In the United States and around the world, public policy is increasingly outdated for today’s workplace realities. In the face of a federal government often paralyzed by partisanship and gridlock, it’s time to start focusing on policy innovation at the local level, especially in cities. Given the seemingly endless list of problems that need fixing, where should an innovative mayor start?

In this keynote presentation at the American Planning Association (APA) conference, Peter Leyden makes the case for how the chaos and disruption of the early 21st century will yield a more digital, global, sustainable world.

The Bay Area tech community, like much of the rest of the country, is still grappling with what Trump’s election will mean for the future of the United States. The future of many digital efforts—including the United States Digital Service, created by President Obama in 2014 to encourage people with tech expertise to do a tour of duty improving government—is one looming question.

One way to read the election of Donald Trump is that Americans want the current system – the way our economy, society and government work – to undergo a fundamental transformation. What is the beginning of a political grand strategy that plays off Trump and creates a more transformational way forward that actually solves the challenges of our times?

John Della Volpe, Director of Polling at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and Founder and CEO of SocialSphere, has been studying Millennials since 2000. It all started, said Della Volpe, with two Harvard students who wanted to survey Millennials and find out why they were volunteering but not voting. Della Volpe has been polling and analyzing this generation—which he defines as people born between 1980 and 2000—ever since.

The results of the 2016 election will have many repercussions for the San Francisco Bay Area, the tech sector, the innovation economy, California, not to mention the nation and world. One week after the election, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom analyzed what really happened, what opportunities have now opened up, and what the best strategies are going forward.

Annise Parker, the mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until January 2016, is well-accustomed to navigating the often murky waters of sharing economy regulation. Parker’s first experience with the sharing economy was using Zipcar’s technology to manage Houston’s fleet of light-duty vehicles.

Laura Murphy, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s DC legislative office, recently conducted a 90-day review of discrimination on Airbnb. Murphy says that she believes it’s in the enlightened self-interest of not only Airbnb, but all sharing economy companies, to make a sustained effort to serve entire communities, not just an elite market share.

Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, believes we should rethink the world using today’s technology. “Let’s stop optimizing for the short-term. Let’s start optimizing for the long-term, and think about how to make the society we want,” O’Reilly says.

Andrew Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and author of Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream, believes a universal basic income is the best way for the United States to deal with massive changes in our economy—changes that will only be exacerbated by increasing automation.

Mayor Nutter believes that city officials should first and foremost remain open to the possibility of disruptive companies that can provide new or better services to their constituents. While he admits there is no one-size-fits-all method to regulating and taxing the sharing economy, Mayor Nutter believes that it will continue to evolve and remain in demand, particularly among Americans concentrated in city centers.

Entrepreneur and investor Nick Hanauer, one of the most vocal proponents of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, wants his fellow one percenters to understand the importance of addressing income inequality. No one has a bigger stake in a thriving middle class than the wealthy, Hanauer said.

Palak Shah is the Social Innovations Director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), the leading voice for the millions of women who work as domestic workers, women who have been excluded from U.S. labor laws for decades. She is optimistic that tech, governments, and social movements can collaborate to make positive changes in the lives of workers.

Professor and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff, author most recently of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, doesn’t blame the billionaires for income inequality—he blames the operating system. “It’s not about redistributing the spoils of capitalism after the fact,” said Rushkoff, “It’s about pre-distributing the means of production before the fact.”

Michelle Miller, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Coworker.org, thinks that in the not-so distant future, work could mean long periods of short-term employment and short periods of having a single job. Coworker.org, which Miller describes as a digital platform for worker voices, facilitates networking and activism among workers at decentralized workplaces, from Starbucks baristas to Uber drivers.

The world is by and large a safer, less violent place today than it has been for the past 200 years, yet Americans live in more fear than perhaps ever in the country’s history. How did this happen and what is America afraid of? What should America be afraid of?