Bay Cities and Water Politics: The Battle for Resources in Boston and OaklandUniversity Press of Kansas, 1998 - 246 pages Near the end of the nineteenth century, the cities of Boston and Oakland each faced environmental crises of water contamination and shortages that existing regional agencies could not solve. How these two cities resolved their water problems is the basis of a comparative history that provides valuable insights into urban development and explores the political implications and environmental impacts of regionalism. Water defined the limits to growth of these bay cities and, as Sarah Elkind demonstrates, water supply and sewage disposal were two aspects of a single problem. Each city opted to abandon municipal water and sewer networks for metropolitan systems that crossed county lines and were administered by regional agencies. These agencies increased the cities' access to water resources, but, as Elkind shows, urban expansion and adoption of regionalism also decreased voter control over utilities and policies, and spread the environmental costs of urbanization far beyond city limits. Combining insights from urban, western, and environmental history, Elkind examines the ways that people's reactions to their natural surroundings drive both demand for improved public services and political reform. She traces public works development in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era to explain how these programs united each city with its suburban neighbors, creating new political entities and allowing Boston and Oakland to appropriate rural resources and thus overcome the environmental limits to their continued growth and prosperity. She also shows how, when the power of regionalism is turned to urban development, environmental and social costs are sometimes overlooked. Bay Cities and Water Politics provides a comprehensive view of the transformation of cities, their natural surroundings, and their politics. Elkind applies urban history to environmental concerns, as well as environmental history to urban problems and human needs. The book offers new insights into the importance of metropolitan special districts and their role in urban expansion, and it sounds a warning regarding the ability of regional water systems to maintain a balance between continued urban growth and delicate ecosystems. |
Contents
Municipal and Private Services in the Nineteenth Century | 10 |
Beyond Municipal Boundaries | 42 |
Regionalism in the Gilded Age | 79 |
Copyright | |
4 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
administration agencies Alameda Bancroft Library Bartlett Bay Cities Bay Municipal Utility Berkeley Board of Health Boston area Boston Water Bostonians California Cambridge City Council Proceedings City of Boston communities construction Court District Records Office drainage East Bay cities East Bay Municipal East Bay water East Bay's EBMUD economic engineers environmental growth Hetch Hetchy improve industrial interlocal Lake Cochituate Lancha Plana Lodi Lodi Sentinel Main Drain Massachusetts General Court Mayor Metropolitan Water Mokelumne Mokelumne River Municipal Utility District municipal water Mystic River networks Oakland Public Library Oakland Tribune officials political pollution Pond private utilities private water problems projects public health public ownership public water railroad reform regional water Report reservoir residents Richmond rural San Francisco sanitation sewer sewerage Shawsheen special districts Sudbury River tion towns University Press urban Utility District Records voters Wachusett Reservoir waste disposal Water Board water development water rights water supply water system West Boylston