A model of urban growth with endogenous suburban production centers

This paper presents a theoretical model of the spatial growth of an urban area. Its primary contribution is that suburban production centers arise as small, independent landowners respond to market forces. Other models impose subcenters exogenously and require action by large developers or government agencies. The model predicts almost no undeveloped land is present in struggling cities, but urban sprawl is the hallmark of a growing metropolitan area. There is also anticipatory sprawl: even while all industrial development is concentrated in the central city, a leapfrog zone may sprout between two residential zones in the suburbs. Received: July 2000/Accepted: December 2000     

Subcentres and Satellite Cities: Tokyo's 20th Century Experience of Planned Polycentrism

This paper examines the role of subcentres and satellite cities in the patterns of growth of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, first outlining the development of metropolitan planning ideas for the Tokyo region from the 1920s to the 1990s, and then examining empirical evidence on patterns of population and employment change that occurred from 1970 to 1995 to determine the degree to which a polycentric pattern of growth has emerged. Japanese planners initially adopted European greenbelt/satellite city schemes uncritically, and then gradually adapted them to circumstances in Japan, eliminating the greenbelt concept along the way. Metropolitan plans have since the 1970s instead proposed the development of a multi-polar metropolitan region as a way of reducing travel needs and distances while eliminating the need to prevent development in intervening areas. The data on patterns of change of population and employment suggests that there has indeed been a considerable tendency towards polycentric development in the Tokyo region, although not only in the planned subcentres, and even though the core area has maintained or increased its dominance as an employment centre. The implications of these findings are then explored.     

Residential Patterns and Housing Choices of Ghanaian Immigrants in Toronto,Canada

This study examines the spatial distribution, intra-urban mobility, and housing choices of Ghanaians in Toronto, to illustrate the residential behaviour of a recent group of African immigrants to Canada. The study finds that the majority of Ghanaian immigrants live in the older and newer suburban districts of the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), with relatively few in the central cities. This finding is consistent with those of recent studies which indicate that the suburbs have become the primary reception areas for new immigrants to Canada. Within the suburbs, Ghanaians exhibit a high degree of concentration in specific areas and even in individual multi-family buildings. Analysis shows that this suburban emphasis as well as the intense local concentration is largely due to their need for affordable housing, the channelling effects of chain migration, the desire for proximity to fellow Ghanaians, and a housing search process that relies heavily on information and help from friends and relatives.     

Changes in self-containment within Melbourne, 1966–1981

Abstract

This paper explores the issues of whether the post Second World War suburbanisation of jobs and residents in large Australian cities has facilitated opportunities for outer suburban residents to obtain local work rather than travel to jobs in the inner suburbs, as was the typical case prewar. Empirical data are provided to examine this question for the case of one major Australian city, Melbourne.     

The politicisation of suburbanisation in Belgium: towards an urban–suburban divide

The electoral and political consequences of suburbanisation recently regained interest in the Anglo-Saxon literature, pointing to a growing polarisation between city and suburban fringe. This paper analyses these processes in the Antwerp urban region and shows the development of a similar electoral divide that is supported by the political parties involved. These observations add to the existing evidence that city–suburban polarisation in Belgium cannot be simply equated with the Anglo-Saxon experience, where a complete suburban fencing off from the city is observable. Rather, because of the comparatively limited development of functions in the Belgian suburbs, a suburban discourse emerges that focuses on safe and accessible cities for the suburban user, yet without much reference to its present inhabitants.     

THE TIE THAT BINDS: Downtowns,Suburbs, and the Dependence Hypothesis

ABSTRACT: Urban scholars have been debating the causal arrow of the geographic dependence of cities and suburbs. The arguments center around whether the core city depends on the suburbs for economic vitality, whether the suburbs depend on the central city, or whether a condition of interdependence prevails. This paper presents an alternative argument: The downtown area is dependent on its edge cities and suburbs. The downtown area and suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, were used as a case study.     

SUBURBANIZATION IN THE SEVENTIES: The “Push-Pull” Hypothesis Revisited

ABSTRACT: This article compares the effects of “push” and “pull” factors on decisions of white and black households without children to move from central cities to the suburbs. Unlike previous studies where the independent and dependent variables are aggregate characteristics of the metropolitan areas or individual suburbs, in this article the units are individual households and the variables characteristics of these households or the metropolitan area where they live. The data suggest that black and white decisions are affected by the same variables in the same way, and that blacks and whites are equally likely to move to the suburbs. We also find that both groups tend to move away from the central cities of metropolitan areas with large black populations and in which housing is relatively concentrated in the suburbs, consistent with both the “push” and “pull” hypotheses. However, neither racial group was apparently influenced by job suburbanization or central city crime rates, which is inconsistent with these hypotheses.     

