, who worked on Rockefeller Center, the United Nations headquarters, and Lincoln Center in New York. Harrison’s vision was clear: use architecture to demonstrate authority at an almost imperial scale, balanced by vast open space. The result blended European palace complexes with the National Mall, filtered through the clean lines and confidence of mid-century modernism.

There are seven buildings that make up Empire State Plaza (the Capitol building was constructed before Empire State Plaza but serves as the northern anchor):

• Agency Buildings 1–4: Four nearly identical 23-story office towers clad in Vermont marble, lined in a row along the Plaza’s west side. They house most of state agency offices and frame the complex’s long reflecting pool. Their repetition was meant to symbolize bureaucratic order.

• Corning Tower: Corning Towner is the tallest building in New York outside of Manhattan and was named for long-time Albany mayor Erastus Corning II. It has a futuristic, almost spaceship-like presence on the skyline. The 42nd-floor observation deck provides amazing views of the region.

• The Egg: No government complex is complete without a performing arts center that looks like an egg balancing on a pedestal. It took twelve years to build because its concrete shell had to be poured continuously. Sure, maybe aliens will come out of it one day. Until that point, it will just the the Egg.

• Cultural Education Center: At the southern end, this broad, block-like structure houses the New York State Museum, Library, and Archives. I

• The Swan Street Building: Also popularly known as “the largest marble covered DMV building in the world”.

Did everyone love it? No. But it was a huge swing to define Albany and the regalness of the state capital.

Now, is there negative history associated with Empire State Plaza? Of course there is, this is 20th centurty America we are talking about. Governor Rockefeller did what government did so well in the mid-20th century when they wanted to build something…he displaced 7,000 mainly low income residents so he could build what he thought should go there. Tragic but definitely not surprising.

Empire State Plaza is an architectural wonder and an inspiring symbol of 20th-century ambition that reshaped a city in service of an idea of grandeur. But it is also impossible to separate the glory from the cost and what it took to build.

Making of the Mall Documentary

Empire State Plaza at 50 Video

My Experiences with Albany

The first time I was there was around 2012 for a project interview. I almost fell over I was so gobsmacked by Empire State Plaza. I’ve driven through multiple times since then to stop and grab pictures or get something to eat. I haven’t really experienced the city beyond nerd capital boy stanning and eating at few cool old school Albany restaurants.

What’s Working

THEY ARE DOING THE THING. I repeat. THEY ARE DOING THE THING.

Governor Hochul allocated $400 Million (!) in the State FY26 budget for the Championing Albany’s Potential (CAP) Initiative. Let me write that number entirely out: $400,000,000.00. That is a lot of zeroes.

Direct from the Empire State Development website, “Yet a lack of vibrancy in the city’s core, has led to perceived public safety concerns, making it difficult to retain and attract city-center businesses and residents. Albany’s challenges are compounded by its tax landscape, where 60% of property is tax-exempt, straining municipal resources and limiting the city’s ability to invest in critical infrastructure and services.

This investment includes $200 million* to make real investments into tangible strategies and projects to revitalize Albany’s core downtown and adjacent neighborhoods within a mile of the State Capitol, such as:

• Targeted strategies that address public safety and quality of life

• Revitalizing vacant or dated anchor institutions

• Reinvigorating commercial corridors

• Repurposing vacant and underutilized commercial buildings for housing and other new uses

• Leveraging open spaces and key public assets

• Coordinating with ongoing planning efforts related to the redevelopment of I-787 and the Livingston Avenue rail bridge

• Creating new reasons to work, visit, or live in downtown Albany.”

The State of New York is going to invest $200M into improving Albany so it’s more than just a seat of government. I still cannot get over this.

The consultant on the project provided an update for the public in November and you can review the boards here. Quick summary is that people are engaging with the project (700 workshop participants), there is a big focus on creating new housing opportunities, leveraging the Hudson River and the arts, and focusing on policies to make it easier to build housing.

This will be the case study for whether or not I’m wasting my time writing this blog.

*The other $200 Million is allocated to New York State Museum ($150M), Empire State Plaza upgrades ($25M), and lining consultant pockets to study the future of I-787 ($25M).

What’s Not Working

Potholes

No one gets in to government because they dream of filling potholes. But it’s a municipal issue that (1) literally costs residents extra money if the city doesn’t do a good job (2) sticks in the minds of residents, particularly when they compare the place they live to others. So when the mayor-elect ticks off Albany’s biggest issues and potholes is first, before public safety, and before housing, you know Albany has a pothole problem. And if you have a pothole problem, you likely have an overall governmental services delivery problem. When the fundamentals of government don’t work, residents question whether government can handle the harder, more complex challenges.

It’s a Ghost Town at 5:01 PM

Like so many capitals, Albany feels deserted the minute everyone is done with work for the day. When the government workforce goes home for the day, so does the energy of of the city’s core.

There are only so many breakfast/lunch only restaurants that a state government workforce can sustain and definitely not enough to fill all of the retail space in Albany. More people are needed during more hours of the day to build a sustainable commercial environment. The result is a fragile commercial environment: vacant storefronts, short operating hours, and a downtown that feels transactional rather than authentic.

This is a structural problem. Until more people live downtown and more reasons exist to stay after work, the city will continue to struggle to create the kind of continuous street life that defines successful cities.

Streetscapes Have Seen Better Days

Albany has good bones, but too often the public realm works against itself. Sidewalks are uneven. Lighting is inconsistent. Landscaping is sparse or poorly maintained. Together, these details shape how people experience downtown far more than any marketing campaign or master plan. When walking feels uncomfortable or uninviting, people don’t linger, and when people don’t linger, perceptions of safety decline regardless of actual crime data. Aging and underdeveloped streetscapes reinforce the sense that downtown is tired, even where buildings and institutions remain strong.

Capitol Persona

Dorcey Applyrs

When I think of Albany government, I think of a bunch of old white men sitting in the back of a smoke-filled bar making decisions that impact the entirety of the city and the state.

Albany’s mayor-elect, Dorcey Applyrs, represents the antithesis of that.

Unlike the high profile mayoral election in New York’s largest city, Albany’s 2025 election wasn’t about a new vision for the city or promises to make drastic changes. It reflected a demand for voters for government to be competent, empathetic, and follow through on promises. Mayor-elect Applyrs ran a campaign about how government shows up in people’s lives and how to make it better. And that matters in a place like Albany.

Mayor-elect Applyrs comes to City Hall with a background rooted in public service, community engagement, and legislative experience, not machine politics or entrenched patronage. She has consistently framed leadership as problem-solving. In a city where residents often feel talked at rather than worked with, that shift in tone is meaningful.

What makes her a breath of fresh air is that she doesn’t pretend Albany’s problems are mysterious. Things like Potholes, basic services, public safety perception, downtown inertia aren’t political challenges…they are execution challenges puzzles. Applyrs has spoken directly to that reality, emphasizing management, coordination, and accountability over grandstanding.

Just as importantly, she reflects a generational and cultural shift in Albany’s leadership. Her election signals a city ready to move beyond the assumption that being the state capital is enough. She has framed the work ahead as earning trust back, block by block, street by street.

I can’t hide it, I love this type of Mayor.

Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Albany’s Capitol Score is 5.8

Albany has a Capitol Score Potential of 7.5

Three Wishes from the Policy Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Spend the money correctly

Though the genie gives me three wishes for each city, I’d probably use the other two just to make sure this one comes true.

New York State has handed Albany a rare opportunity: $200 million to implement a downtown strategy. That kind of moolah doesn’t come around often, and it almost certainly won’t come around again. The margin for error is slim.

This money can’t be treated as a grant program or a political compromise. It needs to function like patient but demanding capital. Every project funded should clear a high bar: clear return on investment, clear sequencing logic, and a clear path to unlocking additional private investment. If a project doesn’t make the next project more likely, it shouldn’t move forward.

Albany’s challenges are not rooted in a lack of ideas or ambition. They stem from fundamentals that haven’t kept pace, including maintenance, street life, basic experience, and land use mix. Until those are fixed, there is no point in talking about larger visions and transformational projects

That means funding a lot of unsexy projects first: streets, lighting, policy, basic infrastructure, and regulatory cleanup. These aren’t ribbon-cutting projects, but they are the ones that make the exciting projects inevitable later. The pressure is on consultants, city leadership, and the broader civic community to show discipline. Get this wrong, and the city won’t get another swing.

Build a data-driven pothole prediction model

When I worked in the Mayor’s Office in late 2010’s, there were a slew of companies pitching software that identified potholes using video from city fleet vehicles and basic machine learning. Today, Albany could go much further. Combine that visual data with resurfacing history, traffic volumes, weather patterns, construction schedules, and utility work and you can build a predictive model that flags where potholes are likely to form before residents hit them.

This would not only get ahead of fixing roads, but address trust issues between Albany’s government and its constituents. A program like this shows residents that the city is ahead of problems instead of chasing them.

Someone should take this idea and run with it (and just give me some founders equity for giving you the idea).

Get businesses focused on Downtown

Albany cannot revitalize downtown on public-sector energy alone. The Center for Economic Growth (CEG) has been remarkably effective in recent years, particularly in semiconductors and advanced manufacturing. That work matters. But downtown Albany has largely been outside its frame and that’s a missed opportunity.

Downtown needs a stronger private-sector gravity. CEG has the relationships, credibility, and deal-making capacity to help make that happen if downtown becomes a strategic priority rather than a side note. Bringing CEG’s resources to bear downtown wouldn’t replace city leadership, it would complement it. It would help shift downtown from a government-dependent district to a more balanced economic ecosystem, where private employers help anchor activity beyond 5:00 p.m.

What’s Happening in Albany?

Pothole problems frustrate Albany residents

“If I was a police officer, I wouldn’t be able to tell who was driving intoxicated or who was just trying to swerve from the potholes”.

Dorcey Applyrs talks historic win, youth violence, and how she plans to turn Albany around

Albany Mayor-Elect Dorcey Applyrs breaks down her Housing Audit as she prepares for office

I’m a total fanboy at this point.

Can $400 Million Rescue New York’s Run-Down Capital City?

Kind of a harsh headline.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think it’s an understatement to say this is the most exciting time in Albany in decades. You have a new Mayor who is focused on making the city work again. You have a Governor who wants to lean in to make Albany more than just a place for field trips. You have $200M of capital to invest into the city.

However, none of this guarantees success. Its going to take smart planning, disciplined decision making, and a commitment to implementation to make it all work.

But if it works, and god do I hope it works, it should be the model for the majority of capital cities in this country.

Good luck Albany. We are rooting for you.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Indianapolis, 7.4 (9.7)

3. Santa Fe, 6.9 (8.5)

4. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

5. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

6. Oklahoma City, 6.0 (8.0)

7. Albany, 5.8 (7.5)

8. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

9. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

10. Trenton, 4.3 (6.8)

11. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next up, we put on our parkas and make a visit to Juneau.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

Everyone knows about the historic Guthrie–Oklahoma City rivalry, so I can skip that part, right? Right?

Guthrie and Oklahoma City are separated by a mere 30 miles and have been rivals since the Great Land Run of 1889 (more on that in a moment). Guthrie snagged the early prize of becoming the capital of the Oklahoma Territory in 1890. Congress even wrote into law that Guthrie would remain the capital until 1913. That seemed pretty ironclad….until it wasn’t.

When Theodore Roosevelt signed the Oklahoma Enabling Act of 1906, it gave Oklahomans the right to vote on their capital city. Guthrie, Oklahoma City, and Shawnee were on the ballot. The people overwhelmingly chose Oklahoma City.

And that’s when things got spicy. From “Swiping the Steal – Guthrie vs Oklahoma City for the State Capital,”

Governor Charles Haskell, believing Guthrie to be “a nest of Republican vipers,” staged a middle-of-the-night heist of the state seal and moved it to the rowdier, more Southern-flavored Oklahoma City. Guthrie loyalists were outraged, calling OKC nothing more than a vulgar cow town.

Guthrie fought back in court for over a year, taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices ended up on the side of Oklahoma City by ruling that the Enabling Act gave the new state the right to decide its own capital. For more than a year during the legal fight, state business was conducted out of the Huckins Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City (where I’m sure everything was always handled with the most amount of dignity and ethical fortitude).

Work began on a permanent capitol in 1914 and was designed by the prolific firm Layton, Smith & Forsyth. They ended up designing on more than 100 public buildings in the city (so you know who to blame if you don’t liked a historic building in OKC). The original blueprints called for a dome, but budget cuts forced them to cut that glorious aspect and the building opened domeless.

Fast forward to Oklahoma City’s centennial. Lawmakers astutely realized that nothing says “100 years” quite like finally putting a glorious dome on their sad dome-less capitol. Fortunately for all of us capitol lovers, the original builders in 1914 had over-engineered the foundation so a dome could be added someday. So in 2002 the Oklahoma State Capitol got the crown it was always meant to have: a gleaming new dome.

OKC is the only capital that housed a working oil field at its capitol building.

We will just ignore the Ten Commandments monument.

The Arc

On April 21, 1889, the population of Oklahoma City was unknown as it wasn’t a city and there were no population records. One day later, on April 22, it had a population between 6-10,000 people? How? Well it was the Great Land Run of 1889.

We have to first back up a few decades to President Lincoln’s strategy during the Civil War to create more opportunities for land ownership with the Homestead Act, which allowed residents to occupy “idle” tracts of land, ie land where Native Americans were located. This created the “opportunity” for new towns to be created in hours.

The day of the Land Run came and literally thousands of people rushed across the border of Oklahoma when they were given the signal, all trying to find their own piece of the 12,000 land tracts that were made available in the state, with a focus on Oklahoma City and Guthrie. Of course, not everyone played it fair and waited outside of the state’s borders as a lot of folks went into Oklahoma early and found a hiding spot until the Land Run started. Those people came to be known as “Sooners”, which is now the University of Oklahoma’s mascot. Such a wonderful thing to celebrate.

My Experiences with Oklahoma City

None. It’s on the top of my list of places to see an NBA game and experience the atmosphere.

What’s Working

Civic Infrastructure

Oklahoma City is unique in that (1) the Mayor is a partisan position and (2) they have had a Republican Mayor since 1987. So obviously the first thing we are going to discuss about a city that has had Republican leadership for almost forty years is a …tax program? The Metropolitan Area Projects Plan (MAPS), is a one cent sales tax program that was initially voted into approval by residents in 1993. It funds capital projects that are part of the ballot (so it’s not a slush fund), funding doesn’t go into the city’s general fund, there are dedicated staff to work on the projects (so they aren’t having to do other things) and there is a citizen oversight committee on top of the program. It has funded everything from renovations to Downtown, supporting the construction of the Thunder’s arena, creating a riverfront, and improving facilities for homeless and mental services. Despite the fact that the projects have extended from one mayor to another, the popularity of the program and its governance have ensured that a new mayor doesn’t mean a new strategy.

Place

I can’t lie. I watched over an hour of Instagram videos of Riversport. I have never been whitewater rafting and I’m sure the part of my brain that is responsible for telling me “you are 47 years old and you should not be doing this” would kick in if I was at Riversport, but having a recreational facility in Downtown with whitewater activities, skiing, and rowing is pretty incredible. Riversport is the US Olympic and Paralympic training site and will also be the LA28 site for canoe slalom (which is an awesome event).

Scissortail Park replaced 70 acres of industrial land and is located right across the street from where the Thunder play. It has all of the amenities that great downtown parks have. Like everything in Oklahoma City, it was funded through the MAPS.

Arts & Culture

The First Americans Museum, opened in 2021, is a truly impressive project that shares the story of Oklahoma’s 39 tribal nations through immersive exhibits, performances, and culinary traditions. The museum places Indigenous history at the center of Oklahoma’s identity rather than at its margins.

The Civic Center Music Hall and the larger Oklahoma City Performing Arts Center, refurbished through the original MAPS program in the 1990s, show how deliberate civic investment can sustain a thriving arts ecosystem. The MAPS-funded improvements helped modernize facilities that now host the city’s opera, ballet, and symphony, along with traveling Broadway shows and community productions.

Bridging these two assets is Oklahoma Contemporary, a new arts center that opened in 2020 with a mission to make contemporary art accessible to all. It has rotating exhibitions, education programs, and a growing reputation for experimental work. This is a signal that OKC’s cultural ambitions extend beyond preservation into innovation.

There is something magical when a city only has one professional sports team (and not because they lost the others), particularly when they embrace it like Oklahoma City has done with the Thunder. It creates an amazing atmosphere for gamedays and something for the entire community to connect over. It’s as close to college sports loyalty and experience as you can get (and it doesn’t hurt when your team just won the championship and is set up better than any team for the next five to ten years. Maybe I’ll start a separate series on capital city sports).

