City-States

New York's Mayor John Lindsay, frustrated in yet another annual campaign to wrest sufficient funds from the state legislature for his city of 7,870,000, last week suggested a kind of urban declaration of independence. At an international Conference on Cities, Lindsay said that the Federal Government should charter the largest urban centers in the U.S. as "national cities," with broader financial support from Washington and the power to deal directly with federal agencies instead of depending upon state legislatures dominated by rural and suburban interests.

The idea has something of the same appeal as Author Norman Mailer's proposal, when he was running for New York City mayor in 1969, that the city secede from New York State altogether, and become the 51st state. Such suggestions conjure up an entirely new federal arrangement. Whether more autonomy or less would most benefit the cities is hard to gauge, but it might be interesting for the U.S. to consider stitching two dozen new stars on its flag and welcoming its city-states into the union.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.