Week 12: METROPOLITAN PROBLEMS: Racism, Poverty, Crime, Housing, and Fiscal Crisis

Until recently, urban problems were city problems. That is no longer the case as the issues once associated with the large, compact settlement form have spread out, like the metropolitan population and its economic activities, to characterize the entire ur- ban region. In the late 1960s and 1970s, especially during President Johnson’s Great Society, urban problems were defined almost exclusively as those involving racial segregation, poverty, violent crime, and drugs. Now, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, poverty, unemployment, foreclosures, and homelessness, as well as the severe economic recession itself, are particular issues of concern. As the attention of the federal governments., focuses on the major issues of the economy and health care, the nation’s state governments seem to be ignored. Consequently, adding to our other urban ills, we currently face more intense fiscal crises and their impact on local public services and infrastructure.

One purpose of our discussion is to explore whether or not large cities in particular and metropolitan regions, in general, possess unique features that might propagate specifically “urban” problems.