Municipalize the means of production?
June 7, 2022 8:08 PM Subscribe
There have been lots of cases where a country nationalizes a particular business or industry. Does it ever happen at a lower level of government? For instance, has an industry ever been taken over by the cities or provinces it operates in?
I think city-owned transit might count for this? There's been a mix of public, private, and crossover models and I'm sure one must have gone from private operation to public ownership.
States might take over a purely state-funded private prison or other outfit that's technically privately operated, if it was performing poorly as well. Sorry I don't have any specific examples, these just seem like likely ones to have happened.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:22 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
States might take over a purely state-funded private prison or other outfit that's technically privately operated, if it was performing poorly as well. Sorry I don't have any specific examples, these just seem like likely ones to have happened.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:22 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Trash collection comes to mind. Also fire fighting.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:27 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by deludingmyself at 8:27 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
ICBC (the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia) for auto insurance.
Not quite what you're looking for (as it's always been city-owned), but just mentioning it because it's municipal...Tbaytel is wholly owned by Thunder Bay:
Tbaytel has paid dividends every year since the late 1990s to The City of Thunder Bay, with an annual dividend of approximately $3 million. Today this annual fixed dividend has increased to $17 million. As of 2017, total dividends paid by Tbaytel to the City of Thunder Bay exceed $200 million.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:39 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Not quite what you're looking for (as it's always been city-owned), but just mentioning it because it's municipal...Tbaytel is wholly owned by Thunder Bay:
Tbaytel has paid dividends every year since the late 1990s to The City of Thunder Bay, with an annual dividend of approximately $3 million. Today this annual fixed dividend has increased to $17 million. As of 2017, total dividends paid by Tbaytel to the City of Thunder Bay exceed $200 million.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:39 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
This has definitely happened with subway systems. I've read a book about the development of the London Underground (now operated by Transit for London, but originally a bunch of speculative investments, some less successful than others), and there's another book about the people competing to build the US's first subway systems in Boston and New York City called The Race Underground that also was the basis for an episode of The American Experience.
posted by fedward at 8:43 PM on June 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by fedward at 8:43 PM on June 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
I don't know the degree to which it's been taken over by the city but Seattle runs its own electric utility, which is frequently handled privately.
Municipal busses have typically been public (to my knowledge) but a lot of early light rail started private and was eventually bought by it's city.
posted by wotsac at 8:43 PM on June 7, 2022
Municipal busses have typically been public (to my knowledge) but a lot of early light rail started private and was eventually bought by it's city.
posted by wotsac at 8:43 PM on June 7, 2022
Municipal fiber networks (and maybe other ISP types) are a thing in some places, though the telecommunications industry has been trying hard to stop it and prevent more of it from happening.
posted by likedoomsday at 8:53 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by likedoomsday at 8:53 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
As far as I understand, most major North American cargo ports existed in some form before they were purchased by their current owners: municipal governments. This includes Los Angeles, Long Beach and Baltimore. None of these were empty bits of coast. All were working ports that had been improved by railroads.
posted by caek at 8:54 PM on June 7, 2022
posted by caek at 8:54 PM on June 7, 2022
I think city-owned transit might count for this? There's been a mix of public, private, and crossover models and I'm sure one must have gone from private operation to public ownership
New York had 3 - The IRT, BMT, and IND were all independent train companies before being bought by the city, although the IND was intended to be owned by the city from the start.
posted by LionIndex at 8:54 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
New York had 3 - The IRT, BMT, and IND were all independent train companies before being bought by the city, although the IND was intended to be owned by the city from the start.
posted by LionIndex at 8:54 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
If we’re talking specifically forced expropriation of private property into sub national public ownership, that’s relatively rare compared to the scenarios above, which are generally land purchases or purchases or partnerships with existing businesses.
But the “real thing” does happen, even in the US. The most common route is eminent domain’s application to things other than land, and especially utilities. See this law review article for examples.
The Wikipedia article on municipalization covers both purchases and expropriations.
posted by caek at 9:09 PM on June 7, 2022
But the “real thing” does happen, even in the US. The most common route is eminent domain’s application to things other than land, and especially utilities. See this law review article for examples.
The Wikipedia article on municipalization covers both purchases and expropriations.
posted by caek at 9:09 PM on June 7, 2022
It's not quite a take over, but Washington outlawed the privately run ICE prison in Tacoma. Once the contract runs out in 2025 the facility will shut down.
posted by brookeb at 9:15 PM on June 7, 2022
posted by brookeb at 9:15 PM on June 7, 2022
In addition to the previously mentioned transit, ports, solid waste, etc., a fair number of US municipalities run electric utilities that were originally built by private companies.
posted by wierdo at 9:43 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by wierdo at 9:43 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
In Canada, hospitals and all kinds of other health care are an obvious very significant example as they are provincially-owned, not federal.
