Showing papers on "Metropolitan area published in 2001"

Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition

Abstract: The following text is taken from the publisher's website: "Splintering Urbanism offers a path-breaking analysis of the nature of the urban condition at the start of the new millennium. Adopting a global and interdisciplinary perspective, it reveals how new technologies and increasingly privatised systems of infrastructure provision - telecommunications, highways, urban streets, energy, and water - are supporting the splintering of metropolitan areas across the world. The result is a new 'socio-technical' way of understanding contemporary urban change, which brings together discussions about: * globalisation and the city * the urban and social effects of new technology * urban, architectural and social theory * social polarisation, marginalisation and democratisation * infrastructure, architecture and the built environment * developed, developing and post-communist cities."

The regional city: planning for the end of sprawl.

Abstract: Most Americans today do not live in discrete cities and towns, but rather in an aggregation of cities and suburbs that forms one basic economic, multi-cultural, environmental and civic entity. These "regional cities" have the potential to significantly improve the quality of our lives-to provide interconnected and diverse economic centres, transportation choices, and a variety of human-scale communities. In The Regional City, two of the most innovative thinkers in the field of land use planning and design offer a detailed look at this new metropolitan form and explain how regional-scale planning and design can help direct growth wisely and reverse current trends in land use. The authors: - discuss the nature and underpinnings of this new metropolitan form - present their view of the policies and physical design principles required for metropolitan areas to transform themselves into regional cities - document the combination of physical design and social and economic policies that are being used across the country - consider the main factors that are shaping metropolitan regions today, including the maturation of sprawling suburbs and the renewal of urban neighbourhoods Featuring full-colour graphics and in-depth case studies, The Regional City offers a thorough examination of the concept of regional planning along with examples of successful initiatives from around the country. It will be must reading for planners, architects, landscape architects, local officials, real estate developers, community development professionals, and for students in architecture, urban planning, and policy.

Urban Form and Thermal Efficiency: How the Design of Cities Influences the Urban Heat Island Effect

Abstract: This article presents findings from a study on residential development patterns and urban heat island formation in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan region. High-resolution thermal imagery collected by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) is used in conjunction with parcel-level tax records to examine the interaction between the design of single-family residential parcels and the emission of radiant heat energy. Results from a path analysis illustrate that lower density patterns of residential development contribute more radiant heat energy to surface heat island formation than higher density development patterns within the Atlanta region. Compact moderate-to-high-density new construction and area-based tree ordinances are recommended as policy strategies for mitigating the effects of urban development on regional climate change.

Search, Sorting, and Urban Agglomeration

Abstract: Studies have suggested that urban agglomeration enhances productivity by facilitating the firm‐worker matching process This article develops a model that formalizes this notion and demonstrates that, when firm capital and worker skill are complementary in production, urban agglomeration will tend to generate more efficient, yet segregated matches As a result, not only will local market size be positively associated with average productivity, it will also generate greater between‐skill‐group wage inequality and a higher expected return to skill acquisition Recent data from the counties and metropolitan areas of the United States is consistent with each of these implications

Decentralized Employment and the Transformation of the American City

Abstract: This paper examines the decentralization of employment using zip code data on employment by industry. Most American cities are decentralized on average less than 16 percent of employment in metropolitan areas is within a three mile radius of the city center. In decentralized cities, the classic stylized facts of urban economics (i.e. prices fall with distance to the city center, commute times rise with distance and poverty falls with distance) no longer hold. Decentralization is most common in manufacturing and least common in services. The human capital level of an industry predicts its centralization, but the dominant factor explaining decentralization is the residential preferences of workers. Political borders also impact employment density which suggests that local government policies significantly influence the location of industry.

Efficient Urbanisation: Economic Performance and the Shape of the Metropolis:

Abstract: The influences of urban form and transport infrastructure on economic performance show up in several contemporary policy debates, notably 'sprawl versus compact city' and in the developing world, the future of mega-cities. This paper probes these relationships using two scales of analysis. At the macro scale, an econometric analysis using data across 47 US metropolitan areas reveals that employment densities and urban primacy are positively associated with worker productivity, suggesting the presence of agglomeration economies. Congested freeways are shown to be a consequence of strong economic performance. An intrametropolitan analysis using data on sub-districts of the San Francisco Bay Area generally reinforces the findings of the macro-scale analysis. In the Bay Area, labour productivity appears to increase with size of labour-marketshed and high accessibility between residences and firms. Higher employment density and well-functioning infrastructure also contribute positively to economic performance.

