Metropolitan area

About: Metropolitan area is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 26029 publications have been published within this topic receiving 385648 citations. The topic is also known as: metro & metro area.

Beyond Megalopolis: Exploring America’s New “Megapolitan” Geography

Abstract: Abstract The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech identifies ten US “Megapolitan Areas”— clustered networks of metropolitan areas that exceed 10 million total residents (or will pass that mark by 2040) . Six Megapolitan Areas lie in the eastern half of the United States, while four more are found in the West. Megapolitan Areas extend into 35 states, including every state east of the Mississippi River except Vermont. Sixty percent of the Census Bureau’s “Consolidated Statistical Areas” are found in Megapolitan Areas, as are 39 of the nation’s 50 most populous metropolitan areas. As of 2003, Megapolitan Areas contained less than a fifth of all land area in the lower 48 states, but captured more than two-thirds of total US population with almost 200 million people. Megapolitan Areas are expected to add 83 million people (or the current population of Germany) by 2040, accounting for seven in every ten new Americans. By 2040, a projected 33 trillion dollars will be spent on Megapolitan building construction. The figure represents over three quarters of all the capital that will be expended nationally on private real estate development. In 2004, Democratic candidate John Kerry won the Megapolitan Area popular vote by 51.6 percent to 48.4 for President George W. Bush—or almost the exact reverse of the nation as a whole. Kerry received 46.4 million Megapolitan votes, while Bush won 43.5 million. Megapolitan geography reframes many planning and public policy debates, touching on such issues as environmental impact, transportation, and urban sprawl.

Fragmentation and the growth of local government

Abstract: An assumption of the post-World War II metropolitan reform movement was that fragmentation of metropolitan regions into multiple local governments was wasteful and inefficient, increasing the cost and size of government. More recently, ‘polycentrists’ have argued that the competition between multiple governments in metropolitan regions can in factreduce the growth in government by providing a competitive check on the excessive demands of local bureaucrats for more resources. In this article, I explore the effects of fragmentation on growth in the size of suburban municipal government budgets and in the number of services offered. Competition inherent in more fragmented metropolitan regions is shown to slow the expansion in local government expenditures and service levels.

Redefining Urban and Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000

Abstract: Results from Census 2000 continue to reveal the striking changes taking place in the nation's cities and suburbs during the 1990s. Thanks to a decade of strong economic growth, concentrated poverty in inner cities declined dramatically, homeownership rose among young minority households, and workers from abroad settled in growing metropolitan areas that had experienced little immigration to date. This second volume in the Redefining Urban and Suburban America series makes clear, however, that regional differences add texture to these broader social and economic trends. Using data from the Census "long form," the contributors to this book probe migration, income and poverty, and housing trends in the nation's largest cities and metropolitan areas. Economically, the fast-growing Sunbelt and the Midwest performed well in the 1990s, enjoying declining poverty rates, rising homeownership, and the evolution of a solid middle-class population. Cities like San Antonio, Chicago, Houston, and Columbus saw stunning declines in high-poverty neighborhoods. The story was more mixed in the coastal areas of the Northeast and West, where poverty rates rose in cities such as Boston, New York, Washington, and Los Angeles. On net, their metro areas lost residents to other parts of the United States, even as they gained workers and families from abroad. This volume provides a closer look at the unprecedented social and economic changes taking place in the nation's oldest and newest communities, and explores the implications for a diverse set of policy areas, including metropolitan development patterns, immigrant incorporation, and the promotion of affordable housing and homeownership.

The location of economic activity in cities

Abstract: A SUMMARY IS PRESENTED OF THEORETICAL ANALYSIS DEVELOPED TO EXAMINE THE STRUCTURE OF FACTOR PRICES AND COSTS WITHIN A CORE-DOMINATED CITY. THIS ANALYSIS HIGHLIGHTS THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN TECHNOLOGICAL LAGS AND TRANSPORT COST RELATIONSHIPS. THE DECENTRALIZATION OR SUBURBANIZATION OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREAS IS A FAMILIAR PHENOMENON. A MODEL DESCRIBING THE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY WITHIN THESE METROPOLITAN AREAS, ASSIGNS TO THE AUTOMOBILE A MORE MODEST ROLE IN THE SUBURBANIZATION OF METROPOLITAN ACTIVITY THAN IS FOUND IN MOST STUDIES. RESULTS ARE PRESENTED OF TWO EMPIRICAL ANALYSES OF THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR IN THE PARTICULAR CORE-DOMINATED CITY OF CHICAGO. THE ANALYSIS OF LOCATION IS MADE FOR THIS SECTOR SINCE MANUFACTURING IS THE LARGEST EMPLOYER IN MANY OF THESE METROPOLITAN AREAS AND HAS HAD THE LARGEST CENTRAL CITY DECLINE IN EMPLOYMENT.