What’s Not Working

What’s Oklahoma City?

If you grabbed 50 Gen Z professionals and asked them to describe Oklahoma City, you’d probably get 50 pauses and stares and then maybe a few answers that don’t have anything to do with basketball. Oklahoma City does not have the brand of a Santa Fe or even Little Rock. It’s hard to grow a city if no one knows what the opportunity is.

No One Can Rely on Transit

This is becoming something of a dead horse in this series, but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of better transit. When young people move from big cities to smaller cities, the first thing they notice and complain about is the lack of transit. The majority of buses in OKC stop running at 7pm on weekdays and 6pm on weekends, making it a requirement to own a car if you work in the evenings. Oklahoma City did launch its first BRT line, which is a nice feat. But one shiny transit asset doesn’t help an entire city’s transit needs.

Lack of Neighborhood Investments

MAPS is an amazing policy success that has demonstrated the power of investment in a consistent economic development strategy. However, the majority of the projects have been focused in Downtown as a way to draw people to the city. This obviously ignores the infrastructure needs of residents in non-downtown communities. The MAPS 4 program does seem to be responding to this criticism by having a considerable amount of funding for neighborhood parks, sidewalks, and community centers. But the signature projects are still in Downtown. One of the risks of having a sales tax program that has to be voted on by the residents is if they see that funding benefiting them.

Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Oklahoma City’s Capitol Score is 6.0

Oklahoma City has a Capital Score Potential of 8.0

Three Wishes from the Policy Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Get Rid of I-40 and Embrace the River

Highway to Boulevard projects are hard. But when you’re a town that is literally going to have a global spotlight on your river, maybe you shouldn’t have a highway block access to said river? Particularly when that highway does is connect three (!) north-south interstates? We would need to come up with a replacement of this kids coloring sheet…maybe some great views of people enjoying a river?

The Oklahoma River runs through the heart of OKC, both Downtown and the neighborhoods, and is extremely underutilized. It should be the asset that connects the entire city.

Talk, Learn, and Partner with Tulsa

There are so many exciting things happening in Tulsa with innovation and economic development. OKC could either try and replicate its momentum and ultimately cannibalize, or work closely with Tulsa to see what OKC can do to complement it. Tough choice, I know. There are definitely assets, particularly the scale of OKC’s economy and the river, that could leverage what is going on in Tulsa. This requires (1) a strong state economic development strategy that can force collaboration and (2) said state economic development strategy sees the value in investing in its cities. I’m not going to hold my breath on this one.

Lean Into….Something

OKC needs an identify. It could be the river. It could be its food. It could be lots of things. But it needs to hang its hat on a reason for people to move, visit, and stay there.

What’s Happening in Oklahoma City?

Ryan Walters is 'demanding' the Oklahoma Supreme Court allow his agency to buy Bibles and Oklahoma schools rank 50th in the nation in latest education quality study

No comment necessary

I’m a Red-State Mayor. Diversity Is Not Reverse Bigotry.

Great leadership from Mayor Holt. Mayor Holt should have a larger national platform as a purple city Mayor.

Lack of Affordable Housing Prices Out Oklahoma Renters and City adopts far-reaching plan to trigger affordable housing

Regardless of what’s in this plan, it’s probably not enough. Unfortunately, the housing conversation seems to have left the national spotlight once the election was over.

Final Thoughts

Oklahoma City is….fine? I mean, I think it will continue to see growth as an affordable option to Austin and Dallas. The insane national policy decision to double down on the oil and natural gas industries will benefit Oklahoma at large and likely lead to short-term economic growth in OKC. There is a solid base of place, arts, culture, and recreation. But until OKC has a clear identity of what it wants to be and how that separates it from the rest of the country, there isn’t going to be a reason to revisit its place on the Capitol Score rankings.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Indianapolis, 7.4 (9.7)

3. Santa Fe, 6.9 (8.5)

4. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

5. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

6. Oklahoma City, 6.0 (8.0)

7. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

8. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

9. Trenton, 4.3 (6.8)

10. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next up, we travel north into the smoky halls of Albany.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

France was the first European country to claim the area of Indiana for themselves (despite thousands of years of Native American tribes populating the land) in 1670. France control in Indiana lasted for about 100 years until they gave the land over to England after France’s defeat in the French-Indian war. British rule was short-lived and after the Revolutionary War, Indiana became part of the Northwest Territory (which also included Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and a portion of Minnesota). This territory was almost immediately contested by the Native American nations that had originally been on the land before any Europeans had set foot on it. The Northwest Indian War was the first of many conflicts across the country between Indigenous nations and the United States Army.

In 1800, Ohio and half of Michigan were lopped off from the Northwest Territory and it was renamed the Indiana Territory. The original capital of the territory was Vincennes, which is the oldest European-founded town in Indiana and still remains the Knox County seat. Though Vincennes was an economically strategic location on the Wabash River, its geographic location in the far southwest corner of the area and the fact that Vincennes served as the political base of future President William Henry Harrison galvanized enough support for moving the capital to a new location.

Corydon (still currently the County seat of *ironically* Harrison County) was selected over Charlestown, Clarksville, Lawrenceburg, Madison, and Jeffersonville as the new capital of the Indiana Territory. As Indiana convened its Constitutional Convention in 1816 that paved the way for Indiana to become the 19th State of the United States, the State Constitution stated, “Corydon, in Harrison County shall be the seat of Government of the state of Indiana, until the year eighteen hundred and twenty-five, and until removed by law.” This time limit was due to Croydon being too far south and the normal state politics.

So in 1820, the legislature selected the small town of Indianapolis as the new capital and it was officially relocated there in 1825 (Editor’s note: I apologize for the lack of drama in this final act. I have not been able to find any backstory of why else a small town like Indianapolis was chosen or if there were other options. The lack of information is…..suspicious). Because Indianapolis was a relatively new town, there weren’t many choices for the original capitol building, so the Marion County courthouse was originally used. However, it quickly became clear that an official Statehouse was needed to accommodate the growing state.

The second Statehouse in Indianapolis was opened in 1836 and modeled after the Parthenon (with a bonus dome on top!). However, let’s just say some corners were cut and in 1867 the entire ceiling of the House chambers collapsed. The building was condemned in 1877 and completely razed by 1878.

Indiana’s fourth (and current!) Statehouse began construction in 1880. Determined to get this one right, there were many great design decisions made, some fairly obvious in hindsight, like making sure the building was built on a solid foundation this time, and some with great foresight, such as ensuring the building was wired for electricity even though Indianapolis didn’t have an electric grid at the time. The building opened in 1888 to much fanfare, including its new and improved dome. It has acted as Indiana’s center of government for almost 140 years at this point.

The Arc

Indianapolis experienced fairly steady growth through the 20th century. That is until 1970, when the city’s population jumped from 475,000 to 745,000 literally overnight. What the hell?

Well, it turns out it’s pretty easy to post those kinds of numbers when you annex an entire county. In 1970, the City of Indianapolis merged with Marion County to form a new consolidated government, known simply as Unigov. This wasn’t the first time it had happened in the United States that this type of consolidation had occurred as Nashville and Davidson County became Metro Nashville seven years earlier. And unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last. The impact of this decision is still being felt in Indianapolis today.

When Indianapolis was first laid out in the 1820s, planners envisioned a quaint one-square-mile capital city. They didn’t expect much growth (great job planners!). But as the city expanded, so did the surrounding communities, and by the 1950s and 60s, white flight was in full swing as residents moved from the city proper to towns outside of Indy limits in Marion County.

Mayor (and future Senator) Richard Lugar’s solution to this trend: If you can’t beat ’em, consolidate ’em. Working with the Indiana General Assembly, Lugar led the charge to consolidate Indianapolis and Marion County into one political entity. This dramatically expanding the city’s boundaries, tax base, and influence, but also included a slew of exceptions and carveouts that made Unigov far more complicated than it should have been.

So while Unigov boosted the city's economic and political power, it also had immediate negative consequences for Indianapolis' most vulnerable residents, especially its Black population. The merger diluted Black political power by folding the city into a wider, whiter county electorate and reinforced school and housing segregation, as the newly drawn city boundaries preserved suburban school districts and zoning patterns rather than integrating them. Shocking, I know.

Today, the legacy of Unigov is everywhere. Indianapolis remains one of the largest cities by land area in the U.S., but also one of the most politically and spatially fragmented, which we will come back to when we discuss about what’s not working in the city and what needs to be fixed.

My Experiences with Indianapolis

I’ve lived in the Midwest for over 25 years now, the first sixteen in Chicago. And even though Indianapolis is only a three hour drive away, it took me moving to Detroit before I made my first visit. Since then, I have had the opportunity to visit a number of times, usually for work, and experience different neighborhoods and talk with lots of different groups. Because of the economic development success Indianapolis has had, specifically in innovation and entrepreneurship, I’ve spoken to a number of folks in their ecosystem to learn what has worked and what they don’t talk about. All that background to say, get ready for the takes.

What’s Working

Quite a lot.

Civic Infrastructure

Economic growth in Indianapolis is pretty much due to the way its civic partnerships have flourished. And it starts with sports.

When politicians around the country still idiotically approve public subsidies for pro sports teams, they often have a specific vision in mind: "Let's do become the next Indianapolis." Good luck with that because the Indianapolis story is a multi-decade story built on deep civic partnerships.

In the 1970s, Indianapolis was a fairly typical state capital. People drove into the city for work in the morning and then they all drove out again at 5PM. Downtown was mostly dead after hours. The city had the Indianapolis 500 as an attraction, but there wasn’t much else to drive visitor activity.

Mayor Lugar (yes, the same one who led Unigov) saw sports as Indianapolis’ future calling card. It started with his decision to use public dollars to support building an arena for the Indiana Pacers (who were still in the fledgling ABA). There was one catch with this offer: the arena had to be in Downtown Indianapolis as opposed to the suburbs. This was a bold ask at a time when most teams were moving out of city centers.

Over the next 12 years, Indianapolis, backed by funding from the Lilly Endowment (more on them later) and the leadership of Mayor Bill Hudnut, invested $122 million in new sports facilities. The focus of this investment was on on amateur and Olympic-level events, something that was being ignored by the rest of the country. This helped Indianapolis land the Pan American Games in 1987, complete with a wild grand finale in the opening ceremony (skip to about 2:55:10). Around this time, it was becoming clear that Indy was not messing around when it came to its sports strategy. This investment in sports then saw billions of dollars of additional investment in downtown Indianapolis, which encourage more sports activity. Possibly the biggest win of all was the NCAA moving its national headquarters from Kansas City to Indianapolis in 1999, establishing the city as the center of gravity for college sports for the last 25 years.

Indianapolis has hosted:

• The NCAA Men’s Final Four eight times

• The Women’s Final Four three times

• The Big Ten Football Championship

• The Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments

• The Super Bowl in 2012

• The NFL Scouting Combine (every year since 1987)

• And this month, the WNBA All-Star Game

This has helped keep Downtown Indianapolis active year-round, with events, visitors, and national exposure most cities on Capitol Rebuild can only dream of. If you’ve got an hour to kill, I highly recommend the hour-long documentary Naptown to Super City which tells this story in full detail.

+++

The Lilly Endowment is a private philanthropic foundation created through gifts of stock in Eli Lilly and Company. Thanks to the explosive growth of Lilly’s stock, most recently driven by Zepbound, the Endowment’s assets total almost $80 billion, making it the largest private foundation in the United States. By law, the Endowment must distribute at least 5% of its assets each year. Do the math: that’s $4 billion annually, most of which is spent in and around Indianapolis. For comparison, the entire FY25 city budget is $1.6 billion. This gives Indianapolis an enormous advantage on both supporting necessary services and investing in the future.

+++

And speaking of the future, Indianapolis has a growing innovation economy, fueled by strong civic leadership and strategic partnerships. The city is tapping into in-state talent from Purdue University and Indiana University, helping drive startup growth in life sciences, agtech, and advanced manufacturing. The 16 Tech Innovation District is emerging as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, while TechPoint, a statewide tech advocacy group, played a key role in securing a federal Tech Hub designation. Purdue is also expanding its presence in Indianapolis, anchoring one end of a 65-mile hard tech corridor that runs between its campuses. To help retain young talent in Indianapolis, the Orr Fellowship was created to connect recent college graduates with local tech companies and startups. The impact is significant: 59.5% of Orr Fellows stay in Indiana after graduation, compared to just 42.7% of all graduates statewide. Like most things in Indianapolis, the progress in the innovation economy would not be possible without the Lilly Endowment.

Place

Whew, that was a lot of words on civic infrastructure. Fortunately, there isn’t as much to talk about on place.

The Cultural Trail is the city’s signature achievement and has served and a national model for how to rethink public space for over a decade. This 8-mile urban trail, completed in 2013, weaves through Downtown Indianapolis and its adjacent neighborhoods, connecting key districts like Mass Ave, Fountain Square, White River State Park, and the Canal Walk. It integrates art, landscape architecture, and mobility into a seamless public experience. Since its completion, the trail has spurred hundreds of millions in adjacent private investment, increased property values, and helped encourage downtown residential growth. It has served as a template for other cities, like Atlanta and Detroit, to invest in connected urban trails.

+++

Let’s keep the focus on mobility and discuss IndyGo’s Red Line, the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in the city. It opened in 2019 and runs north-south through the densest part of the city. It offers dedicated lanes, off-board fare collection and level boarding platforms, all terms that bring a certain warmth to my heart. The idea was that the Red Line would be the backbone of a BRT network across the city and the residents supported the concept by overwhelmingly voting for a 0.25% income tax.

And the buses lived happily ever after?

Unfortunately, no. Despite a democratic process that passed the referendum, the state legislature did not agree with the voters and decided to make it more difficult for IndyGo to access this funding. Instead of being able to utilize this new revenue source as a way to access additional federal funding, the legislature required IndyGo to secure private matching funds at a 10:1 ratio to access the income tax funds. No other transit agency in the country (as far as I know) has to clear this hurdle to access voter approved funding. While IndyGo should have been able to get $60M a year in new revenue, they have struggled to raise the private funding necessary to access these funds. This is simply insane.

Arts & Culture

Indianapolis has a number of impressive arts and culture institutions (not shocking with the level of philanthropy in the city), including Newfields (home of the Indianapolis Museum of Art), the largest children’s museum in the world, the Eiteljorg Museum which focuses on Indigenous and Western art, and the Indiana State Museum and Madam Walker Legacy Center. There are a number of cool neighborhoods in Indiana that are built around arts and culture, including the Mass Ave Arts District, which is a walkable neighborhood with the Phoenix Theatre, The District Theatre, and public art. At the east end of Mass Ave District is the Bottleworks District, which includes an amazing reuse of a Coca-Cola bottling plant as a hotel.

What’s Not Working

Downtown

There are a lot of people in Downtown Indianapolis. According to Downtown Indy, there were 117,904 employees in Downtown and the city experience its biggest year for visitors ever. But this is what the Downtown is built around, not supporting the needs of people who would be there 24-7-365, also known as residents. This is a mind-numbing stat: there are are a little over 12,000 residential units in the Downtown compared to 7,500 hotel rooms in Downtown with 4,700 of those rooms directly connected to the Convention Center. That is nuts. There is an additional 2,300 rooms in the pipeline. Because the downtown population is primarily people that don’t live there, the area reflects that. Wide one-way street network which seemingly has the vehicular capacity of Midtown Manhattan and creates a really bleak atmosphere for pedestrians. Too many chain restaurants and a lack of access to basic things that make it easy and attractive to live. It lacks any sort of authenticity or soul (see the third point below).

Lack of Diversity

Indianapolis is a really White city. While the broader metro area is more diverse, that diversity isn’t reflected in who holds power or who shapes the city's narrative. Black residents, who make up nearly 30% of the population in Marion County, face structural barriers across education, housing, entrepreneurship, and politics. Without intentional efforts to expand opportunity, invest in historically excluded neighborhoods, and diversify who’s at the table, Indianapolis risks becoming a city that succeeds on paper is feels exclusive in practice.

What is Indy Culture?

For all its assets and momentum, Indianapolis still struggles to project a clear, authentic sense of place. Too much of Downtown feels like it was designed for visitors and office workers, not residents. Chain restaurants dominate the streetscape, and walkability is undercut by wide one-way roads built for car throughput. Even in the city’s more vibrant neighborhoods, it seems hard to describe what feels uniquely "Indy." There’s no shortage of talent, creativity, or local pride, but the city hasn’t fully tapped into it or elevated it into a recognizable cultural identity like Detroit or Nashville.

