We do need more abundant housing, public transportation, and energy infrastructure, but forfeiting labor, environmental, and democratic values to get there can’t be the answer. How do we reconcile both goals?

Consolidating into concentrated systems, with the benefit of scale and private resources, is an obvious solution for community hospitals struggling to stay afloat. There’s just one problem: After consolidation, the quality of patient care, and access to services, nearly always goes down — often dramatically and quickly.

Nearly 20 million people in the United States — 6% of the population — lack access to a grocery store. Areas without grocery stores exist in dense urban centers, small towns, and rural communities, and the general consensus among those who study this “phenomena” is that these areas simply cannot support a grocery store.

U.S. agriculture is dominated by industrial “factory farms,” also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or “integrators.” RTF laws, once functioning as protection for local and legacy farmers, now primarily protect large-scale corporate operations.

The municipal power to purchase and contract is also the power to shift market incentives toward the interests of local residents and businesses. It’s an enormously useful tool, and city representatives should leverage it far more than they typically do.