Publication Date

4-1998

Journal

Columbia Law Review

Abstract

Professor Zelinsky examines three books on local government. Two of these, Cities Without Suburbs, by David Rusk, and Citistates, by Neal Peirce, call for metropolitanizing the governance of urban areas. Our Town, by David L. Kirp, John P. Dwyer, and Larry A. Rosenthal, explores the Mt. Laurel litigation and its aftermath and suggests that the land use authority of local governments be diminished through court-ordered zoning for low-income housing.

Professor Zelinsky is skeptical of these well-intentioned proposals. The metropolitan governments advocated by Rusk and Peirce would be less responsive than the smaller localities they would replace and less likely to encourage citizen participation and civic life; establishing such metropolitan behemoths, moreover, is unlikely to achieve the increased racial and ethnic integration promised by their proponents. The story of the Mt. Laurel litigation similarly suggests that those looking to the judiciary to change the face of America's suburbs will ultimately be disappointed as well.

Professor Zelinsky argues that those seeking radical alteration of municipal land use patterns in the United States have had little success in convincing the American public to integrate its suburbs. Establishing metropolitan governments or looking to the judiciary to achieve racial and ethnic integration is unlikely to produce the changes proposed by these authors. Until the battle for public opinion is won, it is unlikely that structural innovations will achieve by fiat what cannot be accomplished by politics.

Volume

98

Issue

3

First Page

665

Last Page

694

Publisher

Columbia Law School

Disciplines

Contracts | Law | Law and Politics | Law and Race | Law and Society | State and Local Government Law

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