About High Road Policy
High Road Policy turns public data into evidence that people can act on. We publish briefs, fact sheets and interactive tools on wages, housing, care and democracy in Buffalo, Rochester and across Upstate New York, so that the people who make and move policy can see what is happening in their own communities and what would change it.
What “the high road” means
There are two ways to grow a regional economy. The low road competes on cheap labor, public subsidies and short-term profit, and leaves workers, neighborhoods and the environment to absorb the cost. The high road builds shared prosperity, protects the environment for future generations, and gives residents real power over the decisions that shape their lives. We test every proposal we study against those three goals.
- Shared prosperityEveryone can take part in, and benefit from, the economy.
- Environmental sustainabilityThe natural systems that support human life are used efficiently, kept up and restored.
- Participatory democracyGovernment of, by and for the people, with real power over local decisions.
The idea of a high road for community and economic development comes from the social scientist Joel Rogers, whose Center on Wisconsin Strategy is now the High Road Strategy Centerat the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
What counts as high road policy
The project's founding issue, Defining and Advancing High Road Policy, sets out the definition we still use:
High road policy is “any mechanism that (1) strengthens the relative power of people, organizations, and networks that are advancing High Road goals and values, (2) weakens the relative power of people, organizations, and networks that are undermining High Road goals and values, and/or (3) attempts to right the wrongs of earlier Low Road policies.”
The means matter as much as the ends. High road policy is anti-racist, reparative, cooperative and prefigurative: it models the economy it wants to build. Three strategies work together, and none succeeds alone:
- Prefigure. Use the resources available now to build the organizations and networks of a high road economy.
- Disrupt. Withdraw political and economic support from the people, organizations and policies that hold the low road in place.
- Capture. Find where low road institutions are vulnerable and win them over to high road ends.
High Road Policy aims to be a record of concrete examples of each: in the founding issue's words, “a sort of playbook for systems change.”
What we do
- Policy briefs that take on a specific bill, budget or campaign with original analysis.
- Data tools that let anyone look up indicators for their council district, county or legislative district.
- Fact sheets that carry a finding into a hearing, a coalition meeting or a newsroom.
- Rapid analysis and testimony when a policy window opens.
Each major finding is released as a brief, a fact sheet and a tool so that officials and organizers can use it right away, and every product publishes its data sources and methods.
How we started
In the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislators, government staff and grassroots organizers in Western New York kept arriving at the same gap: there was no shared playbook of research, briefs and data tools for progressive policymaking. High Road Policy launched in March 2020 to build one. It is part of the Cornell ILR School's Buffalo Co-Lab and its Good DEEDS (Data for Equitable Economic Development and Sustainability) initiative.
- The first issue, on worker cooperatives and participatory budgeting in Buffalo.
- Weekly analysis of unemployment claims and layoff risk, and a COVID-19 case map for Erie County.
- A special edition defines high road policy and its theory of change.
- The first High Road Policy Summit, “Creating an Equitable Economy and a Democratic Community.”
- Crisis of Care, a special triple issue on child care.
- The Cornell ILR Wage Atlas launches.
- Volume 4, on the turnout gap between renters and homeowners.
- The NYS Federal Impacts Dashboard launches, tracking federal funding and jobs in every county.
- High Road Policy relaunches with a rebuilt Wage Atlas.
Who we are
Russell Weaver, PhD
Director of Research, ILR Buffalo Co-Lab · Editor
An economic geographer, he has written every issue of the memo series and built the project's data tools with Cornell High Road Fellows, including Asher Cai and Lincy Chen '24.
High Road Policy is an initiative of the Buffalo Co-Lab at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Views in its publications are the authors' own.
Write for us
We welcome pitches on policies, campaigns and governance strategies for a more democratic economy, especially from people working in Upstate New York. Briefs run up to 6,000 words, use endnotes, and are reviewed by the editor and at least one subject expert within about four weeks. How to pitch.