People Doing the Work

In 2020, Malina Simone Jeffers was working at a real estate company as their vice president of marketing and corporate responsibility. However over the last five years, she has been one of the engines of the Black arts and cultural movements in Indianapolis, co-founding GANGGANG, a creative advocacy firm that centers racial equity through cultural investment, and launching BUTTER, a nationally recognized fine art fair that exclusively features Black artists, blending economic empowerment with cultural celebration. She is not only transforming art in Indianapolis, but also who gets to benefit from it.

Caitlyn Clark. Seriously. When I was in Indianapolis recently, my visit coincided with a Fever game. Every license plate at the hotel parking lot was Iowa. I’d say 2/3 of the people walking around had on some sort of Caitlyn Clark jersey. Their average attendance is higher than the Pacers and I’m willing to guess that the amount of people coming from outside of Indianapolis is much much higher. There is a number of $36M annual impact that some economist came up with.

You will never catch me throwing shade for anyone embracing the weird. Indianapolis IF Theater and the IndyFringe Festival is the city’s engine for weird, led by Paul Daily. Inspired by the original Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Indy Fringe festival featuring experimental theater, solo performances, dance, and music. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the festival has become a beloved institution and a cornerstone of the Mass Ave Cultural Arts District, helping to define the area’s creative energy and offbeat spirit.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Indianapolis 2025 Capitol Score is 7.4

Indianapolis has a Capital Score Potential of 9.7

Three Wishes from the Policy Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Put the State in a Trance to be Indy’s Partner

Indianapolis will never reach its full potential unless the State of Indiana lets it breathe. The General Assembly knows how to support Indy when it aligns with their interests, like sports, conventions, economic wins. But that’s not the same as letting a city become a city. No one is asking state leaders to officiate a LGBTQ wedding or open an art gallery. But they do need to give Indianapolis the freedom to govern itself on issues that matter to its residents, like housing, transit, public safety, and inclusion.

If the state government could simply recognize that a stronger, more diverse, more vibrant Indianapolis is good for Indiana’s economy, talent base, and national profile, there would be no stopping Indianapolis. This isn’t about red or blue. It’s about building a city that people actually want to live in and provide opportunities for advancement. This is the only way for Indianapolis to feel like more than just a Purdue or IU alumni gathering every Friday night.

Let the city be the city.

Bring Downtown to Life for Residents

Downtown Indianapolis has great bones. The skyline’s growing. Conventions are booming. There’s office space, hotels, arenas. But without more residents, downtown won’t reach its full potential. Cities thrive when people live in them, not just commute, visit, or cheer from the stands.

The path forward is clear: build housing, and make it as attractive of a place to live as possible. That means going beyond just units. It requires full residential neighborhoods with grocery stores, pharmacies, cafes, schools, and safe, walkable streets. A nightlife scene that isn’t just chain restaurants. A sense of daily life and rhythm.

The lens for downtown should be: “We’ve done the events and conventions. Now let’s build homes and neighborhoods.” Go all in on building for people who want to wake up in Downtown Indy, raise their families there, and grow old there.

Don’t Waste the Water(front)

For all the progress Indianapolis has made attracting visitors and building major venues, it’s shocking how little attention has been paid to the White River and how disconnected it is to the city. It’s clearly one of the city’s most underutilized assets and a huge opportunity to support future growth.

Most cities would kill to have a river like this winding through their downtown. But in Indy, it’s surrounded by fragmented land uses, outdated infrastructure, and little sense of connectivity. That needs to change.

The riverfront should be treated as a front door, not a back alley. That means planning around it, investing in it, and making it a destination for residents and visitors alike. Parks, trails, housing, performance spaces, there’s just so much possibility. And apparently I’m not the only one who sees the opportunity.

What’s Happening in Indianapolis?

IU Indianapolis expanding into second year

Quick background … for decades, Indiana and Purdue shared a campus in Downtown Indianapolis. A year ago, Purdue ended this partnership and announced their plans to invest more in Indianapolis. Nothing better than competition to get the best out of both Purdue and IU? This is a pretty significant marker for the future of innovation and entrepreneurship in Indy.

Indianapolis drivers are better than Detroit and Chicago

I remember doing an interview about something similar when I was in the Mayor’s Office and I wanted to shake the reporter and be like “why is this news?!?!?”. But congrats to Indianapolis drivers for this commendation.

Indianapolis airport ranks among nation's best

I’ve always driven to Indianapolis, but this seems about right. If you’re as reliant on visitors as Indy is, there isn’t a dollar amount high enough to invest in your airport.

Braun replaces IEDC board members with new appointees

Only one appointee from Indianapolis and they are a staffing company. Surprised by the bi-partisan nature of the selections, but I’d be concerned by the lack of focus on the type of economic development that could help the city and state experience explosive growth.

(Thanks to Axios as they make this section much easier to cover).

Final Thoughts

Indianapolis has already cracked the hard stuff, from fueling economic growth to carving out a distinct identity on the national stage. The foundation is there. What’s missing are the basics: a genuine partnership between the city and state, and a focus on building a culture that feels uniquely Indy.

Get those right, and this city won’t just compete in Capitol Rebuild. Indianapolis will win.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Indianapolis, 7.4 (9.7)

3. Santa Fe, 6.9 (8.5)

4. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

5. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

6. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

7. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

8. Trenton, 4.3 (6.8)

9. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week we visit the city that broke Indy’s heart in the NBA Championship, Oklahoma City.

One of our nation’s most beautiful and culturally rich capital cities. Why don’t we all have our bags packed to move here tomorrow?

But wait…if we all did move there, who is going to be able to afford to stay?

Put down that green chile breakfast burrito and let’s dig in to America’s oldest capital city.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

You're probably thinking the oldest capital city in the U.S. must have a pretty wild backstory. Well, congratulations and go ahead and give yourself a gold star.

Santa Fe’s history as a capital city starts with a pretty common tale in the sixteenth century: local leader (in this case Don Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, who was serving as a Spanish governor in what is now Mexico) hears rumors of a mythical city of gold and fortune (for Coronado, it was the Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola to the north) and makes a run at it. And like most of these stories, Coronado’s expedition didn’t lead to riches, but it did introduce Spain to what is now the American Southwest, including New Mexico and the Grand Canyon, and the native Pueblo peoples who lived in the area. By 1598, Spain had established the colony of Nuevo Mexico and located its capital near the intersection of the Rio Grande and Chama Rivers in San Juan de los Caballeros.

However, a mere twelve years later, the old adage of “our capital city must, must, must be centrally located” was used to relocate Nuevo Mexico’s capital to Santa Fe, which did have excellent access to the Santa Fe River. Think about that - Santa Fe was a capital city ten years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

Nuevo Mexico underwent centuries of upheaval and changing of the guard; the Pueblos took it back from Spain which was followed by Spain’s reconquest, Mexico gaining independence from Spain and finally the United States annexing New Mexico as a territory after the Mexican American war. However, through it all, Santa Fe remained the capital. This continuity gives Santa Fe the title belt of the oldest continuously serving capital city in the United States.

The biggest threat to Santa Fe’s belt title came after the Mexican-American War. After New Mexico became part of the United States, Texas felt that New Mexico should be part of its large realm. This wasn’t Texas’ first rodeo with trying to annex New Mexico as in 1841 they failed spectacularly, which is very generously known as simply the Texan Santa Fe Expedition. Cooler heads prevailed this time and Texas backed off (the $10M payoff they got to do so probably didn’t hurt).

New Mexico would remain a territory for the rest of the 19th century, and a politically complex one at that, as there were Indigenous, Hispanic, and Anglo populations all envisioning the area’s future differently. Finally in 1912, New Mexico was admitted as the 47th U.S. state, with Santa Fe as its official capital.

Santa Fe’s original capital building, the Palace of the Governors, was built in 1610 (!) and served as the seat of government under Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. territorial rule. Amazingly the building is still standing today as part of the New Mexico History Museum and includes a block-long market area where you can find amazing handmade jewelry and crafts from Native artists.

The current state capitol building was completed in 1966 and is the only round capitol building in the country. It was designed to resemble the Zia sun symbol that is featured on the New Mexico flag. The capitol is a governmental powerhouse as it houses the governor, lieutenant governor, and both chambers of the state legislature.

The Arc

My Experiences with Santa Fe

I’ve never been to Santa Fe; however, like a lot of people, I’ve gotten a strong sense of its sheer beauty from the growing number of TV shows and movies set in New Mexico. For me, it was the eleven seasons of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Vince Gilligan needs to win some sort of award from the New Mexico Tourism Bureau for how beautifully he captured the landscape of this region.

What’s Working

Civic Infrastructure

We are going to talk a lot about housing throughout this piece. And while housing affordability is an issue almost everywhere, you don’t always see groups that are focused on this issue. Homewise is a group with the mission to “help create successful homeowners and strengthen neighborhoods so that individuals and families can improve their long-term financial wellbeing and quality of life”. It has a staff of 120 people that has constructed hundreds of affordable homes and has helped thousands of local residents become homebuyers. They are currently working on their largest project in southwestern Santa Fe, which could include up to 1,500 homes with at least 40% of them affordable.

Santa Fe’s distinctive character hasn’t preserved itself by accident. The Old Santa Fe Association has been guarding the city’s historic buildings, cultural traditions, and architectural integrity since 1926. Thanks to their work, the city still looks and feels like nowhere else in America.

St. John’s College is a unique academic institution that grants one single bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and has campuses in not only Santa Fe but Annapolis as well. A Capitol Rebuild dream!

Place

Santa Fe’s setting is absolutely gorgeous. Type “Santa Fe beautiful” in your browser and take your pick of a new computer background. We’ve covered a number of cities with mountain range backdrops, but none of them have the sky of Santa Fe. The combination of high altitude, low humidity, and minimal pollution creates a clarity of light and intensity of color that’s almost surreal.

It’s fitting that Santa Fe’s has the only round capital because the city’s architecture is completely unique. There are so many low-rise buildings that have the distinct earth-like color from their adobe bricks that are directly influenced by Pueblo and Spanish architecture culture.

Santa Fe has required all capital construction projects to include a percentage of the cost for public art since 1985. The requirement was doubled in 2006 (from 1% to 2%) and the result is a series of public spaces that are enhanced by murals, sculptures, and installations.

Arts & Culture

There is no way I can do justice to the arts and culture scene in Santa Fe. It was the first city in the United States to receive the designation of as a UNESCO Creative City with the designation of City of Craft and Folk Art. The city not only has an arts and cultural department but it has five (!) people listed as staff on its website. From the Santa Fe Opera to Meow Wolf, from Indigenous markets to world-class museums, Santa Fe’s DNA is imprinted with its arts and cultures scene. Simply put, it’s an amazing city to take in.

Lots of Santa Fe Hype Videos and Articles to drool upon….

• Embracing Santa Fe Summer

• Drone video

• How to Spend a Few Days in Santa Fe

• Samantha Brown’s Places to Love

I need to stop, otherwise you won’t make it through the rest of this post.

What’s Not Working

People Doing the Work Can’t Afford to Live There

Housing affordability is a familiar story across the country, but it seems even more urgent in Santa Fe. The city’s median home price is now $582,000, making it one of the least affordable small cities in the country. It’s clear that people want to live in Santa Fe. But they want to live there because of the people who have made it such an amazing city, from government leaders to artists and service workers. And if they go, so does the city.

Santa Fe is estimated to be short 6,000 housing units, a gap that represents a 10% increase over the current supply. And when workers can’t afford to live in the city, they move further out, which means long commutes that require a car and further limits their spending power on housing.

This is a cultural risk to Santa Fe. The people who have built and sustain Santa Fe’s identity are being pushed to the margins. If that trend continues, the city’s living heritage could become simply a museum piece, which would be tragic.

Too Dependent on Tourism

One silver lining of COVID was the resurgence of the great American road trip. Santa Fe has seen its tourism numbers bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, welcoming over 3 million visitors a year and it is estimated that 30-35% of Santa Fe's economy is supported by tourism. That’s great for local businesses and artists, who rely on tourist spending.

But it’s also a fragile foundation for a city economy whose other major driver is government workers. A single disruption, whether it is another pandemic, wildfires, or major economic downturn, could send shockwaves through the local economy. And Santa Fe’s growing reliance on short-term rentals like Airbnb to house these tourists only deepens the city’s housing crisis. Many homeowners can make more money renting to tourists than selling or leasing long-term which reduces housing supply and drives prices even higher.

People Doing the Work

Tomas Rivera is the Executive Director of Chainbreaker Collective, one of those organizations that starts with a very simple mission, in Chainbreaker’s case it was providing refurbished bikes and teaching mechanic skills to people without access to transportation, and over time becoming something much more. Now, it advocates for economic, housing and transportation-related issues with a focus on the Hopewell Mann neighborhood. Tomas has been there since the start and served as ED since 2009.

Danyelle Means has dedicated her professional life to the Indigenous arts so it’s no surprise that her career led her to becoming the Executive Director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. It’s not only one of the crown jewels of the Santa Fe art scenes but one of the most important institutions in the Southwest.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Santa Fe’s 2025 Capitol Score is 6.9

Santa Fe has a Capital Score Potential of 8.5

Three Wishes from the Policy Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Fund affordable housing every way possible

Santa Fe has shown it's willing to put its money where its values are. In addition to the amazing policy of requiring every city capital project to set aside funds for public art, voters overwhelmingly approved a 3% tax on home sales over $1 million to support the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. That’s a huge step, but clearly not nearly enough.

To meet the scale of this issue, Santa Fe needs to get even more creative. That could mean hotel taxes, targeted sales taxes, or anything that responsibly taps into the city’s golden goose of tourism. Affordable housing should have as many funding streams as there are people trying to live here.

Make public lands a civic superpower

Public lands in this country are under attack. Fortunately, the Trump bill removed the public lands provisions that was going to allow millions of acres of public land to be sold to developers for oil and natural gas drilling and data centers. But while that was able to be fended off, the US Department of Agriculture did just remove a Clinton-era ban on road construction in 60 million acres of public land, which I’m sure has some road contractors salivating.

Santa Fe and New Mexico must be vigilant, yet pragmatic. This will require protecting what makes the region special, while recognizing that affordable housing and open space don’t have to be enemies. The key is contextual, connected development: if housing is far from jobs, services, and transit, it’s not solving the problem, it’s actually creating new ones.

Build better transit

Investing in more transit service isn’t exactly rocket science and likely would apply to every city in Capitol Rebuild. But I want to highlight it here because of the growth Santa Fe has experienced over the last fifteen years and the acute issue of housing affordability. Santa Fe only runs ten bus routes, five of which don’t operate on the weekends, and service stops at 8 pm. That is just not good enough for an economy that is so highly dependent on the service industry. Figuring out a way to invest more into transit (as well as housing) is crucial to Santa Fe’s future.

What’s Happening in Santa Fe?

Governor Hints at Special Session to deal with Trump

I’m not really going out on a limb to say the Trump budget is going to have countless negative impacts on this country. But one of the hidden costs will be the amount of time it takes from state government to mitigate the negative impacts to their residents.

Governors’ report outlines how western states, territories could build more affordable housing

Impressive leadership from New Mexico’s governor. Addressing this problem is clearly a bi-partisan issue, but I’m fearful that the solutions won’t be.

How Santa Fe’s Housing Squeeze Nearly Left Me Homeless

First person POV on the challenges with housing in Santa Fe.

Final Thoughts

It was probably around hour two of scrolling Instagram when I blurted out to my family, “We’re going to Santa Fe next year.” After showing my daughter a few videos, she was instantly on board with a Santa Fe trip as well. To say the city shows well is an understatement. It’s no wonder more and more people are coming to Santa Fe, both to visit and to stay.

But the affordability crisis isn’t going away. And if left unaddressed, it threatens to unravel the culture that makes Santa Fe so special. The good news? The issue is front and center, and there are smart, committed people working on it.

If Santa Fe can figure out how to grow without losing its soul, I think it may be the capital city that breaks out the most in this century.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Santa Fe, 6.9 (8.5)

3. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

4. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

5. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

6. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

7. Trenton, 4.3 (6.8)

8. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week we rev up our engines to visit one of the nation’s most successful capital cities, Indianapolis.

You were once the nation’s capital. You invented the pork roll.

Clearly… you’re a top ten capital city, right?

Right?

Time to roll up our sleeves and dig into Trenton.

Editor’s Note: I blew it last week by providing the wrong link to Olympia Strong: A Roadmap to Economic Opportunities. I hope everyone can take a look at the good work their team developed with this document.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

For those of us haven’t cracked open the Wikipedia page on the Revolutionary War lately, here’s a quick refresher on Trenton’s role as a turning point in the fight for American independence. In December 1776, the Continental Army was in retreat and the morale of the troops was in the gutter, both of which gave the British all the momentum. Then, in a daring move the day after Christmas, ole George Washington crossed his troops over the Delaware River and launched a surprise attack on German soldiers (fighting for the British) that were occupying Trenton. It was a desperately needed American victory that fired up the troops for the rest of the war. Trenton wasn’t just a battlefield; it became a symbol of American resilience and comeback grit.

