23 
sense that the region is better off than if economic activity were 
dispersed). This assumption is more reasonable if we recognize 
that there are limits to the build up of activity at the focal points 
i.ec., that there is some optimum size beyond which net dis- 
economies emerge." 
NEW COMMUNITIES AND THE PLANNED EXPANSION OF EXISTING TOWNS 
This thesis is concerned with strategies for creating relatively 
self-sufficient new communities (with a diversified economic base) in 
presently sparsely developed areas within metropolitan urban regions 
and with strategies for the creation of new communities through the 
planned expansion of existing towns or groups of towns. Both options 
coincide with the growth point hypothesis. In Massachusetts the two 
options may in fact be one and the same. Since all land in the Common- 
wealth is incorporated into one of 351 cities and towns, then a new 
community developed anywhere in the State is in fact really an 
expansion of an existing city or town. (There is another case where a 
new community can be developed within or across the borders of 
several existing towns.) 
Across the State there are over 150 towns with a population of 
less than 6,000 people. Only 25 cities have a population of 50,000 or 
more people. So the creation of new communities expected to grow 
to an estimated 50,000 people will certainly alter the population dis- 
tribution throughout the State in a significant way. A town that grows 
from less than 6,000 people to an estimated 50,000 people over a period 
of roughly 15 years will undoubtedly be changed substantially; so 
much so that the planned “expansion” of existing towns in Massa- 
chusetts is very much the same as creating relatively self-sufficient 
new communities. 
The centralization of metropolitan economic activities in urban 
erowth centers or new communities and the inevitable gravitation of 
population to these centers will help to solve many urban problems. 
The development of new communities will enhance the economic 
development of entire metropolitan regions. They will create higher 
average incomes per capita for entire regions, thus enhancing the 
purchasing power of the areas and ultimately of the State. Secondly, 
they will improve the level of productivity per worker by facilitating 
the use of more highly productive methods of production. Third, new 
growth centers will attract export-oriented industries which draw on 
markets and sources of capital outside the area. Fourth, they will 
allow for the provision of services which require a high population 
threshold, and finally, the creation of new communities will help 
create a more positive attitude toward growth throughout the Com- 
monwealth—adding the incentives of higher wages and a_ higher 
standard of living." 
The development of new communities as growth centers that are 
integrated with the transportation and communication network of a 
metropolitan area makes a great deal of sense.!® One proposal which 
" Tbid., p. 427. . 
1 Tbid., ch., 15, “The Strategy of Regional Policy.” 
19 Rules Hansen, ‘‘Urban Alternative for Eliminating Poverty,” Monthly Labor Review, vol. 92, No. 8, 
pp. : 
