Reporting in The New York Times, Michael Cooper examines the ways in which severe municipal budget cuts are impacting cities across the country through the lens of San Jose, which has lost more than a fifth of its employees over four years.
According to Cooper, "the nation has lost 668,000 state and local government jobs since the recession hit - more than in any modern downturn, according to a new analysis of labor statistics by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government." And these job loses are not just effecting faded industrial cities.
Even in San Jose, the epicenter of the booming technology industry, the combination of falling tax revenues, rising pension costs and dwindling state aid are having enormous impacts on the services that the city can provide its residents and on the lives of its former employees. New government buildings remain unoccupied, branch libraries are open only four days a week, and the Police Department has shrunk by a fifth.
In a poignant allegory, Cooper reports that, "after the police unit in charge of gang violence was merged last year with a unit that focused on quality-of-life issues, street-level drug dealing and prostitution, a spate of gang-related murders occurred in the city, which remains one of the safest of its size in America. The smaller unit was ordered to focus on gangs. Then there was an increase in prostitution."
FULL STORY: Budget Woes Prompt Erosion of Public Jobs, With a Heavy Toll in Silicon Valley
San Jose Mayor Takes Dual Approach to Unsheltered Homeless Population
In a commentary published in The Mercury News, Mayor Matt Mahan describes a shelter and law enforcement approach to ending targeted homeless encampments within Northern California's largest city.
San Jose Homeowners Can Now Sell ADUs as Condos
A new policy could help boost the supply of smaller, more affordable ‘starter homes’ in the first California city to legalize the sale of ADUs.
South Bay BART Extension Gets $5.1 Billion in Federal Funding
The grant brings the project closer to reality, but delays and cost overruns are putting a completion date more than a decade away.
Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.
HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.
Has President Trump Met His Match?
Doug Ford, the no-nonsense premier of Canada's most populous province, Ontario, is taking on Trump where it hurts — making American energy more expensive.
OKC Approves 7.2 Miles of New Bike Lanes
The city council is implementing its BikeWalkOKC plan, which recommends new bike lanes on key east-west corridors.
Preserving Houston’s ‘Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing’
Unsubsidized, low-cost rental housing is a significant source of affordable housing for Houston households, but the supply is declining as units fall into disrepair or are redeveloped into more expensive units.
The Most Popular Tree on Google?
Meet Rodney: the Toronto tree getting rave reviews.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Florida Atlantic University
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service