After the war, the New Jersey legislature bounced around between towns like Burlington and Perth Amboy. As state’s population grew, it needed a permanent capital and Trenton’s central location, river access, and commercial growth made it the obvious choice. In 1790, Trenton was officially named the state capital.

Construction on the New Jersey State House began in 1792. What started as a modest legislative building has expanded and evolved over centuries, still housing the state legislature today. The iconic dome, which is visible from the Delaware River, was added in 1845 during a major renovation, becoming one of Trenton’s most recognizable landmarks.

And here’s the “what if”…. in the years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Confederation Congress bounced between temporary capitals as the leader of the US debated a permanent home. Philadelphia was the default — but Southern states weren’t thrilled about trekking north all the time for meetings. So a compromise was floated - two capitals with one in the south in Washington, D.C. and one in the north in Trenton!

In November 1784, Congress actually met in Trenton for just over a month, considering it as a permanent seat of government. But ultimately, the political winds blew south, and Washington, D.C. became the sole capital of the United States. Trenton missed the designation… but not by much.

The Arc

This is a new section that looks at the historical population and focuses on a small era that the arc of the city.

Like many cities, Trenton saw uprisings in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. People often point to those events as the moment things went downhill for those cities. But it’s much more nuanced than that.

The riot wasn’t the cause of Trenton’s decline. It was a symptom — the visible result of decades of economic erosion due to deindustrialization (hat tip to Josh McManus for elevating this timeline to me in reference to Detroit).

Trenton’s population exploded in the second half of the 19th century, growing from 6,400 people in 1850 to over 73,000 by the turn of the century. Trenton wasn’t just a state capital — it was a manufacturing powerhouse. Steel, rubber, and pottery drove its economy and shaped its neighborhoods. Immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Poland, found stable union jobs and built generational wealth.

But that growth started tapering off by 1910. The population plateaued - kept on life support by the manufacturing surge due to WWII, and by the 1950s, the industrial jobs that powered Trenton were disappearing rapidly. National firms bought up local businesses, cut payroll, and shifted production to cheaper cities. Trenton had no backup plan. Unlike New York or Philadelphia, it didn’t pivot to services, tech, or finance.

Trenton’s newest and most vulnerable residents at this time were Black families and individuals who had moved to Trenton during the Great Migration for wartime jobs. Those opportunities were short-lived as the economic floor was falling out when they arrived. By the 1960s, many were now stuck in Trenton: locked out of the suburbs by redlining, locked out of good jobs by discrimination, and locked into neighborhoods suffering from disinvestment and neglect.

So by 1968, when the spark hit — it hit dry ground that revealed the economic damage that had been done over the last fifty years.

My Experiences with Trenton

Unfortunately, fairly limited. I have been to the Trenton Transit Center numerous times, but outside of doing a quick walk outside, I haven’t spent much time at all in Trenton. My view of Trenton as a kid growing up in the Philly suburbs was that it was “New Jersey’s version of Harrisburg” because I would only hear about Trenton news in the framing of state politics.

What’s Working

Civic Infrastructure

Trenton is blessed with a number of groups doing the hard work of city building to fill in the gaps of where government should be leading. Organizations like the Trenton Health Team, Isles Inc., and Greater Trenton have been building capacity in housing, health, education, and economic development to keep Trenton moving forward. They fill critical gaps in service delivery, connect residents to resources, and help neighborhoods stabilize and grow. This is a great example of building civic infrastructure from the ground up.

Place

If there is ever a Capitol Rebuild spin-off focused solely on transit centers, Trenton will end up near the top. You can ride a train directly from the Trenton Transit Center to 50 (!!) other stations in the tri-state area and Amtrak will connect you from Boston to Newport News. It’s one of the most connected cities under 100,000 people in America. The challenge is what happens outside the station. U.S. Route 1 cuts off downtown from the transit hub, making it surprisingly hard for someone to get off the train and experience the city.

Arts and Culture

The arts community in Trenton isn’t propped up by big budgets or national foundations, but it does have local creativity, hustle, and staying power led by a number of organizations.

• Artworks Trenton anchors Trenton’s arts scene, with year-round programming and the amazing Art All Night festival that draws thousands of people to participate.

• The Passage Theatre Company is a fantastic local theater that puts on performances and programming that reflect the spirit of the people of Trenton.

• The Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie keeps the city’s artistic and cultural history alive with exhibitions that connect past and present.

Across Trenton, murals and public art projects are reclaiming neglected spaces and turning them into sources of pride. Trenton’s arts scene shows what the city can be in the future.

What’s Not Working

It’s Stuck in the Cycle of Distrust

From LA Parker’s (more on him later) editorial, “It’s difficult to love the current Trenton”:

Currently, Trenton lists as a dirty, corrupt, violent place being guided by unscrupulous leaders who tell little white lies without restraint, distort reality, take more photos than Hollywood starlets, misrepresent facts, and have managed to turn good, hard truth into a malleable substance.

Lucky for them, most residents could not care less about what politicians promise and never deliver on. Listen, if Trenton fails to assure street sweepers arrive on specified days then all bets are off regarding government providing safety, excellence in education, leadership, the good life.

Sure, many enjoy wonderful moments but for the most part, those happy days parallel eating ice cream cones on The Titanic. Trenton enjoys many natural resources, parks, waterways, and history that many smaller cities would consider advantageous to growth.

This capital city rarely produces sustained energy, the kind that equates to advancement. Many changes and initiatives require grassroot efforts but if those arteries die, and no worthy gardeners (members of city council) appear to cultivate change, then expect barren conditions.

Trust between a city’s leaders and its residents is pretty much table stakes for a functioning city. The municipal government version of walking and chewing gum is keeping basic services running while also pursuing new ideas that improve people’s lives.

But when trust breaks down on the basics, residents stop believing that any new idea proposed by its leaders will actually work. And when nothing new happens, people stop investing or caring, which can be seen in actions from not sending their kids to public school, not opening a business, or even just not speaking up at a council meeting.

This is the cycle of distrust — stagnation leads to disengagement, which leads to further stagnation. Trenton isn’t the only city caught in this loop and it’s a tough one to escape from.

Where the Hell is Princeton?

Princeton University produces an extraordinary amount of talent — particularly in fields like mathematics (crucial for AI foundation models), economics, physics, computer science, and engineering. These are the disciplines that will shape the future of the global economy. And while Princeton has become more engaged in Trenton over the past decade, most of that involvement has focused on community engagement, the arts, and the social sciences.

What’s still missing is any serious institutional effort around how the university can drive economic growth in Trenton or in New Jersey at large. Part of the issue is likely that Princeton doesn’t see itself as needing a town to match its gown. And part of is likely the fact that it’s close enough to New York to claim the Big Apple’s gravity instead of Trenton. This won’t change overnight, but if the university wants to live up to its values, then this disconnect needs to be addressed.

New Jersey Politics Is North vs. South with No Room for Central

New Jersey politics has long been a battle for resources between North Jersey (Newark, Jersey City, and other New York-facing suburbs) and South Jersey (Philadelphia suburbs and Shore communities). Trenton, sitting awkwardly in the middle, doesn’t have a natural power bloc to advocate for it.

Since there’s no real “Central Jersey” caucus, the pie gets split between the North and South and whatever scraps are left over are for Trenton. This is a capital city that holds little sway in the decisions that shape the state priorities.

People Doing the Work

L.A. Parker is more than just a columnist for The Trentonian — he’s Trenton’s unofficial ombudsman. In a city where local journalism is stretched thin, Parker is a political commentator, community advocate, watchdog, and a storyteller. He brings the necessary urgency and accountability to issues that might otherwise be ignored and his voice is essential.

Leon Rainbow has made Trenton his canvas. As one of the city’s most recognizable artists, his murals are everywhere — brightening buildings, reclaiming vacant walls, and telling the story of the city through color and motion. And Rainbow’s impact goes far beyond paint. He’s a committed community leader, mentoring youth, supporting neighborhood revitalization projects, and organizing events like the Jersey Fresh Jam, which celebrates street art, music, and urban culture.

Algernon “Algie” Ward was a pillar of Trenton civic life. A member of the Trenton Board of Education and the Trenton Historical Society, Algie was passionate about preserving the past and shaping a better future. He championed affordable housing, job access, senior services, and educational opportunity. Even in his final year before his passing in 2025, he was pushing forward efforts to create the Central Trenton Credit Union and fighting to preserve the Locust Hill Cemetery, where Black Civil War veterans are buried.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Trenton’s 2025 Capitol Score is 4.3

Trenton has a Capital Score Potential of 6.8

Three Policy Wishes

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Appoint Someone in State Government who Eats, Sleeps, and Breathes Trenton

I was hoping to hold on to this idea until we got to Lansing, but Trenton needs it now. Someone in New Jersey state government needs to wake up thinking about Trenton and go to bed thinking about Trenton. Not an emergency manager. Not a consultant. A cabinet official who reports directly to the Governor and is empowered to work side-by-side with Trenton’s Mayor and city departments to make real progress.

Why does this matter? Because it gives Trenton:

• A direct line to state resources.

• A signal to the private sector that Trenton isn’t on its own.

• Clear accountability for delivering results that is tied directly to the Governor’s office.

If Central Jersey is never going to have the political weight of the North or South, then the only alternative is making Trenton a priority from the top.

Princeton Ties Its Future to Trenton

Short anecdote: When I joined Mayor Duggan’s administration in 2016, the University of Michigan had programs in Detroit — but no one at the university was saying Detroit was critical to their future. Fast forward a few years: there's now a $250 investment in the University of Michigan Center for Innovation in downtown Detroit, and a formal university led corridor innovation strategy that includes the city as a partner in its future.

Princeton could, and should, do the same.

Not in the traditional town-gown way. But with a serious, structural commitment that positions Trenton as a strategic priority. That could mean:

• Workforce development for advanced manufacturing, lab techs, and AI

• K–12 pipeline programs to prepare kids for the jobs of the future

• Tech transfer and research commercialization that land in Trenton

• Alumni mobilization to invest in Trenton-based solutions

Don’t Just Steal Ideas — Steal the People Who Made Them Happen

Great mayors copy what’s working in other cities. So why doesn’t Trenton also recruit the people who made those programs work.

Trenton could definitely benefit from experienced operators who’ve delivered results in cities facing the same mix of challenges: jobs, housing, transportation, service delivery. Bringing in people who have implemented real change in places like Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Pittsburgh, or Buffalo and want to do it again.

If you’re interested in more ideas on the future of Trenton, I highly encourage you to spend some time on the website for Trenton250 that was developed a few years back. There are some really great ideas that hopefully the leaders of Trenton keep moving forward on.

What’s Happening in Trenton?

Trenton is more dependent on New Jersey’s transitional aid than ever before.

Originally designed during the Christie era to give the state more leverage over majority-Black cities like Trenton, New Jersey’s transitional aid program does not seem to have had much impact beyond keeping the city afloat. Yes, state dollars help — especially when the state itself owns so much downtown real estate but doesn’t pay taxes— but dollars without strategy is just a very expensive way to tread water.

Art All Night in Trenton to return, in a way, to an all night event. sad

After several years off, Art All Night is returning to something closer to its original, city-wide celebration of creativity. This event was once a cornerstone of civic energy, drawing thousands and showcasing the talent and passion that still lives here. Its revival is a bright spot — and a reminder that when the right people step up, progress is possible.

Quality of life issues should matter in Trenton + Roads all over Trenton are crumbling, some spots are just far worse + Party loyalty should take a back seat to what’s best for Trenton.

There are clearly government issues in the city that need to be addressed. No additional comment needed.

Final Thoughts

Let’s not sugarcoat it: Trenton has a number of challenges and getting over them is not going to be easy. But if they put together some singles and doubles, they can then start to stretch themselves for some triples and homers. Add that with the heart of its people and a legacy rooted in making and building, and you get something rare: a city with the raw materials for a very different future.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

3. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

4. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

5. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

6. Trenton, 4.3 (6.8)

7. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week we go back into the southwest to explore all that Santa Fe has to offer.

Washington’s capital is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Let’s take a look at what I see.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

There are a lot of decent-sized cities in the middle of Washington — Yakima, Wenatchee, Moses Lake — that fit the usual capital city mold: central location, access to water and transportation, and not too flashy. So how the hell did Washington’s capital wind up on the Pacific coast, an hour south of Seattle?

Can you believe… democracy?

Olympia, originally home to the Nisqually and Squaxin tribes, saw a wave of white settlers arrive during the 1849 California Gold Rush. By 1859, it was an incorporated town of just over 1,000 residents and already the capital of the Washington Territory — which at the time included Idaho and parts of Montana.

The initial capital decision wasn’t exactly a thoughtful statewide deliberation. Washington’s first territorial governor had never even set foot in the place. He picked Olympia because it was the only port on the Puget Sound with a federal Customs House. That was enough for him to sign off. A modest two-story Capitol building went up in 1856 and became home to the territorial legislature.

But the power brokers in Oregon wasn’t ready to give up the power it formerly had over its northern neighbors. The political leadership in Portland made several attempts to move the capital south to Vancouver, WA, conveniently located right across the Columbia River from Portland. After failing a few times, the Portland driven faction finally succeeded in getting a bill through the territorial legislature to make the move official to Vancouver.

But Olympia had a trick up its sleeve still. The local business owner in charge of printing the bill (yes, this was a real thing) conveniently left out the enabling language of the bill. The Washington Territorial Supreme Court eventually nullified the legislation, and the capital stayed put. Olympia Strong!

Fast forward to statehood in 1889, when Washington voters were given the chance to ratify the state constitution and choose the permanent capital. The ballot included six options:

• Olympia

• Ellensburg (central Washington)

• North Yakima (now just Yakima in central Washington)

• Yakima City (central Washington)

• Pasco (southeast corner of the state)

• Centralia (oddly, not central — just 25 miles south of Olympia)

No city received a majority in the first year, so voters were asked again the following year, this time with a narrowed-down ballot: Olympia, Ellensburg, and North Yakima. This time, two-thirds of voters picked Olympia.

With that settled, Olympia started to grow into its capital-city shoes. State investment in roads, rail, and infrastructure followed. By the early 1900s, the Legislature agreed to build a full Capitol Campus near the original site, overlooking Budd Inlet at the southern end of Puget Sound.

In 1911, an architectural competition selected New York-based Walter Wilder and Harry White to design the new complex. Their vision blended a number of progressive ideas:

1. The City Beautiful Movement

2. A “Capitol Group” — separate legislative, executive, and judicial buildings designed to look unified from a distance

3. A dramatic backdrop of the Olympic Mountains

4. The development of Capitol Lake to allow for a stunning reflection of the capitol building

The Legislative Building, with its soaring 287-foot masonry dome, is still the tallest of its kind in North America — and one of the tallest in the world.

Over the years, the campus has survived three major earthquakes, including the 2001 Nisqually quake, thanks to smart design and solid craftsmanship. Major seismic retrofits followed the 1949 and 1965 quakes, and in 2004, a $120 million renovation modernized the building with HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, and wireless tech — all while preserving its historic integrity.

My Experiences with Olympia

I’ve never actually been to Olympia. The closest I came was when my wife and I drove from Seattle to Portland — we took the scenic route through Mount Rainier instead of heading directly down I-5.

Seattle, on the other hand, made a big impression early. It was the first major city I visited outside the East Coast as a kid, and for a long time in my teens and twenties, I imagined it as the kind of place I might end up. I’ve had the chance to do some great work with Seattle DOT and visit family there, but beyond that, I don’t have much firsthand experience with the area.

What’s Working

Civic Infrastructure
“Good government” is a hard label to assign from a distance, but Olympia seems to have earned it. The city has adopted several forward-thinking plans — Olympia Strong: Economic Opportunity for Everyone and the Neighborhoods Plan among them — and you get the sense they’re not just sitting on a shelf. For a city of just over 50,000, Olympia clearly punches above its weight on climate, equity, and participatory planning. After watching a few City Council meetings, it even looks like elected officials actually listen during public comment. Imagine that.

There’s also a serious and sustained commitment to housing. Olympia was one of the first cities in Washington to pass a dedicated “Home Fund” levy for affordable housing — and they've stuck with it through thick and thin.

Place
Downtown Olympia may lack some basics — and doesn’t always feel vibrant — but it’s compact, walkable, and surrounded by the kind of natural beauty most cities can only dream of. From the Capitol Building, you can see both the Olympic Mountains and Mt. Rainier on a clear day. That alone could justify living here.

Olympia has unmatched coffee shop culture. If you love spending a rainy day in a cafe with your laptop or a book, you are in for a treat in Olympia.

