Week 9: “The City as a Growth Machine”

The concept of the “growth machine” was initially formulated by Harvey Molotch as an outgrowth of his denunciation of the environmentally destructive effects of a massive 1969 oil tanker spill off the beautiful coastline of Santa Barbara, California. The spill was considered by many to be a watershed for the national environmental movement and an even more irrevocable turning point for California. Molotch contributed to the national debate with a 1969 article in Ramparts magazine titled “Oil in the Velvet Playground.” In this and other articles, he expressed the outrage of local businesses and residents, who perceived that they gained little wealth or tax benefits from the oil companies working in offshore federal waters. The water and air pollution from the drilling operations furthermore hampered the tourism industry, another major component of the regional economic base. In the ensuing years, Molotch would continue to reflect on the damaging environmental and social consequences of American capitalism and urbanization, and move towards a more generalized urban political economy that understands cities as growth machines that serve elite interests, promote social inequality, and harm the environment. He eventually collaborated with John Logan and they published Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place in 1987.