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.
St. Louis is a city that is located in Missouri on the Mississippi river; this feature was essential to the growth of St. Louis being a major city in the U.S. also that it is celebrating their 250th anniversary in 2014. St. Louis has an independent government, this means that thee city is not located with any county there are only two city like this and the other one is Baltimore. Because St. Louis is independent there are not districts and this means for there are usually one service for the whole city such as a fire department. In addition this means that there are many full time officials within the city and not that many volunteers or low paid officials (David Stokes 2011). The city elects 11 executive positions and 28 aldermen by the ward system. These a...
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...eforms coming up. Prop R in November 2012 was passed, this reform was more like the 1957 reform to eliminate the number of wards from 24 to 14 (Richard Bose 2014). This time there has not been as much opposition against the reform there is more of a positive aspect that St. Louis should be enacting new reforms for the city. There has also been a recent reform called “Take back St. Louis”, this reform would make St. Louis more green by the city not able to offer incentives to companies and companies that received more than 1 billion dollars in revenue they are not allowed to have a tax break (Jason Rosenbaum 2014). This reform as of now is still in court being ruled if it is going to allowed or not. Post 1950 St. Louis has been changing further than what it has been pre 1950 and even more during the 2000’s to move away from machine politics and to bring more equality.
As industrialization caused cites to grow in leaps and bounds, political bosses started to take power. As the 19th Century came to a close, almost every sizable city had a political boss, or at least had one rising to power. Tons of immigrants from every part of the world began to pour into the major cities. Cities have had diversity in the past, but the huge diversity of the American cities was unique.
...he city and has suffered as a result of losing so much of its tax base to the 1967 riots. The event should be used as a cautionary tale to other cities in transition to be cognizant of demographic changes and represent all of your citizens living within your city.
Now, a normal sized town contains fast-food joints, supermarkets, malls, and superstores, but a small town lacks that appeal. The small-town could be the most beautiful landscape known to man, but lack the necessary luxuries in life that a typical American would benefit from. Carr and Kefalas make this statement that emphasizes the town’s lack of appeal, “Indeed the most conspicuous aspects of the towns landscape may be the very things that are missing; malls, subdivisions, traffic and young people” (26). The authors clearly state that they realize that towns, such as the Heartland, are hurting because of the towns’ lack of modernization. For all intents and purposes, the town’s lack of being visually pleasing is driving away probable citizens, not only the native youth, and possible future employee’s away from a possible internship with the town. The citizens with a practice or business hurt from the towns inability to grow up and change along with the rest of the world, yet the town doesn’t realize what bringing in other businesses could potentially do for their small town. Creating more businesses such as malls, superstores and supermarkets would not only drive business up the roof, but it’ll also bring in revenue and draw the
The issue of purchasing the Reformed Church of Palos Heights exemplified that the citizens are the ones who run the city. The citizens made their presence known in the City Council meetings as well as in the media. The Aldermen attempted to first bribe the Al Salam Mosque Foundation of Chicago with $200,000, and then to purchase the Reformed Church of Palos Heights. The Mayor sided with the people and vetoed the idea of paying $200,000 to the Al Salam Mosque Foundation of Chicago. In the end, the democratic policies on which our country was founded prevailed. The voices of the citizens were heard with a vote AGAINST: 2,856.
Would you think that St. Louis would be a magnificent place or a horrible terrifying place to be or go? There are some positive and also some negative reasons why St. Louis is a horrible place or a magnificent place. St. Louis is a violent place sometimes but it can also be a beautiful place. Even though St. Louis has a high crime rating it is still a nice city. St. Louis is a well- liked city because of all its attractions and things to do. It would be a nice place to go if you want to go on a vacation or just a fun weekend. If you decide to go there sometime you will have to stay away from the violent parts if you want it to be peaceful.
...ite City should be put in consideration primarily. Very often people might see on the news that crime happens every day and violence and corruption are part of it. To promote a better society to future generations these serious issues should be taken into action adequately to minimize numerous deaths in the city of Chicago.
The years after the civil war left one half of America, the north, satisfied and the other half, the south, mostly dissatisfied. Therefore the last third of the nineteenth century, 1865-1900, was a time period in which America was mending, repairing, improving, reshaping, and reconstructing its society, economy, culture, and policies. Basically it was changing everything it stood for. This continual change can be seen in the following events that took place during this time. These events are both causes and effects of why America is what it is today. These are some examples: the reconstruction of the south, the great movement towards the west, the agricultural revolution, the rise of industrialism, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, and America's growth to gaining world power. All of these are reasons and events that characterize America as being an ever-changing nation.
