Beyond Edge Cities

Book excerpt: In his influential 1991 book Edge City, Joel Garreau argued that every American city "is growing in the fashion of Los Angeles, with multiple urban cores". He named these cores "edge cities" because they perform all of the city functions, but rise in places that were farmlands or villages only decades ago, far from the old downtowns. This new book expands and clarifies Garreau's pioneering concept as it develops a comprehensive theory of edge city growth and functions. The contributors draw on their expertise as geographers, political scientists, economics planners, and sociologists to offer a wide range of insights and analyses.