American metropolitics : the new suburban reality / Myron Orfield.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-210) and index.

Introduction -- PART 1 METROPATTERNS. 1. Schools and tax wealth : leading indicators of community health. Elementary schools. Taxes. Measuring fiscal capacity. 2. The new suburban typology. Poverty and race in the central cities. Tax capacity, needs, and costs in the central cities. The myth of the suburban monolith. Cluster analysis of suburbs. Distribution of community types within metropolitan areas. 3. A comparative analysis of segregration, fiscal inequality, and sprawl. Racial and social segregation. Why should we care about this stratification? Fiscal inequality. Sprawl. Conclusions -- PART 2 METROPOLICY. 4. Federal urban policy. The political nature of urban policy. Limitations of federal urban programs. History of major federal urban policies. 5. Fiscal equity. Government finance and fiscal disparities. The pros and cons of promoting regional equity. Policies to promote fiscal equity. An agenda for reform. 6. Land-use reform. Existing state and regional efforts to manage growth. An agenda for reform. 7. Metropolitan governance reform. Fragmentation of metropolitan governance. Toward more effective regional governance. Federal support for regional planning. Strategies for moving toward greater regional governance -- PART 3, METROPOLITICS. 8. Metropolitics and the case for regionalism. Metropolitan swing districts. Making the case for regionalism. Conclusion. 9. An agenda for regionalism. Step 1: place regional reform on Party agendas. Step 2: Build an association of at-risk suburban communities. Step 3: Strengthen the environmental movement's efforts to reform state land-use laws. Step 4: Renew the civil rights movement around a campaign to end housing discrimination. Lessons on regional coalition building. Conclusions -- Appendixes. A. Tax-capacity calculations. B. Tax-base-sharing simulations. C. MARC projects completed or in progress -- References -- Index.