In the ideological camps of urban development, advocates of pro-growth and slow growth frequently clash. Slow – growth proponents champion open and inclusive development processes that focus on cities as places of habitation and sociability. They see communities and neighborhoods as intimate subsets of the larger metropolitan area. They argue that economic growth must come in humane proportions. Far from seeing America’s fastest-growing 100 urban areas as models for other communities, slow-growing advocates seek to sustain an adequate level of jobs such that the whole community can rise in the Masiovian hierarchy of needs.
Advocates of aggressive pro- growth policies focus on economic gain that at least initially disproportionately benefits an economic elite. Pro- growth advocates argue that a community should embrace growth; that development, real estate, and financier elites must be favored or they will take their aggressiveness and success elsewhere; and that humane communities cannot be achieved if paychecks are not growing and opportunities for material improvement do not abound. The organized and coordinated effort of these pro- growth proponents is often referred to as the “growth machine.”
Traditionally, growth machine, rather than slow growth, have dominated economic development in American cities. These growth machine are seen as making and controlling most of the economic decisions regarding development. Elected officials, including mayors, front for those economic elites and win support for reelection in return. The literature on the experiences of black mayors is particularly enlightening on this matter. D. Fasenfest’s (1986) case study of Detroit Mayor Coleman Young suggests that even when faced with credible predictions of disappointments, mayors find it difficult to criticize or reject economic development proposals and growth machine bills as job saving or creating (see also Rich 1991). The literature on urban regime and black mayoral leadership further indicates that black mayors must rely upon white pro- growth coalitions for electoral support because of alienation and
dissatisfaction in the black community with the rate at which the tide is lifting their economic boats (Jones 1990; Stone 1989).
This chapter, however, examines an alternate perspective on the mayoral leadership support of economic development in medium-sized cities. It does so through a case study of former Albuquerque Mayor David Rusk (1977-1981) and his advocacy of slow-growth economic development policies. His story makes an apt case study to explore the feasibility of mayoral leadership of slow-growth development because of attempt at implementing an idealized vision of the urbane, community-centered. And self-actualizing city.
In particular, this case study illustrates how one mayor’s rhetoric and his assembly of a nontraditional electoral coalition achieved initial success with a slow-growth platform. In the long run, however, Rusk’s leadership style and an adverse shift in economic conditions cost him his original support base. His earlier slow-growth rhetoric, coupled with his leadership style, left him no access to the moderate elements of the pro-growth camp. Thus, when conditions seemed to urge a more aggressive but strategically antithetical predevelopment strategy, his vision and his incumbency were rejected. Overall, the case study suggests that while effective slow-growth -oriented mayoral leadership can impact and perhaps derail the growth machine, local economies are dynamic and the power of the pro-growth faction is great.
Dominant Contrasting Views of Economic Development
In order to provide an understanding of the point of view used here, the contrast between two prominent, analytic positions regarding the meaning and politics of urban economic development needs to be reviewed. Paul Peterson captured one of those views of urban economic development activity in City Limits (1981). His argument is that cities engage in aggressive, promotional, concession-granting activities (sometimes called “boomer booster” activities ) because they fall into the “developmental” policy category. Developmental policy (policy that enhances the economic productivity of the city) is