Small Cities USA: Growth, Diversity, and Inequality

5 Balancing It All: Paths of Success or Failure for Small Metro Areas

116 “As I walked out in the streets of Laredo, as I walked out in Laredo one day, I spied a young cowboy, all wrapped in white linen, wrapped up in white linen and cold as the clay.” So goes the “Streets of Laredo” (otherwise called “The Cowboy’s Lament”), the song about the small Texas city. Laredo is no longer a cowboy town; today it is a bustling, internationally oriented small city. The port of Laredo is ranked as the fourth busiest in the nation; an estimated $94 billion of trade passes through it each year (López and Phillips 2006). In addition to goods, thousands of people travel back and forth between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in Mexico every day. Estimates indicate that nearly a quarter of a million people walk back and forth between the two countries every three months (Lopez and Phillips 2006). Laredo is an interesting hybrid of Anglo and Latino culture, which is not surprising given its location on the border. While the city hosts a jalape ño festival and the local state university has a Ballet Folklorico, it also hosts celebrations that are likely to be found in any part of the nation, such as the month-long celebration of George Washington’s birthday with dinners, balls, and fund-raising events. This amalgamation of cultures is particularly strong in Laredo and is likely a precursor of the increasing influence of the growing Latino population throughout the United States. As one walks through downtown Laredo, its small-town roots are still apparent. But it is no longer small. Laredo has grown in population tremendously since 1970. Most of the growth has happened within the city limits rather than in nearby or outlying areas. Laredo has also experienced 5 Balancing It All Paths of Success or Failure for Small Metro Areas BALANCING IT ALL 117 a tremendous increase, percentage wise, in its median household income level. In 1970, median household income was about $23,400; this figure had increased to about $33,000 by 2006 (in constant 2006 dollars). At the same time, economic inequality grew considerably during the study decades, increasing by 145 percent (putting in the 75th percentile for all eighty places). And although the official percentage of the metro area population living in poverty declined from 44 percent in 1969 to 30 percent in 2006, it still remains quite high. Laredo thus presents the mix of positive and negative outcomes that makes it difficult to assess how places have changed and even more dif- ficult to pin down why. If we examined population growth only, we might conclude that Laredo has done well; its population has increased by 165 percent since1970. And if we were to focus solely on change in income over time, it would also look successful. But once we consider absolute income levels as opposed to percent change in income (in 2000, Laredo was second to last; only McAllen, Texas, had lower household income among the cities in this study) and levels of economic inequality, the picture becomes murkier. Laredo’s story, and stories of other cities like it, points to the central question of this book: How should we assess success or failure among cities, particularly the small cities examined here? In this chapter, I combine the three outcome measures of population, income, and inequality into a single index as one way to capture multiple dimensions of change that affect people’s everyday lives in small cities across the United States. Introduction Smaller metro areas in the United States have, as shown in previous chapters , taken a variety of trajectories between 1970 and 2000. In this chapter, I analyze the three important measures (population, income and economic inequality levels) combined into a single outcome to show what actually matters for a city and its suburbs in order to assess success in a holistic way. This examination builds upon those completed in chapters three and four, which looked at the three components of the outcome separately. A wide array of scholars, researchers, pundits, and advocates have generated visions of a successful city, but quantifying success or failure is still a challenge. One of the most common ways to quantify success is 118 CHAPTER 5 to measure population growth. As noted previously, population growth is an exceedingly important criterion for success for government officials and business leaders. Scholars also continue to use population growth...