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Annexation And The Mid-Size Metropolis: New Insights In The Age Of Mobile Capital, Christopher J. Tyson

Journal Articles

Metropolitan regions are led by their central cities. They want and need to grow, but the suburban sprawl and municipal fragmentation that growth produces stand in the way. Fragmentation handicaps the central city’s ability to effectively coordinate responses to regional issues. Mid-size regions are especially vulnerable to the effects of fragmentation, as they face unique economic development and sociological challenges. First, mid-size regions lack many of the assets necessary to compete globally for mobile capital. Second, social inequality plays out differently in mid-size regions, which are spatially constrained and have pervasive low-density land use patterns. Municipal boundaries reflect these divisions …