<Slice #2> Slices & Lumps: Division and Aggregation in Law and Life

Lee Anne Fennell on building half a bridge and passing half a law.

Sometimes it takes time to figure out that you have to define a problem before you come up with a solution. That takes time, and I think it's worth taking this time to do this rather than rushing ahead with billion-dollar projects that might not actually solve any problem that you're not looking for them to solve. It's a big recurring case in the transportation space, especially in the smart growth space.¹

“What problem are you trying to solve?” we might ask, and we might get 15 decision-makers, each with a monopoly over their own vote, all coming up with different approaches with a limited pocket of money available and a shrinking pocket of available political will.

I don't know if the example needs to come from the federal government with guidance on how we communicate with local stakeholders or if it needs to be sort of gathered in a gr…