Transcript Local Government and Suburbanization • • • • Local issues local government growth and sprawl smart growth Local Government--what people really care about • Some issues of local govt: • maintaining town.

Local Government and
Suburbanization
•
•
•
•
Local issues
local government
growth and sprawl
smart growth
Local Government--what people
really care about
• Some issues of local govt:
• maintaining town character--pleasing neighborhoods and
vital downtown
• preserving local environment and green space
• providing recreation
• providing health and social services
• ensuring public peace and safety
• maintaining infrastructure, waste disposal
• providing schooling
Forms of local government
• City:
- mayor, city council, city manager, planning
commission, police review board, etc.
- weak mayor/strong mayor
- district/at large elections
contd
• Special districts:
•
School
Transportation
Air
water
waste management
Etc.
contd
• County:
- Board of Supervisors—5 by district
-
Like city council for unincorporated areas
SF a special case—11 supervisors
- County provides services mostly funded by
state and fed govt
-
Courts and jails
Hospitals and health
“Welfare” and social services
California population
Growth and sprawl
• abandoning pre-automobile land-use
• low density
• separation of functions
• single family residential, commercial, office, industrial
Is growth good or bad?
• neo-traditionalism and smart growth?
•
•
•
•
•
“infill” not “greenfield”
higher densities, especially in urban cores
mixed uses
streetscape designed for pedestrians as much as cars
http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/community/transformatio
ns/index.asp
Gated housing and privatopias
• Growth of homeowner associations
Obstacles
• Nimbyism
• Proposition 13--”starved” localities for
property tax revenue, distorts development
• many problems are regional in nature-traffic and transport, housing, development
A choice