Let's say that a New Yorker wants to enroll in a program that will help build her literacy skills so she can get a better job. She could go to the Human Resources Administration, which offers a program for that. Or to the Department of Education, which offers something similar....

New York's drinking water, pristine, untreated, and delicious, is the envy of the world; but 90% of our supply sits in the watershed to the northwest of the city, atop gas-rich rock formations that are seen as a viable solution to our energy dependence on oil. The prospects for pollution...