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Popularity, however, cannot be taken for granted. Rendell has had 75% approval ratings, but last week Philadelphians overwhelmingly defeated a proposition that would have modified the city's charter and given him more power to create and abolish departments. Though not a permanent blow, it suggests Philadelphians still want him to be accountable. Critics also feel his cuts hurt those who most need services. Rendell sees no other avenue. "What I understand, and a lot of liberals don't, is that unless we cut waste, unless we're more efficient, unless we can create a better business environment, there's not going to be any money to do other things."
In Houston the municipal charter gives Robert Lanier more power than almost any other big-city mayor. Unlike Rendell, he has wide appointment powers and a vote on the city council. Still, the wealthy former banker and real estate developer shares the same manage-your-way-to-profits attitude. "When I ran an apartment project," he says, "I asked people how they liked it. If they moved out, I asked them why. It's no different here." Judging from the 90% majority that voted him into his second term last fall and his consistent 80% approval ratings, the tenants are happy. Why? He said he'd put more cops on the street, and he did -- 760 of them, bringing the total to 4,673. Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, led the top 50 cities with the largest drop in crime rates during 1992, Lanier's first year in office. Since then, the rate has continued to fall. In addition to making the streets safer, Lanier has made them cleaner, adding new pavement, sidewalks and streetlights to some of Houston's worst parks and neighborhoods.
More important, Lanier -- whose desk is lined with the surveys, status reports and statistical tables that are his guides -- has been able through a combination of financial shrewdness and better management to squeeze $130 million more out of the city budget. His opponents say his financial manipulations will end up ballooning the city's debt. In defense, Lanier points to the overwhelming endorsement of his financial program by the city's business community. At his urging, Texas Commerce Bank opened a now thriving branch in the city's crime-ridden fifth ward. Last year the Amerada Hess oil company consolidated its offices in Houston. It was the largest corporate move into the city in the past 15 years. Since Lanier came to office, Houston has begun to reverse the exodus to the suburbs, adding 50,400 new jobs.
In Los Angeles, Richard Riordan has a different range of problems -- and a city that ranges over 466 sq. mi. and an even greater sprawl of bureaucracy. The former corporate lawyer has skirted, ignored and bucked the system ever since he won election in a bitterly fought campaign last June. One of his rules for cutting through red tape: "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission." Last month he delivered his first budget, an ingenious $4.3 billion package that would pay for his 18% increase in spending on police, to $463 million, while erasing the $228 million deficit Riordan was handed when he took office. The budget also includes the first substantial increase in municipal services since 1991.