ABSTRACT
There is a scarce and valuable resource in the US that makes much of urban life and commerce possible but, ironically, has received scant attention in research on urban space and the urbanized environment. This resource permits the movement of people and goods throughout urban space, and underpins a city ' s metabolic systems. This resource affects practically every parcel of l and in a city. Historically, transactions to control this resource have periodically been clothed in graft and bribery. Battles over the use, control, and placement of this resource have instigated court cases. Winning and losing thi s resource have resulted in private fortunes and pol itical scandal. Controlling this resource has generated mill ions of dollars in public revenues. Without easy, frictionless use of this resource, the fortunes of many major corporations would be in jeopardy. What is this resource that has enabled so much activity, means so much, and is so important to so many, yet is all but ignored in the l iterature on urban structure and policy? It is public right-of-way (PROW), and it is currently the center of sometimes esoteric debate about the so-called information highway, competition, public authority, and the ways of capitalism, especially some of its largest and most powerful proponents, the communications and util ity industries. At the core of the debate is a struggle between the stewardship and managerial responsibil ities of the public authorities that ostensibly own P ROW and the powerful corporate and business interests that use or wish to use PROW as a primary factor in the production of new and existing telecommunications services.
