“Acting as One” was the topic of David Rusk’s December 2017 presentation.Rusk is the author of “Cities Without Suburbs,” the seminal book on regionalism, now in its fourth edition.
He is the former mayor of Albuquerque, and is a three-time scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Rusk was the first speaker in the Forum St. Louis regionalism series, which to date has had a total of 2,093 registrations for five events
Rusk’s knowledge of what has worked and what hasn’t vis a vis regional collaboration is voluminous. He has worked with hundreds of municipal and regional governments across the country. At a meeting at the Regional Chamber offices on his last visit a young policy wonk came up to Rusk after the meeting and said, “You’ve forgotten more statistics than I’ve done in my entire life.”
Rusk began analyzing the Better Together report as soon as it was issued. He will be drilling down into items ranging from savings from consolidation, to size and ranking of the “statistical city”, economic development, planning and zoning, bond ratings, taxation, political representation, and Metropolitan Council composition.
His presentation will be held in the Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park from 7:30am - 9:00am on June 12. Admission is free, but registration is required.