by Rachel Cohen
They say all politics is local, but this election season seemed to suggest otherwise. With all eyes on the Presidential election and the rhetoric so focused on everything wrong with Washington, a number of state and local initiatives got buried in the news rubble. These votes show that Americans may not be in as much of an anti-government, anti-establishment, build-a-wall-and-throw-the-Washington-bums-on-the-other-side mood as Trump’s Drain the Swamp rhetoric might suggest. And this is good news for us as planners and people that care about investing in our communities.
From coast to coast and many places in between, Americans committed to invest in public infrastructure funded by public dollars. Trump campaigned on infrastructure, pledging to invest $1T in rebuilding our nation’s broken bridges, tunnels, and airports, to Make our Infrastructure Great Again. But unlike Trump’s plan, which relies on private sector investment spurred by tax breaks, cities across the country decided to actually invest public, taxpayer money in public infrastructure. The Sound Transit plan in Seattle and the surrounding counties will result in more than $50B investment in expanding light rail and bus rapid transit across the metro area. The majority of voters said, yes, add $169 a year to my tax bill – it’s worth it to have a reliable public transit system that actually gets me to work, school, family, and friends. In an era where big public works projects seem impossible, this is one of the biggest metro investments in transit and voters said, bring it on. In Los Angeles, famed home of American car-driven lifestyle, a vote to permanently increase the sales tax to fund transit crossed a ridiculously high two-thirds support requirement to pass on the ballot.
Sure, some will say, but this just highlights the fundamental rift the election exposed. The insulated, coastal elites love riding trolleys and drinking lattes, while those struggling in the Heartland would prefer the government keep its hands off their Medicare and their cars, thank you very much. And yet, a ballot measure to invest in expanding bus transit in Marion County, Indiana, passed with a greater margin of support than Sound Transit. The measure aims to increase bus service across Indianapolis and add its first bus rapid transit line, at a cost of 25 cents on every $100 of income. The referendum enjoyed support from social justice-minded churches and the Indy Chamber, who likely disagree on many issues but were able to get together and say this is a smart investment in the future of our city, and one that will make us both more equitable and more competitive.
The story was the same in dozens of other jurisdictions. In Atlanta – perhaps L.A.’s most car-centric East Coast counterpart – voters approved two transit measures, both with a greater than two-thirds majority. By adding about a penny to their sales tax bills, DeKalb county residents will raise nearly $3B for their transit agency, which has a fair amount of discretion in how to use the funds. So not only did Atlanta say yes to transit, it said we trust our transit agency to spend our money wisely! Voters in Illinois and New Jersey voted to protect funds for future transportation projects, and voters in Greensboro, N.C. approved a bond measure to fund parks, economic development projects, and transportation infrastructure. In fact, more than two-thirds of transit ballot measures passed, and even more got the majority of voter support but failed due to state ballot rules.
It’s worth noting that unions were a major backer of the Sound Transit 3 campaign, a case of labor flexing its muscle despite taking a thrashing in the Rust Belt. The weakness of the union vote across the Blue Wall states is a major storyline of the Presidential election, but in Massachusetts we saw that teachers’ unions remain a real, organized political force. A ballot measure in the state to lift the cap on charter schools was soundly defeated by more than 60% of voters. Say what you will about the intransigence of teachers unions, but they have power. They beat a $24m Yes campaign – the most ever spent on a ballot initiative in the state – and convinced a strong majority of voters that keeping money in public schools, schools that serve all students, was the way to invest our taxpayer dollars.
The transit and charter school initiatives show that public institutions like unions are alive as an organizing force. The votes also show that many Americans still believe that, when it comes to privatizing or even semi-privatizing public goods, there can be too much of a good thing. At the top of the ticket it seemed that anger, fear, and hatred – of insiders and “crooked” candidates, of the many “others” that Trump stoked fear against – was the story of this election. And the social divide is real, frightening, and something we need to much more seriously grapple with as a nation. But maybe our cities and states, and not just the “elite” ones, are a good place to start. This is a time of great skepticism of all things “big” across the political spectrum – government, banks, unions. It’s also a time when public institutions are outsourcing responsibilities to the private sector, from transit companies subsidizing Uber and Lyft for taking some of their rides, to charters becoming an increasing force across the country. At this moment of rejecting everything, and putting an unbelievably anti-Establishment candidate in the White House, Americans remain willing to invest in public institutions and public infrastructure when they see them as smart investments that make sense for their families. “We’re always willing to give a little more to help the school,” as one longtime local office-holder explained. Maybe all politics is local after all.
I don’t think the apparent split between peoples’ national and state/local votes means that we’re schizophrenic, or that we got duped. Rather I think many Americans can distinguish between apolitical local investments and the national, hyper-partisan rhetorical morass. Schools and buses aren’t Republican or Democratic, they are the lifeblood of much of our nation. Investing in public goods is a fundamental way that we as Americans express a joint commitment to working together to make our country a better place, one that provides opportunity to more people and lowers barriers to entry for working families, students, and small businesses. This is how we make America greater (a distinct idea from making America Great Again), and how we move from the hate-filled rhetoric of this election to actually working together to get things done.