Urban fiscal austerity, infrastructure provision and the struggle for regional transit in 'Motor City'

Hall, Stephen; Jonas, Andrew E. G.

Abstract

Studies suggest that urban fiscal crises trigger the institutional separation of strategic services from general purpose municipal functions. Traditional reformists have highlighted the economic benefits of regional approaches. Global austerity has created fiscal problems for central cities and suburbs alike, transforming the motives for regional solutions. This paper examines how the City of Detroit engineered a new regional arrangement with the surrounding suburbs to raise debt for the delivery of mass transit infrastructure. It represents a dual 'spatial fix' in the form of (i) a 'state territorial fix' providing fiscally stressed municipalities access to municipal bond markets and (ii) a 'speculative spatial fix' that benefits the Detroit growth coalition by linking regional mass transit to the prospect of land-use intensification. © The Author 2014.

Citation

Hall, S., & Jonas, A. E. G. (2014). Urban fiscal austerity, infrastructure provision and the struggle for regional transit in 'Motor City'. Cambridge journal of regions economy and society, 7(1), 189-206. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rst031

• Acceptance Date: Oct 28, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jan 20, 2014
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: May 26, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2015
• Journal: Cambridge journal of regions, economy and society
• Print ISSN: 1752-1378
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 189-206
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rst031
• Keywords: Fiscal crisis; Urban politics; Growth coalition; Regional transit; Detroit
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/374209
• Publisher URL: http://cjres.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/1/189
• Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Cambridge journal of regions, economy and society following peer review. The version of record Cambridge J Regions Econ Soc (2014) 7 (1): 189-206. doi: 10.1093/cjres/rst031 is available online at: http://cjres.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/1/189 .
• Contract Date: May 26, 2015