Suchergebnisse

The globalization of U.S. cities is attracting increasing theoretical and empirical attention. The author analyzes internationally oriented activities in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and demonstrates that the city's international roles are built directly on its historic function as a national city. Focusing on change over time, the author also shows that globalization is a stepwise process: Several key periods of the expansion of international functions were followed by periods of gradual absorption. In comparative context, Washington supports arguments about the separability of international functions and shows the importance of historical development in determining the different ways in which cities interact with the world.

Americans have planned for their downtowns within a continually changing framework of images and assumptions about the nature of central business districts. During each decade since World War II, discussion of downtown problems and possibilities has been dominated by a distinct set of assumptions that has conditioned academic research, federal policy, and local planning. From decade to decade, experts on downtowns have chosen different themes as central to the interpretation of downtown growth, change, and policy needs. As the understanding of the situation has changed, so have the preferred planning solutions and public interventions.

The popularization of 'World City' as an analytical concept dates to 1966. Taking up a term introduced fifty years earlier by Patrick Geddes, Peter Hall's now classic description ofThe World Citiesexplored the evolution of a handful of key urban areas from national into global roles and functions. The original emphasis on size and comprehensive economic functins has since been extended by the argument that a distinct class of global cities are a characteristic product of the technologies and economy of the late twentieth century. As well, such cities are thought to embrace common spatial forms that respond to a specific balance of centralizing and decentralizing tendencies in the location of commercial, financial, and manufacturing industries.

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- One: Early Portland and the Failure of Progressive Reform -- Two: Post-World War II Portland -- Three: Elkins vs. the Teamsters -- Four: The Portland Vice Scandal -- Five: The McClellan Committee -- Epilogue: The Fallout -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.