Metropolitics

the long version

Metropolitics is the story of how demographic research and state-of-the-art mapping, together with resourceful and pragmatic politics, built a powerful political alliance between the central cities, declining inner suburbs, and developing suburbs with low tax bases. In an unprecedented accomplishment, groups formerly divided by race and class - poor minority groups and blue-collar suburbanites - along with churches, environmental groups, and parts of the business community, began to act in concert to stabilize their communities. In this powerful book - part social science, part policy prescription, part hard-nosed politics - Myron Orfield details a regional agenda and the political struggle that accompanied the creation of the nation's most significant regional government and the passage of land use, fair housing, and tax-equity reform legislation. He shows the link between television and talk radio sensationalism and bad public policy and, conversely, how a well-delivered message can ensure broad press coverage of even complicated issues. Metropolitics and the experience of the Twin Cities show that no American region is immune from pervasive and difficult problems. As federal urban policy is eviscerated, local regions must find a new way to come to grips with these dilemmas. Orfield argues that the forces of decline, sprawl, and polarization are too large for individual cities, and suburbs to confront alone. The answer lies in a regional agenda that promotes both community and stability.