One of the big myths of the twentieth century is that large American cities are necessary and inevitable. Yet in reality growth has been dispersing to suburbs and smaller cities for the last two decades. As the decline of Detroit, once the country’s fourth largest city, reveals in all too harsh terms, being bigger is not always better.
Yet the big city myth remains virtually unchallenged. A biased print media and a subsidized academic cartel are constantly singing the praises of big city life (as opposed to suburban or rural life). While American cities exhibited strong population growth in the early part of the twentieth century, recent Census numbers show America’s mega cities are growing below the national growth rate. According to the 2010 Census, San Antonio was the only city with a population of over 1 million people that grew above the national growth rate of 9.7%.
Years ago, scholar Milton Kotler wrote an important but much forgotten book on local government. Kotler showed what was behind the amazing growth numbers of the some big cities:
Statistics show New York’s population increase from 1890-1900 to have been 2,096,370. This seems amazing, except that most of the increase came about with the annexation of Brooklyn, population 1,166,582. In short, its population grew at a rate far less than the increase by annexation.
Municipalities are creations of the state legislature. In many cities, the boundaries changed to expand the power of cities along with their political class and related business rent-seekers. While some would argue about New York city’s population numbers, which has recovered from their lows, few would question Detroit’s long-term decline. As Detroit takes center stage line, the entire municipal bond market is about to take notice. Much is at stake here.
Not only the economic foundation of a large American city but the concept that a creditor will get back its principal back. The Detroit Free Press explains:
Borrowing for Michigan cities could get more expensive in the future, if Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s restructuring plan is accepted by creditors and Chapter 9 bankruptcy is avoided, some bond experts caution.
That’s because Orr’s plan would set a major precedent by treating all unsecured debt the same way — instead of giving a better payout or greater deference to general obligation bonds, sold for generations as safer investments backed by a city’s taxing authority.
In Detroit, both the lack of checks and balances, and the maintenance of an engaged, informed public undermined the city’s fiscal health. Many Detroit citizens voted with their feet by exiting the corrupt system. With the middle class of all races deserting, the city of Detroit was ripe for looting of the taxpayers.
In conclusion, it’s time for the informed public to realize many of our big cities are expensive, corrupt, and not redeemable. The Michigan Legislature should cut Detroit down to size. Perhaps they should consider de-annexation. It’s better to have Detroit become ten smaller municipalities. Of course there would be major political resistance for those who have made big money from Detroit’s decline. But without de-annexation, Detroit seems likely to remain on the brink of insolvency for a long-term since its political boundaries are too large for responsive governance and the crafting of unique solutions to its problems.
Comments
14 responses to “The Diminishing Returns of Large Cities: Population Growth Myths”
I’m very confused on the the message of this article.
Anyway, this is a good article (published in newgeorgraphy none-the-less )that should be considered.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002987-density-not-issue-the-urban-scaling-research
It’s good to see someone else thinking about putting Detroit to an end and breaking it up into more, smaller local governments. If large areas of Detroit reverted to townships in line with Michigan’s township system, it would help break up the generations of institutional rot for those areas.
It’s not a magic bullet. It will give the people still living their more say in their local government. It’s a lot easier for smart ideas to be heard and implemented among 60,000 people than 600,000.
There are good examples of much smaller municipalities than this that work very well, eg in Switzerland.
Where there are economies of scale to be had eg in utilities, bodies may be established to deal with these, that are not synonymous with “the municipality”. The very small municipality size means that the elected representatives are very accessible and individual voices can be heard. The elected representatives then truly “represent” their constituents in taking their concerns to the next level.
Christopher Alexander, who wrote the book “A Pattern Language”, says:
“Individuals have no effective voice in any group of more than 5,000-10,000 persons.”
Uh…….most American cities with over a million people have very little vacant land left for expansion. To grow, they need to build up. Despite that fact, many American cities both over and under a million are starting to grow again after decades of stagnation or losing population.
Why do Republicans hate cities so much?
Rephrase that: why do people in cities vote so heavily for Democrats, when their policies wreck cities? Republican-run cities do much better.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/toxic-government-by-democrats-detroit-2/
Links at the bottom of the article to others in the series, on other cities.
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