Shaping Suburbia

How Political Institutions Organize Urban Development

Paul G. Lewis, Paul Lewis

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9780822971733
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Local & Regional Planning Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The American metropolis has been transformed over the past quarter century. Cities have turned inside out, with rapidly growing suburbs evolving into edge cities and technoburbs. But not all suburbs are alike. In Shaping Suburbia, Paul Lewis argues that a fundamental political logic underlies the patterns of suburban growth and argues that the key to understanding suburbia is to understand the local governments that control it - their number, functions, and power. Using innovative models and data analyses, Lewis shows that the relative political fragmentation of a metropolitan area plays a key part in shaping its suburbs.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Shaping the New Suburbia: An Introduction
• 2. Actors, Preferences, and Political Institutions in Urban Development
• 3. Political Structure and Urban Outcomes: An Aggregate Analysis
• 4. The Institutional Context for Development in Two Regions: Comparing Portland and Denver
• 5. Denver: Suburban Assertiveness, Centrifugal Development
• 6. Portland: A Regionalized Politics Shapes Growth
• 7. Conclusion: Political Economy and Metropolitan Growth
• Appendix 1: Metropolitan Areas in the Data Set
• Appendix 2: Denver: The Setting
• Appendix 3: Portland: The Setting
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index