Showing papers on "Metropolitan area published in 1981"

Neighborhoods and urban development

Abstract: American cities are shifting collections of individual neghborhoods. Thousands of residents move every year within and among neighborhoods; their flows across a city can radically and quickly alter the character of its neighborhoods. What is behind all this fermentthe decline of one area, the revitalization of another? Can the process be made more rational? Can city neighborhoods be stabilized--and older cities thus preserved?This book argues that such flows of residents are not random. Rather, they are closely linked to overall migration into or out of each metropolitan area and to the way U.S. cities develop. Downs contends that both urban development and the social problems it spawns are built upon social arrangements designed to benefit the middle-class majority. Racial segregation divides housing in each metropolitan area into two or more markets. Socioeconomic segregation subdivides neighborhoods within each market into a class hierarchy. The poor live mainly in the oldest neighborhoods, close to the urban center. The affluent live in the newest neighborhoods, mostly at the urban periphery. This separation stems not from pure market forces but from exclusionary laws that make the construction of low-cost housing illegal in most neighborhoods. The resulting pattern determines where housing is built and what housing is left to decay.Downs uses data from U.S. cities to illustrate neighborhood change and to reach conclusions about ways to cope with it. he explores the causes and nature of racial segregation and integration, and he evaluates neighborhood revitalization programs, which in reviving part of a city often displace many poor residents. He presents a timely analysis of the effect of higher energy costs upon urban sprawl, argues the wisdom of reviving older cities rather than helping their residents move elsewhere, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of public and private policies at the federal, state, metropolitan-area, city, and neighborhood levels."

Places Rated Almanac: Your Guide to Finding the Best Places to Live in America

Abstract: Each of the country's 333 metropolitan areas are ranked according to the most important factors that influence the quality of life: climate, cost of living, jobs, arts, recreation, health care and environment, education, transportation, and crime.

The Conservation of European Cities

Abstract: In recent years, the conservation of neighborhoods in American cities has risen to a high priority on the national agenda The policy of demolishing whole neighborhoods in the inner city, whether to replace them with luxury apartments or massive public housing projects, has been largely abandoned, and the return of the middle class, seeking housing bargains in the neighborhoods they fled years ago, has hastened the processEurope has much to teach the United States about urban conservation: it was a pressing public concern there when in this country conservation was mainly a matter of protecting wildlife and wilderness areas The twenty-two essays in this volume--while discussing the conservation experiences of major European cities that are of considerable interest in their own right--present a preview of some of the struggles and solutions that are emerging on this side of the Atlantic as the conservation movement grows and extends into more and more urban districts "Urban pioneering" and "gentrification" are becoming increasingly common in this country as the middle class seeks--in the face of energy shortages and slower growth, especially in housing--to reclaim the core cities that so many had once abandoned for suburbiaThe first part of the book is concerned with the conflicts and struggles that have occurred over urban redevelopment in such cities as Venice, Brussels and Bath The essays in the second part of the book describe a number of conservation efforts and strategies in cities such as Bologna, Stockholm and London which have attempted integration of social and physical conservationThe emphasis throughout is on conservation in specific neighborhoods--some historic districts, others humble working-class residential areas, a few both at once--rather than on conservation at the metropolitan scale The separate essays range over such diverse topics as the impact of large-scale development projects on the existing city, the conservation of city centers and historic neighborhoods, the protection of monuments, the eviction of low-income migrants, examples of gentrification, amenity and conservation legislation, participatory action groups, social conservation strategies, and the education of children in urban conservation The editor, in his extensive introduction, brings all these themes together setting them in the postwar history of European planning, and discussing issues such as the effects of tourism on old cities, the current crisis for modern architecture and planning, conflicting views and styles of conservation, the processes of pioneering and gentrification, and the relevance of this experience to the United StatesThe illustrated case studies center on the cities of London, Bolton, Bath, Elsinore, Stockholm, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Brussels, Grenoble, Bologna, Rome, Venice, Split, Athens, and Istanbul

The stratification of metropolitan suburbs 1960-1970.

