Majoritarian Cities: Policy Making and Inequality in Urban Politics

Chapter 8 - Politics, Policy, and Inequality in Urban and Metropolitan America

212 chaPter 8 Politics, Policy, and Inequality in Urban and Metropolitan America The conclusion suMMarizes the major findings of the book and restates the argument. I also discuss implications of my argument in terms of urban policy and politics, and conclude with an analysis of the relationship between democratic processes and inequality in metropolitan America. This book has argued that, in recent years, major decisions made by local officials in Minneapolis and Gary have tended to reflect public opinion, and that popularly adopted decisions have, more often than not, reinforced existing patterns of economic inequality. The model used acknowledges the importance of several contextual variables, including local economic and demographic characteristics, state and federal policies, and interest groups, all of which significantly shape local opinion and the policy-making process . Despite all of these other variables, local officials in every locality have choices about what policies to pursue and what policies not to pursue. And because of the nature of contemporary local political processes and communications , self-interested local officials are increasingly aware of their constituents ’ preferences on higher-profile issues, which often leads them to act in ways that correspond to these preferences. Yet majoritarian local political processes pose tremendous challenges for those interested in meaningfully addressing economic and racial inequalities. The fact that some decisions in the two cities were supported by absolute majorities is clear because contemporaneous public opinion polls document this. In several instances, decisions were supported by at least those active in the political process as evidenced by the results of initiatives, referenda, and elections. In still other cases, local officials responded to what were very vocal minorities of the citizenry who expressed strongly held views at public Politics, Policy, and Inequality in Urban and Metropolitan America 213 meetings and the like. These types of citizens are not necessarily representative of wider patterns in public opinion. However, in combination with other methods, one can frequently deduce that such sentiment is more broadly held than a small number of outspoken, active citizens. For example , as I discussed in chapter 7, in the elections immediately following the first significant round of school closings adopted by the Gary school board, all incumbents lost their bids for reelection, indicating that opposition to school closings was held by more than those who attended several public meetings on the matter. This assertion is further supported by the objectively large role that the school district plays in the local economy, which many local citizens would rationally want to preserve. In addition, the resident surveys in Minneapolis and the reports issued by the Indiana Gaming Commission shed considerable light on many of the policy areas I have explored in detail. To recount one example: when R. T. Rybak was first elected, only 40 percent of Minneapolis residents were satisfied with the city’s affordable housing policy. Several years later, after the city council and Rybak adopted a modest Affordable Housing Trust Fund, roughly two-thirds of residents were satisfied with affordable housing policy, which clearly showed most residents’ satisfaction with this rather limited effort. Considering the characteristics of contemporary public opinion, greater public involvement in local decision making, in the absence of a transformation in the public’s views, will not likely generate many more policies that can meaningfully address fundamental inequalities. Thus what is needed is an evolution in the public debate about inequality that begins to move citizens toward an enlarged understanding of the causes and effects of economic disadvantage, thereby expanding the discussion of possible policy prescriptions. a suMMary of the book’s arguMent The two chapters on education policy highlight some stark differences between the cities, but there are similarities when examining the Minneapolis and Gary school districts that place both within the larger discussion of urban school reform. In Minneapolis, local school leaders have been very attentive to the views of the public on the issue of attendance policies, as evidenced by the original segregation of the schools in the 1960s and early 1970s and by the 1995 community schools decision. Fervent support for 214 Majoritarian cities community schools within the city dovetailed with suburban opposition to metropolitan school policy, both of which reflected the passionate belief in local control of schools that is a fundamental part of American political culture . Thus the forces in support of community schools in Minneapolis were substantial and went well beyond the city itself. The 1995 Minneapolis NAACP lawsuit, which...