Although some American cities are seeing the revitalization of downtown areas, retail businesses are declining and most cities are losing population. The picture for urban policy is not good, in terms of both the targeting and magnitude of federal urban aid. (Author/RLV)

The term "underclass," which refers to the concentration of economic and behavioral problems among racial minorities (mainly Black and Hispanic) in large, older cities, accurately describes a real and new condition in the United States social structure. In a sense, the rise of the underclass is an effect of the success of American social…

Over the past two decades, direct payments from the Federal Government to local governments has increased more than sixfold as a percentage of the revenues local governments raise on their own. Both the Ford budget and the Carter budget revisions for 1977 and 1978 contain policy changes with important implications for cities. In this document…