A path-breaking investigation of changing patterns of inequality and contestation in America’s metropolises.

Since 1990, a new political geography of winners and losers has emerged in metros across America. This new metropolis looks nothing like the old. In many exurbs, suburban mansions abut declining towns and distressed communities. In historic central cities, African American communities reel from institutional stripping, even as gentrification and immigration revitalize once forgotten neighborhoods. The New Metropolis considers why, despite all the changes over the past four decades, we have recreated a metropolis that makes it harder for low-income Americans—especially low-income Americans of color—to thrive and why some efforts to promote equitable opportunity succeed against the odds.

With a focus on Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston, The New Metropolis shows how multi-level political actors and translocal networks build power across political boundaries to determine the pool of local public resources and the scope of local powers. Weir demonstrates how the timing of urbanization set up distinct conflicts over the public sector in Frostbelt versus Sunbelt metropolises, explaining how partisan divisions now supercharge these conflicts.

The New Metropolis shows why the battle over the metropolis sits at the center of American politics. It determines the shape of the public arenas where we make decisions and, ultimately, the kinds of connections Americans have with one another.

Margaret Weir is the Wilson Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Brown University. Before joining Brown, she was the Avice M. Saint Chair in Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include Politics and Jobs; Schooling for All (with Ira Katznelson); Who Gets What (coedited with Frances Rosenbluth); The Social Divide; and The Politics of Social Policy in the United States (coedited with Ann Shola Orloff and Theda Skocpol).

List of Figures and Tables

1. Introduction: The New Political Geography of Winners and Losers
2. Politics and Policy in the Age of Austerity
3. Historical Legacies and New Partisan Divisions
4. The Politics of Local Boundaries
5. Building Power for Inclusive Governance in the City
6. America’s Suburbs, Separate and Unequal
7. Expanding Public Infrastructure in the Suburbs
8. Conclusion: Two American Futures

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index