2019 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Print > Feature Article - General Interest > Less Than $3 Million Revenue > Southeast

Awarded to

Jason Axelrod, Associate Editor

Entry details

Learning to Share

Issue date (if applicable): 4/1/2018
Publication name: American City & County
Publishing company: Informa
Website home page: www.americancityandcounty.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

American City & County has been the voice of state and local government since 1909. The magazine serves a powerful audience of city, county and state officials who are charged with developing and implementing government policy, programs and projects. The magazine is a tool for elected and appointed public servants providing them with relevant news, government trends, policy alternatives and operational solutions.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

The sharing economy — exemplified by Uber and Lyft’s ride sharing model and Airbnb’s short-term rental model — continues to disrupt the transportation and lodging industries and the regulatory frameworks that govern them. This article uses micro and macro lenses to examine how city governments across the country are adapting to these unprecedented service models.
On a micro level, the author speaks with officials at four cities to portray their experiences with the sharing economy. Two of these cities have built valuable partnerships with Lyft and Airbnb. In contrast, the other two cities have encountered difficulties in adapting their regulations to successfully accommodate short-term rentals or ride sharing.
On a macro scale, the story presents these cities’ experiences alongside relevant statistics from a 2017 National League of Cities (NLC) survey that examines how cities nationwide interact with and view the sharing economy. The author also presents insights from the NLC survey’s author and a professor specializing in the sharing economy to add perspective.
Most news coverage of governments and the sharing economy concerns specific regulations. In splicing experienced local officials’ insights with national survey statistics throughout this article, the author paints a sweeping image of governments’ varying interplay with the sharing economy as a whole and on an individual level. The benefits of partnerships are detailed, while challenges in adapting to the ever-ubiquitous models are also examined. The result is a comprehensive resource on municipal governments’ dynamic relationships with the sharing economy.

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