A suburb is a residential or commercial area situated within an urban area but outside the central city. In 1950, only 20 percent of Americans lived in suburbs compared to 40 percent in cities and 40 percent in small towns and rural areas. The percentage living in suburbs climbed rapidly thereafter, especially after World War II, when returning GIs married, had several children (the baby boomer generation), and needed decent housing.

Suburban Growth After World War II

Levittown, Pennsylvania, 1957.

Annexation

As cities grew in the United States, they expanded by adding peripheral land. Now cities are surrounded by a collection of suburban jurisdictions whose residents prefer to remain legally independent of the large city. The process of legally adding land area to a city is annexation.

Rules concerning annexation vary among states. Normally, land can be annexed to a city only if a majority of residents in the affected area vote in favor of the annexation. Peripheral residents generally desired annexation in the nineteenth century because the city offered better services, such as water supply, sewage disposal, trash pickup, paved streets, public transportation, and police and fire protection. Thus, as U.S. cities grew rapidly in the nineteenth century, the legal boundaries frequently changed to accommodate newly developed areas. For example, the city of Chicago expanded from 26 square kilometers (10 square miles) in 1837 to 492 square kilometers (190 square miles) in 1900.

Annexation in Chicago

In contrast, in recent decades cities have been less likely to annex peripheral land because the residents have preferred to organize their own services rather than pay city taxes for them. Originally, some of these peripheral jurisdictions were small, isolated towns that had a tradition of independent local government before being swallowed up by urban growth. Others are newly created communities whose residents wish to live close to the large city but not be legally part of it.

Suburban Lifestyle

Suburbs offer varied attractions—a detached single-family dwelling rather than a row house or an apartment, private land surrounding the house, space to park cars, and a greater opportunity for home ownership. A suburban house provides space, privacy, and a daily retreat from the stress of urban living. Families with children are especially attracted to suburbs, which offer more space for play and protection from the high crime rates and heavy traffic that characterize inner-city life (Figure 13-50). As incomes rose in the twentieth century, first in the United States and more recently in other developed countries, more families were able to afford to buy suburban homes.

Suburban Lifestyle

Ice cream delivered by the Good Humor Man.

By 1960, one-third of Americans lived in cities, one-third in suburbs, and one-third in small towns and rural areas. In 2000, 50 percent of Americans lived in suburbs compared to only 30 percent in cities and 20 percent in small towns and rural areas.

Local Government Fragmentation

Given the difficulty in annexing suburban jurisdictions, local government in the United States is extremely fragmented. According to the 2012 Census of Governments, the United States had 90,056 local governments, including 3,031 counties, 19,519 municipalities, 16,360 townships, 12,880 school districts, and 38,266 special districts. Special districts are organized to provide such services as fire protection, water supply, libraries, and public transportation. Illinois has by far the largest number of local governments (6,963), and Hawaii has the fewest (21).

The larger metropolitan areas have thousands of local governments, with widely varying levels of resources (Figure 13-51). The large number of local government units has led to calls for a metropolitan government that could coordinate—if not replace—the numerous local governments in an urban area. The fragmentation of local government in the United States makes it difficult to solve regional problems of traffic management, solid-waste disposal, and the building of affordable housing.

Municipalities in ST. Louis County, Missouri

Most U.S. metropolitan areas have a council of governments, which is a cooperative agency consisting of representatives of the various local governments in the region. The council of governments may be empowered to do some overall planning for the area that local governments cannot logically do. Strong metropolitan-wide governments have been established in a few places in North America. Two kinds exist:

• Consolidations of city and county governments. Examples of consolidations of city and county governments include Indianapolis and Miami. The boundaries of Indianapolis were changed to match those of Marion County, Indiana. Government functions that were handled separately by the city and the county now are combined into a joint operation in the same office building. In Florida, the city of Miami and surrounding Dade County have combined some services, but the city boundaries have not been changed to match those of the county.

• Federations. Examples of federations include Toronto and other large Canadian cities. Toronto’s metropolitan government was created in 1954, through a federation of 13 municipalities. A two-tier system of government existed until 1998, when the municipalities were amalgamated into a single municipality.

Pause & Reflect 13.3.1

Why might differences exist between the local government where you live and neighboring ones?

Suburban Sprawl