And then there’s Capitol State Forest — 110,000 acres and more than 150 miles of trails. Nature isn’t just a backdrop in Olympia. It’s a co-author.

Arts & Culture
Olympia has a specific kind of weird — less Twin Peaks eerie, more DIY defiant. This is the birthplace of riot grrrl, the feminist punk rock movement that launched Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, and Bratmobile. It’s also home to the long-running Procession of the Species parade, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a joyful, community-made celebration of animals, imagination, and art.

Independence is baked into the city’s DNA — from its murals and record stores to the students and ethos of Evergreen State College. It’s a place where expression comes first and polish comes last, and that gives it real cultural soul.

What’s Not Working

Still a Government Town That’s Expensive

Despite some recent growth in the tech and creative sectors, Olympia’s economy remains overwhelmingly dependent on government jobs. That comes with a certain baseline of stability — but it’s not exactly a driver of innovation or rapid growth. And with post-COVID federal dollars drying up and a potential tightening in the current “Do More With Less” era of state budgets, that dependence starts to look like an economic ceiling.

The median price for a three-bedroom home in Olympia is around $535,800, up about 3% from last year. That may not seem outrageous compared to Seattle, but it’s still a heavy lift — especially when you consider that most workers here are in public sector jobs with modest, fixed salary bands. Two-income state employee households may be the norm, but even they can struggle to buy into the community they serve.

It’s So Rainy. So Gray.

Look, Seattle is rainy and gray. Portland is rainy and gray. But Olympia takes it to another level. The city averages 50 inches of rain a year — that’s 10 inches more than Seattle and nearly 15 more than Portland. That’s over four inches a month, consistently. And with that rain comes cloud cover, making any glimpse of the sun feel like a local holiday. It’s not just a weather pattern — it shapes mood, lifestyle, and, for many, the decision of whether this is a place they can really call home.

Earthquakes

Yes, it’s a bit unfair to hold a tectonic plate boundary against a city — no one in 1850 knew Olympia was perched atop the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which could produce a 9.0+ magnitude earthquake. But the threat of The Big One is real, and it’s a psychological and financial factor. Earthquake risk drives up insurance costs, adds complexity to infrastructure investments, and makes an already expensive housing market even more daunting.

People Doing the Work

In a city defined by it’s good government, it’s hard not to spotlight those folks.

Most cities hire their city managers from another city. It’s a classic position where people try to go up the ladder and expect to be in a city for a term and then find a job in a bigger city that pays more. Well, I don’t think anyone told this to Olympia’s City Manager Jay Burney. He started with the City in 1999 as a Project Manager in the Public Works Department, spent ten (!) years as Assistant City Manager where he no doubt got many offers to run cities smaller than Olympia, and has now been the City Manager since 2019. That is the definition of stability.

Marella Luz is one of those amazing people that carries a city’s culture scene on their back. They are a ceramic artist, the co-founder of the Olympia All-Ages Project, former general manager at K Records, and Mariella is now the Program Manager at Olympia Artspace Alliance. They’re also working on the Olympia Music History project and have served on both the Washington State Arts Commission and Artist Trust boards.

Mindie Reule is the President & CEO of the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound, where she has led the organization since 2019 with a focus on strengthening local philanthropy across Olympia as well as Thurston, Mason, and Lewis counties. Under her leadership, the Foundation has launched impactful initiatives like Give Local South Puget Sound, which has raised over $500,000 for area nonprofits, and established the Norma Schuiteman Sustaining Fund to support long-term organizational health.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Olympia 2025 Capitol Score is 5.6

Olympia has a Capital Score Potential of 6.7

Three Policy Wishes

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Make Olympia the National Model for Climate-Resilient Small Cities

Olympia is already ahead of most cities its population size on climate policy. Now it’s time to go further. The State should double down with bold investments in green infrastructure, energy efficiency, and low-carbon mobility — not just for Olympia’s benefit, but to create a real-time demonstration of what climate resilience can look like for small cities across the country. If you want others to follow, Olympia can build the blueprint.

Establish a Civic Identity Beyond State Government

Olympia can’t just be the place where legislation gets passed and state workers clock in and out. It needs a defining idea that draws people in and gives the city its own magnetic pull. This is a city just over an hour from Seattle and Tacoma and two from Portland — people will come here, but only if there’s a reason. Whether it’s an arts and culture corridor, a government-tech and green infrastructure innovation zone, or something else entirely, Olympia needs to plant a flag and stand for something beyond bureaucracy and beauty.

Make Capitol Campus a Global Best Practice in Public Space

The Capitol Campus is already one of the most stunning in the country — with the right investments in design and programming, it could be one of the most vibrant. Let’s go beyond field trips and protests. With placemaking, seasonal programming, and cultural activations, this could become a true civic commons — the kind of place residents use daily and visitors go out of their way to experience and put on their Instagram for more than the picture of the capitol. Let’s show the world how a state capital’s public space can work for everyone.

What’s Happening in Olympia?

Olympia-Tumwater rises to 8th among best-performing cities in 2025. This is from the Milken Institute’s rankings of metro areas — and I’ll be honest, it’s a surprising result. Olympia has seen real income growth and job creation, but “it feels” like lot of that appears tied to temporary post-COVID federal funding. The question is whether this momentum is sustainable or if it’s masking deeper structural limits in the local economy.

Olympia off track on climate goals, transportation largest contributor to emissions Yes, the results are disappointing — but honestly, the process is encouraging. Olympia is actively tracking its emissions, openly discussing its shortcomings in public meetings, and it’s being reported in the local press. I know that’s a low bar in a lot of places, but it’s refreshing to see transparency and accountability taken seriously.

‘We better wake up’: Microsoft’s Brad Smith sounds alarm as state enacts controversial tax plan You can’t build a revenue strategy around taxing your core industry more and hoping they stay loyal. That’s how you lose them. Washington needs a smarter approach — one that prioritizes growth, diversification, and a real plan to support the sectors driving innovation and future jobs.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be honest… I’m still trying to figure Olympia out. It’s stable, well-run, and saying the right things — on climate, equity, affordability. But something’s missing. It feels like a city that’s waiting — for a vision, for a spark, for permission to fully become something more. Maybe that’s by design. But the bones are here. Olympia has a chance to lead not just as a capital, but as a model for what small American cities can become in the decades ahead.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

3. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

4. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

5. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

6. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week we hop on the SEPTA R3 line (SEPTA no longer uses this naming, but my Delco roots aren’t making that change with them) from Philly and visit Trenton.

Editor’s Note: Little Rock is the first city in Capitol Rebuild that recently completed a high-profile planning process for its downtown (in 2024). I want to acknowledge the significant time, effort, and community input that went into that plan — and encourage you to read it if you're interested in Little Rock (and want to see a beautifully produced document). That said, the thoughts I share here are my own and reflect my independent perspective, informed by but not directly influenced by the work completed in 2024.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

Strap in.

If there’s one thing that seems constant in Arkansas’ long and often troubling history, it’s conflict. Leaders have been fighting over this land since the French claimed it in the 18th century — and conflict is very much part of why Little Rock ended up as the capital.

As I was researching Little Rock, I dug deeper into Arkansas’ history than I have for some previous cities (for instance, I now clearly know why we don’t pronounce it Ar-Kansas). So let’s be clear up front: Arkansas’ history of displacement, racism, and treatment of anyone who wasn’t White is horrifying — and it shapes Little Rock to this day. The state’s one real economic boom over the last two hundred years was driven by the output of enslaved labor on plantations. The Capitol itself? Built in part by prison labor, in a direct line from that legacy. “End racism” isn’t something the Capitol Genie can make happen and everything about Little Rock needs to be viewed through this lens.

Now, the quick version of how the capital landed here: Arkansas was originally part of colonial Louisiana under French control in the late 17th century, valued as a trading post along the Mississippi River. The French later traded it to Spain for Florida, then it bounced back to Napoleon, who sold it to the U.S. as part of the Louisiana Purchase (hopefully you caught all of that). Arkansas became a U.S. territory in the early 1800s under President James Monroe, and soon after the battle began over where to put the territory capital. The contenders: Little Rock vs. Cadron (which today is a 150-acre park in Conway, Arkansas).

How did they decide which location was best? Did they analyze transportation access? Economic potential? Demographics? Or did a wealthy landowner sell legislators bargain-priced land in Little Rock to sway the decision? If you guessed the last one, congratulations — you are now a Capitol Rebuild expert!

As for the Capitol itself: It’s a peach of a building - that came with a lot of drama. Construction on the current building began in 1899 and wrapped up in 1915. The original architect had designed Montana’s state Capitol and used the site of Arkansas’ state penitentiary for this one. The contractor, George Donaghey, made a small error: he aligned the entire building to the old prison walls, not the nearby street grid — leaving the Capitol’s front door forever just a bit askew. Was Donaghey fired? Not exactly. He left the contractor role… ran for governor… won… and then fired the original architect himself. Failure as a launchpad, the American way.

The Capitol’s exterior is limestone, its bronze doors gleam, and the dome is covered in 24-karat gold leaf. Blink and you’d think you were looking at the U.S. Capitol — which is probably why you’ve seen it standing in for D.C. in such classic films as Brian Bosworth’s epic Stone Cold.

My Experiences with Little Rock

None. I did make my first trip to Arkansas this year - more on this later.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the comparison between Little Rock and Des Moines. On paper, their populations are nearly identical — but my impressions of the two couldn’t be more different. I’ll admit my bias: I’ve spent a lot of time in Des Moines and none in Little Rock. But as you’ll see in this week’s edition, this might be the first time I’m really proving my point — that capital cities can unlock huge potential if they get their act together and leverage it. Otherwise, you’re just a city that happens to have a capitol building.

What’s Working

Place

Little Rock has a pretty spectacular natural setting — and it doesn’t get talked about enough (see de la Vergne, Mark: I had no idea of this). Downtown sits right along the Arkansas River, with a string of riverfront parks, trails, and some truly stunning views. The Junction Bridge, a converted rail bridge turned pedestrian and bike crossing, is an absolute jaw-dropper, especially lit up at night. On a clear day, you can see out to the Ouachita Mountains. And in 30 minutes, you can get lost deep into the wilderness — a real selling point for outdoor lovers. For a lot of people, that’s reason enough to live here.

One thing I always appreciate: a regional airport close enough that an old man like myself can bike to from the city. Little Rock checks that box — it’s about a 30-minute bike ride from the airport to the Capitol Building (much shorter on an e-bike). That’s rare for U.S. cities, and it signals the kind of scale and accessibility that makes Little Rock appealing.

While Downtown proper doesn’t yet have a large residential base, there are dense, historic neighborhoods right around it — places like Hillcrest, The Heights, and SoMa — with great housing stock and still-affordable prices. Housing overall remains fairly affordable in Little Rock compared to many peer cities, a real asset for talent attraction if there is a reason to be there.

Arts & Culture

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is a standout — beautifully renovated, with a serious donor base and a growing regional reputation. The Robinson Center anchors the performing arts scene, bringing in major national acts and touring performances that punch above Little Rock’s market size.

And while Memphis looms large just down the road, Little Rock’s proximity to it is a plus — the city draws on that deep musical tradition and has its own strong local scene. Live music, particularly in smaller venues and outdoor festivals, remains an important part of the city’s cultural identity.

What’s Not Working

The Basics

The basics of city life matter — and right now, they’re not where they need to be in Little Rock. Mayor Frank Scott Jr.’s most recent State of the City address made it clear that residents are concerned about core services: public safety, street maintenance, and public schools. Some of these issues may be more about perception than reality, but that doesn’t matter — if people feel like things aren’t working, they’ll act accordingly (by moving, by disengaging, or by refusing to invest). Until the City can show visible, measurable progress on these fronts, it will be hard to generate momentum around any bigger vision.

To the Mayor’s credit, these challenges are being acknowledged directly — which is more than can be said in some cities — but the hard part comes next: delivering results.

The Boat Is Being Rowed in Too Many Directions

One of Little Rock’s biggest challenges isn’t lack of civic players or energy — it’s lack of alignment. There are a lot of (too many?) groups with influence and ambitions in Little Rock, but far too little coordination between them. The result is what you’d expect: no clear strategy, inconsistent follow-through, and competing priorities that cancel each other out.

On top of that, Little Rock faces something we haven’t seen as strongly in other Capitol Rebuild cities to date — a state government that is openly hostile to its largest city. Arkansas state politics often undermine Little Rock’s priorities, and that dynamic makes it even harder to drive a cohesive civic agenda. Without a stronger, more unified local coalition to push back and align around shared goals, this dynamic is unlikely to improve.

Needs a Brand

Little Rock has a clear image problem — both locally and nationally. If you’re trying to grow, it’s tough to attract people when the audience perception of the city is negative — or worse, when they have no perception of it at all. The frustrating part is that there are real assets to build on: a rich musical and cultural history, a stunning natural setting, and authentic neighborhoods. But so far, Little Rock hasn’t managed to tell that story in a way that resonates beyond its borders. The word simply hasn’t gotten out — and until it does, the city will struggle to compete for talent, investment, and attention.

People Doing the Work

Quantia Fletcher is one of the driving forces preserving and celebrating African American history in Arkansas as Executive Director of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. She’s helped turn the center into a vibrant hub for storytelling, education, and community events that connect Little Rock’s complex past to its present. In a city that still struggles with its racial divides, her leadership is helping build a more inclusive civic identity.

As Executive Director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, Gabe Holmstrom has been one of the city’s most persistent champions for downtown revitalization. He’s helped lead efforts to improve public spaces, activate the riverfront, and build stronger connections between neighborhoods and the core. His work is helping keep the vision of a more dynamic, livable downtown moving forward — even when the city’s larger civic machinery isn’t always aligned.

Bobby Matthews and Virginia Ralph — known to many families through their children’s music duo Mömandpöp — bring creative energy and joy to Little Rock’s cultural scene. Beyond their performances, they’re part of a broader wave of local artists helping to foster a more vibrant and welcoming cultural ecosystem in the city. In a place where arts and culture are still under-leveraged, their work offers a glimpse of what a more creative Little Rock could look like.

Patricia Blick is the Executive Director of the Quapaw Quarter Association and has been a tireless advocate for preserving and reinvesting in Little Rock’s historic architecture. From saving endangered buildings to restoring the home of Ernest Green of the Little Rock Nine, she’s shown how preservation can be a tool for community building — not just nostalgia. Her work helps ground Little Rock’s future in the richness of its past.

OK, I’m breaking one of my rules and including an ex-pat here with Gillian Gullett, who focused her time at the Clinton School of Public Service on the public realm of Downtown Little Rock, specifically on parking. As someone who credits Donald Shoup’s “The High Cost of Free Parking” as turning the light bulb on my head, I can’t not give a shoutout to Gillian even though she has moved on to SB Friedman Advisors in Chicago.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Little Rock 2025 Capitol Score is 4.9

Little Rock has a Capital Score Potential of 7.4

Three Wishes for the Capitol Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Get It Together Civically

Not sure how else to say it: the lack of civic alignment is the single biggest thing holding Little Rock back. Without a clear, shared strategic direction, the city will continue spinning its wheels — and wasting the considerable talent and passion that does exist here. What’s needed is alignment across city, county, business, and community leadership — ideally with one person or entity driving that agenda and holding others accountable. This kind of focus would also create much-needed leverage against a state government that, frankly, isn’t inclined to help the city unless forced to. Until this happens, it’s all noise and no progress.

Draft Off of Bentonville

Earlier this year, I went to Bentonville for the Heartland Summit and spent 72 hours drinking the full pitcher of their Kool-Aid. It’s clear the city is on a rocket ship — not just because of Walmart (which has been there for years), but because of the deliberate way they’re shaping the town around the company’s transformation. The new Walmart campus looks and feels like a college — open, green, connected by trails — and their all-in push to become the “Detroit of biking” is creating new economic and cultural momentum.

So how can Little Rock benefit? Bentonville can’t do everything — and it will need partners and suppliers as it grows. Little Rock should look hard at where it can align with that growth: through strategic industry partnerships, more University of Arkansas investment in the capital region, and by positioning itself as a complementary hub for talent and innovation. Drafting off this momentum isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s a far better strategy than pretending the growth up north isn’t happening.

Start a Little Rock-Focused Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI)

Little Rock needs coordinated investment — in both places and people. Downtown housing will require gap financing, as will affordable housing more broadly. And until more residents live in and near the core, small businesses and entrepreneurs will struggle to gain a foothold. A Little Rock-focused CDFI could help close these gaps — providing flexible, mission-driven capital to support inclusive growth. The city doesn’t have a deep bench of local billionaires to bankroll this, so building the fund will take work (and likely partnerships with national foundations and financial institutions). But this kind of vehicle is exactly what’s needed to catalyze smart, equitable investment — and to cultivate the next generation of civic leadership along the way.

