Abstract
Colloquially, the phrase “from the outside [looking] in” signals exclusion or powerlessness. In her book, Carolyn Adams flips that concept, demonstrating how, sometimes, the outsiders can control what happens on the inside. Using Philadelphia as her central character, she tells a story of place and, specifically, how diverse “outside” stakeholders wield third-sector organizations to remake the central city and achieve regional goals. The book describes the shortfalls and limitations of local government with respect to its ability to respond to the divergent needs of a major urban center; the multiple identities of a city, not just as a place where residents live but also as a core “brand” for a metropolitan region; and how these often conflicting identities shape place in the twenty-first century.
The central framing of From the Outside In relies on two primary assumptions. The first is that cities are important not just to those who live within their borders, but also to the health, economic future, and vitality of their regions. This concept may have been disputed in the 1970s and 1980s—the attention-grabbing headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” published in New York Daily News in 1975, offers a particularly stark example (Van Riper 1975). In the twenty-first century, however, many central cities have experienced a resurgence and rapid urbanization is a global phenomenon. Cities are not only revitalizing in their own right, but they have become a central part of their region’s identity. Second, by incorporating cities into their brand, regions have a vested interest in their city’s physical, economic, and political agenda. This is the story Adams emphasizes. While the book closely examines the Philadelphia experience, it echoes the city-metro composition in regions across the country and offers critical insights into the influence of “outsiders” on city structure.
Adams contends that cities are being shaped not just by known governmental actors, including local and state officials, but by a contingent of nongovernmental actors referred to as third-sector organizations. These entities include nonprofits, public corporations, and quasi-public authorities who, ostensibly, supplement government efforts to serve the public interest and are representative of the areas where they work. Adams asserts that the reality is much more complex, with suburban stakeholders using third-sector organizations as vehicles to shape policy, land use, and investment in the urban core. She labels their efforts as “[a] kind of stealth regionalism . . . increasingly incorporating outside interests into the process of restructuring the city. . . . [While] suburban towns and counties continue to resist formally coordinating investments and services with each other . . . a new form of regionalism is evolving, practiced from the outside in” (2).
In five interwoven chapters, Adams uses Philadelphia’s experience to examine the powerful roles nongovernmental actors play in the management of and policy development for several public goods and spaces in the central city, including transportation infrastructure (chapter 1), education policy (chapter 3), and the form and quality of the central city (chapter 2) and urban neighborhoods (chapter 4). In chapter 5, she turns to the organizations themselves, evaluating the composition of third-sector boards and decision makers. In some instances, third-sector organizations fill a critical gap, providing resources and/or governance when local government does not have the capacity or authority to act alone. Yet, as Adams’s Philadelphia story highlights, third-sector actors must also be scrutinized: Who are the leaders and decision makers within these organizations? What are their interests and whom do they represent? What does it mean when third-sector interests drive urban policy and investment decisions? And, lastly, do investments that benefit the region also benefit the city residents?
Through a detailed assessment of Philadelphia’s physical, economic, and political structure, Adams responds to these questions, revealing a dense network of third-sector entities and the substantial influence of “stealth” suburban stakeholders on urban form. By virtue of their significant involvement in policy and infrastructure, third-sector organizations are shaping the fortunes of city stakeholders. Managed by largely suburban interests, these organizations are motivated by the city’s aggregate health relative to its identity for the region. While their decisions are geographically meted out on Philadelphia residents, third-sector organizations are less vested in the outcomes for people within the place.
Adams’s introductory chapter establishes one of the core themes of the book: the conflict between the city’s “inside” and “outside” identities. For “insiders,” the central city is where people live, shop, work, and access services. At this scale, the city’s health is measured not just as a whole but at the neighborhood, block, household, or individual level. Conversely, for suburban “outsiders,” the city represents a brand that is projected into the region, nation, and world. It is an economic brand for corporations in the national and global markets; it is a civic identity for elites, providing high-quality amenities, urban vitality, and a tourism economy with major cultural centers; it is a regional political force within the state. For “outsiders,” the central city is an economic engine, a place to visit, and a brand to capitalize on. It is a powerful twenty-first century urban asset. These two perceptions of place, and their conceptualizations of what urban centers are—who they are for, what they can provide, and what their purpose is, are distinctly different. This is where the third-sector takes center stage.
