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Why Do New Cities Form?

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Book cover Municipal Incorporation Activity in the United States

Part of the book series: The Urban Book Series ((UBS))

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Abstract

The rationale behind incorporating a new municipality has evolved since the very first cities and continues to change. The provision of public services that were the mainstay of incorporation proceedings at the turn of the twentieth century has given way to concerns over growth, land use, and exclusionary practices. Today, annexation threats from nearby existing communities, the desire to control growth and development, racial and socio-economic prejudices and the provision of public services are but a few reasons explored through case studies in this chapter. Additionally, new municipalities are also changing how they provide the public services that they do offer by contracting with existing governments or private corporations as identified by Miller in his work which examined California incorporations. In the end, incorporation activity is often the result of a myriad of local concerns that when combined, results in an effort to incorporate a new municipality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. History, Politics and Social Justice, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Russell M. Smith

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  1. Russell M. Smith
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Correspondence to Russell M. Smith .

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Smith, R.M. (2018). Why Do New Cities Form?. In: Municipal Incorporation Activity in the United States. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72188-0_3

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