What’s Happening in Little Rock?

Little Rock officials nix tiny house plan over lack of parking This is absolutely ludicrous. We are ok with you living in the smallest possible area but now please double it so you can have a place to store a car you can’t afford. This is not how you solve housing and affordability issues. There really should be a parking chapter in the sequel to Abundance.

Little Rock vice mayor proposes time frame and process for confirmation of permanent city manager Going back to the original theme of conflict and lack of leadership, Little Rock has been without a permanent City Manager for 18 months and it appears that the Mayor and Board are clearly not on the same page. They also struggled to pass a budget. This isn’t good government.

TIF tiff: Downtown Little Rock Master Plan calls for controversial funding tool This is a good overview of the 2024 Downtown Plan. Are TIFs a tool? Yes. Are they enough? No.

Final Thoughts

Little Rock is definitely a glass-half-empty, glass-half-full proposition from the outside. Plenty of cities have rallied behind a single leader’s vision and transformed themselves. Plenty more have simply gotten the right people in a room, aligned around a shared agenda, and built the city they wanted — bringing others along with them. Right now, neither of those things seems to be happening here. But if Little Rock wants to be more than just the place where state legislators clock in for 60(?!?!) days a year, that’s exactly the kind of work that needs to start — and it’s still entirely possible.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

3. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

4. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

5. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week it’s time to put on our rain coat and visit Olympia.

Montpelier is the smallest capital city in the country—by a lot. It’s the only one without a McDonald’s (or a Burger King, Taco Bell, or Starbucks). It’s a picture-perfect New England town that also happens to shape the direction of the state.

But beneath the charm, there are real questions. With rising infrastructure costs, a downtown still adjusting to pandemic-era shifts, and fewer state workers commuting in, can Montpelier sustain its zero-growth trajectory? Or is it time to embrace new housing, attract more people, and figure out how to grow without losing what made it so special in the first place?

This week on Capitol Rebuild, we head to the center of power in the Green Mountain State: Montpelier.

Editor’s Note: Last week, I was a bit too hard on Phoenix. After a heavy dose of doomscrolling about water shortages and climate risks, I overlooked just how effectively Phoenix has used its position as a capital city. The city has seen explosive growth in large part because state, county, and city governments have aligned to drive investment and expansion. That’s exactly the kind of leverage Capitol Rebuild is meant to spotlight.

So, I’ve revised Phoenix’s overall score to 7.9 and bumped its capitol potential to 8.4 as well. Probably not the last time I go back and change a score as I realize how wrong I was.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

When you look at a map of the original 13 colonies, there's a noticeable gap between New York and New Hampshire. That blank space? Vermont. The people of Vermont declared independence—not just from Britain, but also from the other colonies. The Continental Congress didn’t recognize them, so Vermont spent 14 years as an independent republic.

When they finally joined the Union in 1791 as the 14th state, it cost them: a $30,000 payment to New York (a bit over $1 million today) to settle long-standing land disputes.

In true Vermont fashion, the state kept its independent streak alive by... not having a capital. Instead, lawmakers rotated between 14 towns, meeting in churches, inns, and taverns across the state. Eventually, in 1805, someone admitted this might not be the most efficient way to run a government. They picked Montpelier—not one of the original 14 towns where government business had been done—as the capital. Why? It was centrally located, and more importantly, the locals were willing to foot the bill for a state house.

The first capitol was exactly what you’d expect from early Vermont: a quaint, three-story wooden structure. It didn’t even make it 30 years before the state outgrew it.

Take two had bigger ambitions. Modeled after the Greek Temple of Theseus, it featured a massive granite portico and six towering columns. It also didn’t make it to its 20th birthday—destroyed by fire before its second decade.

The third time was definitely a charm. Completed in 1859, the current State House is one of the best in the country. The granite columns from version two were salvaged and reused, and now frame the building’s most iconic feature: a gleaming golden dome. It’s also the only state capitol in America heated by wood. Because, of course it is.

My Experiences with Montpelier

None. I’ve been to Burlington a few times, but I never did the quintessential New England road trip that would’ve brought me to Montpelier. Every time I’ve visited Woodstock, Illinois (where Groundhog Day was filmed), I imagine Montpelier has a similar vibe.

What’s Working

Civic Infrastructure

Montpelier Alive is the driving force behind much of the energy downtown. It’s the kind of organization that brings people in from the surrounding region and creates the kind of programming that locals actually show up for.

As I write more of these, I’ve come to deeply appreciate the value of local journalism. Despite its size, Montpelier punches above its weight. It has The Bridge, a hyper-local nonprofit paper that keeps residents informed, and VTDigger, one of the country’s best examples of nonprofit statehouse journalism.

The city is also actively planning for a more sustainable future. The Montpelier in Motion plan outlines new investments in bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and the city’s commitment to becoming net-zero by 2030 is one of the most ambitious in the nation.

Place

It’s just so darn cute and somewhat frozen in time - there’s a Reddit thread that ranks Vermont’s bookstores. The downtown is classic small-town New England: narrow streets, brick buildings that front the sidewalk, and storefronts that make you want to go in and see what treasure you can find.

Topographically, it’s stunning. The city stretches along the Winooski and North Branch Rivers, with forested hills rising on all sides. It’s as if someone dropped a functioning state capital into a postcard.

Montpelier is also insanely walkable. Everything is close. The sidewalks are everywhere. It’s what you picture when you think “walkable downtown.”

Right next to the capitol building is Hubbard Park, a 200-acre gem with over 7 miles of hiking and cross-country ski trails, plus a 54-foot stone observation tower that offers sweeping views of the city and mountains.

If you like skiing and government work, Montpelier might be your perfect match. Between Hubbard Park and nearby trails, the area offers more than 25 miles of cross-country skiing, plus easy access to major downhill resorts like Stowe and Sugarbush.

Want to understand Vermont? The Vermont History Museum does a great job telling the story, with a standout 50-foot mural by Paul Sample that brings 300 years of the state’s history to life.

Arts & Culture

Montpelier definitely outkicks its coverage here.

The Montpelier Art Walk, hosted six times a year by the Center for Arts and Learning, turns the city into an open gallery regardless of season. That’s only possible in a downtown this compact and active.

The Savoy Theater, a small indie cinema downtown, regularly shows foreign films, documentaries, and art house picks—and yes, there’s a basement video rental shop still going strong.

The Lost Nation Theater, based in the Montpelier City Hall Auditorium, is an award-winning regional company that’s helped make the performing arts accessible to Vermonters for decades.

For a city this size, that’s an impressive lineup.

Obligatory Montpelier Hype Video

What’s Not Working

Floods Aren’t Going Away

Montpelier’s flooding problem isn’t going anywhere—literally. The city sits in a bowl at the confluence of the Winooski and North Branch Rivers, with steep hills surrounding downtown that funnel water right into it. Spring thaws and intense rains regularly overwhelm the system.

The 2023 floods were a stark reminder. In just 24 hours, more than $20 million in damage hit downtown businesses—many of which were still recovering from the pandemic. It’s not a fluke. It’s geography and climate change colliding.

It’s too damn slow

Montpelier is not exactly a YIMBY stronghold. The city has been working on a new City plan since 2016—and it still hasn’t been adopted. The process has generated plenty of debate and drama but not a lot of action.

Despite clear demand for more housing, the city has made little progress on a 133-acre city-owned site that could help relieve pressure. Call it what you want—community engagement, careful planning—but it’s feeling a lot like paralysis by analysis.

Lack of growth engines

Montpelier’s economic base is thin. The two biggest employers are the State of Vermont and National Life Group—stable, yes, but not exactly dynamic.

There’s no commercial airport, no research university, and no major tech or health system anchor. It’s a gorgeous place, but long-term population decline is a real risk. The median age is 43, and nearly a quarter of the population is over 60. Without new industries or a big talent magnet, replacing retirees is going to be a challenge.

People Doing the Work

Most people spend their first month on the job getting their feet wet—meeting coworkers, finding the best lunch spot, figuring out how to file an expense report.

Katie Trautz, Executive Director of Montpelier Alive, didn’t get that luxury. She stepped into the role just as downtown Montpelier was literally under water following the devastating 2023 flood. She had to lead the immediate cleanup effort and figure out how to support hundreds of residents and business owners through an economic and emotional crisis.

Of the 140+ businesses impacted by the July flood, over 90% have reopened less than a year later. That’s a remarkable recovery—and Katie’s leadership is a big reason why. She’s now becoming a national voice in the downtown revitalization world on how to prepare for and respond to climate-driven disasters. That’s what real leadership looks like.

Morgan Brown is the kind of person you don’t hear about often enough—but whose impact is impossible to ignore. A formerly unhoused resident of Montpelier, Morgan has spent years advocating for housing justice, working to ensure that every person in the city has a place to call home. His lived experience fuels a tireless commitment to making sure no one is left behind.

Kim Bent and Kathleen Keenan are the co-founders of Montpelier’s award-winning regional theater company. They’ve kept arts and performance alive for decades in a town with fewer than 10,000 people. During COVID and the 2023 floods, they adapted and kept creating. They represent the cultural glue of Montpelier—resilient, creative, community-rooted.

Bill Fraser has been Montpelier’s city manager since 1995—which in local government years is practically a lifetime. He’s been through multiple floods, planning cycles, and city council evolutions. This will be his last year (see the News section) but he clearly has been a driving force of Montpelier’s success over the last three decades.

I didn’t think climate would be a big topic of Capitol Rebuild, but this is the second city in a row that is facing big challenges due to climate change. Montpelier may be small, but it’s the political heart of a state where youth activism punches way above its weight. In recent years, Vermont Youth Lobby, Sustainability Academy students, and youth-led coalitions like VT Climate Union have repeatedly come to the capitol demand stronger action on climate change and flood resilience.

In a town known for slow process, the youth climate movement is one of the most visible, consistent forces demanding faster action.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Montpelier 2025 Capitol Score is 6.1

Montpelier has a Capital Score Potential of 6.3

Three Wishes for the Capitol Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Become the Cross Country Skiing Capital of the East

Montpelier needs niche assets to attract people—and this one is literally right outside its door. Between Hubbard Park, North Branch Park, and the surrounding trail systems, the city already has a solid foundation for cross-country skiing. It’s time to go all-in.

Montpelier should build its identity around Nordic skiing, investing in intentional infrastructure (groomed trails, trailhead facilities, signage), winter programming (races, clinics, festivals), and brand positioning. With world-class downhill resorts just up the road, owning the cross-country niche could turn Montpelier into a year-round outdoor destination for athletes, families, and recreation tourists alike. It wouldn’t just attract visitors—it would attract residents who want an active lifestyle with a civic core.

Finally Embrace the River

It’s hard to believe a city as beautiful as Montpelier has effectively turned its back on the river. Parking lots, rail lines, and roadways dominate what should be the city’s most natural civic space. The proposed Confluence River Park, which would’ve been Montpelier’s first true riverfront park, offered a chance to change that—but it was recently voted down by City Council.

Montpelier needs to revisit that vision—and expand it. The river is more than a flooding hazard; it’s an untapped public space that could anchor new housing, recreation, and civic life. Reimagining the riverfront with parks, trails, terraces, and climate-adapted design could unlock a whole new era of urban livability and tourism. Cities around the country—from Providence to Greenville—have been transformed by embracing their rivers. Montpelier could be next.

Build More Housing and Attract Destination Entrepreneurs

Montpelier won’t grow without new housing—and it won’t thrive without new businesses that give people a reason to show up. As the most centrally located city in Vermont, it’s well-positioned to become a hub for destination-oriented entrepreneurs in food, wellness, design, and the creative economy. But to do that, the city needs to make it easier for people to live, work, and open something new.

That means unlocking new housing—especially infill and missing middle—and pairing it with incentives to support independent entrepreneurs who can bring life to storefronts with cafes, bakeries, bookstores, bike shops, saunas, whatever. Cities like Hudson (NY), Biddeford (ME), and Brattleboro have leaned into this model, and Montpelier could too—if it’s willing to take action on housing and back the kind of businesses that turn a cute town into a must-visit.

What’s Happening in Montpelier?

Montpelier City Council explains decision to sack city manager and

Montpelier to Pay City Manager $240,000 for Early Termination. 30 years is a long time for one person to be in charge. But at the same time, change for change’s sake is never a strong strategy. It’s also somewhat frightening to see that Council members leading this effort weren’t aware of the magnitude of the severance agreement. Montpelier seems to be at a fragile moment and they are going to need a strong city manager that can both provide vision and be ready to deal with the next flood.

Montpelier named one of most charming downtowns by HGTV. Least shocking news story I’ve come across in Capitol Rebuild.

Engineer Says Water Pipe Leaks are Undermining City Roads Aging infrastructure + aging population is not a recipe for success. If you want to raise taxes, it’s going to be on those that are on a fixed income AND vote. Montpelier needs some sort of growth plan to increase revenues, otherwise the next HGTV article on Montpelier will be about towns with the most charming potholes and water boiling announcements.

Final Thoughts

Montpelier might be the smallest capital in the country, but it’s not short on character. It has one of the most walkable downtowns in America, a community that shows up for each other in a crisis, and a landscape that makes you want to stay a while. But small-town charm alone worked in the 20th Century, it won’t be enough for the upcoming future. The threats are real—flooding, aging demographics, stagnant growth—and so is the need for bolder action. Montpelier needs to lean into what makes it special and carve out a future that’s not just resilient, but magnetic.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

3. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

4. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week we go down south for the first time and examine Little Rock.

Arizona achieved statehood in 1912 with Phoenix as its capital when the city wasn’t much more than a desert outpost with fewer than 6,000 residents. A little over a century later, it’s now the fifth largest city in America with 1.7 million people and still growing.

No other U.S. capital city experienced a population boom this dramatic. It’s amazing what air-conditioning, cheap land and the eternal appeal of a snow-free forecast can do. On its current growth trajectory, Phoenix will leapfrog Chicago and be the fourth largest city in the country before the end of the century. However, climate change might eventually have something to say about this growth at all costs approach. Is Phoenix a capital of the future, or just a warm layover?

Flame on!

How Did the Capital End Up There?

The original capitol building itself is very meh. Basically it looks like any other office building that was built in the early 20th century with southwestern influences. The original design included a dome (all capitols should have a dome!), but they ran out of funding before they could finish it. And so the original capitol building remains domeless and now just serves as a museum to bore kids who are on a the state capital field trip (over 70% of the museum’s annual visitors are school field trips). Building on a common theme in Phoenix, there is not centralized capitol building where government happens - it is all sprawled out in the Governmental Mall (two words that should never go together).

My Experiences with Phoenix

When I was developing the idea for Capitol Rebuild, I went through all of the capitals to see how many I visited. And I was certain I had been at a conference at Phoenix and I’d be able to recollect all of the details. But it appears that I tricked myself. Other than connecting to another flying at Skyharbor Airport, I’ve never been there. Ominous sign.

What’s Working

Civic Infrastructure

Phoenix is the first city in this series that truly embraced its capital city status. Not only is it home to state and city government, but Maricopa County—one of the largest in the country—also anchors its offices downtown. And unlike in many state capitals, these layers of government don’t just coexist; they actively collaborate on economic development. Sometimes too much—it seems like there may be a few too many overlapping groups—but the intent is clear: they’re all focused on growing Phoenix.

Regional coordination is a real strength here. The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) actually functions as a forum for smart planning, especially around transportation, water, and air quality—areas that tend to fall through the cracks elsewhere. That level of alignment across municipalities gives Phoenix an edge so many other cities would love to have.

Leadership in Phoenix has a clear bias toward action—and toward saying yes. Yes to housing. Yes to highways. Yes to chip plants. Yes to growth. It’s how the city went from a desert outpost to one of America’s largest metros in under a century. The semiconductor boom, led by TSMC and others, is just the latest example of Phoenix going full throttle.

Could this growth have been more thoughtful? Of course. But in a country where many cities choke on their own regulatory red tape, Phoenix has positioned itself as the opposite: a place where things get built, fast. That mentality—growth at all costs—has fueled an economy that, at least for now, achieves its goal.

Place

Roosevelt Row is the most distinctive urban neighborhood in Phoenix, and it shows what's possible when the city puts effort into place. It's a dense, mural-covered stretch packed with street life, art galleries, local businesses, and new housing. It’s not huge—just about a mile—but it’s become the cultural anchor for downtown.

The challenge now is protecting its soul. Like most places that are deemed “cool”, the sharks are circling, and there’s a real risk that the very vibe that made Roosevelt Row special could be sanitized or priced out with new development. Phoenix needs to keep it unique and make it a model for future infill.

