This book begins the comparative study of U.S. urban development during the first half of the 19th century. Breathtaking in its comprehensiveness, its survey and comparisons of early urban politics is without parallel. The study is based on a thorough examination of fifteen cities—Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Charleston, Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. Louis, and Washington. This group of cities—the fifteen largest in 1850—provides a good mix of northern and southern, eastern and western, old and new, and fast- and slow-growing urban centers. This volume deals with the city as a corporate entity and contains chapters on urban governmental structures, government finance, politics and elections, urban political leadership, the city plan and city planning, intergovernmental relations, and urban mercantilism.

In Small Business and the City, Rafael Gomez, Andre Isakov, and Matt Semansky highlight the power of small-scale entrepreneurship to transform local neighbourhoods and the cities they inhabit. Studying the factors which enable small businesses to survive and thrive, they highlight the success of a Canadian concept which has spread worldwide: the Business Improvement Area (BIA). BIAs allow small-scale entrepreneurs to pool their resources with like-minded businesses, becoming sources of urban rejuvenation, magnets for human talent, and incubators for local innovation in cities around the globe. Small Business and the City also analyses the policies necessary to support this urban vitality, describing how cities can encourage and support locally owned independent businesses. An inspiring account of the dynamism of urban life,Small Business and the City introduces a new “main street agenda” for the twenty-first century city.

Although the Buffalo wing may be the Queen City's most well-known innovation, Buffalo's robust history of creative ingenuity has changed lives around the world time and time again. Joseph Dart's invention of the grain elevator in 1842 led to Buffalo becoming a transportation mecca for many decades. Maria Love opened the nation's first daycare, revolutionizing women's role in the labor force. Life around the globe was never the same after Willis Carrier invented modern air conditioning in 1902. Wilson Greatbatch's implantable pacemaker has saved millions of lives. Author Nancy Mingus reveals the mavericks who dared to think differently in Buffalo's innovative history.