The Wall Street Journal reports on more municipalities contracting out city services.
Cities say they have little choice. Municipalities across the U.S. will face a projected shortfall of $56 to $86 billion between 2010 and 2012, according to a report from the National League of Cities.
The primary focus of the story is California communities.
For many of the services mentioned in the article, such as tree-trimming, residents likely won’t notice much difference.
Cities are often thought of as the antithesis of wildlife. Yet, they occasionally mix like here at Pier 39 in San Francisco where sea lions where have been around for 20 years.
(My wife and I traveled to California for nine days in early July – this is part of a series of pictures from our trip.)
The Infrastructurist presents a graphic displaying the populations of the 60 cities in China with a population over 1 million.
Some interesting points in the comments about what exactly counts as “city population.” The graphic says: “Generally the lighted area that can be observed from an airplane at night.” This is a measurement issue: should rural areas be included? Whole counties? Just within city limits? Metropolitan regions? Each choice for boundaries will change the numbers.
I’ve always been fascinated by cities and what is beneath them. Even American cities, which tend to be younger compared to other cities around the world, have some interesting items buried underground. The New York Times reports on the discovery of a 30-foot long 18th-century ship found at the World Trade Center site.
h/t The Infrastructurist
Via Yahoo! Finance, the New York Times looks at the costs of living in the suburbs vs. living in the city. The verdict: unless a family is sending kids to private school (particularly at middle-school age and above), the suburban life costs about 18% more.
The basis for the analysis – and Manhattan is not part of the figures:
While our analysis was by no means scientific, our goal was to recreate the type of decision a hypothetical family of four earning $175,000 a year might encounter. We chose an upper-middle-class income because that’s generally what our family needs to earn, conservatively, to afford a median-price home in Park Slope, a section of Brooklyn that is family-friendly, has good schools and is generally more affordable than Manhattan.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom co-operative apartment that we’re using as a model in Park Slope is listed at $675,000, close to the median price for the neighborhood, as calculated by Zillow.com.
We stacked that against a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom home in South Orange, N.J., just a 30-minute train ride from Manhattan, where the two parents work. The house is selling for $595,000.
Some experts have been talking a long time about the hidden costs of suburbia due to more driving and sprawl. Homes may be cheaper (and bigger) but there are added costs from lower density living.
If homeowners were presented with this sort of evidence (assuming it would hold up across cities), would they chose the suburbs in lesser numbers? Or would people still be willing to pay a premium for the amenities that suburbia can offer?
A news story today from the Chicago Tribune detailing Wal-Mart’s latest offer to build a store in Chicago (it currently has 0 within city limits). Some of the players in the long saga:
1. Wal-Mart. Its latest offer is starting all workers at $8.75 an hour, $0.50 above current minimum wage standards in Chicago. Has been exploring several sites on the South Side for years.
2. Unions. Don’t want Wal-Mart as the company does not allow its workers to unionize. Worried about lower wages.
3. The City. Has primarily been against Wal-Mart because of the wage issue.
4. Those who want cheaper and/or accessible groceries. Several of the neighborhoods Wal-Mart has looked at might be considered “food deserts” (neighborhoods where relatively cheap, nutritious food is not available). Many other companies are not willing to move in while Wal-Mart has expressed interest.
There might be a path to resolution soon – several aldermen now seem willing to support the stories in their wards. This may be particularly timely as Wal-Mart says it would add 12,000 jobs to the city for the next five years if they could build where they want.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE 6/23/10 at 11:10 PM
From the Chicago Tribune: Mayor Daley of Chicago makes “an emotional pitch” for Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart releases a list of benefits for the community, and demonstrators who support Wal-Mart add the vuvuzela to their arsenal.
I finished watching the last season of The Wire over the weekend. Quick observations before I provide some links to academics and sociologists commenting on the show, one that several critics have deemed “the best TV show ever.”
1. The City of Baltimore is truly part of the story. Unlike many shows that use a “bland big city” for the background, this show digs deeper into the place.
2. Multi-faceted view of the situation and complicated stories. Each season attempts a slightly different angle including children and the media (seasons 4 and 5). There are consistent characters through all the seasons but each season keeps adding a little more as a new perspective is developed. Not a fast-moving show.
3. Some fascinating characters. Jimmy McNulty – a detective that perhaps only loves his cases. Stringer Bell – a gang leader who is also taking business classes at night to improve his skills. Officer Daniels (who moves up the ranks during the show) unwilling to “juke the stats” to please his bosses. Many more to name.
4. The police are just as deep into the drugs and violence as the gangs. From consistent violence to “Hamsterdam” to cover-ups to “juking the stats” to impressive detective work, the police are not simply geniuses or people who can shoot better. In fact, the police rarely shoot – a problem with many cop shows since most real-life police rarely or never fire a gun in the line of duty.
4a. The politicians are similarly involved. The goal: get as much positive credit for change while minimizing negatives that happen when you are in charge.
5. Somewhat hopeless ending – new people on both sides, the gangs and police, come in, take the place of those before, and similar battles are fought. Some of the kids get out and many do not. A good number of the police are ruined. The politicians try to use whatever they can to get ahead. Money and power are what people want and just their means of pursuing them are different.
6. Sociologically, a lot of the show seemed similar to Sudhir Venkatesh’s books on life on the South side of Chicago: American Project, Off the Books, Gang Leader for a Day.
Some commentary from other sociologists:
1. Sudhir Venkatesh talking about the show with “real thugs”.
2. A short collection of reviews from Racism Review.
3. The Guardian UK summarizes an academic conference on The Wire.
4. Slate.com writing about academic courses on the TV show, including noted sociologist William Julius Wilson teaching such a course at Harvard.
5. Two sociologists comment in Dissent in 2008 (and participate in a broader discussion) and then expand on their thoughts in City and Community.
I’m sure there is more out there. It is rare to find any media creation that receives praise from so many in providing a realistic portrayal of city life.
Maybe this is a foregone conclusion to many, but this Financial Times article suggests 2011 is the year when China will exceed the manufacturing of the United States.
This would end a 110 year period when the US led world manufacturing. This “American Century” (plus 10 years) contained an impressive display of produced items: steel, early cars, to household appliances, to military weapons, airplanes, personal computers, and more.
Even with a global shift to an “information economy,” many countries would give a lot to have more manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing is not just about raw goods: it involves local communities who then contain factories and working classes. Places like Detroit are infamous for going from economic powerhouses to empty cities within four decades. Other cities, like New York and Chicago, have made the shift from manufacturing to other sectors, primarily finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE), within the same four decades.
From the article:
“Last year, the US created 19.9 per cent of world manufacturing output, compared with 18.6 per cent for China, with the US staying ahead despite a steep fall in factory production due to the global recession.
That the US is still top comes as a surprise, since in 2008 – before the slump of the past two years took hold – IHS predicted it would lose pole position in 2009.”
Interestingly, the return for China to the top adds to China’s long manufacturing edge before the modern era. Perhaps the “American Century” was just a blip on the screen of history:
“If China does become the world’s biggest manufacturer, it will be a return to the top slot for a nation which – according to economic historians – was the world’s leading country for goods production for more than 1,500 years up until the 1850s, when Britain took over for a brief spell, mainly due to the impetus of the industrial revolution.”
Legally Sociable 