As well, we might facilitate the creation of a local search engine that works in a transparent manner, vital in tasks such as facilitating fair elections and creating a a level playing fields for local businesses. I wouldn't bet my city's future on a do-no-evil pledge from a global behemoth.
If it were up to me, and I had $500K to spend, I would spend it on the search engine rather than on a TLD. Normal people actually use search engines. And I wouldn't have to wait for ICANN -- I could do it right now. You also might want to spend some of it on a project to help city agencies fix up their web sites to make them more consistent and easier to navigate. Again, you can do that right now. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly