LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

Tacloban City

The City And The Real Estate

Growth Machine
URBAN GEOGRAPHY

Submitted by:
MA.CRISELLE S. ESTRADA

BSED-SOCIAL STUDIES (SS22)

MTH 10:30-12:00
XIII: THE CITY AND REAL ESTATE GROWTH MACHINE

HARVEY MOLOTCH

The City As A Growth Machine

* Molotch was the first one who stressed the idea of the city as a growth machine, a basic
locality which contributes in its own economical growth and development, but also as a
state in general.

* You can take this as a perspective on economic theory, but as much as anything, this is
really about the connections between the urban economy and urban politics.

* The growth machine idea emerged to explain the political economy of the city.

* Cities could be understood as mere containers of human action.

* The operation of cities as growth machines has an impact on the quality and distribution
of growth within and among urban areas (Molotch, 1976).

* According to John Logan and Harvey Molotch commodification of places and the
political economy have great influence over city growth.

* An “urban phenomena” exists in the city land market which stimulates a desire on the
part of growth entrepreneurs to acquire more and more places, this desire fuels the
“growth machine”.

* The growth machine approach suggests that human action, especially urban action by
specific actors, carries out causal power when it comes to explaining the organization,
shape, and distribution of people and jobs in the city.

* A competition among actors takes place in the city for land and other resources. City
form, distribution of land uses, and central place theory can be explained by this
seemingly impersonal competition.

* Land and buildings can have value far beyond what they would ordinarily have when
there are other aspects which give them value, like cultural significance, and even spiritual
and psychological connections to people. Certain locations have special value because a
place is “indispensable.”

* The idea of the city as a “growth machine “ starts with these places, and when people
gather in a place to trade commodities and exchange valuables, more people come to this
area.

* Logan, Moloch 1987) mentions, “the role of the growth machine as a driving force in
the U.S urban development has long been a factor in U.S. history, and is nowhere more
clearly documented than in the histories of eighteenth and nineteenth-century. When more
people come to this area, then more commerce transpires, and the place grows larger and
more significant.

* Port cities are prime examples of growth machines which began with a certain type of
industry, followed by government activity, and the establishment of further institutions
like schools and community or religious centers.The city as the growth machine is a
concept which seems to be a natural result of urban activity, and it is perpetuated by its
own activities.

* Through land monopolies and collective action, growth entrepreneurs secure control of
property for profit through exchange values. Their goal is to mask the negative
consequences the growth machine has on society and urban development.

* Houses are not just places where we live, housing is viewed as a commodity that can be
bought and exchanged, creating value; value that Logan and Molotch term as special use
values and special exchange value..

* Places hold special use value as they are not disposable and are available for continued
use, and unlike other commodities, their price does not decrease following use. All
interactions must happen in a place and therefore places are indispensable, as they are
essential to conduct interactions. But different from other indispensable commodities such
as food, places are a unique commodity in that places afford access other use values, such
as work, friends, or schools.

* Special exchange values from place are described as the form of payment for places,
such as direct purchase, mortgage, and rent. Places are created on land, and land cannot be
produced like other commodities, therefore the quantity is fixed leading some sociologist
to label land as “fictitious” and a “pseudocommodity” because labor is not used to
produce it.

* The land market is monopolistic in that once owned no other person can own it or
reproduce it. It is in the best interest of the entrepreneur to acquire more places to increase
profit for the exchange value, spurring further growth.

* Politics plays a major role in the growth machine.

* Town leaders were also seen as growth entrepreneurs and sought to increase exchange
value for their places. They fought to attract colleges, federal branches as well as prisons,
in hopes of growing the value of their places. These civic leaders used their political
authority to develop transportation infrastructure, on their land that would ultimately
increase their profits, through rents as well as through the growth of businesses.

* The success of a city is a product of its competition with other cities, not just in the
marketplace, but in the corridors of power. The local elite has to be able to attract
national government investments and to persuade the national government to adopt policy
which favours the city.

* It suggests that if we want growth, we have to let the important economic leaders of the
city take all of the important decisions for us, and we ought not to obstruct them.

* It important for cities to grow in order to generate revenue, but if that revenue was put
back into the community rather than in ot the pockets of proponents of the growth
machine, life chances of residents could be improved.

Real Estate And Growth Machine

* Real estate is the property, land, buildings, air rights above the land and underground
rights below the land.

* Real estate and buildings as being commodities in and of themselves which are used for
various purposes to carry out the affairs of an urban economy.

* In recent years, it has become clear that we need to pay closer attention to some of the
explicitly land-based aspects of the city as a growth machine.

* Molotch, considered the importance of construction companies, commercial office-

building owners, apartment-building owners, and real-estate brokers in his model of the
growth machine. But now these coalitions seem to be changing, and in some cities, more
and more households, firms, and investors are viewing the urban environment as a vehicle
for capital accumulation through real estate.

* To understand cities is, in part, to know how land and buildings acquire monetary value
and how this value influences what gets built, where, and why. The motivations of
individuals, firms, and governments are central to this understanding.

Three essential functions of the urban real estate market

First, it provides the facilities that serve the needs of the city’s people - commercial and
office buildings for the city’s companies and workers, residential houses and apartments
for residents, etc.

Second, the real estate market helps to allocate land and location among competing uses:
should a centrally-located plot of land be used for a community garden? A luxurious
mansion? Low-income housing? An upscale apartment tower? A parking lot? In market
economies, the answers to these questions are usually determined by ability to pay: real
estate markets set prices for various locations, helping to screen among various competing
potential land uses.

Third, urban real estate markets provide a setting for investment, and for a long-term
store of value. The spatial form of the city we see is, in large part, determined by the
relations among these three functions, and the tensions involved in defining, protecting, or
regulating real estate market processes.
References:
Growth Machine.Retrieved February 13, 2020 from
http://www.yorku.ca/anderson/Intro%20Urban%20Studies/Unit7/growth_machine.htm

(2015).The City as a Growth Machine.Retrieved February 8, 2020 from

https://rampages.us/terejohnson/2015/09/25/the-city-as-a-growth-machine/

AMADEO K.(2019).Real Estate, What It Is and How It Works.Retrieved febuary 12, 2020
from https://www.thebalance.com/real-estate-what-it-is-and-how-it-works-3305882
William Domhoff G.(1988).In Scott Cummings, ed., Business Elites and Urban
Development: Case Studies and Critical Perspectives. Albany: State University of New
York Press.Retrieved February 12, 2020 from
https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/molotch_1988.html

Mitchell-Dix S.(2015).The City as a Growth Machine. Retrieved February 12, 2020 from
https://rampages.us/mitchelldixs/john-logan-and-harvey-molotch-the-city-as-a-growth-
machine/

Rusta A.(2017).The Perception of the City as a Growth Machine and Space of

Flows.Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy.

Wyly E.(2004).The City as a Real Estate Growth Machine.Concord Pacific Place on the
North Shore of False Creek, Vancouver,