Federal Economic Development Programs and National Urban Policy

This article examines the recent history of federal economic development programs and of national urban policy. It finds that federal economic development programs have thrived only during administrations with strong urban policy commitments. Administrations that have lacked such commitments such as the Nixon and Reagan administrations-have generally been inimical to federal economic development effort. This linkage is not surprising: Urban economic distress provides a rationale and a constituency for federal economic development programs. The Reagan administration has argued that stronger city economies have reduced the need for an urban policy or for federal economic development efforts. The article reviews available evidence on the economic well-being of the residents of bigger cities and on the health of the city economies during the 1980s. The evidence is clear that economic well-being of city residents has continued to deteriorate relative to that of the U.S as a whole. City population losses have slowed or stopped in many instances during the 1980s, but poverty and unemployment remain very high. The need for federal intervention is no less than in the past. Cities are in a much weaker political position than they were during the 1970s. The likelihood that future presidents will adopt urban policies is thus problematic. Advocates of federal economic development programs should view the development of a national urban policy as a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for the revitalization of geographically targeted economic development programs of the federal level.