American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality

Myron Orfield's new book, American Metropolitics, captures the reality of the costs of sprawl on urban and suburban America. It combines demographic research with state-of-the-art mapping technology to illustrate social, racial, fiscal, land use and political trends in the nation's top 25 metropolitan areas. The result is a powerful new, important typology of America's suburbs, coupled with an analysis of political swing districts, that raises fresh possibilities for metropolitan reform and coalition building. Orfield argues that, given the diverse stresses experienced in suburbs and cities, all residents and jurisdictions in a metropolitan area would benefit from reforms around reducing fiscal inequities, promoting regional land use planning, and instilling metropolitan governance. It is an important book for anyone concerned with the future of our cities and suburbs.