American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality

By Myron Orfield

Book Overview

In 1998, Myron Orfield introduced a revolutionary program for combating the seemingly inevitable decline of America's metropolitan communities. Through a combination of demographic research, state-of-the-art mapping, and resourceful, pragmatic politics, his groundbreaking book, Metropolitics, revealed how the different regions of St. Paul and Minneapolis pulled together to create a regional government powerful enough to tackle the community's problems of sprawl and urban decay. Orfield's new work, American Metropolitics, applies the next generation of cutting-edge research on a much broader scale. The book provides an eye-opening analysis of the economic, racial, environmental, and political trends of the 25 largest metropolitan regions in the United States--which contain more than 45 percent of the U.S. population. Using detailed maps and case studies, Orfield demonstrates that growing social separation and wasteful sprawling development patterns are harming regional citizens wherever they live.
With detailed maps of conditions in each metropolitan region, comprehensive data on existing conditions and voter attitudes, and bold, innovative strategies for change, American Metropolitics is an important book for anyone concerned with the future of our cities and suburbs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815702493
• ISBN13: 9780815702498
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Length: 221 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

brilliant in spots

The first half of this book (where Orfield talks about the various categories of suburbs and how they are adversely affected by sprawl) is brilliant. Orfield explains that not just core cities are hurt by sprawl. Older and more racially diverse suburbs are hurt because they lose their most affluent residents to newer suburbs, thus causing them to go into the same death spiral of decline and decay as the core cities nearby. Newer "bedroom community" suburbs are hurt because they get hit with all the infastructure demands caused by population growth (e.g. roads, sewers) but don't have enough commerce to finance these improvements. Orfield adds that although some "edge city" suburbs (i.e. those with a lot of commerce) appear to be big winners from sprawl, those suburbs (a) are only a tiny minority of American suburbs and (b) suffer from traffic congestion because all those jobs mean drivers clogging their roads and making life miserable for these suburbs' permanent residents. And Orfield doesn't just spin out theories -- he publishes numerous maps showing the decline not just of older suburbs, but even of some newer ones. The second half of the book (which focuses on solutions) is worthy but far less interesting -- the sort of material that is probably tremendously helpful if you want an introduction to possible reforms, but which is less interesting if you are already familiar with these issues.

Soccer Mom's & Coffee Houses

Myron Orfield has done it again. He has taken a very complex issue like urban sprawl and the social separation it causes and has put a fourth leg on the stool - Politics! He rightly explains that those who feel powerless in the development circus occurring all around them in communities throughout America can have a powerful voice for change. All we have to do is cooperate and communicate with one another on a regional level. Sounds Pollyannish, but Orfield has seen these changes in his career as a state legislator in Minnesota. If the Soccer Mom's start talking to the Bohemians in the coffee houses, they will see that neither of them are totally happy with their quality of life. The votes of these folks, if combined around issues of mutual interest (open space, farmland protection, urban reinvestment, less traffic congstion) could easily sway elections from state legislatures to the White House. This is an important book for anyone who cares about the future of America's cities and suburbs