The
perspective
problem

Every house looks different depending on where you're standing. Stand in front of it and you see a facade. Stand behind it and you see the yard, the neighbor's fence, the way the light falls in the afternoon. Stand inside and you see the floor plan, the decor. Look from space and you see the lot line, the block, the city it belongs to. Look through a microscope and you see the material, the age of the paint, what's living in the walls. Call it home and you stop seeing it at all, the way you stop seeing anything you've lived with long enough.It is still the same house. Local government works this way.

A resident, an officer, a developer, a business owner, a journalist, and a budget director can stand in the same room and describe the same city in ways that feel like different cities. Each one is right. None of them is right.

Term puts you in the mayor's seat. You have the access, the pressure, and the incomplete information the role actually carries. What each stakeholder sees when they look at the same decision stops being abstract. You carry it and you must lead with it.

How It Works

Term runs in three rounds.

Round 1

Three decisions. You are orienting. Files have been waiting on your desk since the previous administration.

Round 2

Six decisions. You have momentum, or you don't. The city is already reacting to your first choices.

Round 3

Nine decisions. Your record is forming. The consequences of Rounds 1 and 2 are working through the system.

At the end of each round, the sim runs. Events happen that you did not choose: a federal policy shift, a vendor failure, a neighborhood complaint that escalates, a crisis that lands at the worst possible moment. Some are mild. Some are not. Your term absorbs all of it. No term plays out the same way twice.

What You Are Managing

Every decision moves against a set of real constraints.

Budget

What you can spend. Decisions carry implementation costs, maintenance costs, training costs, and sometimes legal costs. Savings are real. Overextension is real.

Mayor time

Your own attention and capacity. Not everything can be on your desk at once. Some decisions demand you personally. Others can move without you. Choosing wrong depletes the resource that cannot be replenished.

Staff resources

Departmental bandwidth. Decisions that pile on an already-stretched department show up as slower implementation, higher error rates, and worse outcomes on adjacent priorities.

Political capital.

Your maneuvering room: council relationships, interest group standing, the credibility you have built or spent with the people whose cooperation you need to govern.

What You Are Deciding

The decisions in Term are the decisions American cities are actually grappling with.

Should we allow an apartment tower in a neighborhood that has never had towers? The housing shortage is real. So is what the tower will do to the block.

Should we approve a data center on the edge of downtown? The jobs and tax revenue are significant. So is the water and power load, and what it signals about the city's direction.

Should we extend a major tax incentive to keep an anchor employer who is already signaling they may leave? The math on both sides is defensible.

Should we automate a city department that currently employs 40 people? The efficiency gains are real. So are the people.

Should we route a new transit line through a neighborhood that wants the access but not the traffic? Every neighborhood wants service and resists change.

How Your Term Is Measured

Term tracks six dimensions across every decision and event.

Fiscal health

‍Operating and capital impact, reserve posture, grant eligibility.

Public trust

Resident perception of competence, transparency, and accountability.

Equity

Distribution of benefits and consequences across neighborhoods and demographic groups.

Public safety

Effects on crime, emergency response, code enforcement, and resident security.

Economic vitality

Local business climate, employment, and city competitiveness for investment.

Long-term resilience

Capacity to absorb future shocks, whether from climate, technology, or governance failure.

Term is coming soon

Every session surfaces a different picture of the same city, shaped by where you put your time, your budget, and your attention before each decision. The simulation is designed to build perspective — to give anyone who plays it a more honest, more grounded sense of what local governing actually requires. Sign up below and we will let you know when it is ready.