There are also a number of examples of power generation facilities, mostly hydro dams, being taken over by provinces in Canada. BC Hydro is an example. Similarly, BC Ferries took over from private industry. BC Rail ran freight and passenger service for many decades after taking over from a private company, but no longer does except for few minor routes (though they still own track). Government-owned Alberta Treasury Branches were initially set up when traditional banks left smaller towns. ICBC for car insurance has already been mentioned.
It's pretty common for small towns in Canada to own or have owned recreational facilities like golf courses, ski hills, campgrounds, etc. Probably most of them were not taken over from private businesses (though they were often taken over from community groups), but I'm sure there are examples of that happening when the business is failing and the town perceives the ski hill, for example, to be very important for the local economy.
My entire town and many other mining towns were effectively municipalized as they were initially entirely owned by private companies as mining camps which developed into towns that eventually the mining companies decided to establish as public municipalities. When my town switched from a private mining town to a public municipality 80 years ago, it had thousands of residents and all kinds of infrastructure from utilities and roads to recreation facilities. The whole town was municipalized with the stroke of a pen.
posted by ssg at 10:31 PM on June 7, 2022
There are also a number of examples of power generation facilities, mostly hydro dams, being taken over by provinces in Canada. BC Hydro is an example. Similarly, BC Ferries took over from private industry. BC Rail ran freight and passenger service for many decades after taking over from a private company, but no longer does except for few minor routes (though they still own track). Government-owned Alberta Treasury Branches were initially set up when traditional banks left smaller towns. ICBC for car insurance has already been mentioned.
It's pretty common for small towns in Canada to own or have owned recreational facilities like golf courses, ski hills, campgrounds, etc. Probably most of them were not taken over from private businesses (though they were often taken over from community groups), but I'm sure there are examples of that happening when the business is failing and the town perceives the ski hill, for example, to be very important for the local economy.
My entire town and many other mining towns were effectively municipalized as they were initially entirely owned by private companies as mining camps which developed into towns that eventually the mining companies decided to establish as public municipalities. When my town switched from a private mining town to a public municipality 80 years ago, it had thousands of residents and all kinds of infrastructure from utilities and roads to recreation facilities. The whole town was municipalized with the stroke of a pen.
posted by ssg at 10:31 PM on June 7, 2022
Response by poster: I hadn't thought about city services, but of course this makes sense!
But so stretch the original question: Are there businesses with customers outside the city that were taken over in this way? (Or for a state/province-run business, with customers outside the state/province, etc.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:20 AM on June 8, 2022
But so stretch the original question: Are there businesses with customers outside the city that were taken over in this way? (Or for a state/province-run business, with customers outside the state/province, etc.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:20 AM on June 8, 2022
K-12 education was not a public service in the past. It is now, in much of the world, and in the US it is generally provided by municipalities. There is similarly a move to provide universal pre-k, although it's not clear what form that would come, whether it would be provided by the government or whether the government would subsidize private providers.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:22 AM on June 8, 2022
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:22 AM on June 8, 2022
The nationalization of electricity in Quebec. And Hydro-Quebec does sell electricty to other provinces and states.
posted by bluefrog at 6:35 AM on June 8, 2022
posted by bluefrog at 6:35 AM on June 8, 2022
Lothian Buses in Edinburgh is a Plc, but is entirely owned by local authorities: "It is entirely municipally owned, being 91% owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, with the remainder owned by Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian councils, although it no longer provides bus services in West Lothian under the same name. "
Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian are the authorities outside the city, that border it. Lothian runs buses into East and Midlothian, so that would fit your non-city criterion as well, though the majority of services are in the city.
posted by penguin pie at 7:03 AM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian are the authorities outside the city, that border it. Lothian runs buses into East and Midlothian, so that would fit your non-city criterion as well, though the majority of services are in the city.
posted by penguin pie at 7:03 AM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
In Minnesota we have a lot of city-owned liquor stores and they are the only ones permitted in that town. Bars and restaurants can still sell it for onsite consumption. We also don't allow grocery stores or gas stations to sell anything beyond 3/2 beer. We just got Sunday liquor sales a few years ago, in fact.
posted by soelo at 7:35 AM on June 8, 2022
posted by soelo at 7:35 AM on June 8, 2022
Some bike share programs in Canada have gone this way, previously run by private companies (with city support and sponsorship) but then taken over by the city and (receiving private sponsorship instead). The ones I can think of are Bike Share Toronto and BIXI Montreal both went this way in 2014 when BIXI ran into some financial problems and both cities had realized that the systems were important parts of their transportation options.
posted by urbanlenny at 9:47 AM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by urbanlenny at 9:47 AM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
In Barcelona there are plenty of expropriated and bought residential buildings now owned by the city that will be used for social housing. Most of them were formerly owned by banks, and unused.
