ABSTRACT
This section focuses on the two cities with individualistic cultures, Dallas and Miami. The large survey data analysis in Chapter 2 painted a portrait of individualistic cities as those where unorganized influentials wielded the greatest power, and where other interests such as businesses or citizen groups lacked organization or sustained roles in the governing system. Such cities typically had passive economic development agendas because they lacked the sorts of networking or collaborative arrangements and the bureaucratic professionalism necessary to plan for and implement an active, innovative policy program. While Dallas and Miami fit this general model, the case studies here also uncover greater complexity in such systems and highlight how they are formed and change over time. Specifically, in both cases, these are cities undergoing considerable change. Dallas and Miami have experienced significant population growth and an increasing diversity of citizens; immigration of residents of Hispanic or Latino descent has been rapidly making Miami a majority Hispanic city. Tied to these demographic changes have been alterations in local government structure. Both cities shifted from at-large council/commissions to district-based elections under court order. Finally, Dallas and Miami have also experienced relatively radical cultural change as populations became increasingly diverse. In the case of Miami, there has been what has been described as reverse acculturation as the Latino culture and customs have been adopted by the native population. In Dallas, the changes have been perhaps more critical, as the history of racial hate promoted by the KKK has met with an influx of new residents from around the US and beyond (accompanying the relocation of major corporations) and twenty-first century social and equity expectations.
