members of the Cincinnati City Council are all elected at-large, and the member receiving the largest number of votes in the biennial election is named mayor. A professional city manager is responsible for administration of the city's activities. Cincinnati was among the first cities in the nation to adopt a manager-council form of government.

A network of 51 distinct and officially recognized community subareas in the city provides a channel for community activists to represent neighborhood interests. Each of these recognized community councils receives $10,000 in funding annually from the city (subject to certain qualifying conditions and requirements), to support communication and volunteer activities under the Neighborhood Support Program (NSP).

Several decades of declining population and tax base, aging facilities¹¹, and expansion of city boundaries driven, in part by the lucrative profitability of the city's water supply utility,¹² resulted in what some have termed a "classic big city infrastructure crisis." Alarmed by the level and rate of physical deterioration, city staff began to document that crisis in The Public Works Story, an annual report prepared by the Department of Public Works and published in the years 1983 through 1988. The report was widely circulated, contributing to public awareness and understanding of the need for improvements.

This report set the stage for a series of institutional changes, remarkable by comparison with many other cities facing similar

Front Matter (R1-R10)

Executive Summary (1-12)

1 Introduction (13-18)

2 Thinking Broadly About Infrastructure (19-36)

3 Observing Locally (37-88)

4 Principles for Action on Infrastructure (89-102)

Appendix A Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff (103-107)

Appendix B The BRB/CETS/NRC Strategic Program in Infrastructure (108-112)

Appendix C Study Participants (113-118)