I Am So Popular: Break Up Camp For Big Girls
SXSW 2010: Austinist's List Of Day Shows, Afterparties, and More
Austin Woman’s Club, "Historic Downtown Austin Assets" Among Preservation Texas' Most Endangered Places 2010
Filter Magazine, Village Voice at SXSW 2010
![_Heat Things Up With <em>Desire</em> at the Blanton [Art Preview]](http://austinist.com/assets_c/2010/02/minter-thumb-110x110-478584.jpg)
Heat Things Up With Desire at the Blanton [Art Preview]
As everyone knows, Iraq is a mess. A big, nasty mess. It's also pretty much common knowledge that the Bush Administration, faced with dwindling patience by Congress on the war, is working double-time in a mad scramble to create some sort of progress and forward movement in the region. A large part of this effort is being directed toward ensuring that local governments in cities throughout Iraq move toward self-sufficiency. As it turns out, the City of Austin has played a major role in this process.
The U.S. Army is, essentially, using the City of Austin as a model and consultant for developing stronger municipal governments in Iraq that actually meet the basic needs of their citizens. This could very well be the first intelligent decision we've seen in Iraq since the war started. Since 2003, both the 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army have been involved in a partnership with the office of Austin City Manager Toby Hammett Futrell. The purpose of this partnership is to utilize the accrued experiences of Futrell’s office in order to learn innovative and proven methods of both setting up reliable local governments and making sure those governments are responsive to their communities' basic needs (e.g., water, solid waste, electricity). This partnership was established during the second year of the U.S. occupation of Iraq (a.k.a., “Operation Iraqi Freedom II,” a.k.a., “Operation WTF: What a Difference a Year Makes”) in the hopes of using Futrell's office as a consultant for establishing local governments in Iraq that actually....work.
Apparently, the Army consults with Futrell’s office on a regular basis via teleconference and conference calls. Soldiers then, in turn, take Futrell’s advice and attempt to apply it on the ground in Iraq in order to help locally-elected Iraqi officials with the efficient provision of essential services such as solid waste or water service. The overall goal here is to set up local governments throughout Iraq that not only provide citizens with essential services but that also give citizens a stronger voice in how these services are managed and delivered. The Army sees the City of Austin as a shining example of this art in practice. Damn right.
So what fruit has this partnership brought to the Iraqi reconstruction? Well, despite the relentlessly depressing news we all hear from the Middle East, it looks like at least some good has actually been wrought, thanks to the advice of our City Manager's office.
Before the Austin/Army partnership: Things basically got done locally in Iraq by first (1) having Iraqi elected officials come up with a plan for, say, provision of water services to a neighborhood, and then (2) asking U.S. soldiers to physically enact that plan. Apart from the assistance of U.S. soldiers, there was no local framework for providing essential services to citizens.
After the Austin/Army partnership: What Futrell’s office has shown the Army is the importance of establishing local administrations that possess staffs technically trained to properly run essential service departments. Using the City of Austin as a model for governance, the Army has gradually realized that “the role that a city manager or strong mayor would play in a similar local government in the United States was nearly nonexistent in local governments in Iraq.”
How does this make you feel about your community, Austinites? Perhaps a little more optimistic...maybe even a little proud? And, more broadly, how does it make you feel about the situation in Iraq?
Further reading:
City of Austin: City of Austin Personnel Assist in Iraqi Stabilization Efforts
Army.mil: Austin, Texas, Becomes a Model for Local Iraqi Governments
Photo of downtown Austin courtesy Silent Z on Flickr. Photo of Austin City manager Toby Hammett Futrell courtesy the City Manager's homepage.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
So...Iraq is getting a lot of luxury condos?
i guess bagdad is going to be the next live music capital of the world. i can hear the ouds already...
Tikritist.
We're supposed to be proud that the city has been helping since Operation Iraqi Freedom II: Electric Boogaboo? How bad would it be over there without the city's help?
I'm pretty sure the Iraqis are already familiar with nepotism, judging from Saddam Hussain's government. I don't see how Toby can help out there.
I hope there will be an Iraqi Leslie.
Baghdad just voted to give Las Manitas another $750,000.
Clearly red light cameras will help Iraq. Also, they need to make bicycle helmets mandatory and I just hope a plastic bag ban is already in place.
Oh, yes, if anyone was to smoke in a bar in Iraq I would be so shocked.
HA!
It would be more heartening if this was new - rather than a service that has been transpiring for about 4 years. I want to be impressed or care, but ...... eh.
We had to go to Baghdad to find a city where more people are shot by police?