Exploration of the City of Chicago and New York City
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Introduction
Since World War II, the U.S. has experienced significant social and economic changes. Under the economic arena, the United States has enjoyed massive growth during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Social developments demographic developments accompanied the robust economic growth from the mid-1960s and henceforth. This paper will focus on the City of Chicago and New York City, which are located in different metropolitan areas.
Demographic, economic, and socio-cultural make-up of the two cities.
The City of Chicago is located in Illinois State. Currently, the city has a population of approximately 2,694,236, which makes it the 3rd largest city in the U.S. and the largest in Illinois State. Although its population is among the largest in the United States, it has recorded an annual decline in population at the rate of -0.22% (McDonald, 2014). It has a population density of roughly 11,850 individuals per square mile. The city has an average annual household income of approximately $85,837 and a poverty rate of about twenty per cent. The northern part of the city is occupied by the whites, while the blacks occupy the southern part. Historically, the geographical distribution of the population by race is associated with the policy of historical racist housing allocation, which ensured that the black Americans settled into the cheap south side of the city.
New York City, commonly known as The City, is recognized as the most populous city in U.S. In 2019, The City has a total population of 8,336,817 with a population density of 302.6 per square mile (McDonald, 2014). It is the main city in the New York metropolitan area and is situated at the mouth of the Hudson River in the southwestern region of the New York State. New York City has one of the most stable economies among the American cities. In 2019, the economy of the city grey up to 2.4 %, which surpassed the national economic growth. The economic growth was associated with the city’s solid wage growth and strong labour markets which are measured based on average hourly earnings. New York City is a cosmopolitan city, in which there exist about 200 languages spoken there (McDonald, 2014). About 40% of the population living in NYC was born outside the United States, who migrated into the country in search of employment and other financial opportunities
Form of government in the City of Chicago.
The City of Chicago is divided into wards (municipal legislative districts), each with an Alderman who represents the district in the City Council. Initially, there were six municipal legislative districts back in 1837 but later subdivided to make 50 wards in effect. The city operates under the rules dictated by the Illinois Constitution, which authorizes the city to perform different functions that pertain to its affairs and government. The duties and powers in this city are exercised by a legal team of the Mayor, the City Clerk, the City Treasurer, and the City Council of Chicago. Each statutory body has different and independent roles to play in running the city. The Mayor is the city’s executive and is responsible for the management and administration of particular city departments. He/she submits the annual budgets of the city, recommendations and proposals to the City Council. He/she is also responsible for appointing department directors or commissioners, members of city commissions and boards, and city officers (Sadioglu, 2016).
The central role of the City Clerk is to keep official record for the city council. He/she is also charged with the responsibility of designating repository for all city documents, and maintaining cooperate seal of the city. During proceedings, he/she also publishes official legislative records of the city council actions. The treasurer is the managers and custodian of all investments and cashes for the city. She also files annual report showing investment portfolio such as money dispersed, invested or received. The Ward’s Aldermen are charged with the responsibility of representing members of the districts in the City Council. They receive information from the City council and pass it to the members of the constituency they represent. The City Council is granted with power by the State government to perform all functions that pertain to its government and other affairs such as protection of public health, to incur debt, to impose tax, to license or regulate safety and welfare of the City members (Sadioglu, 2016).
In New York City, the government is highly centralized. Similar to the Federal Government, NYC Government is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. The executive branch is headed by the Mayor, who is responsible for all services in the city, and enforces state and city laws. The legislative branch in NYC comprises of fifty one elected member to represent members of different districts. The legislative wing is charged with the responsibility of proposing and revising bills on behalf of members of districts they represent. The Judicial branch contains numerous court systems which cut across the five boroughs in the City (Sadioglu, 2016). It serves as an enforcement body for all bills passed by the legislative branch and signed by the City Governor.
