CHAPTER 5
WEST CHESTER
“Well then,” said Edward, “I’ll return to the conversational thread. Let us move the clock forward another century, bringing us to the present. The urbanized area, known as the metropolis, which includes the new suburban phenomenon made possible by the automobile, expands to the limits of all the counties surrounding Manhattan and its four outer boroughs, east, west, north and south, plus Fairfield County in Connecticut. And that expansion has yet to abate, though its density is much reduced at its margins.”
“Will there be no farmland?” asked Franklin.
“That is an interesting question. The answer is farmland there will always be – as I have said, the country still has vast open spaces. Equally, it still has vast reaches of farmland. But it is regrettable that the suburban expansion around almost every American metro area is absorbing countryside that was prime for farming.”
“Or else the urban center in question would not have come to be placed there,” said Franklin.
“Exactly,” said Edward.
“How is a metropolis governed?” asked Franklin.
“You have, in all innocence, posed a question that the country has yet to answer. There is no metropolitan government.”
“Interesting,” said Franklin. “Does that mean that relations between, say, the western part of the metropolis, in New Jersey, and the northernmost portion, in Connecticut, are left to chance?”
“It means that, with certain exceptions, such relations are not specified in advance by a governing body. Rather, they are negotiated piecemeal.”
“Does any civic government persist?”
“Certainly. Most of the municipalities of your day remain to this day, and several new ones have been created.”
“Incredible, and yet, I begin to see that, from a Federalist standpoint, it has a potential for efficiency – only so much government as is the absolute necessity.”
“That is indeed the fundamental argument used over the decades to oppose the creation of a regional government,” agreed Edward, but then continued, “As a result, there is no overall plan that would channel expansion away from prime farmland, only a heedless exploitation of individual desires for private holdings. Cooperation has been limited to vital necessities, such as the system that draws water from the Catskills and transports it through tunnels to Manhattan and its boroughs.”
“You say, ‘Manhattan and its boroughs,’ this is therefore a unified government?”
“Yes, the City of New York,” Edward replied.
“Ah, but may I remind you, as you yourself said just a moment ago, that in my day, the City of New York included only the southern portion of the island of Manhattan, and that Brooklyn and what are today the other three boroughs were then separate municipalities?”
“I confess. You are correct. In fact, now that I truly think about it, instead of just pontificating, there is in the mergers of the boroughs into the City, beginning with Brooklyn a century ago, a major exception, a grand exception, to the predisposition to oppose regional government.”
“Are you thinking, as I am, that, apart from the western banks of the Hudson, these mergers took in the full extent of the urban area of that time?”
“That is exactly what I am thinking,” said Edward.
“So, we discover that, what seems to be an unbroken anti-Federalist trend dating from my times to yours in fact contains within itself a period when a single, centralized government was agreed upon and put into place, even including the termination of the separate municipal existence of a great city of over one million people.”
“Your ability to assemble facts continues to amaze me, though I suppose it should not,” said Edward.
“This is exactly what we debated at the Convention, as to the nature of the Federal government,” said Franklin.
“And those debates must be very fresh in your mind,” said Edward.
“Yes, and still more interesting to see that the substance of them has persisted over two centuries and more.”
“And not just in this country. When I lived in France … “
“You lived in France, how interesting! I would love to hear what has happened since their revolt,” interjected Franklin.
“Well then,” said Edward, “I’ll return to the conversational thread. Let us move the clock forward another century, bringing us to the present. The urbanized area, known as the metropolis, which includes the new suburban phenomenon made possible by the automobile, expands to the limits of all the counties surrounding Manhattan and its four outer boroughs, east, west, north and south, plus Fairfield County in Connecticut. And that expansion has yet to abate, though its density is much reduced at its margins.”
“Will there be no farmland?” asked Franklin.
“That is an interesting question. The answer is farmland there will always be – as I have said, the country still has vast open spaces. Equally, it still has vast reaches of farmland. But it is regrettable that the suburban expansion around almost every American metro area is absorbing countryside that was prime for farming.”
“Or else the urban center in question would not have come to be placed there,” said Franklin.
“Exactly,” said Edward.
“How is a metropolis governed?” asked Franklin.
“You have, in all innocence, posed a question that the country has yet to answer. There is no metropolitan government.”
“Interesting,” said Franklin. “Does that mean that relations between, say, the western part of the metropolis, in New Jersey, and the northernmost portion, in Connecticut, are left to chance?”
“It means that, with certain exceptions, such relations are not specified in advance by a governing body. Rather, they are negotiated piecemeal.”
“Does any civic government persist?”
“Certainly. Most of the municipalities of your day remain to this day, and several new ones have been created.”
“Incredible, and yet, I begin to see that, from a Federalist standpoint, it has a potential for efficiency – only so much government as is the absolute necessity.”
“That is indeed the fundamental argument used over the decades to oppose the creation of a regional government,” agreed Edward, but then continued, “As a result, there is no overall plan that would channel expansion away from prime farmland, only a heedless exploitation of individual desires for private holdings. Cooperation has been limited to vital necessities, such as the system that draws water from the Catskills and transports it through tunnels to Manhattan and its boroughs.”
“You say, ‘Manhattan and its boroughs,’ this is therefore a unified government?”
“Yes, the City of New York,” Edward replied.
“Ah, but may I remind you, as you yourself said just a moment ago, that in my day, the City of New York included only the southern portion of the island of Manhattan, and that Brooklyn and what are today the other three boroughs were then separate municipalities?”
“I confess. You are correct. In fact, now that I truly think about it, instead of just pontificating, there is in the mergers of the boroughs into the City, beginning with Brooklyn a century ago, a major exception, a grand exception, to the predisposition to oppose regional government.”
“Are you thinking, as I am, that, apart from the western banks of the Hudson, these mergers took in the full extent of the urban area of that time?”
“That is exactly what I am thinking,” said Edward.
“So, we discover that, what seems to be an unbroken anti-Federalist trend dating from my times to yours in fact contains within itself a period when a single, centralized government was agreed upon and put into place, even including the termination of the separate municipal existence of a great city of over one million people.”
“Your ability to assemble facts continues to amaze me, though I suppose it should not,” said Edward.
“This is exactly what we debated at the Convention, as to the nature of the Federal government,” said Franklin.
“And those debates must be very fresh in your mind,” said Edward.
“Yes, and still more interesting to see that the substance of them has persisted over two centuries and more.”
“And not just in this country. When I lived in France … “
“You lived in France, how interesting! I would love to hear what has happened since their revolt,” interjected Franklin.
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