A Spatial Analysis of Job Openings and Access in a U.S. Metropolitan Area

Abstract: This article presents a study of spatial distribution of job openings and spatial variation in job accessibility in the Boston Metropolitan Area. The most striking finding is that despite decades of employment decentralization, job openings suitable for less-educated job seekers are still relatively concentrated in the central city. This is due to the fact that the great majority of job openings are vacancies resulting from turnover, the spatial concentration of which reflects the spatial concentration of current employment. A related finding is that for a given transportation mode, less-educated job seekers who reside in the central city still have, on average, somewhat better access to job openings than those who reside at the periphery of the metropolitan area. However, accessibility differentials among locations are small as compared to accessibility differentials between transportation modes. For job seekers who can travel by car, the majority of residential locations will allow them to have...

Melting Pot Suburbs: A Census 2000 Study of Suburban Diversity

Abstract: ■Minorities were responsible for the bulk of suburban population gains in a majority of the metro areas studied. Minority population gains were most pronounced in the 35 diverse melting pot metros, and in areas in the South where black and Hispanic populations increased. Many of the melting pot metros had drops in the white suburban population in the 1990s. ■Asians are more likely to live in major metropolitan suburbs than in cities. Almost half of Hispanics and 39 percent of blacks in the metropolitan areas surveyed live in the suburbs.

The changing profile of Mexican migrants to the United States : New evidence from California and Mexico

Abstract: Using recent data from southern California and Mexico, we challenge the notion that the demographic profile of Mexican migrants to the United States since 1970 has remained constant. We find that more recent cohorts of migrants are more likely to settle permanently in the United States, to have higher proportions of females, to be younger, to have more education, to be increasingly likely to originate in southern Mexico and the Mexico City metropolitan area, and to be increasingly likely to depart from urban areas within Mexico. Although we find no direct evidence that the legalization programs mandated by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 has led to a stronger propensity to settle permanently in the United States, logistic regression analyses demonstrate the importance of the other three main explanatory factors suggested by Wayne Cornelius in 1992: economic crisis in Mexico, the changing character of U.S. demand for labor, and social networks

Prospects for Regional Governance under the New Regionalism: Economic Imperatives versus Political Impediments

Abstract: Over the past two decades or more, advocates of the new regionalism have called for the creation of new forms of regional governance in America. These writers have shifted the rationale for regional governance from issues of efficiency and equity that characterized an earlier literature on regionalism (i.e., the metropolitan reform school) to that of regional economic competitiveness. In this article, I examine the diagnoses and prescriptions of the metropolitan reformers and the new regionalists. I offer a definition of regional governance more in keeping with the older tradition of political science and distinctly at odds with that of the new regionalist. Then I present what I believe are the principal factors that make the achievement of regional governance in American metropolitan areas very close to impossible. My argument, as indicated by the title of this article, is that political impediments overwhelm economic arguments for achieving meaningful regional governance.

The Effects of Housing Prices, Wages, and Commuting Time on Joint Residential and Job Location Choices

Abstract: An empiricalmodelof joint decisions of where to l and where to work demonstrates that individuals make residential and job location choices by trading off wages, housing prices, and commuting costs. Wages are higher in metropolitan markets, but housing prices are also higher in urban areas. Consumers can live in lower priced nonmetropolitan houses and still earn urban wages, but they incur commuting costs that increase with distance from the city. Improvements in transportation that lower commuting time will increase nonmetropolitan populations and will increase the number of nonmetropolitan commuters to metropolitan markets. Equal wage growth across labor markets causes a shift in relative population from rural to urban markets, while an equiproportional increase in housing prices causes a population shift toward rural areas.

Metropolitan development in a transitional socialist economy: Spatial restructuring in the Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract: The dynamic of globalisation and urban change in Europe and North America has been extensively documented. Relatively little is known about the processes and consequences of spatial restructuring in metropolitan regions within the context of a transitional socialist economy. This study investigates economic restructuring and spatial transformation in one of the most dynamic metropolitan regions in China. Deregulation of the post-reform socialist central state has allowed Chinese peasants to diversify agricultural production and to industrialise the rural economy according to various personal strengths and the changing market demand. Despite the rapid commercialisation and industrialisation of the regional economy, there has been no growing concentration of population and production facilities in large cities. The loci of accelerated economic growth, increased population mobility and massive land-use transformation have been in the intermediate zones surrounding and between metropolitan centres. Rapid expa...