WHY HIGHER INCOME HOUSEHOLDS MOVE TO CENTRAL CITIES

ABSTRACT: To the extent that urban revitalization depends on the attraction and retention of affluent households, it is important for planners to know why higher income movers choose central city destinations. Data from the 1983 national Annual Housing Survey are used to examine the destination choices of recent movers and their reported reasons for moving to central cities and suburbs. Contrary to expectations, no statistically significant differences exist between reported reasons for moving to cities and suburbs among higher income households; rather, former central city locations plays the most important role in predicting central city destination. Implications of these findings for policy planning are discussed.     

Do high technology agglomerations encourage urban sprawl?

This paper looks at the impact of high technology employment concentrations on urban sprawl. A methodology for translating spatial employment patterns, into place of residence patterns, is presented. On this basis, the consumption of land at the urban fringe due to both residential and non-residential uses, is estimated. The method is tested empirically using data relating to the two main outer suburban agglomerations of high technology activity in the Chicago metropolitan area. Two counter-factual situations are simulated. The first relates to a spatial counter-factual whereby the high tech concentrations develop in the city of Chicago or within the inner suburbs. The second presents an industry counter-factual that estimates the land consumption impacts arising from the development of an alternative industrial concentration in the same location. The results of the actual and hypothetical cases are compared. They point to a considerable saving in acreage in all alternative scenarios. Some policy implications are highlighted. Received: March 2001/Accepted: April 2002 Thanks to three anonymous referees for constructive criticism on an earlier draft, to Joe Persky for advice and to Tim Angell Lake County Department of Planning and Development and Bill Syverson, County Community Development, DuPage County who provided access to firm-level employment data. The work was undertaken when the author was Senior Research Fellow at the Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago.     

Urbanisation-related Landscape Change in Space and Time along Spatial Gradients near Roads: A Case Study from Estonia

The quantification of landscape patterns and the changes caused by suburbanisation processes is essential to the understanding of the causes and consequences of the human-induced spatial patterns. By using spatial gradients along main roads near cities, we attempted to quantify the influence of roads on the suburbanisation process and settlement structure in Estonia. The rapid suburbanisation process that has been influenced by the revision of planning principles and land reform has created preconditions for creation of scattered housing areas around cities. Landscape metrics gradients were calculated for three roads leading out of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Results showed that the urbanisation-related fragmentation of landscapes decreases with distance from the road. The number of buildings is highest between 100 and 500 meters from the road. Distance from the city causes less difference in fragmentation than distance from the road. Because of the land reform and revision of planning principles that took place after the Soviet period, suburbanisation has not, however, been symmetrical in relation to roads. We could not detect significant in-filling near the roads and therefore this should be under more serious consideration in planning process in the future.     

(W)Escaping the Challenges of the City: a Critique of Cape Town’s Proposed Satellite Town

Much of the current planning discourse has come to reject master planned ‘new cities’ as both unrealistic and undesirable. However, with growing urbanisation challenges in the Global South, master planned cities, suburbs and communities have come back on the agenda driven by both public and private interests. This paper explores the WesCape Development (WD), a proposed satellite suburb to be located north-west of Cape Town, South Africa. Situating the WD in a longer lineage of utopian and new city planning approaches, I argue that the proposal is deeply flawed. Rather than being the solution to the urban ills facing Cape Town, it is an ‘anti-urban’ strategy which supports suburbanisation and assumes a particular and problematic urban growth scenario. It relies on ‘environmentally deterministic’ assumptions and depoliticised and deinstitutionalised designs. Ultimately, it tries to escape, rather than confront, the operational, political and social challenges of the city leading to the devaluation of planning instruments and citizenship engagement. The WD highlights the importance and power of radical and utopian thinking as well as the necessity of grounding and situating these impulses in the specificities and complexities of the city.     

What explains unemployment in US–Mexican border cities?

The unemployment rate of US–Mexico border cities has stood remarkably higher than the US average. Using annual data from 1990 to 2005, we contrast large border MSAs (Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, and El Paso in Texas and El Centro in California) to a panel of MSAs in the same states (Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Los Angeles and San Francisco). Focusing on the industry composition of employment and population growth, we report several panel data results confirmed by error correction adjustment. First, the national unemployment rate does not help explain the local border cities unemployment but does so for the panel of large MSAs. Second, the relative employment indices have statistically significant effects only for the border panel: increases in employment concentration within an industry lead to higher local border unemployment. Third, higher population density lowers unemployment for border cities. Two anonymous referees of this journal provided useful comments on a first draft. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Quality of life in central cities and suburbs

This study shows that there has been a statistically significant shift in the quality of life (QOL) in central cities of the 25 largest metro areas relative to their suburbs since 1980. This follows actual improvement of central cities in the ‘50s, followed by steady degradation in the ‘60s and ‘70s. These conclusions are based on a statistical analysis of key variables derived from a revealed preference conception of QOL. This is an important methodological advance, since relevant variables for directly constructing hedonic measures of QOL normally are unavailable for central cities. The basic Census data used in the analysis also indicate that the observed “turnaround” is evident without respect to size of metro area within the set of 25 largest and without respect to region of the country. Received: May 1996 / Accepted: August 1996     

