Urban Dynamics: Mayoral Authority, Suburban Growth, and Governance

Mayoral Powers and Limitations

The veto power helps distinguish between cities with strong and weak mayors. Another distinction between strong and weak mayors is determined by their powers of administration. Weak mayors have limited appointing powers and even more limited removal powers. They have little control over separately elected boards and commissions or separately elected offices such as clerk, treasurer, tax collector, and attorney. A mayor’s ability to provide strong leadership in many cities is limited by fragmented authority, multiple elected officials, limited jurisdiction over important urban services, and civil service.

Metropolitan Area Classifications

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget divides the nation's metropolitan area geographies into two categories: metropolitan and micropolitan. One category represents the heavily urbanized core city area, and the other, the smaller, newly organized, more suburban-like areas beyond the core.

Urban vs. Suburban Development Trends

New suburbs, mostly built since the 1970s on the outer fringes of metropolitan areas, are capturing increasing shares of both population and employment growth. Many central cities actually lost people and jobs over the last two decades. These were mostly older industrial cities. These cities have had trouble transitioning from a manufacturing-based to a more knowledge-based economy. America’s suburbanization was a product of technological advances in transportation. The same technology that led to the suburbanization of residences also influenced commercial and industrial location. One-fifth of Americans live in the first suburbs, which are neither fully urban nor completely suburban. First suburbs can be places where income, education, and racial divides are the widest in a metropolitan area.

Metropolitan Governance Reform

The objective of the metropolitan reform movement of the last 40 years has been to reorganize, consolidate, and enlarge government jurisdictions. The goal is to rid metropolitan areas of ineffective multiple local jurisdictions and governments that do not coincide with the boundaries of the metropolis.