Arts and Culture

Phoenix has the raw ingredients for a robust arts and culture scene—big-name museums, major venues, and a strong Latino and Indigenous creative base. But outside Roosevelt Row, it doesn’t seem like a city brimming with culture. Much of the artistic energy is still spread out or under-leveraged. If Phoenix wants to compete for talent with cities like Austin or Denver, it’ll need to make arts and culture a visible, daily part of urban life—not just something you drive to on the weekend.

What’s Not Working

It’s too damn hot.

Let’s not overthink this. Phoenix is insanely hot—and getting hotter. In 2024, the city clocked 113 straight days over 100 degrees, stretching from May 27 to mid-September. Nearly 40% of the entire year crossed the triple-digit mark. And this year’s first 100-degree day hit on April 10—three weeks earlier than normal.

You can say it’s a “dry heat.” You can point to widespread air conditioning. But the reality is no one wants to be sweating in the shower at 6 a.m. The heat isn’t just a nuisance—it’s a quality of life issue. A public health issue. A workforce retention issue. And no amount of "but it's cheaper than California" arguments makes that go away.

Phoenix, we have a water problem.

The entire growth model of Phoenix is built on borrowed time and borrowed water. The Colorado River is shrinking, groundwater is drying up, and the Southwest is entering a new era of climate risk. Meanwhile, the city keeps building like water will just magically appear.

Now throw in water-guzzling semiconductor fabs, which need millions of gallons daily, and the math gets ugly fast. Sure, there’s some recycling and reuse, but it’s not enough to offset the trajectory. Phoenix hasn’t answered the most basic question about its future: What happens when the water runs out?

Innovation isn’t a magic word

Phoenix is undeniably entrepreneurial—people come here to build and make money. But innovation? That’s still lagging way behind. Arizona State is trying hard to change that story, with big moves downtown and partnerships with chipmakers. But the national brand of ASU is still more “party school” than “research powerhouse.” And Phoenix doesn’t have the research density, tech clusters, or venture capital backbone that cities like Austin, Denver, or Raleigh have managed to build.

You can’t just declare yourself innovative. You have to do the work. Right now, Phoenix has the ambition—but not the ecosystem.

It doesn’t have a soul to sell

This one’s going to sting. But it’s a fair question: What does Phoenix feel like?
It’s a city of transplants, rapid buildout, and cul-de-sac sprawl. History is thin. Culture is scattered. Outside a few pockets like Roosevelt Row, it’s hard to find a place that feels uniquely Phoenix.

When people talk about Phoenix, they talk about what’s affordable, what’s new, what’s growing. Rarely do they talk about what’s beloved. That’s not just a branding problem—it’s a place problem. And it’s one the city will have to fix if it wants to be more than a sunbelt boomtown with an expiration date.

People Doing the Work

In an era when most mayors are just trying to survive their next election, Mayor Kate Gallego is thriving. She not only won re-election—she did it with a larger margin the second time around. That alone is rare. But more importantly, she’s been unapologetically focused on the big issues that matter to Phoenix’s long-term survival: climate resilience, water security, and housing affordability. Despite the limitations of Phoenix’s City Manager system—where mayors don’t have executive authority—Mayor Gallego is steering the policy conversation in the right direction. She’s not just showing up for ribbon cuttings; she’s making sure Phoenix has a future worth building toward.

As the founder of the Indigenous Design Collaborative at Arizona State University, Wanda Dalla Costa is doing something you don’t see in almost any other American city: elevating Indigenous knowledge as a foundation for sustainable urban design. In a place like Phoenix—built in the desert and under pressure from climate change and growth at all costs—her work isn’t just culturally significant. It’s vital.

Catrina Kahler is a driving force continuing the build the arts scene in Phoenix. As President of Artlink Inc., she’s led efforts to connect artists, developers, and policymakers in ways that center culture—not sideline it. From organizing Art Detour and First Fridays to pushing for permanent artist inclusion in city-building decisions, Catrina has helped turn Phoenix from a place where art happens to a place where art is valued. She’s built more than events—she’s built infrastructure for arts and culture to thrive.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Phoenix 2025 Capitol Score is 7.9

Phoenix has a Capital Score Potential of 8.4 (limited due to climate change)

Three Wishes from the Capitol Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

• Slow the growth down. Yes, the growth has been remarkable. Phoenix is booming. But it’s time to hit pause and catch your breath. There’s a long list of things that need fixing to make this a city people love, not just tolerate: better transit, smarter water management, more sustainable economic development. Chasing the next shiny thing—whether it's chip plants or data centers—won’t solve the underlying issues. In fact, it may make them worse. Sometimes, the best move is to sit on the bench, get a breather, and come back in with a better game plan.

• Continue the rebrand of Arizona State and get them even more involved Downtown. Arizona State has come a long way from its party school reputation, but let’s be honest: it hasn’t exactly morphed into a Quaker seminary either. Still, ASU is a critical asset, and it should play an even bigger role in shaping the future of Phoenix. That means continuing to invest in its Downtown campus, especially in graduate research programs and tech transfer capacity. If ASU keeps building real research and startup muscle downtown, Phoenix might finally get to use the word “innovation” in its press releases without everyone rolling their eyes.

• Phoenix has a long-range transportation plan. It has a funding source. Now it needs a sense of urgency. The city has to move faster on expanding light rail, improving bus frequency, and making it possible to live without a car. A place growing this fast can’t keep functioning like a car-only city. It’s time to stop admiring the plan and start laying track.

What’s Happening in Phoenix?

Phoenix City Council to consider zoning policy for data centers. Good?

Arizona lawmakers debate Chase Field renovation funding. Not good?

Capitol Roundup: Director nominations committee gets back to work. This is absolutely insane and the biggest challenge with purple states - unreliable government partner.

TSMC’s debacle in the American desert. This reads like a remake of the 80’s movie Gung Ho (RIP George Wendt).

Developers Lobby to Keep Building, Water Shortages Be Damned. Ugh.

Final Thoughts

I have no doubt there are people who love Phoenix. With the right tour guide, I’m sure I’d have a great weekend—maybe even start to see what makes it so attractive to people. But from the outside, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Phoenix is a city still figuring out what it wants to be, beyond bigger than it is today.

And yet…people keep coming. There must be something in the water—or at least, what’s left of it.

My hope is that Phoenix’s next century of growth looks different from the last. Smarter. More intentional. More rooted in place and culture, not just sprawl and surface. The ingredients are there. The question is whether Phoenix wants to build a city that people don’t just move to—but one they never want to leave.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

3. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week we visit one of the nation’s earliest state capitals in lovely Montpelier.

The most populous metropolis in the world—larger than Tokyo, more influential than London or Beijing—this city is the beating heart of a nation and the command center of a state. The president works down the street from the governor. Its GDP surpasses that of entire countries. Its universities are unmatched—the dominates in biosciences, urban innovation, and civic leadership. Global trends are born here.

This could have been Philadelphia.

But instead, today we’re talking about Pennsylvania’s actual state capital, Harrisburg.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

Philadelphia was the capital of the United States and Pennsylvania capital from 1790 to 1800. But as Pennsylvania grew westward, state legislators felt that Philly was too far for folks that were coming from growing cities like Pittsburgh and Erie. So the capital shifted—first to Lancaster, then finally to Harrisburg in 1812. There wasn’t a whole lot behind the actual decision - Harrisburg was middlish Pennslyvania, it was located on a river, and there was land. And it’s been there for over 200 years.

The original capitol building burned down. The second attempt stalled out. But the third time, as they say, was the charm. Completed in 1906, Pennsylvania’s capitol building was dubbed “the handsomest Capitol I ever saw” by none other than Teddy Roosevelt. It’s topped with an unmistakable green dome inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica, and inside, it’s a swirl of Renaissance revival, stained glass, grand staircases, and murals. Truly a capital’s capitol.

My Experiences with Harrisburg

Growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, my visits to Harrisburg were mostly field trips or pit stops on long drives to Gettysburg. (Both of my parents went to Gettysburg College—shout out to all east coast kids whose summer “vacations” revolved around battlefield tourism.) I remember Harrisburg more as a place I was taken to than a place I sought out.

What’s Working

Place

Riverfront Park is a 4.5-mile linear park that runs along the Susquehanna River and is a real asset to the city. With a mixture of trails, open space, and a potential future entertainment venue, it’s the type of urban green space that most cities would kill for. City Island seems like it’s worth visiting with a minor league baseball stadium and other family friendly activities.

Arts & Culture

You’re not going to Harrisburg for a smoothie. You going to visit a place like Shakedown BBQ to get a sandwich called the Pig Pen. Political power can run on smoked meat.

ArtsFest, the Civic Club, and 3rd in the Burg (a monthly event series) give the city a cultural rhythm that’s steady, if not flashy. And while Broad Street Market suffered a fire in 2023, it’s still the spiritual center of the city’s culinary and community life—and still kicking.

Closest thing I could find to a Harrisburg hype video.

What’s Not Working

The government is far and away the biggest employer. There’s little private sector activity to create a diversified economy.

There are too many attractions nearby close to Harrisburg but not in Harrisburg. Hershey Park, Gettysburg, Lancaster—each are a compelling day trip from Philadelphia, but collectively they draw attention away from Harrisburg as a destination in its own right.

Rail infrastructure severs downtown from the adjacent neighborhoods to the east. For a city this small, it shouldn’t be so hard to get around.

With just over 50,000 residents, Harrisburg ranks in the bottom ten among state capitals by population. The daytime population does surge by about 60%, but it’s tough to do much with a city this size and the majority of employees are working for the government.

People Doing the Work

Contrena Baltimore, the first Black woman elected President of the Civic Club of Harrisburg, is a dedicated community leader that has worked tirelessly to improve life in Harrisburg.

@Platescraperz is a truly entertaining follow checking out the gamut of restaurants in Harrisburg. Mr. ARGH!!! ARGH!!! ARGH!!!

Skye Leppo is a Harrisburg native who came back to the area and now serves as the engine behind 3rd in the Burg, which shows off the best of Harriburg’s creativity and culture.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Harrisburg 2025 Capitol Score is 4.3

Harrisburg has a Capital Score Potential of 6.1

Three Wishes from the Capitol Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

• Finish Broad Street Market. Broad Street Market has been around for 160 years. Hopefully it’s around for 160 more. But the pace of the rebuild project has taken too long and it doesn’t look like there is going to be an end in sight. Does it need to maintain the historical feel? Yes. Does it need to work for the vendors? Yes. Does it need to serve the needs of the community into the future? Yes. Not everything can be like we remember it. I hope that bureaucracy and community engagement spin doesn’t delay this project any more than it has to.

• As the biggest employer in the City, the State of Pennsylvania has a clear responsibility to the Harrisburg. Make a big push on bringing young, eager kids into the City to make a difference in the State and encourage them to live in Harrisburg by offering 20% down payment assistance program (offer a 10% down for existing workers as well). This is how to make public service in Harrisburg more attractive for young professionals, get new talent in government, and make them care about the City that they work in.

• Expand and rebrand the Harrisburg Promise (currently at HACC) into a full-fledged state university college tuition guarantee for graduates of Harrisburg’s public schools. Pennsylvania has over 30 public universities that offer all sorts of opportunities. Bonus: offer down payment assistance help if they return to the city post-graduation. Kalamazoo has proven this can work.

What’s Happening in Harrisburg

The work that everyone at TheBurg puts into covering Harrisburg and the area is truly impressive. It’s great to see that this type of coverage still exists.

New timeline for Harrisburg market rebuild worries vendors. It worries me too.

In Abundance: Some are embracing the notion of “more.” Harrisburg should jump on that train. Clearly much better ideas on what Harrisburg should do than mine.

Report: Harrisburg finances stable, but significant challenges lie ahead. This is somewhat concerning.

“LUVHBG” free downtown parking code yanked from app; many pay stations being removed. There are better ways to create a perception of an open downtown than free parking. Shockingly, employees gamed the system here and there was no free parking for visitors.

Final Thoughts

I’ll admit it—I’ve probably used Harrisburg as a punchline more times than it deserved. It still has a long road ahead, but there are people rolling up their sleeves and doing the work. What it really needs now is a state government willing to invest in its own capital—not just with policy, but with presence. Harrisburg doesn’t have to compete with Philly or Hershey or Gettysburg, but it does need to carve out an identity that makes people want to stop, not just pass through. And on my next road trip through Pennsylvania, I plan to do just that.

(Unfortunately I couldn’t come up with a good nickname).

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

2. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next up, we take on the largest capital city in the US, Phoenix.

Des Moines. DSM. Dez Moynez. The Hartford of the West.

Born out of political compromise, Des Moines sits at the awkward intersection of what capital cities used to be — and what they could become. It’s not flashy. But it’s quietly doing the work to reinvent itself, and that makes it worth paying attention to.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

Playing to Appease, Not to Win

When Iowa became a state in 1846, the capital was Iowa City — conveniently and wisely located on the state’s populated eastern edge near the Mississippi River. But by 1857, lawmakers opted to move the capital westward to a more central location: Des Moines. Officially, it was about access. Unofficially, you can imagine the electeds of the time figuring out how to buy as much land as possible before the vote was official.

Still, this wasn’t a clean break. As part of the deal, Iowa City kept the University of Iowa.

“Let Des Moines have the politicians — we’ll take the professors.”
—A jilted and prescient Iowa City journalist.

That trade would define the trajectory of both cities for the next 150 years.

The Capitol building itself opened in 1886. It’s the only five-domed state capitol in the country and remains a stunner — perched on a hill with a commanding view of the city below.

My Experiences with Des Moines

I’ve been to Des Moines about five times — all during my consulting days in 2015–2016. I lost a project I probably should’ve won (before I understood local politics... naive, in hindsight), and it made me a little obsessed with the place. Most of my time was downtown, though I did make a point of doing a full city driving tour once. The place has stuck with me ever since to the point that they get the initial writeup of Capitol Rebuild.

What’s Working

Des Moines punches above its weight in a few categories — especially its civic commitment, the arts, and surprising bits of urban form.

Civic Infrastructure

“Hartford of the West” isn’t going to be on any tourism pages, but Des Moines is a legitimate insurance hub. Six insurers call it home, including Principal Financial Group, a Fortune 200 company (technically F201, but I’ll let it slide). These anchors show up in a real way — investing in downtown and regional efforts like the Greater Des Moines Partnership, which has emerged as a strong civic backbone. And Momentum Des Moines is out there advocating for a stronger urban form for Des Moines.

Arts & Culture

The arts scene is genuinely impressive. The Des Moines Arts Festival brings nearly 300,000 people downtown every year, turning the core into an open-air gallery. Pappajohn Sculpture Park features works you’d expect in Chicago or D.C., not central Iowa. The city needs to figure out how to bring back the beloved 80/35 music festival — because this is the type of local festival that can make a capital city feel alive.

Place

East Village could fool you into thinking you’re in a Chicago neighborhood — with its mixed-use buildings, walkable grid, and small businesses. Look east down Grand Avenue, and the Capitol dome rises in the distance. You can buy a two-bedroom condo here for under $250K — which is basically a modern fantasy in most cities.

Water Works Park is outrageous in the best way. 1,500 acres of wooded trails, open space, and natural beauty — right in the heart of the city. It’s a crown jewel most cities would kill for.

And the Capitol itself? A real beauty worthy of the role. Set high on the hill, it looks like how a capitol should look.

If you want to drink the Des MoinesKool Aid, I suggest starting with this obligatory Des Moines Hype Video

What’s Not Working

A recurring theme in Capitol Rebuild: stop making it so easy to escape!

In the words of Rick Pitino, the University of Iowa is not walking through that door anytime soon (because the State Constitution screwed it up 175 years ago). Iowa State University, the state’s top technical school, is based in Ames — 40 miles north. And while ISU does what it can to engage in Des Moines, it’s hard to build an innovation economy when your research engine is a car ride away. Des Moines doesn't feel like a tech-forward capital — and that’s a missed opportunity.

OK. We have to address Des Moines’ biggest problem. Say I told you that Minneapolis had the largest skywalk system in the United States; you’d nod your head because that makes total sense. Now I ask you which city has the second largest…after about thirty wrong answers, I would tell you it’s Des Moines. What started as a 1971 connector between a JCPenney and a parking garage has metastasized into four miles of climate-controlled hamster tunnels that sucked the life out of downtown street activity. Businesses relocated to the skywalk. Pedestrians followed. The sidewalks emptied. The core became a ghost town at ground level. Walk west from the Capitol and you’ll hit a vibrant neighborhood, then the desolate downtown skywalk zone, and then another vibrant neighborhood. The middle is... missing.

