Introduction to City
City, a large or important town. Cities are the commercial, industrial, financial, political, and cultural centers of a nation. A city provides opportunities for jobs and offers many cultural and recreational advantages—museums, symphony orchestras, theaters, major sports events. On the other hand, cities tend to be crowded, noisy, and dirty, and have a high crime rate. It generally costs more to live in a city than in a small town, but wages are usually higher.
Not all cities are large. In the United States, it is the form of government, rather than size or importance, that determines whether a community is classed as a city, town, or village. A city is a corporation with a charter granted by the state government. This charter defines its powers and its legal relationship with state and county. Minimum population requirements vary from state to state. Some large communities that qualify as cities choose to remain towns or villages, often for sentimental reasons.
Most large cities are surrounded by suburbs, and it is often difficult to tell where the city ends and the suburbs begin. A city together with its suburbs forms what is usually called a metropolitan area, but this term, as it is generally understood, is not quite the same as the term Metropolitan Statistical Area, used by the United States government (see ). The United Nations Demographic Yearbook uses the term “urban agglomeration.”
Meaningful comparisons of size between large cities are difficult to make because the definition of what constitutes a city varies from country to country. For example, for a while, the only population figure given for Shanghai was 11,859,748, which made it the world's largest city. But that figure was for the shih (municipality) of Shanghai, which has an area of 2,388 square miles (6,185 km 2)and includes vast tracts of open land; the city proper (the densely settled portion) has about the same population as New York City.
In Great Britain and other European countries, the name city is sometimes given as an honorary title to a major community, regardless of its form of government.
The Development of Cities
Reasons for Growth. The original settlements that grew into cities were usually built as trading centers or as forts to defend strategic locations. For this reason, most major cities are on rivers or harbors, or at the junction of important overland routes.
Early cities that developed strong military forces added to their territory, wealth, and importance by conquest. Favorably located settlements often became large and prosperous through commerce. Some, such as Athens, became centers of culture.
Some cities owe their importance to religion. Many ancient cities began as centers of worship. The city of Rome survived the collapse of the Roman Empire because it was the capital of Western Christendom. Mecca and Jerusalem owe their continued existence to the fact that they are religious shrines.
Some modern cities owe their development to the fact that they were planned and built as national capitals. Examples are Washington, D.C.; Canberra, Australia; New Delhi, India; and Brasília, Brazil. Climate is another important factor; the cities of Florida, for instance, owe much of their growth to the state's attractive climate.
The huge city of today is the creation of the Industrial Revolution. Factories were built in communities that had good transportation and were near raw materials and sources of power. Factories attracted workers, and the availability of workers in turn attracted more industry. At the same time, as agricultural productivity steadily increased, farm land and labor were released for other uses.
Cities through the Ages. The earliest cities were in Asia, Africa, and along the warm coasts of the Mediterranean. Many of these cities have long since disappeared. Some—such as Troy—have been rediscovered by archeologists.
The ancient cities of Greece and Italy had the political power of nations. ( .) Some ancient cities, such as Carthage, in northern Africa, were completely destroyed by rival powers, while others declined after being plundered by barbarian invaders in the early Christian Era. Many of the early cities, however, still exist and have been continually occupied since their founding.
In the early Middle Ages, most European cities were religious centers with little power or political importance. However, with the breakup of feudalism and the revival of trade, cities again became important. Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Hamburg, Bremen, and a number of other cities became independent states, much like the ancient city-states. ( .) With the rise of nationalism after the Renaissance, cities lost much of their political power, but continued to gain in economic importance.
United States Cities. Colonial America was largely rural. In 1750, there were only five cities with populations of more than 12,000—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport (Rhode Island), and Charleston (South Carolina). Even by 1830 less than 7 per cent of the people were living in cities. Then came the period of canal and railway building, industrial expansion, and mass immigration—all leading to the rapid growth of cities. By about 1920, more than half the nation's people lived in cities. The pattern of city growth changed after World War II, however, with suburbs increasing in size much more rapidly than cities; many cities, in fact, lost population.
City Problems
Two of the most crucial problems facing American cities are housing and transportation. A shortage of suitable housing, especially for low-income families and the elderly, has led to over-crowding and slums, and has helped create the additional problems of crime, juvenile delinquency, and racial tensions. A housing shortage has been created even for middle-income families due to the widespread conversion of rental units into condominiums. .) A tremendous increase in the number of automobiles has clogged streets and overburdened parking facilities, while transit systems have not developed as rapidly as the demand for them. In addition, cities tend to create air pollution and noise pollution and some also pollute nearby waters.
