The events which most distinguished 1941 from other years in the history of American municipalities were those related to defense. The development of defense production mushroomed, with boom-time velocity, the population and responsibilities of many cities, at the same time that defense activities were claiming large numbers of their skilled employees and that price and wage increases dislocated their budgets. Vast sums, part of which have come from the national treasury, have had to be expended on streets, sewers, schools, housing, and other facilities for war work and workers. Airports, strategic highway links, and other facilities of a military order have had to be constructed. Early in 1942, the cities, especially those on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, were wrestling with the wholly new problems of precautions to minimize the effect of possible air raids. These precautions involved the organization and training of vast numbers of civilians under the general direction of Mayor LaGuardia of New York who was appointed National Director of the Office of Civilian Defense. It is, of course, too early to say what effect war and preparation for war may have on American cities.
Although problems of defense have in certain cities resulted in large capital expenditures, cities in general have been forced to curtail their normal construction programs by reason of unfavorable priorities and a desire for retrenchment in view of the magnitude of Federal expenditures. Since the beginning of the depression the net debts of all local units, leaving out special districts and authorities operating self-liquidating projects, have steadily but moderately declined in the amount of $1,023,000,000, or about 7.4 per cent. It is to be expected that under the pressure of war conditions this tendency will now be accentuated.
The world's largest city contributed the most striking political event of the municipal year by reelecting on Nov. 3 for an unprecedented third four-year term energetic, independent Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia by a majority of 133,841 over O'Dwyer. With him were returned Comptroller McGoldrick and Council President Morris, ensuring non-partisan control of the Board of Estimate. To the city council the Democratic machine elected by proportional representation 17 out of 36 members (slightly smaller proportion than in 1939) against a disorganized opposition. Among the 9 'independents' elected was 1 Communist.
New York voters further distinguished themselves by adopting a charter amendment initiated by petition, substituting a city-wide sheriff and register appointed by the mayor for sheriffs and registers previously elected in each of the five counties of the city, and extending the city civil service system to employees in the two offices. This action was the more notable because the voters at the same time turned down two measures put on the ballot by the machine majority in the council, which would have made the sheriff and register elective and left the door open for spoils in their offices.
Probably the greatest achievement of the year, at least the one most likely to produce permanent improvement in the conditions of urban living was the demonstration of the effectiveness of St. Louis's 1940 smoke prevention ordinance. Hitherto attempts at smoke prevention had been by way of penalties for allowing 'dense' smoke to issue from a chimney for more than a specified time. They had proved unenforceable. 'Smog-ridden' St. Louis took advantage of technical improvements in automatic stoking devices to require that unless smokeless fuel was burned an approved automatic stoker must be installed. From September 1940 to February 1941, there were 182 hours and 8 minutes of 'smoke' and 15 hours and 20 minutes of thick smoke as against 642 hours and 22 minutes and 113 hours and 45 minutes respectively in the same period a year earlier, reductions of 71 and 86 per cent. Pittsburgh, another 'smog' victim, in October 1941, put such an ordinance into effect for industrial establishments, office buildings, and apartments and will gradually extend it to railway locomotives and private homes. Thus, at last, the evil which has afflicted the 'Coke towns' of the world since the industrial revolution is in actual process of elimination.
It is worthy of passing mention that the Cincinnati City Council, elected by proportional representation, which since 1925 has had a majority of 'Citizens Charter Committee' and independent members, on Nov. 3 elected 5 Republicans and 4 charter committee candidates.
A significant permanent change in the nature of the problems confronting American City government is apparent in the returns of the 1940 Census now available. After 140 years in which cities grew with continuous rapidity and at a pace always far in excess of the country as a whole, the 1930-1940 growth of urban population (7.9 per cent) has slowed to a point almost identical with a retarded national average (7.2 per cent) while cities of 100,000 population or more sank to a mere 4.6 per cent, and five of the ten largest cities showed an actual decrease. Almost the only rapid growing cities were those in the metropolitan areas of large cities. War stimulus has added greatly to the size of some cities in the last few months. The causes which produced the slowing up indicated by the census, however, are permanent, while the incidents of defense production are temporary influences. The movement outward of city population has afflicted the older residential section with blight. To aid in the rehabilitation of blighted areas the New York and Illinois legislatures of 1941 passed similar acts giving to redevelopment corporations under municipal supervision the right of eminent domain to round out their holdings. The New York act limits the dividends of the corporations but exempts them for ten years from taxation on any value they add to the property acquired. These features are absent from the Illinois law. In another direction the outward movement of population has aroused fresh interest in plans for the governmental integration of metropolitan areas. A substantial achievement was made in this direction when the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia affirmed the order of a lower court annexing a considerable portion of Henrico County to the City of Richmond. Later in the year Richmond completed its plan of recapturing its fugitive population by an unopposed proceeding against its other neighbor, Chesterfield County. See also articles on the various States involved.
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