ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces students to the exciting sites that are cities today, as well as to the issues that they face, and discusses the role of city management as a profession. In terms of NASPAA standards, it explains students to the "diverse and changing workforce and citizenry" in America's cities today. The chapter illustrates the wide diversity of American cities today—in population, race, ethnicity, income, class status, and other characteristics. An element that is important to cities is the distribution of age of its citizens. Most immigrants to the United States come and reside in its cities—particularly in its larger and more knowledge-based cities. More and more, the United States is a country of cities; ten states have more than 90 percent of their populations living in their urban areas. It was impossible to determine much of anything about a largely hidden population in the United States, the lesbian and gay community.
