Liquid City

CHAPTER TWELVE

MEGALOPOLIS AND THE FUTURE

When Gottmann's Megalopolis was published in book form in 1961, he emphasized a modern, industrial city region with defined centers and edges. In the intervening years, the region has become more postmodern, more postindustrial, decentralized, and edgeless. Gottmann's Megalopolis was a manufacturing hub of the national economy, with substantial populations in its central cities, relatively few foreign-born residents, and marked racial and ethnic segregation. The most significant changes include the relative shift of population from the central cities to the suburban counties, the loss of manufacturing jobs especially in the central cities, the growth of services, and the increase in the foreign-born ...