The Structure of Sprawl: Identifying and Characterizing Employment Centers in Polycentric Metropolitan Areas

Abstract: WILLIAM T. BOGART [*] ABSTRACT. This paper applies a consistent framework to four comparably sized metropolitan areas to identify and characterize their employment centers. Employment centers are identified as places that exceed a threshold employment density and a threshold employment level. They are also characterized as specializing on the basis of location quotient analysis. We find clear evidence of specialization in every employment center in the four metropolitan areas studied. Our interpretation is that what we are observing is a systematic change in metropolitan structure rather than a random sprawling of firms. We also find some evidence that the size distribution of employment centers follows the rank-size rule. This suggests that there is structure not only in the distribution of economic activity among the employment centers but also in their size distribution. Because less than 50 percent of metropolitan employment is within employment centers, future research should focus on understanding the more diffuse employment patterns. The rank-size rule gives some guidance as to the expected size distribution of employment throughout the metropolitan area. I Introduction The sweeping changes in metropolitan structure in the United States have led many to decry urban sprawl as a blight on the landscape. However, it is possible that much of this metropolitan decentralization has not been sprawl in the sense of random scattering of people and firms but rather a change in structure to reflect changing technology and preferences. A growing literature in urban economics looks for common features of decentralized metropolitan areas. This paper applies a consistent analytical framework to four comparably-sized metropolitan areas (Cleveland, Indianapolis, Portland, and St. Louis) to identify and characterize their employment centers. Employment centers are identified as places that exceed a threshold employment density and a threshold employment level. They are then characterized as specializing on the basis of location quotient analysis. If decentralization is occurring randomly, then we should find that some or all of the employment centers are not identified as specialized. We find, to the contrary, clear evidence of specialization in every employment center in these four metropolitan areas. There is also some evidence that the size distribution of employment centers follows the rank-size rule. Theoretical models of urban growth are now expected to generate the rank-size rule for city size distributions. Our finding that the rank-size rule holds for intrametropolitan size distributions suggests that it is possible that similar processes govern the growth and development of the parts of a metropolitan area as govern the growth and development of the metropolitan area as a whole. II Identifying Employment Centers An employment center is an area with both a high density and high quantity of employment. We use the transportation analysis zone (TAZ) as the geographical unit of analysis. A TAZ is composed of one or more census blocks, with the borders being supplied to the U.S. Census Bureau by the metropolitan planning organization in each metropolitan area. Our data are thus a snapshot of metropolitan structure in 1990. An interesting task for future research will be to link these snapshots (even at ten-year intervals) to better understand the dynamic processes driving metropolitan structure. The methodology developed by Giuliano and Small (1991) in their study of Los Angeles requires identifying TAZs with dense employment, combining adjacent employment-dense TAZs into groups, and measuring total employment in the groups. An employment center is defined as a cluster of contiguous TAZs, all with gross employment density exceeding some minimum D, and with total employment exceeding some minimum E. McMillen and McDonald (1998) and Bogart and Ferry (1999) use this methodology to study Chicago and Cleveland respectively. …

The Internet and the Rise of the New Network Cities, 1969–1999

Abstract: The recent rapid growth of the Internet has avoided scrutiny from urban planners as little information is available from which to assess its impacts on cities and regions. As a result, explanations of the relationship between telecommunications and urban growth are overly simplistic, forecasting either the centralization of decision-making in so-called ‘global’ cities or wholesale urban dissolution. Based on two measurements of Internet geography—domain name registrations and backbone networks—this study finds that access to advanced communications technologies have broadly diffused across a wide group of medium-sized and large-sized metropolitan areas. Finally, the implications of these findings suggest a need to rethink global cities and a practical need to address the growing divide between network cities and the rest of the urban world.

The Causes of Regional Variations in U.S. Poverty: A Cross-County Analysis

Abstract: The persistence of poverty in the modern American economy, with rates of poverty in some areas approaching those of less advanced economies, remains a central concern among policy makers. Therefore, in this study we use U.S. county-level data to explore potential explanations for the observed regional variation in the rates of poverty. The use of counties allows examination of both non-metropolitan area and metropolitan area poverty. Factors considered include those that relate to both area economic performance and area demographic composition. Specific county economic factors examined include economic growth, industry restructuring, and labor market skills mismatches.

