What really happened on Tuesday?

Image by Mike Licht

We voted to be rid of Clippy.

Dating myself for sure, but do you remember when Microsoft introduced "Clippy" the supposedly helpful assistant for Microsoft Office 97? Boy I sure do. I remember when in 1995, we got "email" on our computers at Naval Medical Center San Diego. It was also that year that we saw the first WYSIWYG Word Processing application from Word Perfect, still dominant in the market at that time. People had barely gotten over the shock of that, and were still learning how to master the mouse by playing solitaire. And then Microsoft dropped Clippy on us. And it failed. Users hated it because it was just an annoying distraction.

Just like Washington D.C.

Sure the Democrats had great candidates in VA and NJ. The GOP candidates were OK. Younger voters moved the needle on Prop 50 in CA. The VA GOP gubernatorial candidate hugely underperformed against Youngkin's previous win to the tune of 300-400,000 votes. That's not nothing. But I don't think it was relative strength of the messaging from Democratic candidates, or the weakness of the GOP messaging. I think we looked at D.C., and just decided to be done with anything associated with Clippy. That one big distraction across the Potomac. The President says the fact that he wasn't on the ballot dragged numbers down. I argue just the opposite: he was very much on the ballot, and voters said 'no.'

What voters really wanted

Of the big three rages out there - Sherrill, Spanberger, and Madami - I think the voters were only really buying what Mandami was selling. And that is evidenced in what went down in cities all across America. Madami campaigned on things like:

1. Housing Affordability

Rent freezes and rollbacks for stabilized units
Expansion of social housing and city-owned residential developments
Aggressive enforcement against speculative landlords and vacant properties

2. Public Ownership & Services

Creation of city-owned grocery stores in food deserts
Expansion of municipal broadband and public banking initiatives
Push for free public transit, funded by taxes on high-income earners and corporations

3. Tax Equity

Increase in progressive taxation, including expansion of the JumpStart Payroll Expense Tax
Targeted levies on luxury real estate and financial transactions
Reallocation of budget priorities toward social infrastructure

4. Public Safety Reform

Establishment of a civilian-led Department of Community Safety
$1 billion plan to hire social workers and mental health professionals instead of expanding NYPD ranks
Divestment from traditional policing in favor of non-carceral interventions

5. Climate & Transit

Investment in green infrastructure, bike lanes, and pedestrian zones
Electrification of city fleets and retrofitting public buildings
Expansion of transit access in outer boroughs, especially Queens and the Bronx

As a Mayor he is in a far better position to effect those things than a Governor. And it also mirrors what voters asked for in cities all across America.

What was on the Ballot?

In Columbus, Ohio voters approved $1.9bb worth of bonding for all kinds of civic projects. Issue 5 approved $500mm for affordable housing; Issue 6 approved $300mm for public safety facilities; issue 7 $250mm for parks and recreation; Issue 8 will spend $450mm on transportation and infrastructure; and issue 9 will spend $400mm on economic development and civic facilities including libraries and workforce hubs.

In Franklin County, Ohio, voters approved $3.35 million in spending over 10 years for mental health and addiction recovery programs across the county. They also renewed the levy for the Zoo and Aquarium.

In California residents of Alameda passed Measure A, which gave the City the ability to reuse a vacated Federal property in order to provide assisted living, medical respite, and supportive service facilities for the homeless.

In Denver, Colorado (the Consolidated City-County of Denver - MORE of this needs to happen across the U.S.) residents approved $950 worth of bond funded projects including:

2A: $441M for transportation and mobility
2B: $175M for parks and recreation
2C: $30M for health and human services
2D: $244M for city infrastructure and facilities
2E: $59M for housing and shelters

The point of a robust urbanism is that this is where residents live their lives out on a daily basis. Not the Capital Mall, not the State House or within a set of state borders - this is all lived out on blocks, neighborhoods and Cities. Cities that are voluntary associations of citizens who come together in an incorporated entity because they have like values. And the real governance issues that touch people's lives are the ones that make their lives and the lives of their neighbors better. This is through safe streets; responsive public safety policies; the provision of health care, green space, mental health and job services. Equitable transportation services and access to modern technologies, and community cultural centers.

Washington D.C. is giving us Clippy, the ultimate semantic clutter in interface design as we might way in urban parlance. Voting for new leaders in VA and NJ at least gives us a break from the imposition of Clippy in this new era of Federal Feralism, but it will always be the people at the block, neighborhood, and city level that create the sidewalk ballet at a human scale in communities we design ourselves.