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| The Earth Institute at Columbia University | ||
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| “Governing New York City: Progressive Government Reform: Hiding in Plain View” Steven Cohen, Director, Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy, examines New York City’s management reform and service expansion over the last half century in his paper, “Governing New York City: Progressive Government Reforms Hiding in Plain View” (Public Performance and Management Review; Vol. 27 No. 4, June 2004, pp. 67-90). Cohen suggests that the national movement to reinvent government could learn from local governments such as New York City that constantly struggle to improve services and management in response to increased public demand. In his view, the pressure to deliver more effective and efficient services is felt most strongly at the local level—where services are actually put into place. New York City has the largest local government in the United States and has been a laboratory for the expansion and improvement of government services for the past 50 years. Focusing on the New York City’s Mayors over the last 30 years Cohen carries us through the last two decades of the City’s management history focusing on the role of the city’s mayors as management innovators who revolutionized the government’s role in public affairs. The paper starts with a look at Mayor Beame’s establishment of the Mayor’s Management Report continues with a range of innovations developed during the Koch Administration and discusses both Mayor Dinkins’ and Mayor Giuliani’s efforts to improve the quality of life through reductions in crime. In Cohen’s view, the story of New York’s local government over the past 50 years has been a “good news story” of a local government putting in place a series of creative programs to deal with problems ranging from homelessness to emergency medical services. By examining the accomplishments of management reform and service expansion in local governments, Cohen believes that critics would begin to understand that the public sector can be effectively managed and can serve the public interest. You can read the article at http://mesharpe.metapress.com/link.asp?id=xrkt4b9uyngqvulp. For more information please contact Yana Chervona at 212-854-1214 --by Cate Weinberg |
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