THIS BOOK REFLECTS a particularly long period of development, so we think back on this process with an especially heartfelt appreciation for those who helped us reach this stage. Clarence Stone, Jeff Henig, and Bryan Jones developed the larger civic capacity and education project that supported our efforts. As Principal Investigators and fellow researchers, each championed our work and helped us clarify the unique cases we were dealing with. Clarence especially proved a stalwart, optimistic, patient, and supportive advocate for our extended research efforts; we suspect we finally wrapped this up because he expected us to, but we know we never could have done so without his support. While the NSF funding (Education and Human Services Directorate, National Science Foundation RED9350139) for this multicity project was critical, the collaborative nature and congenial exchange characteristic of the larger project proved invaluable. We continue to enjoy the friendship and intellectual community of our Civic Capacity project colleagues: Marion Orr, John Portz, Fernando Guerra, Mara Cohen Marks, Lana Stein, Robin Jones, Ric Hula, John D. Hutcheson, Desiree Pedescleaux, Carol Pierannunzi, Richard Jelier, Mark Schauer, and Thomas Longoria, as well as the colleagues and students who worked with them on their city teams. We feel privileged to have been part of this remarkably successful, complex, decentralized, collaborative research project.
By design, each city “team” enjoyed considerable autonomy in carrying out a common research design and data collection strategy. Thus we each incurred our own set of debts to be acknowledged. Susan E. Clarke, Rodney E. Hero, and Mara S. Sidney began work on the Denver case while at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition to the intangible ways in which universities
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