Placeless Politics

Matt Bevilacqua, writing for Next American City, laments the lack of urban issues in the presidential debates:

Forgive me if this is starting to sound old. Urban advocates have raised this complaint many times before: During national campaigns, when pundits and politicos are bickering over everything from reproductive health to drilling for oil to the debt ceiling, issues specifically related to cities get the short shrift.

This is the frustration of national politics. The dialogue is so polluted by vitriol and dominated by issues that don’t matter that the really important stuff gets buried, or worse, forgotten. It’s extremely disappointing to see no discussion on policies and strategies to make our communities the great, resilient, and productive places they are meant to be.

Along those lines, Chuck Marohn over at Strong Towns has a list of questions he would ask the candidates. Unfortunately I don’t see these questions getting answered before these campaigns are over.