Leadership strategies for urban government.

• Author: Norquist, John

Editor's note: This article is based on text in the book The Wealth of Cities by John O. Norquist published by Perseus Books. It is reprinted and adapted with permission.

For the past 50 years the suburban edges of U.S. cities have been encouraged to prosper, while the centers have been allowed to emulsify. First came segregated suburban housing, developed with federal subsidies. Then came subsidized highways to service the commuter communities; then retail shopping malls; and eventually, the workplace itself moved to the suburbs, in the form of office parks. In Detroit, Los Angeles, and to varying degrees all U.S. cities, the disassembled ingredients of the city sprawled across the suburban landscape, while large central cities have done little more than draw attention to their own pathologies by crying out for help from a federal government encrusted in a $5 trillion debt. I try to change the discussion from how to help our dying cities to how our still-vital cities add lasting value to the United States and can, if allowed, add even more value, in spite of the damage done them.

Budget and Management

How To Cut Government Spending and Live to Tell About It

Too often, elected officials believe that they are involved in a zero-sum game, that every function performed and dollar spent can be cut only at the cost of diminished services. They believe that cutting taxes entails inflicting pain by taking from taxpayers services they need and desire.

This attitude contradicts a concept largely misunderstood by government, but quite familiar to the private sector: productivity. The strategy in the private sector is to produce the quality services and goods that the market wants at lower cost; doing so often results in profit.

The goal of government should not be to accumulate money, but to create conditions under which its people may prosper. It is time for city leaders to embrace this goal. A city that spends itself to high tax levels suffers for it; people with means choose not to live or conduct commerce there. A city with poor services also suffers; people and businesses are repelled by failing schools, rampant crime, and filthy streets pocked with potholes. Attracting customers by increasing quality and reducing prices comes naturally to business. Why can't government do the same?

Private insurance companies are not the only entities to experience the city's move to efficiency through competition. We have begun to build competition into the...