This article examines the inefficacy of the present legal form of local government in the US. This inefficacy manifests itself by providing no solid legal mooring for the power of local government while contributing to regional economic inequalities. In an attempt to address this problem, the author suggests realigning local government to the neighbourhood level while constructing a new tier of government to mitigate the negative economic consequences of such realignment.
References
1.
Alexander, G.S. (1989) Dilemmas of group autonomy: residential associations and community, Cornell Law Review, 75, p. 1-61.
2.
Aoki, K. (1993) Race, space and place, Ford-ham UrbanLaw Journal, 20, p. 699-829.
3.
Barker, E. (1962) Introduction, in: Social Contract: Essays by Locke, Hume, Rousseau, pp. vii-xiv. New York: Oxford University Press.
4.
Briffault, R. (1990Our localism, Parts I and II, Columbia Law Review, 90, pp. 1-115, 346-454.
5.
Briffault, R. (1992) Voting rights, home rule and metropolitan governance: the secession of Staten Island as a case study in the dilemmas of local self-determination , Columbia Law Review, 92, p. 775-850.
6.
Briffault, R. (1993) Who rules at home? One person/one vote and local governments, University of Chicago Law Review, 60, p. 339-424.
7.
Dillon, J.F. (1911) Commentaries on the Law of Municipal Corporations , 5th edn. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
8.
Ellickson, R.C. (1982) Cities and homeowner associations, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 130, p. 1519-1580.
9.
Ford, R.T. (1994) The boundaries of race: political geography in legal analysis, Harvard Law Review, 107, p. 1841-1921.
10.
Frug, G. (1980) The city as a legal concept, Harvard Law Review, 93, p. 1057-1154.
11.
Frug, G. (1993) Decentering decentralization, University of Chicago Law Review, 60, p.253-338.
12.
Galster, G.C. (1986) What is neighborhood? An externality-space approach , International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 10, p.243-263.
13.
Gans, H. (1962) The Urban Villagers. New York : Free Press.
14.
Grigsby, W., Baratz, M., Galster, G. and Maclennan, D. (1987) The dynamics of neighbourhood change and decline , Progress in Planning, 28, p. 1-76.
15.
Locke, J. (1962) An essay concerning the true original, extent and end of civil government, in: E. Barker (Ed.) Social Contract: Essays by Locke, Hume, Rousseau, pp. 3-143. New York: Oxford University Press.
16.
Maass, A. (1959) Division of powers: an areal analysis, in: A. Maass (Ed.) Area and Power , pp. 9-26. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
17.
Madden, J.F. (1995) Changes in the distribution of poverty across and within U.S. metropolitan areas: 1979-1989. Wharton Real Estate Center Working Paper Series No. 214.
18.
Matthews, R. (1984) The Radical Politics ofThomasJefferson. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.
19.
Mieszkowski, P. and Mills, E. (1993) The causes of metropolitan suburbanization, Journal ofEconomic Perspective, 7, p. 135-147.
20.
Pack, J.R. (1995) Poverty and urban public expenditures. Wharton Real Estate Center Working Paper Series No. 215.
21.
Park, R.E. (1952) Human Communities: The City and Human Ecology. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
22.
Poindexter, G.C. (1995) Towards a legal framework for regional redistribution of poverty-related expenses, Washington University Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law, 47, p. 3-50.
23.
Reynolds, L. (1992) Rethinking municipal annexation powers, Urban Lawyer, 24 (Spring), p.247-303.
24.
Rusk, D. (1993) Cities Without Suburbs. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.
25.
Weiher, G.R. (1991) The Fractured Metropolis: Political Fragmentation and Metropolitan Segregation. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
26.
Williams, J.C. (1986) The constitutional vulnerability of American local government: the politics of city status in American law, Wisconsin Law Review, p. 83-153.
27.
Wood, R.C. (1959) A division of powers in metropolitan areas, in: A. Maass (Ed.) Area and Power , pp. 53-69. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
28.
Yates, D. (1982) Neighborhood government, in: R.H. Bayor (Ed.) Neighborhoods in Urban America, pp. 131-141. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press.
29.
Abate v. Mundt, 403 US 182, 91 S. Ct. 1904 (1971).
30.
Avery v. Midland County, 390 US 474, 88 S. Ct. 1114 (1968).
31.
Baldwin et al. v. City of Winston-Salem et al. 710 F. 2d 132 (4th Cir. 1983).
32.
Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, 489 US 688, 109 S. Ct. 1433 (1989).
33.
City of Memphis v. Greene, 451 US 100, 101 S. Ct. 1584 (1981).
34.
Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 US 365 (1926).
35.
Hills v. Gautreaux, 425 US 284, 96 S. Ct. 1538 (1976).
36.
Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, 207 US 161, 28 S. Ct. 40 (1907).
37.
Milliken v. Bradley, 418 US 717, 94 S. Ct. 3112 (1974).
38.
Missouri v. Jenkins, US, 115 S. Ct. 2038 (1995).
39.
Mount Laurel cases: Hill Dev. Co. Township of Bernards, 510 A.2d 621 (N.J. 1986) (Mount Laurel III); Southern Burlington County NAACP. Township of Mount Laurel, 456 A.2d 390 (N.J. 1983) (Mount Laurel II); Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel, 336 A.2d 713 (N.J. 1975) (Mount Laurel I).
40.
Reynolds v. Sims, 377 US 533, 84 S. Ct. 1362 (1964).
41.
Township of Jefferson v. City of West Carrollton, 517 F. Supp. 417 (S.D. Ohio, 1981), aff'd, 718 F. 2d 1099 (6th Cir. 1983).
42.
US v. Board of School Commissioners of City of Indianapolis, 637 F. 2d 1101, (7th Cir. 1980).
43.
Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation, 429 US 252, 97 S. Ct. 555 (1977).
44.
Village of Belle Terre v. Borraas, 416 US 1, 94 S. Ct. 1536 (1974).
45.
Wisconsin v. J. C. Penney Co., 311 US 435, 444 (1940).