And last year the public dental service opened here. It didn't directly take over existing services, they do still exist, but it went into competition with them.
We also have a municipal electricity provider. It started off supplying electricity only to the local government, but now is available for homes.
In Barcelona it's still a work in progress but there are lots of examples in Spain of remunicipalisimg water, this site tracks them (and includes other countries).
posted by gregjones at 9:55 AM on June 8, 2022
And last year the public dental service opened here. It didn't directly take over existing services, they do still exist, but it went into competition with them.
We also have a municipal electricity provider. It started off supplying electricity only to the local government, but now is available for homes.
In Barcelona it's still a work in progress but there are lots of examples in Spain of remunicipalisimg water, this site tracks them (and includes other countries).
posted by gregjones at 9:55 AM on June 8, 2022
>
Many municipal bus systems, at least in major US cities, in fact started out as private light rail systems. Sometimes they switched from streetcars to buses at the same time as they became publicly-owned, though in many cases they'd been sliding that way for many years.
Pittsburgh, for example, started with several independent private horse-car and streetcar systems that agglomerated into Pittsburgh Railways Co., which started to decline and converted many of its routes to buses by mid-century; after it became the Port Authority of Allegheny County (actually technically a state entity, which is how they manage the customers-outside-the-city bit), all but a couple of the remaining lines became buses.
For another example, DC's Metrobus network was originally an array of streetcar companies that conglomerated; at one point in the mid-20th Century, the purchase of the system by a new owner was conditioned by Congress on all the lines being converted to buses. I'm not sure exactly the timing of the municipalization of Capital Transit & the suburban regional bus systems and the creation of WMATA to operate Metrobus and Metrorail... though, again, because WMATA operates in multiple jurisdictions, it's an independent entity created by an interstate compact between DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Congress.
(A number of transit systems do cross outside their nominal service areas, even if not very far; for some notable examples offhand, Boston's MBTA regional rail runs all the way to Rhode Island, and SEPTA's regional rail runs from Philly up to Trenton and down to Delaware; New York's Metro North similarly runs into Connecticut. And not only does New Jersey Transit operate half a dozen rail lines and a number of bus lines into New York City, but a handful of western lines also run into the Lehigh Valley of PA. I believe all of these systems also started out as private businesses that had to be bought out by their respective states.)
——
By the way, for a current example, apparently Ann Arbor is exploring municipalizing its power company...
posted by FlyingMonkey at 12:16 PM on June 18, 2022
Municipal busses have typically been public (to my knowledge) but a lot of early light rail started private and was eventually bought by it's city.
Many municipal bus systems, at least in major US cities, in fact started out as private light rail systems. Sometimes they switched from streetcars to buses at the same time as they became publicly-owned, though in many cases they'd been sliding that way for many years.
Pittsburgh, for example, started with several independent private horse-car and streetcar systems that agglomerated into Pittsburgh Railways Co., which started to decline and converted many of its routes to buses by mid-century; after it became the Port Authority of Allegheny County (actually technically a state entity, which is how they manage the customers-outside-the-city bit), all but a couple of the remaining lines became buses.
For another example, DC's Metrobus network was originally an array of streetcar companies that conglomerated; at one point in the mid-20th Century, the purchase of the system by a new owner was conditioned by Congress on all the lines being converted to buses. I'm not sure exactly the timing of the municipalization of Capital Transit & the suburban regional bus systems and the creation of WMATA to operate Metrobus and Metrorail... though, again, because WMATA operates in multiple jurisdictions, it's an independent entity created by an interstate compact between DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Congress.
(A number of transit systems do cross outside their nominal service areas, even if not very far; for some notable examples offhand, Boston's MBTA regional rail runs all the way to Rhode Island, and SEPTA's regional rail runs from Philly up to Trenton and down to Delaware; New York's Metro North similarly runs into Connecticut. And not only does New Jersey Transit operate half a dozen rail lines and a number of bus lines into New York City, but a handful of western lines also run into the Lehigh Valley of PA. I believe all of these systems also started out as private businesses that had to be bought out by their respective states.)
——
By the way, for a current example, apparently Ann Arbor is exploring municipalizing its power company...
posted by FlyingMonkey at 12:16 PM on June 18, 2022
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posted by humbug at 8:10 PM on June 7, 2022 [3 favorites]