Like too many capital cities, the street network of Des Moines was designed to make it as easy as possible for people to leave, not stay. Wide one-way streets usher people in and out of the city as fast as possible. The city has begun converting streets to two-way and adding bike lanes, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

Meanwhile, the sidewalk network is shockingly incomplete. In 2018, Des Moines had 667 miles of sidewalk gaps — nearly 700 miles of missing links in a city trying to be walkable. That’s not a gap — that’s a canyon. Build more sidewalks.

Iowa doesn’t have a full-time legislature. And it shows. Capitol pride among lawmakers feels low. The governor has, at times, micromanaged city-level decisions. The city deserves better from the people whose names adorn the statehouse corridors.

Some People Doing the Work

Kuku Saah, Entrepreneur and creative force behind [startup or initiative], focused on inclusive innovation in DSM.

Steve Naber, Des Moines City Engineer leading infrastructure modernization with an eye on better streets.

Deb Madison-Levi, Downtown neighborhood advocate building bridges between residents, city hall, and business.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Des Moines 2025 Capitol Score is 6.7

Des Moines has a Capital Score Potential of 8.2

My Three Policy Wishes from the Capitol Genie

• Rip out the skywalks and create incentives for businesses to relocate to the ground floor. Rebuild the street.
  

• Lean harder into the arts. Get weirder. Bring back 80/35. Make Des Moines stand out from the rest of the Midwest.
  

• Host Iowa–Iowa State rivalry games across sports in downtown Des Moines. Bring energy, people, and pride back to the capital and showcase the capital city to hundreds of thousands of Iowans, particularly your potential future residents. .

Des Moines may never be Columbus or Madison, and that’s fine. It’s not trying to be. But if it leans into its strengths, builds better streets and sidewalks, and rips out that skywalk like it’s an appendix, it could be one of the most livable — and surprising — capital cities in America.

Next up: The scene of my fourth grade field trip, Harrisburg.

Fifty cities, each home to the levers of state power. On paper, it seems like an easy formula: concentrate the most powerful people in the state, plant a flagship university nearby, build a vibrant downtown, and watch the economic development unfold. Most of these places have had over a century to figure it out — the last time a state changed its capital was Oklahoma in 1910.

And yet... the results are all over the place.

Some capitals are booming centers of growth. Others haven’t managed to stitch their assets together. And a few seem content to be nothing more than a backdrop for fourth-grade field trips.

This is what Capitol Rebuild is about.

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This project is my personal deep dive into all 50 state capitals — city by city, block by block — to understand what’s working, what’s broken, and what’s worth rebuilding. Why do some capitals soar while others stall? What role do universities, startup ecosystems, main streets, zoning boards, and billion-dollar state budgets play in shaping a city’s future? And how can placemaking, policy, and public-private-university partnerships rebuild momentum where it’s missing?

I’ll approach these questions with a mix of research, commentary, and completely subjective takes. Some cities are quietly thriving. Others are stuck in neutral. And a few just desperately need a coffee shop near the capitol building.

This isn’t a blog about government. It’s about what happens around it — the neighborhoods, business corridors, tech transfer, dive bars, sports teams, and local weirdness that make a capital city more than just a marble dome and a one-way street grid.

Let’s begin with a tier list. Because if there’s one thing the internet needs more of, it is subjective rankings of obscure places.

Austin the Unicorn

Giannis. Stripe. In-N-Out Burger. Beyoncé. Austin.
Some things are just built different. Austin gets its own tier thanks to explosive growth, global brand recognition, and a uniquely successful mix of state government, a flagship university, tech innovation, and lifestyle appeal. It’s the benchmark every other capital wishes it could replicate — and most can’t (and won’t).

Austin

The Capitol Building Just Happens to Be There

In these cities, being the capital is almost an afterthought. They’re major metros with broader economic engines — the legislature is just one player in a much bigger game. Still, having lawmakers around doesn’t hurt.

Boston
Atlanta
Phoenix
Denver
Indianapolis
Saint Paul

Next Up

These capitals are just getting started. They’ve pulled together the right ingredients — talent, universities, policies, and momentum — and will be the breakout stars this decade. Think of them as the 'next Austins' with a lot still to prove.

Columbus
Nashville
Salt Lake City
Raleigh
Honolulu

Not Your Favorite Field Trip

These cities offer little beyond the capitol building and maybe a gift shop. There’s no real downtown energy, university presence, or momentum. Redevelopment is slow, and the 21st century hasn’t quite arrived yet.

Springfield
Harrisburg
Topeka
Jefferson City
Carson City
Frankfort

Smoke-Filled Rooms

The perfect backdrop for a Taylor Sheridan series about politics, corruption, and great regional accents. These are old-school East Coast capitals with deep political roots, reputations for insider deals, and a lot of history — good and bad. If you’re an elected official here, you matter.

Providence
Hartford
Albany
Richmond

Great Bones

These are the cities that make you say, “You know, with a few smart moves...” They’ve got potential — historic cores, strong universities, signs of reinvestment — and are on the edge of something bigger. They just need a push.

Des Moines
Boise
Santa Fe
Lincoln
Little Rock
Sacramento
Oklahoma City
Columbia
Helena
Salem
Madison

Missing the Spark

All the ingredients are there: universities, civic institutions, a sense of place. But something isn’t clicking. Whether it’s political dysfunction, weak execution, or just a bad vibe, these cities haven’t figured out how to make it all work.

Lansing
Tallahassee

You Be You

Charming. Low-key. Content. These capitals don’t need to chase growth to have value. They’ve got identity and quality of life — and they’re just fine staying that way.

Montpelier
Augusta
Concord
Olympia
Juneau
Annapolis

They Are What They Are

They’re not bad. They’re not exciting. They just… are. No one’s moving there for opportunity, but no one’s fleeing either. Their floor is their ceiling.

Dover
Cheyenne
Bismarck
Pierre

Groundhog Day

One step forward, several steps back. These capitals face deep structural issues — long-term economic decline, underperforming institutions, and cycles of political stagnation. They need more than a new plan. They need a reset.

Charleston
Baton Rouge
Montgomery
Jackson
Trenton

Capitol Rebuild will start rolling out individual city profiles and then…who knows? Another podcast? Re-rankings? State capital tour? Anything is possible.

There has been some progress over the last two years, with a reduction of 2,010 fatalities from 2021 to 2023. However at this current rate, it will take until 2031—an eight-year journey—to merely return to the fatality levels of 2014. This would mean that, over a span of 17 years, American society has made no meaningful progress in reducing traffic deaths. Achieving ambitious goals like “Toward Zero ” or even matching the lower fatality rates of countries like Canada or Australia seems increasingly out of reach without transformative action.

The Biden Administration made substantial investments in road safety, allocating $15.6 billion over five years through the Highway Safety Improvement Program and $5 billion through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. While these efforts are commendable and signal a commitment to reversing this trend, their long-term impact remains to be seen. Given the scale of the problem, it is clear that much more will be needed to turn the tide on traffic fatalities and create safer roads for all.

The problem is clearly going to take more money (shocking!) to address, but how to best spend this money? Well I have an idea (or two).

Moon Shot #1: Build a true performance-based incentive program that rewards states for reducing crashes (ie pay them to reduce crashes).

When you review a State DOT strategic plan, it likely has a number of goals laid out around safety, efficiency, state of good repair, economic development, among other topics. However, there aren’t any carrots that a DOT gets for achieving the goals (outside of being a great public servant). So it’s very easy to write something bold “Toward Zero Deaths” in a strategic plan press release and then go back to doing the same old things. The lack of outcome-based incentives by the federal government encourages the status-quo for State DOTs.

Proposed Solution: Let’s simply tell State DOTs that we will pay them to reduce fatalities

Simple program construct - For the first year of the program, State DOTs get $1,000,000 for every crash they reduce from 2022 levels. The following year, they receive $1,000,000 for every fatality removed from the previous year. If fatalities go up, the base year remains the most recent year in which fatalities went down.

Program Cost: Let’s assume that we would aim for 15% reduction in fatalities every year (5% is current rate from 2021 to 2023). The cost of the program would naturally start high but go down over time.

OK, so the cost of an outcome based program like this isn’t astronomical. However, where is the proof that simply throwing more money at State DOTs is going to be able to make a 3x dent in the number of fatalities, particularly when there is already a ton of funding in the system right now for safety projects.

This is where we make things interesting. For each $1,000,000, the State DOT can use $500,000 for specific things - hiring additional staff, maintenance, operations, programs - but not to build new projects. The other $500,000 goes into a bonus pool for State DOT employees.

What?!? We are going to use federal funding to incentivize employees to hit desired outcomes? This would never happen in the private sect…..oh wait, this is literally how so many private sector jobs (including everyone I have ever had as a consultant, a start-up, or in a corporation) have their bonuses structured.

So why do I think this is a good way to actually make a dent?

(1) State DOTs are bleeding talent to private engineering firms and struggle to compete salary wise at even entry-level. Providing any sort of funding to allow them to compete to retain/attract talent would be valuable.

(2) Regardless of how often a DOT will say “Safety is our most important principle”, in reality every DOT is balancing congestion/travel times with safety. If safety drove every road design, we would see all red phases at traffic signals of multiple seconds, leading pedestrian intervals with every call button, and we would have a much bigger priority on state of good repair than building new.

(3) If every employee was incentivized to financially incentivized to reduce fatalities, you would create an internal accountability culture of everyone doing everything to address safety - and employees would not be happy if someone wasn’t pulling their weight because it would affect their safety bonus check.

Let’s use at South Carolina as an example to see how this would play out over time. In 2022 they had 1,094 crashes and I’ll guesstimate that there are 4,000 employees at South Carolina DOT. If crashes were reduced in South Carolina by 15% each year, this is how the program would work. In year one, SCDOT would receive $82,000,000 in discretionary funding and each employee would receive a $20,500 check at the end of the year. Not too shabby.

Clearly the financial incentive is signifcantly reduced in the out years which likely would require more $ per fatality reduced in order to keep pace.

So why not provide this funding to County road agencies, City DOTs, or toll authorities? Mainly due to the fact of how much more impact and influence State DOTs have on how funding is appropriated in a state. If State DOTs made safety their ultimate priority on how projects are selected, other agencies will likely respond in kind.

We cannot keep funneling more money to the same systems and expect to get different results. If we want safer (or cleaner or more efficient or more affordable) transportation, we should be rewarding those agencies that deliver the outcomes we want.

Well, now we’ve solved the road problem. Part Two will address how we make vehicles safer and then Part Three will focus on how we pay for this.

Thanks for reading.

Retailer: This item that I worked so hard on? I would love to sell it to you. It costs $2.00.

Customer: Great, here is a $20 bill.

Retailer: OK, well we can take cash, but we can’t give you change.

Customer: Oh. OK then, let me put this on my AmEx.

Retailer: Sorry, we don’t take AmEx.

Customer: All right, how about my Visa card.

Retailer: Sorry we don’t take Visa either.

Customer: Mastercard? Apple Pay? Google Pay? Venmo? Paypal? Cash App?

(Retailer just keeps shaking head no).

Retailer: We do have an app. All you need to do is download it, put in all of your payment and contact information, click through a few screens, and then you will be able to pay for anything in this one store anytime you want with this app. Or you can drive a few miles, purchase a special card, drive back, and you can use that card.

(Customer drops item and walks out of store)

This is an obviously insane scenario that would never play out in any business in this country. Other than the hundreds of transit and parking agencies in this country where this is a daily occurrence.

“WHY?!?!?” Well it boils down to two reasons….

(1) Vendor lock. If a store only took Visa as payment, the folks at Visa would not be super excited at anything that would let Mastercard in. It’s no different in transit or parking….vendors that are already entrenched at agencies would prefer not to compete for how a customer pays for transportation. So vendors try to make it as hard as possible for their clients to keep their competition out through a variety of different methods.

(2) Ego. A lot of people in government think that they, not the people who have spent thousands of hours on product and market fit, have the answer for a killer mobility app. And that their agency is a unicorn with special needs that the rest of the country doesn’t have. Spoiler alert…they don’t and they aren’t.

Confession time….for the first two years that I worked in the Mayor’s Office, I was one of those people who let my ego get in the way of better payment for our customers. I was convinced that we would be the ones to show the rest of the world what a mobility app should be. And I was wrong.

Transit and parking agencies should have one clear goal with digital payment:

Make it as easy as possible for customers to pay you.

Cash? Great, we’ll take it. Card? Great, we’ll take as many as we can. App? Great, we’ll take as many as we can. Easier to pay = more revenue. More revenue = better service. Better service = more revenue. And there are all sort of additional goals that can be achieved (customer discount programs, agency cost reductions, brand marketing, etc) while still making it easier for your customers to pay you.

Fortunately, there are bright lights in the industry that are demonstrating what everyone should be doing.

The California Integrated Travel Project

I first met Gillian Gillett at a Ford Future Mobility event when she was at San Francisco Mayor’s Office and I was in the Detroit Mayor’s Office. During our panel, we both went on lengthy rants about this issue of why transit payment was broken. Fast forward a few years, and I’m just writing about it and she has basically solved the problem by working in state government.

The California Integrated Travel Project (Cal-ITP for those in the know) was developed to make it as easy as possible for ALL transit agencies in the nation’s largest state to accept all types of payment (as well as standardizing trip planning, creating interoperability between agencies and make it as easy as possible for customers to access benefit and discount programs). The program is based around contactless EMV payment technology so everything from a contactless payment card to a closed loop payment card to a mobile wallet can be accepted by agencies across California. By creating a standardized marketplace, the program reduces the time and cost for any agency to move towards digital payments. And beyond this, the program also allows for other agencies outside of California to utilize this program, extending the benefits across the country.

Atlanta Mobile + Parking Program

How many parking apps do you have on your phone? Too many is likely the answer. Instead of adding another app to your phone, the folks in Atlanta just said “we’ll take what you’ve got” and accept payment from five vendors (Flowbird, Parkmobile, Passport, Pay by Phone , and Spotangels) so customers can use the app they like.

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Public sector agencies are not good at building product. I learned this the hard way. Hopefully the next generation of leaders in transit and parking can recognize this quicker than I did and focus on the outcomes for their customers and the best way to achieve them just by asking themselves “Is it easy for our customers to pay us”, and regardless of the first answer, “How do we make it easier for our customers to pay us”.

(1) Most people are not happy with how they get around.

(2) Most people aren’t supportive of change that would impact how they get around.

How can both (1) and (2) be true? Well, the phrase “change is hard” has a lot of basis in fact.

The best example of this was a time I was working with two neighborhoods that both were looking to reduce cut-through traffic and speeding in their neighborhood. One neighborhood had a one-way street and it was proposed that it be changed to a two-way street. The other neighborhood had a two-way street and it was proposed that it be changed to a one-way street. Both neighborhoods hated the proposed changes. Why? Because change is hard and, particularly with changes in street design, the risk of what could happen outweighs the negatives of the current situation.

And this is just a microcosm of how the fear and risk of change keeps us at the status quo with respect to how people and goods move. So changes that can have demonstrable benefits with respect to safety, climate, economic development and quality of life are held back because the status quo is simply easier.

This is far from an ideal situation for our society.

Fortunately, we have lots of folks out there, both in the private and public sector, that aren’t willing to accept that the status quo is good enough and are willing to take on the fight for change, whether it’s building a new bike lane to shipping all sort of new items on the Great Lakes, because it’s the right thing to do.

So what does it take to make bottoms-up change (change is much easier to accomplish when a principal says “DO IT”)?

I think it comes down to five critical ingredients….

(1) Have a great idea. I know this seems basic, but change requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention political capital, so there needs to be a real reason for this investment.

(2) Build a compelling case for your idea. You can’t pitch an idea and close with “WHY AREN’T YOU ALL EXCITED FOR MY GREATNESS?!?!” You need build the case for why your idea solves a problem and get people fired up on their own. Typically focusing on “what problem of ours does this solve” and “what problem of yours could this also solve” is a great start.

(3) Build confidence of execution. Decision makers get nervous when they see an attractive idea that’s attached to a team that doesn’t have a history of executing. However, these same folks have a much bigger appetite for new ideas from changemakers that have previously succeeded in implementing new ideas.

(4) Build the case against your idea. Why are people going to tell you you’re an idiot? Why is a decision maker going to say no? Getting in front of these questions and being as prepared as possible for negative feedback is necessary for the hard conversations that any type of change requires.

(5) Build partnerships and coalition of the willing. This can range from a large group of people to show numbers to a few key influencers that have the ear of the person you need to say yes. But it’s much easier to take this fight on with partners than it is alone.

Then just execute, rinse and repeat.

I started my career as a traffic engineer who didn’t ask questions about why things the way they were, until I did. And since then, I’ve been successful in bringing change to everywhere I’ve worked using the strategy above.

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