Abstract: In contrast to past findings of persistent social status in suburbs this study of 52 metropolitan regions during 1960-1970 reveals considerable differentiation and flux. We find variations between metropolitan regions in the direction and extent of change in inequality between suburbs. Inequality tended to increase in the 1960s in metropolitan regions with a highly fragmented local governmental structure and to decline in regions with fast-growing populations especially those which experienced substantial suburbanization of employment. (authors)

Transportation and Well-Being

Abstract: In large metropolitan areas of the United States, the work day routinely begins with a monumental traffic jam. Traffic congestion prevails in America primarily because commuters prefer to travel to and from work by private automobile (cf. Aangeenbrug, 1965; Catanese, 1972). In 1970, approximately 66% of the American labor force traveled to work by private car (Federal Highway Administration, 1977). Within certain metropolitan areas (e.g., Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Orange County, California), the proportion of automobile commuters ranged from 85% to 93%. Despite the recent surge and projected increases in the cost of fuel, the proportion of automobile commuters in the national work force is expected to be about 73% by 1990 (cf. Kain, Fauth, & Zax, 1977).

Land Markets at the Urban Fringe New Insights for Policy Makers

Abstract: This article reports the results of an extensive survey of owners of undeveloped land outside the Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, Sacramento, and Toronto metropolitan areas. After identifying several distinct owner types, the authors demonstrate that changes in ownership, as well as in the character and use of land, begin more than twenty years before the rural countryside is actually converted to urban use. These findings have important implications for the design and implementation of policies attempting to control or direct urban growth. In particular, the factors responsible for land turnover constrain the ability of preferential tax treatment policies and subdivision controls to achieve their goal of preserving rural land. Analysis of the survey results also suggests that carefully designed growth controls may be more effective than speculative taxes in reducing investment activity at the urban fringe. None of these measures, however, will lower the price of developable land or prevent me...

Migration and Economic Growth in the United States

Abstract: Migration and Economic Growth in the United States: National, Regional, and Metropolitan Perspectives describes the post-World-War-II behavior of selected variables that explains the evolution of urban size and composition in the United States This book is organized into nine chapters Chapter 1 provides a brief historical overview of the urbanization process in the United States In Chapters 2 and 3, certain national forces that shape the spatial distribution of population and economic activity during the postwar period are deliberated Chapters 4 and 5 elaborate the behavior of the central cities and suburban rings of 62 major metropolitan areas A model of metropolitan growth is dealt with in Chapter 6, followed by an evaluation of estimates of the model from 1950 to 1970 in Chapter 7 Chapter 8 covers a model of intrametropolitan location of employment, housing, and labor force The last chapter elaborates the employment policy implications of population redistribution in the United States This publication is beneficial to economists and specialists concerned with migration and economic growth in the United States

Interstate highway system and development in nonmetropolitan areas

Abstract: The current revival of development in small urban and rural communities is one of the more dramatic changes in socioeconomic trends in this century. Since other writers have suggested that the Interstate Highway System played a key role, this paper empirically examines the relationship between the location of freeways and migration and employment change between 1950 and 1975 in all nonmetropolitan counties in the United States by using both descriptive statistics and regression models. The results show that, while counties with freeways as a group have higher average growth rates, even after confounding factors such as proximity to metropolitan areas and presence of urban population concentrations are controlled, the presence of a limited access highway is far from an assurance of development for an individual county. Tourist services are the industry most closely associated with Interstates but, contrary to common conceptions, manufacturing and wholesaling are not clearly associated. The Interstate system was less able to explain the spatial pattern of development than nontransportation factors. Its role appears to have been to raise accessibility levels throughout the nonmetropolitan United States, which has benefited many communities, not just those adjacent to Interstates. (Author)

Extended and internal commuting in the transformation of the intermetropolitian periphery.