Immigration, Globalisation and House Prices in Canada's Gateway Cities

Abstract: This paper begins by examining house price movements in eight metropolitan areas in Canada between 1971 and 1996. At the start of this period there was considerable conformity in price levels among the eight centres, but by the mid-1990s wide disparity in the price structure had emerged, with Vancouver and Toronto (and their satellites) having broken away from the rest as a result of rapid price inflation after 1985. At the same time, the cities showing the most marked gains also suffered the heaviest losses during economic downturns. The geography and timing of rapid price inflation coincided with the onset of heavy and concentrated immigration in Toronto and Vancouver after 1985, and the remainder of the paper considers the relations in these cities between price change and globalisation in general, immigration in particular. In both cities, and especially Vancouver, aside from growth in the provincial GDP, conventional regional and national factors seem to have declining significance in accounting for ...

The use of drugs within the techno party scene in European metropolitan cities.

Abstract: In 1998, a total of 3,503 visitors of techno parties in Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Prague, Rome, Vienna and Zurich were interviewed. With this data, a subtly differentiated portrait of the techno part

Quantifying the urban gradient: Linking urban planning and ecology

Abstract: Ecologists have suggested that ecological conditions in urbanizing landscapes can be described by a complex urban-to-rural gradient (McDonnell and Pickett 1990). The gradient paradigm offers a useful framework to test hypotheses on the impacts of urban development on ecological processes. These studies, however, tend to simplify the actual urban structure into monocentric agglomerations characterized by concentric rings of development surrounding a dense core. The assumption of gradient analysis is that the overall urban exposure changes predictably with distance from the urban core. Due to such simplification, current gradient studies fail to capture the effects of alternative urban development patterns on ecological processes. In this paper we argue that urban-to-rural gradients cannot be represented by the distance from the urban core. Rather they can best be described using a series of pattern metrics that link urban development to ecological conditions. Based on an analysis of land-use and land-cover patterns in the Seattle metropolitan area we propose a strategy to quantify urban patterns. We examine the behavior of various pattern metrics and propose a set of metrics useful to test formal hypotheses on the relationships between urban patterns and ecological disturbances. Finally, we discuss the implications of this empirical study for gradient analysis of metropolitan areas and for future urban ecological research.

Home Run or Wild Pitch?: Assessing the Economic Impact of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game

Abstract: Major League Baseball has rewarded cities that build new baseball stadiums with the chance to host the All-Star Game. Although the league asserts a significant boost to metropolitan economies due to the game, are these economic impact estimates published by the league credible? In two separate economic impact models, the authors find that All-Star Games since 1973 are actually associated with worse than expected economic performance in host cities.

Does sprawl reduce the black/white housing consumption gap?

Abstract: Because unplanned suburban growth imposes social costs such as congestion, pollution, and reduction of open space, antisprawl policies are being adopted in fast‐growing metropolitan areas. This article explores one potential benefit of sprawl: It increases housing affordability, which may contribute to reducing the black/white housing consumption gap. The article uses 1997 American Housing Survey data to measure housing consumption for blacks and whites in metropolitan areas characterized by more and less sprawl. In sprawled areas, black households consume larger units and are more likely to own their homes than black households living in less sprawled areas.

The barriers to using urban infill development to achieve smart growth

Abstract: The smart growth movement of the 1990s has seen many development and planning associations, state and local governments, and the Clinton administration encourage significant infill development to control sprawl and promote revitalization. Will the 123 million projected increase in population in the next 50 years be attracted to infill development or to outlying growth areas? A review of 22 major central cities shows that they captured only 5.2 percent of total new metropolitan housing permits over the decade: 2.2 percent of single‐family pemits and 14.9 percent of multifamily permits. This analysis identifies the practical barriers to urban infill development, including land assembly and infrastructure costs, unwillingness to condemn, municipal social goal and regulatory policies, difficulty of finding developers, complexities of public‐private partnerships, excessive risks, resistance from local residents, and stakeholder conflicts and political constraints. While supporting infill, smart growth...

Skateboarding: The City as a Playground

Abstract: Young people make a significant contribution to the economic and social vitality of city centres in the UK, yet others often frown upon their presence and activities. Skateboarders are a particular group of young people who make use of the urban fabric for their own activities. Why they use particular locations within a city centre is the question underlying the research reported in this paper. Following a series of small focus group discussions in three metropolitan cities in the UK the conclusion is drawn that the spaces young people choose to use afford opportunities for skateboarders because of their accessibility, sociability and compatibility, and the opportunities they offer for tricks.

