Ronald Reagan Urban Policy Essay

The intent and effectiveness of any presidential administration’s policies are often highly scrutinized and disputed. President Ronald Reagan’s policies in regards to urban communities, and most specifically to the urban poor, are no exception to that rule. This paper analyzes both Reagan administrations’ (singular or plural? Is or one administration or 2?) urban policies and the consequences of those policies. Furthermore, in fairness to both of those administrations, the urban policies of Reagan’s predecessor Jimmy Carter will also be examined in order to present an accurate depiction of the environment in which Reagan came into office. Overall the evidence shows that the urban policies of Ronald Reagan’s administrations did little if anything to benefit urban communities, but rather in many respects improved the lives of the wealthy and elite throughout America. Additionally, it is important to note that Reagan’s approach stood in stark contrast to that of Presidents who had come before him most of whom had created specific plans in an attempt to correct the issues of poverty and

At this point it was widely acknowledged that many of America’s cities faced severe economic, fiscal, and social problems. In hindsight the problems were two fold. First, as Harold Wolman points out in his exhaustive essay titled The Reagan Urban Policy and its Impacts “metropolitan-area population and employment had decentralized, leaving central cities trapped within fixed boundaries with a disproportionately high share of the needy populations and social problems like unemployment, poverty, crime and poor overall health, but a disproportionately low share of the tax base” (Wolman, 312). In addition, Wolman went on to point out that urban centers had a higher share of minority residents at the time, which caused the problems of minorities to be seen as identical to the issues facing urban