This is, of course, not inconsistent with the revival of specific selected neighborhoods in cities.ĭespite the slow growth or decline of many of the cities in the Northeast and the Midwest, central cities nationwide have retained their share of the U.S. Despite frequent references in the popular press to "back to the city" movements, the movement of people into the city from the suburbs in the mid-1990s continued to be overwhelmed by people moving from the city to the suburbs (Kasarda et al., 1997). From 1980 to 1990, the central-city population grew by only 3 percent in the East and the Midwest, but it increased by 17 percent in the South and 24 percent in the West. However, the regional variations are substantial. In every census since 1930, the suburban-area population has grown at a more rapid rate than the central-city population (Heilbrun, 1987:29). By 1990, however, this was reversed: almost 60 percent lived in suburbs and only 40 percent in the central city ( Table 2-2).
In 1950 in metropolitan areas, 59 percent of the population lived in central cities and 41 percent in the suburbs.
The process of suburbanization has characterized metropolitan areas for many decades. However, this proportion varied enormously among metropolitan areas: for example among the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, only 16 percent of Atlanta metropolitan-area residents and 21 percent of Washington, D.C., metropolitan-area residents lived in the central cities, compared with 51 percent in Houston. Within metropolitan areas in 1990, approximately 40 percent of residents lived in central cities, and 60 percent lived in suburbs. Geopolitical fragmentation was found to vary regionally, with the most fragmented areas concentrated in the Northeast and the North Central regions and the least fragmented (most city-dominated) in the South and the West, where county government dominated (Zeigler and Brunn, 1980). There has also been some research on the geopolitical fragmentation of metropolitan areas (measured by the number of local governments per 10,000 people divided by the percentage of total metropolitan-area population residing in the central city) and the extent to which metropolitan-area government structure is dominated by the central city (with low levels of geopolitical fragmentation indicating central-city dominance). Not surprisingly, the absolute level of local governments among metropolitan areas is associated with size as well as with age of the area and income level (Hawkins and Dye, 1971). There has been a modest amount of research on what accounts for the variation among metropolitan areas in the number of local governments. Bureau of the Census, preliminary 1997 estimates.) Local governments per 100,000 residents in metropolitan areas was greater in the Midwest (27) and the Northeast (20) than in the West (15) and the South (13) (U.S. Chicago had the largest total number of local governments, followed by Boston and Philadelphia Anaheim, San Diego, and New York had the fewest. Louis and Houston had the largest number of governments per 100,000 people, and New York and Los Angeles had the fewest (see Table 2-1). Of the 15 largest metropolitan areas, St. The variation in the number of governments per metropolitan area is substantial, even after standardizing for population size. There were 18 local governments for every 100,000 people in metropolitan areas. In 1997, the average metropolitan area consisted of 114 local governments: 2 counties, 42 municipalities or towns, and 70 special districts, of which 21 were school districts.
metropolitan areas are characterized by large numbers of local governments (Weiher, 1991:176). In comparison to similar areas in most other countries, U.S. In 1990, metropolitan areas comprised more than 16 percent of the total land area in the United States (U.S. Between 19, the total land area in metropolitan areas more than doubled, from 308,000 to 673,000 square miles.