Citistates: How Urban America Can Prosper in a Competitive World [Paperback]

Neal R. Peirce (Author), John Stuart Hall (Author), Curtis W. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1994

"No one in the country knows as much as Neal Peirce about the ins and outs of American local government

"Neal Peirce is the best writer on urban affairs in the country". -- Henry Cisneros, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Peirce explores how America's major cities can form modern "citistates" to compete with other major cities of the world. Peirce ( The Book of America , Norton, 1983) with his coauthors delves into social, economic, and political topics such as radial tensions, land use, governance, and employment to press the point that American citistates must develop a strategic framework to excel if they are to enter worldwide economic competition. After defining the citistate concept, the authors then describe six individual citistates (Baltimore, Dallas, Owensboro Kentucky, Phoenix, Seattle, and St. Paul). The volume's final chapter, "Citistate Guideposts," presents ten suggestions to achieve citistate cohesiveness. This work's audience is not only scholars and advanced students but public officials and business leaders interested in the future of American cities. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
- Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ. , Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

No one in the country knows as much as Neal Pierce about the ins and outs of American local government. He and his colleagues have produced a superb, readable book chock full of good ideas that should be used. -- Richard Nathan, Director, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Seven Locks Press (February 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929765346
• ISBN-13: 978-0929765341
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,479,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Metropolitan regionalism gets seminal review, August 13, 2000

By 

Craig "Webcatz Studioz" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Citistates: How Urban America Can Prosper in a Competitive World (Paperback)

As the world turns into a global entity, the United States has becomes a bona fide metropolitan nation. The 1990 census painted the picture of this accelerated pace of urbanization in striking numerical colors: Slightly more than 50 percent of us live in the 39 U.S. metropolitan areas with populations of more than a million people. By contrast,the mid-20th century census uncovered only 30 percent of the U.S. population living in 14 metro areas with million-plus populations.

But citistate realities don't just apply to the larger regions -- the New Yorks, Los Angeles, Chicagos, Bostons of America, the Berlins, Londons, Hong Kongs, Shanghais of the globe. All metropolitan regions face stiff competition and challenges. Include the United States' metro regions under 1 million people and the count exceeds 80 percent of the nation's people.

To put a human face on this fast-paced urbanization, three members of the Citistates Group -- Neal Peirce, Curtis Johnson and John Stuart Hall-- coined the new term "citistates." In their words, citistates are "not just the center city, but the entire metropolitan region - the 'real city' made up of center city, inner and outer suburbs, and rural hinterland so clearly and intimately interconnected in geography, environment, work force, and surely a shared economic and social future."

The transformation is apparent across the Atlantic, where Europeans have begun to describe their continent as a hodgepodge of powerful citistates -- from Manchester to Stuttgart, Lyon to London, Milan to Marseilles. Like U.S. citistates, these metropolitan regions are making economic and cultural transactions with little regard to their own nation-state governments.

The Citistates Group associates see a shift in thinking from the familiar governmental paradigm -- federal-state-local -- to one focused on function: global-regional-neighborhood.

* Global because critical issues have worldwide implications -- global warming, economic restructuring, rapid global market repercussions.

* Regional because the metropolitan areas, or citistates, share areawide transportation systems, media outlets, medical assistance, goods, services, even crime. Peirce argues that the success of the regional system -- on every measure from workforce preparedness to the quality of the infrastructure -- determines how competitive and successful the citistate will be for all its citizens in the long run.

* Neighborhood because it is on the personal, community level that escalating U.S. social problems can ultimately be dealt with.

Citistates includes six case studies based on Peirce Reports for the leading newspapers in Phoenix, Seattle, Baltimore, Dallas, St. Paul and Owensboro, Ky. These popularly written analyses examine each region's special problems and suggest potential solutions tailored to the local situation. The goal in each series is to identify ways out of a region's dilemmas by tapping civic energies -- forward-thinking talents and skills in business, civic, academic sectors -- to create a more sustainable citistate in the next century.

In his review of the book, George Knight, executive director of Neighborhood Reinvestment, took note of the role of neighborhoods in civic renewal. "Peirce gives full credit to community-based development organizations for revitalizing some of America's most devastated neighborhoods."

The book's wind-up chapter includes an 8-point formula for "citistate cohesiveness and strength." -- Craig Anthony Thomas, Senior Research Associate, The Citistates Group