Maximum New York One-Pager

The executive summary of MNY's mission and strategy

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MAXIMUM NEW YORK — A NEW CIVICS SCHOOL

Premise: far too few people understand how NYC’s government works, and there is no academy to teach them. This even applies to elected, hired, and appointed members of the government (I know, because I’ve taught several confidential sections for them). We must combat the Foundation Effect, and MNY does.

Solution: stand up a new civics academy focused on governmental mechanics—the study of the components of government and law, and how they interrelate. Give students an intensive, robust foundation to understand how NYC works, with special attention to case studies and political history. These allow students to form plans of action, and understand constraints, respectively. 

How is MNY different from other groups?
MNY focuses on training a smaller group of people to a very high level, networking them together, and pursuing moonshots. It creates more individuals and teams with deep knowledge and expertise, which have historically been the individuals who push big, vital projects through NYC.

The “standard activist model” (SAM) in politics has a small professional staff overseeing armies of volunteers. The volunteers are incredibly low information, and the professional staff themselves often are too—although they tend to possess sharp knowledge in their specific domain (fundraising, political operations, etc).

The SAM burns out volunteers, doesn’t reliably train and cultivate talent, tends toward having a bad time, and broadly speaking has lower standards. Nonetheless, the SAM is a vital component of the political ecosystem—it is mostly good that we have organizations set up this way. But it is bad that we do not have more entities like MNY, and that many individuals think the SAM is the only way to go.

What do they learn, a sample:

• The hierarchy of authorities: the most effective frame for understanding the delineation between local, state, and federal responsibility, and how to navigate their overlaps. 

• Case studies on effective municipal transformation: the Central Park Conservancy from 1980-2024, the original creation of the subways, the restoration of Bryant Park, and more. 

Student selection:

• Via application: students must be willing and able to dedicate at least 5 hours to class per week (in-class time, and homework/studying). 

• Students must contribute to a superb classroom environment. Students meet best friends, cofounders, roommates, employers/employees, and more in my classes. While they are all there to learn about government, the social graph of the class is also an immense value-add.

Why do people take the class?

• Technologists: to learn how to build civic tech that political actors will use, and to understand when projects require procurement (and what that means).

• City agency employees and legislative staffers: to understand the relationship between their agencies, other organs of government and law, and the city budget cycle.

• Citizens: to understand what city jobs are available, and what they can achieve; to make career switches into government; to learn the basics of legal research for their own writing and publications.

Testimony:

• From the Founding Director of Stanford in New York: “…Daniel has such a vast knowledge of government, its functioning and machinations, he communicates very entertainingly to students, and his knowledge is wide-ranging. He was able to answer every question and parry every oddball tangent the students threw at him. Very well done. I highly recommend Daniel for anyone who wants to learn anything about how government actually works.”

• From Sebastian Hallum Clarke (Google, Princeton): “One of the most empowering things I've learned in MNY's classes is what affordances exist in the political system and how to use them effectively (and how to research what other affordances exist).”