Keys to Success for AMERICA'S CITIES.

• Author: Helmke, Paul

The flight to the suburbs is being reversed, thanks to restoration of services, amenities, and, especially, safety on urban streets.

Many of the problems in America's cities basically are the same, regardless of size or region of the country. Let me illustrate this with a humorous anecdote from the angle of police protection.

The police department of a hypothetical city was conducting exams for new officers. In one of the tests, candidates asked how they would respond to the following situation: They are on duty, directing traffic in the downtown area, when there is a car wreck. When the officer rushes over to the wreck, he discovers that the woman in the front seat is the wife of the police commissioner and she is with a man who is not her husband. Meanwhile, a bus rams into the back of the car and the bus catches on fire. At the same time, a siren goes off in the building next door, signaling a fire drill there. People begin rushing out of the building.

The question on the exam is: As a police officer, how would you handle these simultaneous situations? As one might imagine, the candidates had much to write about. Yet, one person in the front row opened the test book, wrote for about a minute, closed the booklet, and sat there. Naturally, the examiner wanted to see what the man had written. So, he looked at the booklet and found: "Remove uniform and mingle with crowd."

One of the challenges of being a mayor is that you are on the spot all the time, but you can't just remove your identity and mingle with the crowd. You must be immediately accessible to your constituents.

That's why I believe that the so-called devolution revolution is a good thing. I think it's important to bring decision-making back to the local level. One size doesn't fit all, and I feel that people in local communities can make the decisions best that affect their lives. I see a number of challenges, though, if devolution is going to work.

A look historically at the growth of the Federal government reveals that a lot of the drive behind it was the fact that cities realized they weren't able to handle the problems which were being generated at the beginning of the Great Depression. Mayors started calling on the Federal government to do the job. Once the latter began to do so, it grew and grew.

Before reversing that trend, it is necessary to make sure that cities are in a position to handle issues currently being addressed nationally. I see three basic areas that must be...