Abstract: This paper assesses the roles played by extended and internal commuting in urbanizing the intermetropolitan periphery by studying 4 standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs) in northeast Georgia (GA) and adjacent South Carolina (SC). Extended commuting is worker movements across county boundaries from nonmetropolitan areas to metropolitan areas. Internal commuting is worker movements such that origin and destination counties both lie within the intermetropolitan periphery. In the US nonmetropolitan population growth rates now exceed those of metropolitan areas. 2 frequent interpretations of this trend are that nonmetropolitan growth is 1) decentralized resulting from metropolitan spread and 2) partially independent of metropolitian influence. The study uses commuting destinations from the 4 SMSAs (Atlanta Macon and Augusta GA and Greenville SC) their respective central cities and selected internal or intervening opportunity centers within the intermetropolitan periphery. Extended commuting fields were identified for both 1960 and 1970 using 0 5 and 10% isolines; this paper only includes 0 and 5% isolines. There is an modest expansion of the 5% lines by 1970 for each region indicating the extension of metropolitan influence. Growth is most apparent in larger centers such as Gainseville Athens and Conyers. By 1970 the 5% isolines show extreme cases of overlapping commuting fields. Residents of such zones interact significantly with more than 1 center; therefore urbanization of the intermetropolitan area occurs both in response to metropolitan spread and the internal growth processes extending the influence of internal centers. Population growth within this nonmetropolitan area is linked to metropolitan center expansion and commuting to smaller internal growth centers plays an equally important role. 76% of county divisions within 15 miles of a metropolitan or internal growth center and 48% at distances of 15-35 miles experienced population increases over 5% from 1960-1970; 74% outside of 35 miles experienced losses exceeding 5%. Thus nonmetropolitan growth is more than just spread of metropolitan areas into nonmetropolitan areas. The proximity of the internal centers and the increasing overlap of commuter fields supports the convergence of an urban system in which the smaller urban centers become integrated through a set of horizontal linkages. Nonmetropolitan growth may reflect the emergence of such a system.

Medicaid and the Health Care of Children in Poverty and Near Poverty: Some Successes and Failures

Abstract: Recent trends in access to and utilization of health services by children living in poverty, near poverty, and higher income households in the Flint, Michigan, metropolitan area are examined. During the period under study (1973-1977), there were substantial increases in the percentage of poor childr

Redlining An Assessment of the Evidence of Disinvestment in Metropolitan Boston

Abstract: The residential mortgage activity of financial institutions in metropolitan Boston was analyzed to identify and assess patterns of disinvestment. Data were obtained from most state-chartered institutions and larger national banks on the geographic breakdown of their mortgage portfolios, recent mortgage activities, and deposits. Additional information on home sales, population and housing characteristics, and homeowner interviews were used. The measures of disinvestment were (1) mortgage-to-deposit ratios, (2) number of bank mortgage applications compared to home sales, and (3) bank-financed home sales to total home sales. Results indicate that (1) the mortgage dollars invested relative to the savings dollars deposited by residents were disproportionately low in most urban neighborhoods; (2) the proportion of bank-financed home sales was substantially higher in suburban than in urban areas; and (3) bank home mortgage lending is disproportionately lower in minority and racially changing neighborhoods. These...

The spatial structure of metropolitan labor markets and the theory of intra-urban plant location

Abstract: (1981). THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF METROPOLITAN LABOR MARKETS AND THE THEORY OF INTRA-URBAN PLANT LOCATION. Urban Geography: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-30.

Urban Community Health Education in Africa

Abstract: Africa has the fastest urban growth rates in the world. As the problems of pollution unemployment housing inadequate facilities and transportation rise comprehensive regional planning is needed through an integrated approach using both social planning at the metropolitan level and a self-help focus at the neighborhood level. Certain variables must be understood if change processes for better health are to be viable: 1) community identity 2) internal integration 3) group orientation 4) external linkage and 5) resource characteristics. The 1952 census in Ibadan showed 459196 people in 1982 it was over 1000000. There are 3 zones in the city: 1) the traditional core consisting of 1/2 of the citys population and characterized by dense population congested housing and few roads; 2) the transitional zone an interface between traditional and suburban areas in which external linkage is strongest with newer residents; and 3) the suburban periphery containing modern low density residential estates and residential communities for institutions of higher learning and in which there is little community identity with interaction restricted to a diversity of competing religious groups. In a recent study student health educators were placed directly in communities in the Ibadan area at least 2 days/week. 3 teams to each zone. In the traditional core the team worked through an active indigenous community council in 1 instance and in another was effective in improving sanitary and water conditions. In the transitional zone immigrants were organized to help solve the problems of the communities in which they worked but did not live. Attempts at suburban intervention involved building latrines in some schools. Some guidelines were then developed including: 1) work within bureaucracies of a community as identifed by the residents themselves 2) work through local interaction mechanisms such as recognized leaders and organizations 3) allow for interaction problems 4) recognize and respect existing orientations 5) utilize internal resources where possible 6) foster external linkages and 7) seek external resources compatible with community economic and cultural patterns.

