The rise of Urban America began in the mid 1800’s with the dawn of the industrial revolution. With it came a rapid increase in the population of cities. This movement towards cities did not last forever, and after WWII, much of the population of cities moved to the suburbs. With the growth and decline of urban environments, and the growth of suburban environments, there has become a mixture of different types of local governments, some of which overlap the same geographical areas. Some view this hodgepodge as a problem, and have offered various solutions. To understand the different types of local governments and how they overlap, one must first understand the development of urban areas, and the movement from urban to suburban areas.
In the
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All solutions fall under some form of regional government, but there are disagreements as to which is best. The easiest to implement is creating a Regional Planning Body, or regional council, in which city and suburban governments send delegates to discuss issues within the region. However, this type of regional government has little actual power. The lack of power makes it more likely to be accepted by local governments, because it is not threatening their power. A less common and more involved regional government is the consolidation of multiple local governments into one large regional government. The easiest merger to pull off is city-county consolidation. It is easier because the city and county cover the exact same territory, thereby eliminating overlap and increasing efficiency. The hardest consolidations are those that call for merging of a city, county, and the suburbs, as all three governments lose power to one regional government. Similarly, there is annexation of local governments, where cities annex their suburbs. Suburbs normally are vehemently opposed to this idea, as they lose the freedom of lower taxes and more specific regulations. Probably the best form of regional government is to have two levels; One with the cities and the suburbs as they already are, and a regional government that’s a level above the cities and suburbs. This allows the regional government to handle services like transit authorities and infrastructure, leaving cities and suburbs to their individual zoning plans, taxes, and regulations. Each government has power and each can be happy, since there aren’t overlapping responsibilities. Unfortunately, many metro areas in the United States that could benefit from regional governments do not have them. This is due to a resistance from local governments to give up any power to another government. To handle this, metro areas are forced to
In the book The Great Inversion, author Alan Ehrenhalt reveals the changes that are happing in urban and suburban areas. Alan Ehrenhalt the former editor of Governing Magazine leads us to acknowledge that there is a shift in urban and suburban areas. This revelation comes as the poorer, diverse, city dwellers opt for the cookie cutter, shanty towns at the periphery of American cities known as the suburbs. In similar fashion the suburbanites, whom are socioeconomic advantaged, are looking to migrate into the concrete jungles, of America, to live an urban lifestyle. Also, there is a comparison drawn that recognizes the similarities of cities and their newer, more affluent, residents, and those cities of Europe a century ago and their residents. In essence this book is about the demographic shifts in Urban and Suburban areas and how these changes are occurring.
“Could suburbs prosper independently of central cities? Probably. But would they prosper even more if they were a part of a better-integrated metropolis? The answer is almost certainly yes.” (p. 66)
The fourth chapter of City Politics by Dennis R. Judd & Todd Swanstrom covers the rise of "Reform Politics" with many local governments during the first half of the 1900s as a way to combat the entrenched political machines that took control of many large city governments in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Over the course of the chapter, Judd & Swanstrom quickly cover the history of the "reform movement" with different examples of how the reform movement affected city politics in different areas.
With wonderful learning opportunities, a team of sharp and intelligent classmates and teachers, and specialized equipment, the Governor’s School at Innovation Park is the ultimate dream of all determined math/science devotees. With my natural curiosity for mathematics and science and eagerness to take on challenging ideas, I can collaborate with the team at Governor’s School to develop our wide spectrum of ideas and abilities into a highly sophisticated product.
In the twentieth century, governmental agencies and private developers acting together cleared out the central city to make room for the federal government. The government was able to do this through its unique economic and legislative relationship to the city, and through a heightened symbolic architectural and verbal language which supported its valorization. The symbolic language and the government's dominance in the local economy are mutually supportive. Symbolism removes ownership of the city from local residents and makes it national. It also masks the federal government's failure to prove economically beneficial to all sections of the city and to all its races and classes, as a 'trickle down' theory of dominant economies argues. Because of the government's importance in the local economy, its symbolic self-representation goes unchallenged.
On Monday, April 13th, 2009, I visited the Culver City city council meeting, and found that they operate using a council-manager form of government. For a city with a population of about 38,000, this type of governmental structure is fairly common, and I was not surprised to see it in action in a community where the median household income is around $56,000 a year. Culver City is also a culturally rich community with a 60 percent Caucasian population, and a quarter of the residents are either of African American or Asian decent. The mayor, D. Scott Malsin, is one of five members on the council, and his term as mayor is on a rotating basis. Having been to a Hermosa Beach city council meeting with a similar council-manager structure, I knew what to expect.
In modern suburbs things like cul-de-sacs and tangle towns are more common to be designed with. This makes it virtually impossible to include a mass transit system into the suburb. Thus, more driving, more gas use, and more emissions created in the atmosphere. A common response to this from a suburban residential is that the city is jam packed with congestion and pollution from stop and go traffic. Yet with cities, they are more dense, highly populated and many of the stop and go traffic is created by workers who live in the suburbs coming into the city at rush hour. One thing that works well in a typical city is mass transit. Things like buses, subways and train systems work well with block by square block areas, but not so with winding curving neighborhoods such as in suburbs. Another reason why mass transit does not play a major roll in the life of one who lives in a suburb is that suburban commuting consists of many different directions and destinations. Where as in the city typical people are commuting into the downtown. A central destination such as a downtown keeps things more conveniently close, and since so many people are making the trip to one single common place then gas can be saved by major carpooling, or in other words mass transit.