Appraising the anatomy and spatial growth of the Bangkok Metropolitan area using a vegetation-impervious-soil model through remote sensing

Abstract: In this study, Landsat 5-TM data were used to map urban land classes and the changes that occurred within them over a period of six years. The land classes were identified by Landsat 5-TM scenes taken in the same season in 1988 and 1994. The phenomena of land class changes were evaluated by adopting two remote sensing approaches, namely mapping and modelling, in a case study of the Bangkok Metropolitan area of Thailand. The quantitative results of changes, which were computed from a post-classification method, were used to analyse the pattern of changes in the urban land classes. The change-detection analysis indicated that 2% of agricultural land was lost, and there was a 14% increase in the commercial areas. The results demonstrated that the pattern of change in the urban land classes in Bangkok was that of agriculture lands to open lands; open lands to residential, and residential to commercial. The highest commercial land growth was observed in the high-density residential areas along main roads and t...

Are Whites Still Fleeing? Racial Patterns and Enrollment Shifts in Urban Public Schools, 1987–1996

Abstract: The effect of interracial contact in public schools on the enrollment of whites has been an important concern in assessments of desegregation since the 1970s. It has been feared that “white flight”—meaning exit from or avoidance of racially mixed public schools—could undermine the racial contact that desegregation policy seeks to enhance. This study examines this question using recent data. It also expands coverage from large urban districts to entire metropolitan areas, paying attention to the spatial context within which enrollment decisions are made. To do so, it examines data for 1987 and 1996 on racial composition and enrollment in all schools and school districts in 238 metropolitan areas. The study finds that white losses appear to be spurred both by interracial contact in districts where their children attend school and by the opportunities available in metropolitan areas for reducing that contact. These findings apply with remarkable consistency to large and small districts in both large and small metropolitan areas. Implications for metropolitan segregation are examined. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Effectiveness of Barriers at Suicide Jumping Sites: A Case Study:

Abstract: Objectives: Suicide safety barriers were removed from a central city bridge in an Australasian metropolitan area in 1996 after having been in place for 60 years. The bridge is a known suicide site and is located adjacent to the region's largest hospital, which includes an acute inpatient psychiatric unit. This paper examines the impact of the removal of these barriers on suicide rates.Method: Data for suicide deaths by jumping from the bridge in question, from 1992to 2000, were obtained from the regional City Police Inquest Office. Data for suicide deaths by jumping from other sites in the metropolitan area in question, from 1992 to 1998, were obtained from the national health statistics database. Case history data about each suicide death by jumping in the metropolitan area in question, from 1994 to 1998, were abstracted from coronial files held by a national database.Results: Removal of safety barriers led to an immediate and substantial increase in both the numbers and rate of suicide by jumping from t...

Uneven Redevelopment: New Urban Policies and Socio-Spatial Fragmentation in Metropolitan Bilbao

Abstract: Since the mid 1980s, European cities and regions have become increasingly concerned with competitive restructuring and economic growth. This concern goes hand in hand with a rediscovery of the central role of cities in the performance of regional and national economies as a whole. But, in a context of radical transformation of production and demand conditions globally, the performance of cities is mediated by their capacity to lead a process of competitive redevelopment. To meet the challenges posed by the changing global competitive climate, the policy agenda of many cities has been drastically reorganized. On the one hand, the search for growth has transformed urban revitalization in one of the main domains of urban intervention. On the other, the new urban policy agenda is singularly framed in a language of competitiveness, improved efficiency, flexibility, entrepreneurship, partnership and collaborative advantage that underwrite the remaking of planning objectives, functions and instruments.In this ar...

Metropolitan Innovation Systems: Theory and Evidence from Three Metropolitan Regions in Europe

Abstract: 1 Systems of Innovation: An Attractive Conceptual Framework for Comparative Innovation Research.- 2 The Vienna Metropolitan System of Innovation.- 3 The Barcelona Metropolitan System of Innovation.- 4 The Stockholm Metropolitan System of Innovation.- 5 A Retrospect.- Appendix: A The Vienna Metropolitan Innovation System.- Appendix: B The Barcelona Metropolitan Innovation System.- Appendix: C The Stockholm Metropolitan Innovation System.- References.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.- Author Index.