"Since the demise of urban renewal in the early 1970s, the politics
of large-scale public investment in and around major American
cities has received little scholarly attention. In MEGA-PROJECTS,
Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff analyze the unprecedented wave of
large-scale (mega-) public investments that occurred in American
cities during the 1950s and 1960s; the social upheavals they
triggered, which derailed large numbers of projects during the late
1960s and early 1970s; and the political impulses that have shaped
a new generation of urban mega-projects in the decades since. They
also appraise the most important consequences of policy shifts over
this half-century and draw out common themes from the rich variety
of programmatic and project developments that they chronicle. The
authors integrate narratives of national as well as state and local
policymaking, and of mobilization by (mainly local) project
advocates, with a profound examination of how well leading theories
of urban politics explain the observed realities. The specific
cases they analyze include a wide mix of transportation and
downtown revitalization projects, drawn from numerous regions-most
notably Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago,
Atlanta, Dallas, Portland, and Seattle. While their original
research focuses on highway, airport, and rail transit programs and
projects, they draw as well on the work of others to analyze the
politics of public investment in urban renewal, downtown retailing,
convention centers, and professional sports facilities. In
comparing their findings with leading theories of urban and
American politics, Altshuler and Luberoff arrive at some surprising
findings about which perform best and also reveal some important
gaps in the literature as a whole. In a concluding chapter, they
examine the potential effects of new fiscal pressures, business
mobilization to relax environmental constraints, and security
concerns in the wake of September 11. And they make clear their own
views about how best to achieve a balance between developmental,
environmental, and democratic values in public investment
decisionmaking. Integrating fifty years of urban development
history with leading theories of urban and American politics,
MEGA-PROJECTS provides significant new insights into urban and
intergovernmental politics. "
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