Texas has a wide variety when it comes to sizes of its cities and towns, with the most populated city being Houston, with a population of 2,099,451, and the least populated city being Los Ybanez city, with a recorded population of only 19. (togetherweteach.com) With that in mind, it’s important to have different types of local governments to best accommodate the type of city or town. There’s one problem with that though. What if a huge corporation moves into a small town, increasing the population significantly and changing the dynamic of the city in a matter of 2-3 years? "Local community decisions about what government-types are chosen, and when, have lasting consequences for the future configuration of governments in an area. If cities are established earlier...then fewer government options are available later.” (Thomas, 1993) With the way local governments are determined now, it’s unlikely that the government would be able to quickly change how it functions and accommodates to its citizens. Even something like campaigning, which may not have been needed much during elections beforehand due of the closeness that tends to happen in people of small towns, would be a much bigger part of running for a local
A metropolitan area and a megaregion both arch over many people and communities, but they are two very different entities. A Metropolitan area as defined by the federal government is an area that reaches across urban communities and a city, which also has 50,000 people or more living there. A Megaregion in contrast is an area that arches over multiple cities, urban communities, counties, and sometimes even states. A megaregion is essentially multiple metropolitan areas all bunched together. The difference between these two types of areas can be seen when examine the governments in each. In a Metropolitan areas coordinating policies ion things like transportation can be difficult because of the many layers of government in the region. A Megaregion experiences those same issues on an exponentially larger scale. Sometimes hundreds or thousands of jurisdictions overlap creating conflict and little to no organization and coordination. The mere difference in overlaps of governments makes a significant difference between a metropolitan area and a
Plato one said “This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are”, to imply that the people within the city or country are the ones that dictate what goes on in the city not the city itself. St. Louis falls into this category because cities were once the focal point of the national agenda and presidents sought to increase the importance and services of the city. This was done in St. Louis with programs being created, unions and the attention that the World’s Fair brought to make St. Louis one of the best cities in the early 20th century. However, as suburbanization was happening the focus of the nation was to the growing middle class and suburbs. St. Louis was afurcted by suburbanization because their population dropped and their services’ did too. This was displayed in the late 20th century until present day where the local economy has dropped and racial issues rising. Suburbanization and major transportation issues have attributed to the downfall of St. Louis.
Kevin B. Smith, Alan Greenblatt, and John Buntin, Governing states and localities: First Edition (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press), 2005, 95.
Los Angeles: A Diverse Metropolis. People always wonder why the City of Angels is different from other cities. This paper will answer this question and explain the uniqueness that makes L.A., “L.A.” Los Angeles, since its birth as an embryonic city, has become one of the most diverse metropolises, offering to the public what no other city can. This paper will emphasize the relationship between the federal government and the western United States.
Democracy has been the root of a limited government, the system of which government powers are distributed so that one group of leaders do not have too much influence. The limited government has been structured to keep peace amongst all parties that are involved in the government. And under the U.S. Constitution, citizens are given ultimate power by their right to choose their representatives through the democratic process of voting. Each levels of the government are limited as they have their own responsibilities. The city government has the most local level of government as the residents elect a city council and mayor to represent their interest at the city level. All city governments establish housing and health regulations, and are responsible
How well has federalism worked in the United States? This is all a matter of opinion. Federalism has indeed been an active structure for government that fits in quite well with the changing American society. This particular system of government has been around for over two hundred years, and under all those years the separation of power under American federalism has changed numerous amounts of times in both law and practice. The United States Constitution does allow changes and amendments in the Constitution have assigned miscellaneous roles to the central and state governments than what originally intended. The suitable equilibrium between national and state powers is repeatedly an issue in American Politics.
A local government is a political subdivision of the state, constituted by law and may or may not have substantial or much control over local affairs. “Under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, all powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people. All state governments are modeled after the federal government and consist of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The U.S. Constitution mandates that all states uphold a "republican form" of government, although the three-branch structure is not required” (State and Local Government 2014)Therefore, Local Governments exercise certain basic powers like police power, and the power to implement social services so as to best serve the interest and promote the general welfare of their respective inhabitants. In order for the autonomy of Local Government to function, the national and or federal government places the power to delegate authority to the state that then transfers these basic powers to the local governments to allow for the inclusion of its constituents in governmental and local affairs by what we call decentralization. Often times the state government divides powers between the local governments which usually include two divisions: municipalities and counties. Counties are usually the largest and broadest geographic area and include many local governments however; a county’s power is very miniscule compared to city government. Generally in North Carolina, local governments do not have the power or authority do anything unless it is explicitly granted or enumerated in the state constitution. Although cities have a large range of delegated authority and counties have the least, the state government would still exerci...