Phoenix

Civic engagement

Better government in a post-Trump America

Andrew Simek, district community manager for Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, argues that voters who blamed government failure in 2024 diagnosed the wrong problem. After hundreds of community events and dozens of town halls, he writes, the pattern is capacity: constituents who qualify for help but cannot reach it. The real choice is not a big government or a small one, but one that can deliver.

Andrew Simek · Aug. 4, 2026 · 5 min read

Urbanism

Building a great city in the twenty-first century

American cities stopped building up and started building out. Joe Pitts argues that the Sun Belt's suburban boom doesn't have to mean the end of great cities, and lays out what it would take for Phoenix to become the proving ground for a new kind of American city.

Joe Pitts · June 22, 2026 · 5 min read