Examines the complex ecology of quasi-public and privatized institutions that mobilize and administer many of the political, administrative, and fiscal resources of today’s metropolitan regions

In recent decades metropolitan regions in the United States have witnessed the rise of multitudes of “shadow governments” that often supersede or replace functions traditionally associated with municipalities and other local governments inherited from the urban past. The essays in Private Metropolis grapple with the difficult and timely questions that arise from this new ecology of governance, provoking a long-overdue debate about the future of urban governance.