ABSTRACT
Running against New York has emerged as a Ford Administration campaign strategy, symbolizing middle-American contempt for the Eastern Establishment and spendthrift politicians, as well as central cities, blacks, and welfare recipients. The presidential demand for and surveillance of municipal belt-tightening appeal to conservative budget-balancers and corporate borrowers. Federal support for Southern and Southwestern urbanization suits the Republican “Southern strategy” and regional banks. Presidential politics are a necessary but insufficient explanation of the city’s plight. As a matter of policy, long before Jerry Ford’s presidential fate depended on it, the White House decided that America’s immediate future no longer resides in her older central cities in the North and the East. The Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Housing and Urban Development never surrendered power to dictate the amount and regional allocation of federal investment in local communities.
