Entries in "Urban Studies"
Edge cities
To be honest with all zero of you readers, I had forgotten I even had a Case blog. But I'll try and resurrect it (again), even if only for my own purposes.
Are edge cities the new company towns?
Edge cities are corporate-owned "communities." They aren't a municipality or have any sort of elected government; rather, corporate policy dictates how the community is run. They are generally located near to established cities, and are often gated or walled. One example is Tyson's Corners in Fairfax County, Virginia. It's not even listed on any maps, yet it is a community big enough to sustain around 100,000 jobs. Quite a strange phenomena, you'd think, but company towns were popular (okay, maybe not popular, but they existed) back in the 1800s. Companies such as Pullman built whole towns around a factory. None of them were terribly successfully, in fact governmental intervention was necessary in the case of Pullman, Illinois (it might be Indiana, but I don't think so).
Some very strong arguments were made regarding company towns in Tunnard's City of Man. Tunnard advocated company towns as a way to advertise the good name of a company in a very concrete way, as opposed to the apparently frivolous paper ads. If a company could build a successful town, then just imagine the quality of the product! was Tunnard's belief. But is this new edge city what Tunnard had in mind? Unless one lives there, one cannot get in past the security guard. Even though they may have a significant economical impact, that would certainly not be felt by the average passerby, who may even feel insulted.
My professor (all this edge city stuff is for my urban sociology course) said that this phenomenon developed completely without any public notice, and certainly no public debate or discussion. How can an entire city develop without the general public noticing? It's incredible!
I'll have to look more into this edge city phenomenon (perhaps do the readings assigned in class? *wink*). It's really fascinating.
I'd like to post some thoughts on my leadership seminar for SAGES, but not right now.