The post-suburban era comes to Richmond: City decline, suburban transition, and exurban growth

The Richmond, Virginia region is an example of a metropolitan area that has entered the post-suburban era. We define the post-suburban era in terms of inner suburban population loss and relative income decline, suburban employment increase, suburban outcommuting reduction, exurban population and income increase, and farmland conversion.The post-suburban era involves the maturing of many suburbs. Maturing suburbs usually increase employment within their borders. The necessity for suburbanites to commute to central cities declines. However suburban maturity also is associated with diminished capacities. Relative income decline in numerous suburbs is the most prominent feature of diminished suburban capacities. Ironically, the stage for relative suburban income decline is set by suburban job increases which expand the commuting zone 20 or 30 more miles into rural territory, greatly enlarging the zone of exurban population growth.     

Suburbs for nations? Some interdisciplinary connections on the suburban economy

This paper reviews the (primarily North American and European) literature for signs of the economic significance of suburbs. It has been common to view suburbs as economically inert. Yet as national economies have continued to grow, the bulk of urbanisation and national economic activity has been suburban. If suburbs have been important in quantitative terms to the growth of national economies, it is less clear what if any qualitative contribution suburbs have made to national economies. There is, for example, considerable uncertainty over whether the suburban economy possesses the sorts of agglomeration economies that sustain central cities. Moreover, whilst segments of what have been referred to as the ‘creative class’ continue to underpin central cities, selective out-migration from cities suggests that yet other segments may be apparent in suburbia and beyond. The inequity of private and social costs and benefits across city-regions is by now quite well appreciated. The fact that ‘the nation’ is one of the largest net beneficiaries in this inequitable pattern of growth is less appreciated but points to interesting links to be made between the economics literature, on the one hand, and the political economy literature, on the other hand. It is the latter which indicates how the economic vibrancy of outer suburbs has been licensed by nation-state restructuring in both the Fordist and post-Fordist era.     

THE POLITICS OF IMMIGRATION AND SUBURBAN REVITALIZATION: DIVERGENT RESPONSES IN ADJACENT PENNSYLVANIA TOWNS

Amidst debates over the impacts of immigration, cities and towns across the United States have alternately opposed or welcomed unauthorized immigrants. Although their “illegal immigration relief acts” and “sanctuary laws” are typically justified in terms of law and order, they also grow from divergent hopes, concerns, and assumptions about newcomers’ integration and effects on local revitalization. These issues have gained importance beyond central cities with the suburbanization of immigration and the economic decline of older suburbs in recent decades. This article explores the case of two adjacent, formerly industrial towns in suburban Philadelphia, examining local leaders’ respective rationale for seeking to incorporate unauthorized immigrants in Norristown and to restrict their settlement and employment in neighboring Bridgeport. Despite their obvious similarities, these towns’ distinct experiences of race, migration, and revitalization explain much of their divergent responses.     

上海大都市区空间结构的重构

一直以来,上海城市规划把上海大都市区的空间结构分为两个圈层,即中心城区和郊区。本文根据上海城市体系空间结构演化的规律,提出三圈层空间结构的设想,即中心城区、通勤区和郊区,认为中心城区以现代服务业的发展为主,通勤区以工业园区和大型居住区的发展为主,而郊区以发展新城为主。     

ANTI‐SNOB LAND USE LAWS,SUBURBAN EXCLUSION,AND HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

ABSTRACT: Creating housing opportunities in exclusionary suburbs for lower‐income households is an essential component of any effort to reduce the concentration of the poor and minorities in central cities. Three New England states have adopted anti‐snob land use laws in an effort to promote the development of more affordable housing in the suburbs. Those laws limit the ability of local government to use its power over land use and development permitting to effectively exclude housing that lower‐income households can afford. This research describes how those laws relate to other efforts to open the suburbs, how the laws work, and what impact adoption of the laws has had on the supply of affordable housing in exclusionary municipalities.     

Intra-urban Inequalities and Planning Strategies: A Case Study of Be'er Sheva,Israel

Intra-urban distribution of different income groups of population is arguably a function of four major determinants: (a) overall income, (b) housing expenses, (c) commuting expenses and (d) other outlays, conditionally independent of a particular location. These factors are likely to cause a patched distribution of different population groups, with predominant concentration of low-income residents in inner-city fringes, along the major transport lines. The validity of this supposition is tested using statistical data available for the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel. Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to determine the underlying patterns of intra-urban inequalities at a neighbourhood level. A number of development strategies are proposed, aimed at reducing the extent of intra-urban development disparities. These include: (i) enhancing the development of inner-city fringes as a mean of facilitating intra-urban commuting; (ii) more even distribution of public housing construction across urban areas; and (iii) establishing a system of special-purpose grants, aimed at assisting low- and medium-income residents in either renting or purchasing apartments and houses outside inner-city suburbs. It is also suggested that the distribution of property tax burden should reflect the neighbourhoods' development and welfare of residents and not be based only on physical size and structural conditions of the building, as often reflected in current practice.