BOOK REVIEW By BARRY CHECKOWAY

On being 'happy' or 'very happy' in middle-size cities

Daniel M. Johnson and Rebecca M. Veach, eds. The Middle-Size Cities of Illinois: Their People, Politics, and Quality of Life. Springfield, Illinois: Sangamon State University, 1980. Pp. xix, 236.

THE MIDDLE-SIZE cities of the Midwest have grown in importance in recent years. At the same time as some people are returning to large cities and revitalizing their neighborhoods, the larger pattern is toward smaller places. During the 1970's in the Midwest, many large metropolitan areas lost population while small and middle-size cities gained more than in any decade in the century.

Despite this, the middle-size cities of the Midwest have received little attention among social scientists and policy researchers. There are several historical studies of midwest frontier cities, but few focus on middle-size city growth and development. Daniel Elazar's Cities of the Prairie provides insight into the politics of the metropolitan Midwest, but gives less attention to overall community conditions. Chicago has been the focus of exhaustive social science scrutiny, but there are few studies of cities like those in this book.

Interdisciplinary research

The Center for the Study of Middle-Size Cities at Sangamon State University was established to provide research, coursework and service related to cities with populations in the range of 50,000 to 250,000. Among its objectives is to conduct interdisciplinary research on subjects of concern to social agencies, local governments, and public and private organizations. Since 1973, associates at the center have completed work on a variety of policy issues, including criminal justice, health services, public education and school desegregation, and quality of life.

The Middle-Size Cities of Illinois is the product of collaboration at the center. The book is a collection of original case studies about Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, East St. Louis, Peoria, Rockford, Rock Island-Moline and Springfield. The authors were selected for their scholarly backgrounds and practical experience in local affairs. They were challenged to analyze the history, population, economy, government and politics of their respective cities and to write their chapters in relatively comparable fashion.

The book presents a positive image of these cities and a striking contrast to their major metropolitan neighbors. Unlike Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis, almost all of these cities are growing and prospering. While between 1960 and 1970 Chicago lost population and industry to the suburbs and Sun Belt, Bloomington-Normal increased its population by 34 percent, furthered its position as service center for the top corn-producing county in the nation, and saw the expansion of Illinois State University and local business establishments. Whether from agriculture, or transportation, or government installations and public institutions, these are emerging as the growth centers of the state.

No big city politics

Local government and politics are described in ways radically different from big-city stereotypes. Citizens are portrayed as actively debating the form of their government and seeking adaptation to change. In one city or another, they are voting to replace mayor-councils with council-managers, or switching from ward-based to at-large representation, or debating the merger of contiguous cities, or consciously increasing intergovernmental cooperation and planning. Politics is portrayed as open and responsive. Although business groups and Republicans tend to dominate, these groups can be challenged and defeated. The image is that of cities without political machines in which motivated candidates can run for office and win. Council candidates in Normal rarely spend more than $1,000, and some have spent less than $250 in recent election victories. Grass-roots amateurs in Urbana can work their wards, go door to door, win council seats, and press for reforms. Contrast this with the Chicago Democratic machine.

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The quality of life as reported by residents is noticeably high. Sample surveys were conducted in several cities to investigate levels of satisfaction with community conditions. While most Americans rate large cities as the worst places to live, these residents show strong satisfaction with their housing, neighborhoods and living conditions. In Moline, 95.2 percent of the sample were satisfied in one way or another with their city, and 97.1 percent with their neighborhood as a place to live. If residents vary in their perceptions of schools and health care, and raise questions about their income, taxes and government officials, they are little different from their counterparts elsewhere. Overall, however, satisfaction runs high. Fully 95 percent of the respondents classified themselves as "happy" or "very happy" in more than half of the cities studied.

This does not suggest that all is perfect on the prairie. East St. Louis — an extension of St. Louis characterized by poverty, unemployment, crime, antiquated schools, decaying housing, an eroded tax base and a history of political corruption — is included in the collection despite its exceptional characteristics. Respondents in East St. Louis feel unsafe in their neighborhoods, perceive worsening conditions and are "not too happy." But this city is so atypical that it can only be treated as an exception to the rule. [See "The state of the State," p. 2.]

Issues, not crisis

The other cities are not without their problems. Indeed, downtown redevelopment is at issue in several cities challenged by new regional shopping centers; annexations or mergers are controversial in Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington-Normal and Peoria; public school administration is hotly debated in Rockford; and construction of a new county jail and public library is the focus of referenda in Peoria. But no one or combination of these "problems" has reached crisis proportions, and together these cities are portrayed as places where citizens can confront the issues and move ahead. While Chicago struggles with school desegregation, Champaign-Urbana enacts open housing and human rights ordinances and peacefully integrates its schools. While St. Louis ponders Pruitt-Igoe, Rock Island and Moline build public housing for the elderly and handicapped.

There will doubtless be critics of the images presented in this book. Some social scientists will raise doubts about the overall rigor of research and the inattention to leading questions of spatial structure, uneven regional development and urban impacts. Researchers from Illinois: Today and Tomorrow will ask why the findings of the book seem so different from the serious community problems found in their own extensive study of statewide public opinion. And big city cosmopolitans will discount local perceptions, note the lack of high culture, opportunity, and amenities, and continue to see these as "hick towns."

I would probably agree with any or all of these criticisms at the same time as my family finds our middle-size city a good place to live.

Barry Checkoway is assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He lived in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco prior to settling in a middle-size city in Illinois.

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