David Noriega

David Noriega is a staff reporter at Remapping Debate. He holds a master’s in investigative journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. in comparative literature from Brown University. He grew up in Bogotá, Colombia and upstate New York.  

dn@remappingdebate.org
Education underfunding still foundation of New York’s new budget
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Education
Lawsuit highlights state's failure to fund K-12 at level agreed necessary in 2007. If the state were paying the $3 billion it owed and then continued to meet state constitutional obligation to fund schools properly, the budget picture would be far less rosy than the one painted by Gov. Cuomo when he said tax cuts were possible and no new taxes were needed to fund pre-K. More
Think twice before throwing doctors to the wind
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Health care
Some suggest that nurse practitioners and doctors are interchangeable in the provision of primary care. But there are substantial differences in the education and training of the two groups. Nurses say the differences are not material, but physicians outline several ways in which their additional training can help them be better practitioners. More
Forging a different path
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Alternative models, Role of government
There are solutions to San Jose’s problems, but they require going after the structural causes: inequity within Silicon Valley, unrestrained competition between municipalities in the region, a nationwide race to the bottom with tax incentives, and California’s restrictions on local revenue. First, however, it is necessary for elected officials to identify and denounce the problem, something they have so far been unwilling to do. More
This valley is their valley
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Corporate influence, Income inequality, Urban Policy
Decades of inequitable development and intra-regional competition have created a deeply divided Silicon Valley, one where the city of San Jose bears most of the burden: a disproportionate share of the poor and working-class residents of the region, along with a strained public budget. Meanwhile, more and more wealth has accumulated exorbitantly in the smaller cities of the Valley, and the corporate sector has come to dictate the terms for regional planning and investment. More
The delusions of an American Technopolis
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Globalization, History, Urban Policy
The roots of San Jose’s problems stretch back to the mid-20th Century, when a period of breakneck suburbanization caused the city to quadruple in size. This was followed by decades of disinvestment on the federal and state levels, to which San Jose responded by aggressively pursuing an “entrepreneurial” form of government dedicated to attracting and retaining corporate wealth. That focus on corporate-based redevelopment never paid off for the city's residents. More
Deep-rooted dysfunction
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Government services, Taxes
Part 1 of our series: The current administration in San Jose points to "excessive" retirement benefits for its workers as the cause of its chronic budget woes. But "blame the workers" is not an adequate explanation for San Jose's troubles. The city has ignored deeper causes, especially ones on the revenue side of the ledger. This includes remarkably low taxes on commercial property. More
Left behind: San Jose and the broken promises of the neoliberal era
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Corporate influence, Urban Policy
How does the largest city in a region that has minted so many billionaires not have enough money to provide basic services? Remapping Debate launches a five-part series based on our two-month investigation into why San Jose, California, a model of the “entrepreneurial” city, continues to struggle, and why Silicon Valley more generally, home of such enormous wealth, has failed to deliver on its promise of shared prosperity to the residents of the region. If a philosophy based on adapting to and exploiting a world of mobile capital were to have worked its wonders anywhere, it would have been here. That it hasn’t suggests that the every-place-for-itself model needs to be reexamined. More
Why no literacy programs for 30 million in U.S.?
Original Reporting | By David Noriega | Education
There are currently more than 30 million adults in the United States whose ability to read, write, and do basic math is at or below the level of the average third grader. The current system of adult basic education in the U.S. has long been unable to reach more than a fraction of the population that could benefit from its services. Experts in the field agree that this is a problem that could be meaningfully addressed. Doing so, however, would require aggressive, coordinated investment on all levels of government, and the federal government has not provided the necessary leadership or funding. In fact, over the last decade, federal funding, adjusted for inflation, has gone down. State governments, too, have mostly failed to respond in any way that would suggest recognition that the epidemic of adult illiteracy is an emergency. More

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