Governing Magazine's website has a weekly "Management Insights" column published in collaboration with the Government Innovators Network at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. As the network's name indicates, this is about innovative efforts by governments to improve the cities and states which they govern.
The latest column spotlights Cleveland, OH's strategy to create a broadband infrastructure and (gasp) it may be better than ours!
The essence is found in what Cleveland is doing with broadband infrastructure for innovation on a regional basis. Cleveland is unique in its approach to broadband, its emphasis on entrepreneurial innovation and its focus on the region rather than on the city, the state or the nation.
The columnist, Jerry Mechling, is a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of government and seems to like this whole idea of "regionalism" just as much as we here at The Next Mayor do:
Cleveland could not create broadband-enabled innovation on its own. It tried but could not get much help from the state capitol in Columbus. It tried but could not get much help from national policy in Washington, D.C. The reality for Cleveland and all northeast Ohio is that jobs are increasingly mobile while people and the regional workforce are remarkably stable. Despite the fact that roughly 20% of Americans move every five years, nearly half live within 30 miles of where they were born. The regional economy is the essential unit of community and change. (emphasis is mine)
I've got some ideas for actions that this region could take to solve a lot of different problems. However, step 1 continues to be, opening the lines of communication. Once the next mayor does that, then just about anything is possible.