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Show Problems Of The Cities By MARK D. MICKELSEN It is hard to imagine Main Street in Bountiful Boun-tiful without Christmas lights and scurrying yuletide shoppers and flickering neon business busi-ness signs. It's even harder to picture a decaying row of deserted buildings where business once thrived. UNFORTUNATELY, the picture is becoming be-coming increasingly common. The results of the 1980 Census show a staggering loss of residents in metropolitan cities and small towns throughout the country. Mayors in cities all overthe country have accused the Census Bureau of miscalculating miscalculat-ing statistics on the population. Some have threatened suit against the bureau. A PROFESSOR of sociology, and an expert ex-pert on population demographics at the U. of U., claims that there is only a minute chance that the Census Bureau's figures are incorrect. Dr. Laurie McCutcheon said, in a recent lecture at the university, that a new "American ethic" has taken the country by surprise. Largely due to the invention of the car in the early 20th Century, and the subsequent invention of highways to drive them on. Americans have been fascinated with "getting "get-ting away from it all," so to speak. In addition, addi-tion, early government programs set up to assist families in buying their first homes have encouraged the sprawl of once city-oriented city-oriented people into the suburbs. WHILE admittedly the suburbs are a nice place to live and raise a family, this urban sprawl is causing problems in the city. According to Prof. McCutcheon. as the cities decline in populafon their fiscal capabilities dwindle. People still shop and spend money in the cities, but the money isn't sufficient to pay for some other services, ser-vices, like fire protection. In short, people in the suburbs are not paying their fair share to use the cities. Historically, white, middle-class adults' have been the first to vacate the cities for the suburbs. What results is a higher population popu-lation of poor and aged people, as well as an influx of minority groups. WHAT WE now see happening to larger cities, like Chicago and Salt Lake City, will someday inch its way into less populated communities, like Bountiful and Kaysville. When this happens, businesses, and jobs as well, begin leaving the city. The increasingly increas-ingly poor populations left require outside funding to survive. And as the cities become be-come older and older, with no sign of re- ( g J novation, city officials must provide additional addi-tional maintenance services and that costs money. WHAT CITY officials throughout the : country are worrying about now is what effect the dwindling population figures will have on their allotment of federal revenue sharing money. In addition, the erosion of the city's tax base is heightened as business and job revenues begin to disappear. And according to Dr. McCutcheon. the Census Bureau's figures for 1980 "are not far off from the realities of the situation." TWO IMPORTANT facts emerge from all this. First, the bigger the suburbs are. the more the city has to spend on services to support them. And secondly, the bigger the city center populations, the less suburban sub-urban people have to pay. The statistics supporting this move from the city into the suburbs are backed up by people throughout the country. In a recent survey. 80 percent of the people questioned said they would rather live next to a city, rather than directly inside. About ten percent per-cent said they would live in the inner city. And the remaining ten percent voted lor residency in some rural area. BUT HOW can we get people to start moving back into the city? That is a difficult question. Some sociologists claim thai increasing in-creasing gasoline prices may force suburban sub-urban dwellers back into the city for economic econo-mic reasons, but the data is shaky. It's interesting to examine the migration statistics of the Third World countries anJ compare this to the situation in the Lniteo States. IN THE underdeveloped countries, people peo-ple are moving from their once-flounsning farming communities into the cities, umo tunately, there are more farmers availaDie than the cities demand. Therefore, the me take on relatively unimportant jobs, selling water or fruit to visitors, ana co linue to stagnate with little hope ofagooc job. ONE EXAMPLE is Mexico City. 's population is growing at ten percent p year. With already ten million residents n its inner city. Mexico City "P"'?'0 double its population in only seven yea. In the United States, the advent of t e suburban shopping center encourages . dents to! shop, conveniently, near i homes. If this "American ethic linues, there is actually little hope for tne survival of our cities. |