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the burgeoning industrial cthes. "Join
the city - slip into the income st ream"
was the clarion call of the New Indus–
trial State.
But many of these immigrants were
unskilled, uneducated or otherwise ill–
fitted for permanent employment in a
rapidly automating world. Instead, they
were often forced to join welfare rolls.
Meanwhile, the white middle class
fled to the "suburbs." New cities were
created on the outskirts of larger cities.
The inner city - its wealthier citizens
gone - was hampered by an ever
smaller productive tax base. The state
governments, dominated by a suburban–
rural coalition, then refused to support
the inner city services. The states them–
selves had financia) problems nearly as
critica! as the cities.
Since
1950,
state and local expenses
have multiplied an astronomical
12
times.
Revenues increased only 6 times.
Resulting deficits increased
7-fold!
The local government problem goes
deeper than finances, though, when you
consider bureaucracy. There is only
ONE
Federal government, only
FlFTY
state
governments, but ncarly
100,000
sepa–
cate
local
jurisdictions. This "Balkaniza–
tion" ( duplication, bureaucracy, weak–
ness, and smallness) of local govern–
ments is a second major factor causing
increased urban expenses.
A Problem o f Government
The number of local government
bodies is increasing at more than
one
per day!
The fewest in number, but
most powerful, are the
3,045
co11nty
governments. The remaining jurisdic–
tions indude nearly
40,000
school dis–
tricts, and nearly
20,000
each of
municipal governments, townships, and
special districts (water, power, ports,
electricity, sanitation, etc.). Each is
granted power by the state to tax or
to disburse public funds.
The problem is not necessarily the
number of local governments - al–
though decentral ization as overcentral–
ization within a Jarge city complex can
create ineffective government. The ineffi–
ciency lies greatly in the
a11tonomoffS
naturc of these Balkanized local govern–
ments, many of which are simply
par/
of an actual city.
Fewer than one half of all units of
The
PLAIN TRUTH
local government serve
1,000
people
oc
more, and only
one
percent serve
100,000
or more. One city, sud1 as New
York, may have over
1,500
separate
governments within its limits. A small
suburb may have as many as
25
separate
jurisdictions, each cutting a slice out of
the taxpayer's property assessment.
The spreading tentacles of a modero
American metropolis, as seen from an
airplane, appear to be one organic unit.
However, when politically viewed, each
metropolis is fragmented into numerous
disjointed parts. You don't see the
battle lines from your aerial view, but a
mayor's authority stops at the arbitrary
city line, whi le his problems sprawl for
miles beyond.
For instance, the Los Angeles public
may complain to Mayor Yorty about
conditions in Watts, but he has no legal
authority over Watts! New Yorkcrs
complain to Mayor Lindsay about the
subway, but the
state
-
not Mayor
Lindsay - supervises the Metropolitan
Transit Authority. The urban poor want
services from their mayor, but the mayor
has no power to tax the suburbanites
who
we
most of the city services that
the poor can't afford. T he result is
"organized chaos."
There are many proposed political so–
lutions for urban ills, but there is one
basic philosophical drawback to any
plan.
Our
Anti-City
Herit age
The basic local government structure
in tbe U. S. was designed primarily for
a,
rural, agricultura! society whose in–
habitants had a basic distrust of all cen–
tral governments or large cities.
Our "Founding Fathers" were ada–
mantly divided into two camps -
plantation owners and "urban" busi–
nessmen. ( Although the largest metrop–
olis of the day wouldn't qualify as the
smallest of today's
250
American Stan–
dard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The
cities of
1800
A.D. would be today's
"towhs.")
Thomas Jefferson headed the pro–
farmer, anti-city sentiment on one side,
while Alexander Hamilton and other
Federalists supported America's emer–
gence as a trading, manufacturing, cen–
tralized urban power. Jefferson reflected
the majority opinion of h is day when he
December 1971
warned that an urban America would
inherently carry the seeds of destruction,
poverty, and iniquity.
Conditions have cha,nged, but Ameri–
can laws have not. People have moved
from farm to city, but government is
still rural -based. The word "city" does
not appear in America's Constitution,
but "states' rights" domínate the Con–
stitution, as well as Ameri can history.
America's bloodiest war was a War
Between the
Sta/es,
based primarily on
states' rights.
This is
NOT
to say that a congested,
high-rise nightmare such as New York
is a propcr configuration for a city.
However, thc lack of authority to con–
trol itself explains, at least in part,
WHY
New York has as many problems as it
does.
"We are, after all, an urban country,"
wrote Joseph S. Clark in the
Netu
York
Times
book,
Modem Amet·ica11 Cities.
"The family farm is no longer the back–
bone of the American way of life."
1f
America chooses
not
to return to
an agracian society, there is only one
route open - make cities livable.
Up until the last few years, America
has hidden its urban crisis - its decay–
ing cities - in the deepest reaches of
the governmental doset. This is no
longer possible.
Cities' Rights?
Cities have no self-ordained rights,
being merely municipal corporations
creatcd by the state, and limited by the
state. Fifteen states have less than a
million population each with a com–
bined population less than New York
City or Los Angeles County. Yet these
states (with only
4
percent of the
people) have
30
Senators out of a total
of
100,
enough to block any constitu–
tional amendment! Meanwhile New
York City or Los Angeles County has
virtuaJiy no Senatorial power.
With such inequities, the idea of a
"represeutative
democracy" or
"repre–
sentative"
government in any form is
a meaningless sham. Until the
1962
Supreme Court ruling of "one-man,
one-vote," many central cities were even
under-represented in the House of
Representatives.
Likewise,
sta/e
legislatures naturally
(Conti1111ed on page
22}