In his book, New York City Politics: Governing Gotham, Bruce Berg, states that a “city’s political system involves a complex set of functions around three broad themes: democratic accountability, the delivery of public goods and services and the maintenance of civil harmony” (1). It can be argued that the endurance of a governing political system is directly related to how well it satisfies the aforementioned themes and thus maintains the general vitality of a city. Alternatively, a political system’s inadequacy, notable through contingent events such as a fiscal crisis, engenders the empowerment of a replacement. Analyzing, New York City’s governance, it is my contention that both machine and reform politics have been marshaled at different points in history as the reasoning behind the city’s fiscal crises but the systems themselves are not entirely flawed. They both exercise similar components of strong governance although each system mobilized a different socioeconomic
There are several contextual events which heavily influenced the transformation of New York City’s political system. Many social forces such as “migration of capital, jobs, people . . . [and] technological changes” also heavily contributed to the fiscal crisis during the 1970s (Tabb 324). The exodus of jobs and higher skilled workers coupled with the presence of a large unemployed population in New York City created a declining tax base. Additionally, the general devolution of the federal government interest in local politics and the general shift in considering the urban fiscal crisis as more an individual problem rather than a systemic problem, also mean less funding from the federal government to help balance the city’s budget. During this process, however, the degradation of power and authority was relayed from the federal to state. Cities still remained responsible for the balancing their budget without having much authority (Eisinger 309). With a growing impetus to create a fiscal balance and increased globalization, cities have more heavily relied on the business community to provide
The actual city of St. Louis is broken into three main parts; the North Side, South City and the Central West End. The three areas combined have approximately eighty established neighborhoods. If you decide to add the western part of St. Louis County, this number is most likely to double.
There are many examples of cities reforming itself over time, one significant example is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. More than a hundred years after the discovery of gold that drew thousands of migrants to Vancouver, the city has changed a lot, and so does one of its oldest community: Downtown Eastside. Began as a small town for workers that migrants frequently, after these workers moved away with all the money they have made, Downtown Eastside faced many hardships and changes. As a city, Vancouver gave much support to improve the area’s living quality and economics, known as a process called gentrification. But is this process really benefiting everyone living in Downtown Eastside? The answer is no. Gentrification towards DTES(Downtown Eastside) did not benefit the all the inhabitants of the area. Reasons are the new rent price of the area is much higher than before the gentrification, new businesses are not community-minded, and the old culture and lifestyle of the DTES is getting erased by the new residents.
Kevin B. Smith, Alan Greenblatt, and John Buntin, Governing states and localities: First Edition (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press), 2005, 95.
Los Angeles was the first product off the assembly line of American urban planning. Turned on in the late 19th century, the city-making machine was fueled by an immense immigration of people who sought to create a new type of city out of the previously quaint pueblo. They also strove to craft the first major city developed primarily by Americans and outside of European archetypes. As a result, Los Angles is not only incredibly diverse, but also nearly impossible to define. Since it is a product of the American machine, understanding the community of Los Angeles becomes vital to understanding the United States. But to fully comprehend the present Los Angeles, one must look at the process that created it. Specifically, Los Angeles was created by upper class Anglo citizens of the 20th century, who strove to materialize their imagined reality of a rural city by establishing a process where affluent citizens fled to the suburbs and left the lower class residents their more urban rundown leftovers. This created world then became the setting for resistance from various groups, such as minorities and youth, who began to undermine the Anglo infrastructure through social interaction.
the things to come and exited by the countless possibilities offered by one of the largest cities of the late 19th century – Chicago.
Illinois and most notably Chicago are best known for their corrupt public officials. From the days of Cermak and the Daley political machine, corruption has become second nature to these “public servants”. From rigging elections to accepting ‘dirty’ donations to the alderman’s campaigns, corruption can be found from the very top of the political layer, down to the lowest government position. Those involved in the corruption have benefited greatly from their dirty deeds. Public residents aren’t directly aware of this corruption since they aren’t public officials, but most can attest to corruption when it involves the local police officers and the exploitation of the public.