City Limits Barriers To Change In Urban Government

This report, an update of an earlier report from the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, presents a review of urban America and its governmental capabilities. Chapters focus on: (1) urban America today (major aspects of the urban problem, changes in urban problems, changes in the perception of urban problem solving, and programs for meeting urban needs); (2) overcoming the urban fiscal problem (the plight of central cities, Federal action, State action, and the development of an effective and equitable state and local revenue system); (3) improving services in urban America; (4) restructuring local governments (the Federal role, and others); (5) solving the problem of metropolitan areas (urban development, urbanization, building requirements, urban development planning and land use regulation, and urban development policy framework); and (6) intergovernmental problems and strategies for the future. The report concludes that urban society is worth saving. The connection between the high standard of living in America and the urban setting of most American activity today is not coincidental. What is called for is a series of actions which will produce, at the end, a revitalized American urban scene. The Federal system already has begun to change. yet the need for urban statemanship at all levels remains great. (Author).

Introduction -- The beginnings of homelessness policy under Koch -- The development of homelessness policy under Koch -- Homelessness policy under Dinkins -- Homelessness policy under Giuliani -- Homelessness policy under Bloomberg -- Homelessness policy under De Blasio -- Conclusion.

First published in 1991, Changing New York City Politics provides an important grounding for understanding where New York City politics is likely to go in the coming two years. Three decades after New York City’s first Black mayor was elected and then defeated after only one term, the city’s second Black mayor is facing challenges that in many ways are similar to those of his predecessor, yet different in others. Like David Dinkins, Mayor Eric Adams faces worries about crime and public disorder, recovery from an economic downturn, and criticism over his managerial style. It may be a quite different city today in terms of the makeup of its electorate – less white, more diverse, but certainly no more Black – and Adams may have a closer connection to the Police Department than Dinkins could manage – but the challenges of constructing a multi-racial electoral and governing coalition in the face of skepticism from white voters remains. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of political science, American history, and comparative politics.

An insightful chronicle of the changing public health demands in New York City. The first permanent Board of Health in the United States was created in response to a cholera outbreak in New York City in 1866. By the mid-twentieth century, thanks to landmark achievements in vaccinations, medical data collection, and community health, the NYC Department of Health had become the nation's gold standard for public health. However, as the city's population grew in number and diversity, the department struggled to balance its efforts between the treatment of diseases—such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and West Nile Virus—and the prevention of illness-causing factors like lead paint, heroin addiction, homelessness, smoking, and unhealthy foods. In Epidemic City, historian of public health James Colgrove chronicles the challenges faced by the health department since New York City's mid-twentieth-century "peak" in public health provision. This insightful volume draws on archival research and oral histories to examine how the provision of public health has adapted to the competing demands of diverse public needs, public perceptions, and political pressure. Epidemic City analyzes the perspectives and efforts of the people responsible for the city's public health from the 1960s to the present—a time that brought new challenges, such as budget and staffing shortages, and new threats like bioterrorism. Faced with controversies such as needle exchange programs and AIDS reporting, the health department struggled to maintain a delicate balance between its primary focus on illness prevention and the need to ensure public and political support for its activities. In the past decade, after the 9/11 attacks and bioterrorism scares partially diverted public health efforts from illness prevention to threat response, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden were still able to pass New York's Clean Indoor Air Act restricting smoking and significant regulations on trans-fats used by restaurants. This legislation—preventative in nature much like the department's original sanitary code—reflects a return to the nineteenth century roots of public health, when public health measures were often overtly paternalistic. The assertive laws conceived by Frieden and executed by Bloomberg demonstrate how far the mandate of public health can extend when backed by committed government officials. Epidemic City provides a compelling historical analysis of the individuals and groups tasked with negotiating the fine line between public health and political considerations. By examining the department's successes and failures during the ambitious social programs of the 1960s, the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the struggles with poverty and homelessness in the 1980s and 1990s, and in the post-9/11 era, Epidemic City shows how the NYC Department of Health has defined the role and scope of public health services for the entire nation.