The specific challenges, issues, and problems that the two cities will face in the next 50 years
One of the challenges that might face the City of Chicago is population decline. According to the current trend of the demographic data, Chicago has been losing population consistently for the last 4 years. In between 2010 and 2019, the Illinois State at large has been losing than any other State in U.S. If the issue is not checked in time, decline in population may affect the revenue generation of the city as well.
Solution to the challenge
The city can grow regrow the population by creating job opportunities. The best way of creating jobs in te City is by encouraging the investors in the town to invest on the City infrastructures. Mobility means opportunity, thus the city needs to create opportunities to attract immigrants. Secondly, the City Council needs to create policies which allow companies to continue investing and give incentives such as low tax to the investors.
Racial and ethnic wealth gap.
Regardless of the place of residence or background, every member of City of Chicago is aware of the impacts of economic and racial inequalities that exist in the city. According to the report produced by the Metropolitan Planning Council in 2017, it is clear that economic and racial inequality in the region, the gross domestic product of the country has been losing$8 billion every year. The inequality is manifested in the restrictions imposed on the Black and Latinos households from accumulating huge wealth like the whites do.
Solution for the inequality
The State policies, systems and practices are the main contributors for the inequality. The city requires system-focused and multifaceted approach that will look at tax policy, income policy, consumer protections, economic and housing development policy and other governmental policies which will focus on generating wealth from the community at large.
In the New York City one of the major challenges that might be experienced is considerable slowdown of the real estate market due to increased urban population. The city’s challenge of inadequate affordable housing started to grow since 2002 and is anticipated to continue upto more than a century is the issue will not be addressed effectively. Large influx of job seekers in the town has increased the demand for residential houses, which have resulted in increase in rents in the city while the income still remains stagnant. In the next three decades or so, the urban population is projected to be significantly higher while their annual income is expected to increase insignificantly. If his happens, more than half of the renters in New York City are expected to be burdened by their rents, in which a large number will be spending about 40% of their gross monthly income on utilities and rents. According to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the low-income households are those that earn up to 80% of the metropolitan area median income (AMI). Based on this definition, more than 60% of renter households in the city are low-income currently. In the next 50years, the percentage of the low-income renters will be alarming if the Mayor will not ensure that the rate of rise in rents will not be directly proportional to the monthly income of the residents.
Possible solution
To address the increasing critical shortage of affordable housing in the New York City, the Mayor should increase financial commitment of the city to ensure that the affordable households are created and preserved. This expansion will require additional of more resources during the shrinking of federal resources. However, the next city administration needs to be creative to increasing housing funds without compromising other priorities in the city. The next administration should also adopt mandatory zoning program that will demand the city developers to build affordable housing whenever they intend to build market-rate housing. The next Mayor can also allocate more city pension funds to build and preserve more affordable housing. Additionally, the Mayor can also subsidize rent for the moderate and low-income households.
Similarity and difference between the City of Chicago and the New York City
Both Chicago and the New York City have similar City council and Committees. The City Council of both cities drives their legislative powers and influence from the State legislature and the home rules dictated by their state constitutions. The city councils in both cities have the mandate to exercise and perform all functions and affairs that pertain to their local government. In each City, the council elects one member who can preside over the meetings and proceedings held by the council in absence of the Mayor and ensures that all council members adopts parliamentary rules and regulations which will govern the council meetings.
One of the major differences between these two cities is the urban population. The New York City has larger urban population, which interprets to high population density, compared the City of Chicago. Due to low population density in the City of Chicago compared to the New York City, Chicago has more affordable housing compared to the New York City whose real estate market has been consistently slowing down.
References
McDonald, J. F. (2014). Postwar urban America: Demography, economics, and social policies. Routledge.
Office of the Federal Register. (2012). Code of federal regulations, title 24, housing and urban development, P.T. 500-699, revised as of April 1, 2012. Government Printing Office.
Sadioglu, U., & Dede, K. (2016). Comparative studies and regionally-focused cases examining local governments. IGI Global.