Concepts
One idea at a time, explained so you can see where your input goes today and where it vanishes.
- New York City
Who do you call?
Twelve everyday problems and the offices that actually hold them. Most reach the one official people can name, who can decide none of them.
- Anywhere in the United States
What can your member of Congress actually do?
Twelve federal problems taken to a congressional office. One is theirs to decide, three they can ask about, and on the one you cared about most, nobody owes you a reply.
- Anywhere in the United States
Why doesn't it pass?
A bill with majority support in both chambers can still never reach a vote. Move the numbers and watch which of the six thresholds stops it.
- New York, and everywhere else
Why your local election is in an odd year
Off-cycle elections were a good-government reform meant to keep party machines out of city hall. A century later they are the main reason nobody votes in them.
- New York City
Who decides your rent?
About a million New York apartments have their rent set once a year by a vote. Guess how many people cast it, and how many of them you chose.
- Anywhere in the United States
Who runs your city?
In a great many American cities the person running day-to-day government was hired, not elected. Flip between the two forms and watch where the power moves.
- New York, and everywhere else
What is a public authority?
New York has 604 of them. They carry $333 billion in debt, run the subway, and not one board member appears on a ballot.
- Anywhere in the United States
Why your city has to ask permission
Cities are not sovereign. They hold the powers their state has handed them and no others, which is why New York City had to ask Albany before it could lower a speed limit.