ABOUT US

Citiesonahill.org is a project of the Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute, featuring a blog edited by Fred Siegel. It provides market-friendly public-policy solutions for urban governance, highlights trend lines between cities, and facilitates dialogue between city leaders and public policy experts.

In the 1990s, Mr. Siegel was a major intellectual force in the revitalization of declining American cities in the 1990s. As a senior advisor to Rudolph Giuliani's 1993 mayoral campaign, he wrote one of Mr. Giuliani's path-breaking speeches on quality of life. He was also one of the original editors of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.

Citiesonahill.org begins with the premise that cities can and should continue the successful policies that the reform mayors of the 1990s-Giuliani, Daley, Goldsmith-pioneered. These mayors stopped looking to Washington for solutions to their problems, and instead sought to make their cities more attractive to businesses and working families by reducing crime, welfare, taxes and regulations.

To bring as much local knowledge as possible to bear on the issues that face American cities, the blog features knowledgeable urban scholars based in many cities. Citiesonahill.org also provides daily links to articles about economic development, politics, crime, real estate, sprawl and other issues in North American and European cities.

Citiesonahill.org invites informed readers and local voices to contribute, comment, and enrich each other's understandings of what is happening-and what should be happening-in our cities.

Staff

FRED SIEGEL

Fred Siegel, editor-in-chief, has made his intellectual home at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City for over twenty years. Before joining the faculty of Cooper Union, Mr. Siegel was a visiting professor of Modern American History at the University of Paris. He has also taught at Columbia University, Queens College, and Empire State College. Mr. Siegel is author of The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life (Encounter Books 2005), which received a cover review in The New York Times Book Review. His previous book, The Future Once Happened Here: New York, D.C., L.A. and the Fate of America's Big Cities (Encounter Books 1997), was named by Peter Jennings as one of the 100 most important books about the United States in the 20th century. His articles and commentary frequently appear in publications including The New Republic, The Atlantic, The Public Interest, Commentary, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dissent, The Weekly Standard, and The Washington Post. He is editor of Urban Society, a collection of the best articles on urban issues. Mr. Siegel lives with his wife, Jan Rosenberg, in Brooklyn, New York.

HARRY SIEGEL

Harry Siegel is managing editor of the site. Harry was formerly editor-in-chief of NewPartisan.com and editor-in-chief of the New York Press. His journalism has been published widely in national journals and newspapers.