By CECIL BOTHWELL

If there is any underlying agreement between Tea Partiers on the right and Moral Mondayers on the left, it might be the idea that governments are failing us.

Details and prescriptions for improvement vary, but the sense that our elected officials aren’t doing what we elected them to do is pretty pervasive.

I’d make the argument that local governments are doing a whole lot better than state and federal, partly because their roles and responsibilities are more narrowly defined, and partly because they are freer to experiment.

Here in Asheville, under the leadership of City Manager Gary Jackson and with the help of a creative and committed staff, you can see results up close and personal.

A major element in the changes emerging here involves the Internet and the evolution from a top-down management structure to the era of networking.

For decades after the introduction of computers to government offices, they were used as fancy typewriters and electronic filing cabinets.

In Raleigh and Washington, D.C., that very often remains the case. Bureaucracies are resistant to change, with innovation as often punished as rewarded, and keeping one’s head down the most popular form of exercise. So another element in the flexibility of cities is probably the smaller bureaucratic base.

A powerful factor in the changes we’ve seen in Asheville (and elsewhere) in recent years is the 2008 global financial collapse, which imposed unavoidable austerity measures as tax collections fell. The necessity for leaner government was beyond clear.

How is Asheville’s networking affecting your life?

The most immediately visible element involves the signs now installed at every bus stop in town that instruct riders to text or phone for information on the next arrival. 

Buses are tracked in real time, making the system a lot more predictable and useful. A similar system is being tested for parking  availability — instead of endless circling a driver will be able to drive directly to an open space. (A related improvement is the parking meter app that allows payment by phone instead of scrambling for quarters.)

A change principally visible to builders and developers is the reorganization of our Development Services Department which includes online tracking of permits. The whole permitting process has been streamlined and once you file an application you can easily follow its progress.

The Asheville App allows residents to quickly report abandoned vehicles, deceased animals and fire hydrant leaks, enabling a much more timely response from the City. General questions are answered fairly quickly, and bright ideas about multi-modal transportation can be easily submitted.

This last element is key to the new model of local governance. Problems are being crowd-sourced. Innovative solutions are easily shared and evaluated. The most dramatic example here is the work of Code for Asheville (part of the Code for America Brigade), a group of volunteer geeks intent on improving how local governments and organizations use the web.

This year they put together Look@Asheville, a site that offers citizens a clear and comprehensive look at the city budget over the past several years.

In a broader way, networking allows cities to quickly research how other municipal governments have solved problems. And, yes, we do care how you did it in Wilmington/Poughkeepsie/Santa Monica/Bismarck ... wherever. Replicating the best wheels is way better than re-inventing them.

In that regard the new Asheville Tree Map (created by the Asheville Tree Commission) is a great new tool, and a direct knock-off of Philadelphia’s highly successful phillytreemap.org.

Anyone can enter information about any tree in the city and others can add to or correct the info (think Wikipedia). What will emerge is a great tool for tracking the health of our municipal trees, for reporting problems, for encouraging conservation and for educating the community about the value and variety of the trees on our public and private property.

This tool will help the city arborist work more efficiently to protect and replace our public trees, particularly when the forthcoming mobile app becomes available.

All of this sharing and networking means that the city can provide the same level of service with lower per capita costs (check out Look@Asheville for the data).

Our population is growing faster than our budget. We’re building a smarter city.

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Cecil Bothwell, author of nine books, including “She Walks On Water: A novel” (Brave Ulysses Books, 2013), is a member of Asheville City Council.