This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Built on an estuary, New York City is rich in population and economic activity but poor in available land to manage the needs of a modern city. Since consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898, New York has faced innumerable challenges, from complex water and waste management issues, to housing and feeding millions of residents in a concentrated area, to dealing with climate change in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, and everything in between. Any consideration of sustainable urbanism requires understanding how cities have developed the systems that support modern life and the challenges posed by such a concentrated population. As the largest city in the United States, New York City is an excellent site to investigate these concerns. Featuring an array of the most distinguished and innovative urban environmental historians in the field, Coastal Metropolis offers new insight into how the modern city transformed its air, land, and water as it grew.
America's cities have symbolized the nation's prosperity, dynamism, and innovation. Even with the trend toward suburbanization, many central cities attract substantial new investment and employment. Within this profile of health, however, many urban areas are beset by problems of economic disparity, physical deterioration, and social distress. This volume addresses the condition of the city from the perspective of the larger metropolitan region. It offers important, thought-provoking perspectives on the structure of metropolitan-level decisionmaking, the disadvantages faced by cities and city residents, and expanding economic opportunity to all residents in a metropolitan area. The book provides data, real-world examples, and analyses in key areas: Distribution of metropolitan populations and what this means for city dwellers, suburbanites, whites, and minorities. How quality of life depends on the spatial structure of a community and how problems are based on inequalities in spatial opportunityâ€"with a focus on the relationship between taxes and services. The role of the central city today, the rationale for revitalizing central cities, and city-suburban interdependence. The book includes papers that provide in-depth examinations of zoning policy in relation to patterns of suburban development; regionalism in transportation and air quality; the geography of economic and social opportunity; social stratification in metropolitan areas; and fiscal and service disparities within metropolitan areas.
Metropolitan Problems is the end-product of one of the most dynamic research programmes of its kind ever conceived and executed. The book, which took three years to complete, represents the culmination of a two year study that was highlighted by a conference held in toronto in 1967. In the early 1960s, the bureau of Municipal Research (in metropolitan Toronto) decided that a significant way for it to celebrate Canada's centennial would be to initiate a systematic international study of the world's metropolitan areas. The study, with the official cooperation of the United Nations, was designed to produce positive insights into the methods of coping with the interlocking sets of problems associated with the expansion of the modern metropolis. Twelve papers on various aspects of metropolitan problems were commissioned from an international body of experts. Working with these experts were study groups drawn from forty major metropolitan centres throughout the world. After making exhaustive studies of their respective urban centres, the groups reported their findings and submitted detailed briefs through their representatives at the conference. Throughout the symposium, a conscious effort was made to examine single aspects of social, economic and physical change within the overall perspective of the metropolis. The book reflects this approach. Each chapter directs attention to specific problems of the metropolis, problems resulting from the contradiction between accelerating technology and our ability to cope with the incredible pace and rate of change. Together they prove that, despite differences in technology, culture, and political and social matters, the major urban areas of the world do have much in common. Emerging tendencies can be analysed and corrective and preventative measures be made through comparative analysis. This book was first published in 1970.
