Molotch's, City as Growth Machine raises the question, if you limit the population of a city what number is the upper limit? If the limit is 500,000, what if Susan and Scott have baby Alice and baby Alice turns out to be the 500,001 Santa Barbaran? Is she kicked out? Can local government really control in that way?
Some cities have none-developable greenbelts that prevent sprawl at the periphery of the city (like Portland); very different than a population cap. In the case of Portland the government is controlling land in a upper class community in a first world country. The same land use regulations are ineffective most Latin American cities, where squatters create informal where they are legally not supposed to be.
I agree that the race to the bottom between cities, counties, and states - to offer the best benefits to business, in the pursuit of jobs, but to the detriment to society as a whole - is a problem. However, I do not think that Beverly Hills or West Palm Beach style population control methods are replicable on a large scale; what works for a small group of organized elites does not work for the larger urban community.
I think Molotch's article is an interesting thought experiment, but I don't agree with his prescription.
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