As Adams portrays with numerous examples in chapters 1 through 4, a significant amount of funding, infrastructure, and policy development is funneled through third-sector organizations, which have fundamentally different agendas owing to their regional missions and/or their membership rolls with a proportionally greater share of suburban representatives. Their influence derives from the limited capacity of local government, providing third-sector entities the opportunity to fill resource gaps, and from legislated authority, where state government assigns resources and/or jurisdiction to quasi-public agencies, thereby constraining local control. What does this mean for cities? As Adams demonstrates, third-sector organizations prioritize investment in Philadelphia to improve the city’s aggregate health and strengthen the region, as opposed to concentrating investments based on local need or urban agendas.
She also makes a convincing argument that third-sector organizations wield the political and financial power to reshape Philadelphia, physically and with respect to public policy; and, yet, they are not accountable to constituents, nor are city stakeholders given proportionally equal representation in the process. This lack of accountability is one of the principal concerns identified in From the Outside In. Although third-sector organizations have the capacity to respond to urban challenges, they do not operate under the same expectations of accountability as elected officials. If a mayor adopts policies that benefit suburban populations and neglect city residents, there is an avenue for recourse on election day. This is not the case for the third-sector, as they reap the benefit of being neither a public nor a private entity. They receive the subsidies and tax exemptions associated with public sector and nonprofit agencies, presumably for their emphasis on the public good. At the same time, politicians do not hold these third-sector agencies to a public-service mission, instead treating them as private organizations with wholly independent agendas. It is a convoluted arrangement that dilutes power and choice within the city, while also fragmenting it among disconnected third-sector organizations in the region.
In this book, Adams builds upon the work of other scholars who have written about the potential benefits and ongoing challenges of regionalism, including David Rusk, Myron Orfield, and Bruce Katz (Katz and Bradley 2014; Orfield 2002; Orfield et al. 2010; Rusk 1999, 2013; Rusk and Orfield 1998). This literature explores the political constraints and realities of regional governance, including the effects of fragmented local governments and state legislatures on regional cooperation. Adams contributes a new dimension of regionalism with her work by considering a broader spectrum of influence. As the Philadelphia story reveals, third-sector organizations offer regional interests a pathway to impact urban form and politics without the rigidity (or direct accountability) of government. It symbolizes the best and worst of neoliberal politics, all at once.
Philadelphia, well endowed with nonprofits and quasi-public agencies, is an ideal laboratory for exploring the roles and tactics of the third sector on central cities. However, this can also be a liability for Adams’s story. In focusing on Philadelphia’s complex network of third-sector actors, she paints a vivid picture of the players and the rules of their games. Yet, it may be difficult for some readers to draw out the finer points of the story or fully comprehend the implications of these relationships if they are unfamiliar with the physical, social, and political geography of Philadelphia. While this book conveys an important concept that will, no doubt, resonate with cities and their regions in many parts of the country, it may reserve its most critical lessons and insights for those with a nuanced understanding of the place and players.
From a forward-looking perspective, Adams’s book leaves the reader wanting. By the last page, it is clear that third-sector organizations are powerful players in central cities, but cities have not yet managed to harness them for their benefit (at least not in Philadelphia). This leaves the initial question posed in the book partially unanswered: Do initiatives that strengthen the region necessarily help city residents? Adams presents a methodical case to suggest that no, they do not. The deck is stacked in favor of political elites and suburban interests across a number of initiatives. However, the question of impact on city residents is not directly explored, nor are there sufficient explorations of the means by which Philadelphia, and its “inside” constituents, might restore balance. The principal recommendations call upon mayors to drive change, shifting the political context that treats the third-sector as independent corporations towards one that defines them as public-purpose entities, aligned under a city agenda. And payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), a highly contentious alternative to taxes for tax-exempt nonprofits, are cited as a mayor’s primary stick. While logical, these one-sided recommendations also seem to undercut some of Adams’s arguments: the third sector is a powerful force in regions and cities with political backing at higher levels of government. Placing the onus for dismantling that system on the local leader, without additional strategies to support their efforts, seems to ignore their political vulnerabilities.
Despite the limitations of its final chapter, Adams has authored a powerful book that expands our understanding of regionalism and city–suburb relationships. By introducing third-sector actors into the equation, she has offered readers an “insiders’” view of urban redevelopment and regional politics. This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners interested in the connections between politics, land, and urban policy, including the fields of planning, public policy, and public affairs. When paired with regional governance literature, Adams’s work offers a particularly nuanced picture of decision making in urban centers. As she asserts in the concluding chapter, the third sector may be inefficient and counterproductive for city agendas, but it also represents a force to be harnessed and recast within the urban context. Armed with Philadelphia’s story, let’s hope some mayors get the message.