Cities & Politics
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1. I tend to agree with Markusen that class interests provide a better explanation for the separation of the suburban areas from the central cities than does Katznelson's focus on community politics. The emphasis by political leaders in the early industrial cities on ethnic groups as a means of developing and solidifying bases of support tended to de emphasize class differences in a political context. In a social context, however, class differences were always present and they were always well understood by the residents of the cities. Initially, the political leaders in the early industrial cities were able to persuade the non laboring classes that the interests of the non laboring classes were best served through this approach. As time went on, however, the political priorities in the early industrial cities gradually shifted to the laboring classes simply because there were more of those people. Less and less were the political leaders able to provide priority to the needs and wants of the non laboring classes, even though these classes were the source of most of the revenues on which the city governments depended. While it remained true that infrastructure improvements, police protection, and other city services continued to favor the areas inhabited by the non laboring classes, the philosophical outlook of city administrations began to shift perceptibly toward an emphasis on the needs of less economically fortunate in the cities. This shift in polit
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vernment initiated three actions that have, by an large, created the financial crisis in the nation's cities. First, the federal government implemented a program to reduce intergovernmental funds transfers to cities and states. This action had a direct effect of reducing the funds available to city governments. Second, the federal government adopted a practice of transferring most funds to state governments, which would then distribute funds to cities. This practice had an indirect effect of reducing funds available to city governments. Third, in the sure knowledge that funds received by cities through intergovernmental transfers were being reduced, the federal government, nevertheless, refused to relax requirements for mandated social programs and standards of service. This action placed cities under increasing financial pressure. The cynically Reagan Administration said that city government should raise additional funds through local taxation, knowing full well that to do so would place an inequitable and unsupportable burden on the less economically fortunate residents of the nation's central cities, while providing tax relief to the suburban residents of the nation's metropolitan areas who were largely political support
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2046
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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