Forces of change in the American settlement pattern

Abstract: The population turnaround occurred when growth rates of [US] nonmetropolitan areas began to exceed those of metropolitan regions [The authors] interpret the change to be a consequence of metropolitan spread and growth processes internal to nonmetropolitan areas The forces contributing to the current growth processes include dispersal of economic opportunity cultural preference and governmental policy Scarcity of energy and its rising cost are not likely to reverse current trends Continued growth in nonmetropolitan areas and in small metropolitan centers may produce a dispersed-city development that will coexist with the present hierarchical urban system (EXCERPT)

The census of 1980

Abstract: The author discusses major results of the 1980 U.S. census as well as several procedural issues. He examines the discrepancy between pre-census estimates and the actual census count which was higher than expected and discusses the controversies over the size of the illegal alien population and the possibility of selective undercounting. An analysis of census data shows that for the first time the population of rural areas and small towns grew faster than that of metropolitan areas. Migration to the West and South begun during the 1960s continued to accelerate. Other findings include the decentralization of population within metropolitan areas the aging of the population and differences in fertility and household size among racial and ethnic groups.

Defining hospital clusters and associated service communities in metropolitan areas

Abstract: According to traditional concepts of hospital governance, each institution is considered responsible for the care of a defined community. Evaluation of hospital performance and effective service planning both require that hospitals' service communities be identified. However, in metropolitan regions it is difficult to associate a geographic population with any one hospital because of the wide choice of facilities available to area residents. The service community concept becomes more meaningful in these regions if several hospitals with overlapping geographic communities are defined as a cluster. This paper describes a two-step method for identifying hospital clusters and their associated service communities. The first step involves analysis of patient origin data to identify logical clusters of hospitals. Three algorithms for performing this analysis are presented. In the second step, analytical findings are reviewed by a panel of area planners and hospital experts who, considering additional qualitative factors, determine how the hospitals may be most appropriately grouped. Experience in using this method for hospitals in the seven-county region around Detroit, Michigan suggests that reasonable clusters can be identified, although clusters of central city hospitals are less well-defined than those in the suburban areas.

State policies and internal migration in Asia.

Abstract: PIP: The objective of this discussion is to identify policies and programs in Asia that are explicitly or implicitly designed to influence migration, to investigate why they were adopted and how far they have actually been implemented, and to assess their direct and indirect consequences. For study purposes, policies and programs are classified according to whether they prohibit or reverse migration, redirect or channel migration to specific rural or urban locations, reduce the total volume of migration, or encourage or discourage urban in-migration. Discussion of each type of policy is accompanied by a description of its rationale and implementation mechanism, examples of countries in Asia that have recourse to it, and its intended or actual effect on migration. Several countries in Asia have taken direct measures to reverse the flow of migration and to stop or discourage migration to urban areas. These measures have included administrative and legal controls, police registration, and direct "rustication" programs to remove urban inhabitants to the countryside. The availability of public land has prompted many Asian countries to adopt schemes that have been labeled resettlement, transmigration, colonization, or land development. These schemes have been designed to realize 1 or more of the following objectives: to provide land and income to the landless; increase agricultural production; correct spatial imbalances in the distribution of population; or exploit frontier lands for reasons of national security. 1 of the basic goals of decentralized industrialization and regional development policies has been the reduction of interregional disparities and the redirection of migrations from large metropolitan areas to smaller and medium sized towns. To encourage industry to move to small urban locations initial infrastructure investments, tax benefits, and other incentives have been offered. Policies to reduce the overall volume of migration have frequently included rural development programs, the primary purpose of which is to retain potential migrants in the rural areas, and preferential policies for natives with a view toward discouraging interregional migration. The explicit goal of rural development strategies is often to slow rural-urban migration. Slowly the attitude towards migrant squatters and slum dwellers is changing from punitive to more tolerant. Several measures have been taken to accommodate migrants in urban areas and to promote their welfare.

Location of community-based treatment centers.

Abstract: Neighborhood opposition to community-based treatment centers (CBTCs) has prompted fears that these centers will become concentrated in inner city, "transitional neighborhoods." These neighborhoods are thought to lack the willingness and/or resources to oppose CBTCs. This paper examines the distribution of CBTCs in a northern metropolitan county. The findings suggest that the fears of "ghettoization" may be real only for certain types of centers. Most centers were located in higher-status city and suburban neighborhoods. However, these centers were physically or visually isolated from the surrounding housing, making them less likely to attract attention and therefore less likely to arouse neighborhood opposition.