ABSTRACT
Big cities are in a netherland of government. While all types of governments face these challenges, big cities furnish an intensity and complexity that set them apart. Intensity and proximity mark the operations of urban bureaucracies. Big city mayors are often said to be ambassadors, and this role is now duplicated by subordinates. Managers represent their cities before metropolitan planning organizations in order to obtain federal highway funding. Urban competition grows more fierce and is sustained by other complementary factors. Cities not only deal with standard problems, but they must become instruments of innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development. Underlying pressures continue and there is little big city managers can do to eliminate them. Interlocal competition, corporate mobility, and globalism make up the larger environment and are beyond the bounds of local control. Big city finance managers can also be entrepreneurial by strategic investments. The new paradigm also promotes an incremental and decentralized approach to management.
