In Gotham's Shadow: Globalization and Community Change in Central New York

by Thomas, Alexander R.

• ISBN13: 9780791455968
• ISBN10: 0791455963
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK PRESS

Summary

In what may be the first explicitly comparative study of the effects of globalization on metropolitan and rural communities, In Gotham's Shadow examines how three central New York communities struggled over the last half century to survive in a global economy that seems to have forgotten them. Utica, formerly a city of one hundred thousand, experienced the same trends of suburbanization, deindustrialization, and urban renewal as nearly every American city, with the same mixed results. In Cooperstown and Hartwick, two small villages forty miles south of Utica, the same trends were at work, though with different outcomes. Hartwick may be seen as an example of how small towns have lost their core, while Cooperstown may be seen as an example of how a small town can survive by transforming itself into a tourist destination. Thomas provides extensive historical background mixed with newspaper excerpts and lively interviews that add a human dimension to the transformations these communities have experienced.

Author Biography

Alexander R. Thomas is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
List of Newspapers and Their Abbreviations	xi
Preface	xiii
One Summer Day	1	(14)
An American Story	15	(18)
Loom to Boom	33	(12)
On the Road	45	(10)
Sin City	55	(16)
Progress	71	(16)
Slaughter of the Innocents	87	(12)
Extended Communities	99	(14)
Deconstructing Utica	113	(14)
Reconstructing Hartwick	127	(12)
Different Strokes	139	(12)
Gotham's Shadow	151	(8)
Appendix A: The Block Quintile Measure	159	(2)
Appendix B: Newspaper Advertisement Data	161	(2)
Appendix C: Retail Functions Study	163	(2)
Notes	165	(8)
References	173	(14)
Index	187