Recently in Cities & Towns Category

Source: Christopher W. Hoene, Research Brief on America's Cities, Issue 2009-4, December 2009

From the press release:
National League of Cities recently released a new report projecting the municipal sector will face budget shortfalls combined with cuts in state aid to range between $56 billion and $83 billion over the next three years. Federal investment through a jobs package would help stabilize city budgets allowing cities to save and create local, public and private sector jobs.

In addition to budget shortfalls due to declining sales, income, and property tax revenue collections, the NLC report indicates municipal budget shortfalls are also increasing due to cuts in state assistance to local governments. Many cities are receiving almost no assistance from state governments, and in some cases states are recapturing that assistance to reduce their own budget gaps.

In response to continuing declining economic conditions and the prospect of budget shortfalls, cities are laying off staff, delaying or canceling infrastructure projects, and making cuts to public safety services. Together, these measures can have devastating impacts on the employment level in local communities and leave a deep and lasting impact on the national economy. Local budget cuts could result in 600,000 public and private sector job losses in 2010 and another 900,000 in 2011. One in seven cities is beginning to cut public safety services, usually only done as a last resort.

Source: National Employment Law Project, January 10, 2010

Urban areas across the United States (including Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and St. Paul) have limited discrimination in city and county jobs against people with criminal records. As Mayor Richard Daley explained when he announced Chicago's new hiring policy, "Implementing this new policy won't be easy, but it's the right thing to do. . . . We cannot ask private employers to consider hiring former prisoners unless the City practices what it preaches."

Source: Carol W. Lewis and Joseph Mello, Government Finance Review, Vol. 25 no. 6, December 2009
(subscription required)

A survey of the budget and finance offices in the largest city in each state answers the question, how are large cities around the United States confronting the recession?

Source: Peter Cole, WorkingUSA, Vol. 12 no. 4, December 2009
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
This article examines the experiences of two rural communities that, since the advent of the North American Free Trade Agreement, lost major employers. Rural deindustrialization has struck the Midwest particularly hard. While the disappearance of hundreds or thousands of jobs is devastating, some small towns have adapted faster than others. Farmington, Missouri has, for now, weathered the storm far better than another small town, Galesburg, Illinois. This article seeks to do something other than retell a familiar, if generally accurate, story about the suffering caused by the current wave of globalization, facilitated by trade deals. Rather, it will explore the possibility that corporate-driven globalization is not an unmitigated disaster for rural America and rural Americans. Rather, some towns struggle but persevere, some suffer tremendously, while still others create jobs, although all jobs seem ever more insecure in the increasingly global economy.

Source: Theo Francis, Ben Levisohn, Christopher Palmeri and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Business Week, no. 4157, November 30, 2009

Taxpayers are taking another hit as strapped local governments fork over billions in fees on investments gone bad.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is struggling to save his city from fiscal calamity. Unemployment is at a record 28% and rising, while home prices have plunged 39% since 2007. The 66-year-old Bing, a former NBA all-star with the Detroit Pistons who took office 10 months ago, faces a $300 million budget deficit--and few ways to make up the difference.

Against that bleak backdrop, Wall Street is squeezing one of America's weakest cities for every penny it can.

Source: U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2009

From the press release:
In the face of current and projected future budget shortfalls, The U.S. Conference of Mayors today released a survey that shows the economic condition in cities are now serious enough to warrant targeted federal support. In fact, sixty percent of 158 mayors surveyed in 41 states and Puerto Rico say a targeted program of fiscal assistance is needed to help prevent further drastic budget cuts that translate into losses of personnel and reductions in public services.
See also:
A Call to Action

Source: David J. Wright and Lisa M. Montiel, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, November 2, 2009

As widely recognized, America's cities and suburbs are mired in the deepest recession in more than a generation. Less well understood is that conditions in the nation's metro areas were worsening before the recession hit. This Institute report details how, and which areas suffered most.

Source: American Prospect, Special Report, Vol. 20 no. 8, October 2009

Today, the country's primary labor market - regular jobs with reliable wages, benefits, and terms of employment - is being drained by a rise in temporary and contract work with no security. By using its power as a contractor and by enforcing laws already on the books, government can turn millions of bad jobs into good ones.
Articles include:

• Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers - Annette Bernhardt, Ruth Milkman and Nik Theodore
Rebuilding our economy on the back of illegal working conditions is morally untenable -- and it is bad economics.

• Dark and Bitter - Nancy Cleeland
Food workers increasingly exist in a legal limbo with no protections for wages, benefits, job security, or life and limb. Why are employers like Hershey off the hook?

• Decent Work - Robert Kuttner
How government can get back on the side of promoting good jobs.

• Forgotten Corners of the Economy - Stephen Franklin
As unemployment rises, the illegal treatment of day laborers only worsens. Where's the government?

• Good Jobs, Healthy Cities - Peter Dreier
Some city governments are using their economic muscle to promote good jobs.

• Government Paves the Way - Paul Sonn and Annette Bernhardt
A decent work agenda for the Obama administration.

• Stuck on the Low Road - David Bensman
Deregulation turned truck driving from a good job into a bad one. Now, thanks to local organizing and government action, there's a better road.

• The Good War and the Workers - Steve Fraser
World War II defense contracts raised labor standards. Government could use the same leverage in peacetime.

• Which Side Is Government On? - David Moberg
Millions of contract workers whose salaries are ultimately paid by government live in poverty. Uncle Sam should demand high standards, not pay as little as possible.

Source: Jonathan Walters, Governing, Vol. 23 no. 1, October 2009

In a time of devastating fiscal stress, mayors are pressing their workforce for supreme sacrifices.

Source: Julie Bosland and Michael Karpman, National League of Cities, Institute for Youth, Education, & Families, 2009

From the summary:
A new report by NLC's Institute for Youth, Education, and Families identifies the nation's 32 most cutting-edge city innovations to help children and families thrive, and documents emerging and established trends in municipal leadership to promote child and family well-being. "The State of City Leadership for Children and Families" highlights the progress cities have made and the potential for future action.