A large number of cities also suffer from financial problems; taxes, although high, are not able to keep up with the costs of running schools and providing public services. Overcrowded conditions and high taxes have caused people and industry to move to suburbs, weakening the tax base.
City Planning
Most cities grew with little or no planning. Even those that were originally laid out on a plan—for example, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia—have grown haphazardly. Unplanned growth has created many of the problems cities now face, especially in regard to slums and transportation.
Zoning, which regulates the type, use, and size of buildings, is a widely practiced preventive measure intended to control haphazard growth. Certain areas are set aside for certain types of buildings—factories, offices and stores, apartment buildings, single-family homes. The goal of zoning is to place business and industry in convenient locations for shoppers and workers and to preserve existing residential neighborhoods.
Zoning boards may also regulate the size of buildings, especially in residential areas. Other rules are directed against overcrowding by requiring buildings to be built a certain distance apart.
Almost every large American city is engaged in renewal programs to reclaim blighted areas, often using funds granted in part by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Downtown redevelopment projects have been successful in a number of cities, including Baltimore, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. Programs to replace slum dwellings with low-rent high-rise apartment buildings, however, have had mixed results—the new buildings, for a number of reasons, often become slums in their own right. The construction of urban expressways has also produced mixed results. In some cities the expressways have achieved their purpose of improving transportation facilities, but in others they have made downtown traffic congestion even worse, have caused severe financial troubles for mass-transit systems, and have contributed to the prosperity of the suburbs at the expense of the city.
Since city and suburbs share many common problems, metropolitan planning is almost a necessity. This requires cooperation between city and suburbs, but often is hindered by lack of a central administration. In an attempt to meet this problem, Toronto, Ontario, created a metropolitan government for the city and its suburbs. This government supervises road construction, schools, police, public transporation, zoning laws, and the water supply for the entire area. Local affairs are still controlled by individual communities. In 1957 Miami, Florida, and its surrounding communities became the first metropolitan area in the United States to adopt a similar plan.
Kinds of City Government
This is the oldest and most common form of city government in the United States. It consists of a mayor; a council whose members commonly represent districts, or wards; and various boards or commissions. In most cities, council members are called councilmen, although the older term—aldermen—is used in some places. The mayor, councilmen, and sometimes other officials (such as the treasurer) are elected. The mayor is the chief executive and is responsible both for policy leadership and for carrying out ordinances (laws) passed by the council. In some cities, he prepares the budget and has sole authority over appointments; in others, he shares these responsibilities with the council.
Mayor-council government often suffers from a lack of coordination due to division of authority between the mayor, council, and boards. The political spoils (patronage) system often interferes with honest, efficient administration. However, civil service provisions and better informed voters have done much to do away with political “machines” by which masses of votes were bought with favors and jobs.
The chief officials are elected on a nonpartisan ballot. Together they form the legislative body (council) while individually they usually serve as the administrative heads of the city departments. This form of government was developed mainly to combat municipal corruption. It was first adopted by Galveston, Texas, in 1901. Its main weakness is its lack of a chief administrator.
Under this system, a small, nonpartisan council is elected. The chief administrator is the city manager, hired by the council. Ideally, the city manager is chosen for his efficiency and experience, without consideration of party politics. He appoints other city officials, directs the various departments, and prepares the annual budget. He is responsible only to the council. Cities operating under the council-manager plan retain a mayor, but his functions are limited to presiding over meetings and officiating at public ceremonies.
This system is an improvement over the commission plan, which it has largely replaced. It was first adopted by Staunton, Virginia, in 1908 and attracted wide-spead attention after Dayton, Ohio, adopted it in 1913.
Most cities are governed by some type of city council with a separate executive. Generally, city councils are elected by the citizens of the municipality. In many cities (particularly those in western Europe), the city council chooses the executive from among its members. In some cities, the executive is popularly elected. Executives in other cities are appointed by the national government.
In totalitarian countries, municipal elections are held but candidates of the state-supported party often run unopposed. In nations that are ruled by military dictatorships, municipal elections generally are not permitted, and city officials are appointed by the national government.
