The article describes and evaluates the Responsive Public Services system of Savannah, Georgia. This system apparently is unique in its comprehensive measurement of output equality of conditions in all city neighborhoods, in its ongoing targeting of city resources into neighborhoods judged to be the "worst off" in each fundamental area measured (such as crime incidence, fire incidence, inadequate sewer service, flood control, and street conditions), in its lack of controversy, and in its longevity. The system is analyzed in terms of the theoretical literature on equality and the determinants of urban public service delivery, and the success of the system is evaluated in seven functional areas, using a pre-post comparison of output measures.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ANTUNES, G. E. and K. MLANDENKA (1976) "The politics of local services and service distribution," pp. 147-167 in L. H. Massotti and R. Lineberry (eds.) The New Urban Politics. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
2.
ANTUNES, G. E. and J. P. PLUMLEE (1977) "The distribution of an urban public service."Urban Affairs Q.12: 313-332.
3.
BROWN, B. (1981) Personal communication (December 7).
4.
CAPORASO, J. A. and L. L. ROOS, Jr. (1973) Quasi-Experimental Approaches. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press.
5.
City of Savannah (1973) Community Renewal Program.
6.
City of Savannah (1974) City of Savannah Responsive Public Services Program. Washington, DC: International City Management Association.
7.
City of Savannah (1976) Responsive Public Service Program, Savannah.
8.
City of Savannah (1980) Responsive Public Service Program.
9.
COULTER, P. (1985) "Models of citizen contacting and bureaucratic response." Presented at the 1985 American Society for Public Administration Conference, Indianapolis, March 27.
10.
DAHL, R. (1960) Who Governs?New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
11.
FALLOWS, J. M. (1971) The Water Lords. New York: Grossman.
12.
HARRIGAN, J. J. (1981) Political Change in the Metropolis. Boston: Little, Brown.
13.
HUNTER, F. (1953) Community Power Structure. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press.
14.
JONES, B. , S. R. GREENBERG, C. KAUFMAN, and J. DREW (1980) "Service delivery rules and the distribution of local government services," pp. 225-249 in H. Hahn and C. Levine (eds.) Urban Politics. New York: Longman.
15.
KEMENY, J. G. , J. L. SNELL, and G. L. THOMSPON (1974) Introduction to Finite Mathematics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
16.
KOEHLER, D. H. and M. WRIGHTSON (1985) "Inequality in the delivery of urban services: a reconsideration of the Chicago parks." Presented at the American Society for Public Administration Conference, Indianapolis, March 27.
17.
LAKOFF, S. (1964) Equality in Political Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
18.
LANGBEIN, L. I. (1980) Discovering Whether Programs Work: A Guide to Statistical Methods for Program Evaluation. Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear.
19.
LEHAN, E. A. (1980) "Integrating budgeting, accounting, auditing and performance measures," pp. 90-106 in L. Toulmin (ed.) Local Financial Management in the `80s: Techniques for Responding to the New Fiscal Realities. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
20.
LEVY, F. , A. MELTSNER, and A. WILDAVSKY (1974) Urban Outcomes. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
21.
LINEBERRY, R. L. (1977) Equality and Urban Policy: Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
22.
LINEBERRY, R. L. (1980) "Mandating urban equality," pp. 173-200 in H. Hahn and C. Levine (eds.) Urban Politics. New York: Longman.
23.
LIPSKY, M. (1980) Street-Level Bureaucracy. New York: Russell Sage.
24.
MENDONSA, A. A. (1981) Personal communication (November 23).
25.
MILLER, T. C. (1977) "Conceptualizing Inequality,"Evaluation Studies Review Annual: 335-343.
26.
MLANDENKA, K. R. (1980) "The urban bureaucracy and the Chicago political machine."Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.74: 991-998.
27.
OSTROM, E. (1973) "On the meaning and measurement of output and efficiency in the production of urban police services."J. of Criminal Justice1: 93-111.
28.
PRESSMAN, J. L. and A. WILDAVSKY (1973) Implementation. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
29.
RAE, D. (1981) Equalities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
30.
SAYRE, W. and H. KAUFMAN (1965) Governing New York City: Politics in the Metropolis. New York: Norton.
31.
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1972) 1970 Census of Population and Housing: Census Tracts: Savannah, Georgia. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
32.
YATES, D. (1978) The Ungovernable City. Cambridge: MIT Press.
