Residential mobility and the geography of low-income households

In contrast to the traditional image of suburban communities as stable and secure enclaves surrounding a more volatile urban core, scholars have noted considerable increases in suburban poverty over the past several decades. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1999 to 2015 and a seven-category neighbourhood typology, this analysis seeks to better understand the growing economic distress of suburban areas in two stages: first by examining the degree to which low-income residents have left urban communities for suburban neighbourhoods; and second by identifying the types of low-income households that have made urban-to-suburban moves. Results show that although low-income households rapidly suburbanised during the study period, higher-income households left urban areas for suburban neighbourhoods at nearly the same rate. This finding suggests that while the overall number of economically disadvantaged residents in the suburbs has grown, population flows have had only a modest impact on the income composition of suburban neighbourhoods. Results also highlight important differences between low-income households that suburbanised during the study period and those that remained in urban communities. In particular, urban-to-suburban movers were more likely to be white, had more household resources and lived in origin neighbourhoods with fewer urban characteristics than the origin neighbourhoods of those who relocated within central-city areas.

US demography will test parties’ election strategies

Subject US suburban politics and election campaiging ahead of the 2020 elections. Significance Both parties are gearing up for the 2020 elections next November, and much of the fight for votes will take place in the suburbs. Shifting demographics and economics are making US suburbs more diverse and varied, but simultaneously more segregated and unequal. Consequently, electoral politics in the suburbs are overall turning less favourable to the Republicans, making generalisations about suburban voters’ intentions in 2020 less well-founded. Impacts Democrats will need to campaign in traditionally blue Midwestern states that Trump won in 2016. Trump’s presence on the ballot will bolster core Republican support and encourage voters to turn out who otherwise might not. Federal and state programmes that now focus almost fully on inner-city poverty will need redirection to rising suburban poverty.

NA MIRA DAS ENCHENTES: MUNDO NATURAL E POBREZA SUBURBANA (PARNAÍBA-PI, ANOS 1970) * IN THE FLOOD ZONE: NATURAL WORLD AND SUBURBAN POVERTY (PARNAÍBA-PI, 1970’s)

O presente trabalho visa compreender a natureza e suas ações no cotidiano urbano de Parnaíba, cidade do litoral do Piauí, nos anos 1970. Buscamos em meio às notícias dos periódicos locais o retrato das enchentes ocorridas no recorte em questão, bem como suas ações e problemas causados para os munícipes. Com isso, fazem parte do nosso corpus documental três jornais que circulavam em Parnaíba naqueles anos, Folha do Litoral, Norte do Piauí e Jornal Inovação. Para além, foram utilizadas ainda o anuário Almanaque da Parnaíba e o livro de memórias Cada rua, uma história, do jornalista e escritor Caio Passos (1982).*This paper aims to understand the nature and its actions in the urban daily life of Parnaíba, a seaside town in the state of Piauí, in the 1970’s. We searched through news from the local periodicals the picture of floods that occurred in the chosen period, as well as its actions and the problems caused to the citizens. Thus, three newspapers that circulated in Parnaíba during those years, Folha do Litoral, Norte do Piauí and Jornal Inovação compose our documentary corpus. In addition, the annual Almanaque da Parnaíba and the memory book Cada rua, uma história, both written by the journalist and writer Caio Passos (1982), were also used.Keywords: Parnaíba; nature; the 1970’s.

Suburban status and neighbourhood change

This article examines suburban neighbourhood trajectories from 1970 to 2010 in the 100 most populous metropolitan areas in the US within the context of discussions around suburban decline and reinvestment. A weighted composite index of neighbourhood change indicators was used to identify the relative status of urban and suburban neighbourhoods. Index values were ranked by metropolitan area, and neighbourhoods were assigned to a corresponding quartile. The quartiles formed a status trajectory sequence, categorised as Reduced, Reduced with recovery, Stable or Improved. Neighbourhood trajectories were compared across city and suburb as well as across prewar, postwar, and modern suburban types. Despite increased discussion around suburban decline and suburban poverty, suburban neighbourhoods maintained a higher status than the city, were more likely to recover from reduced status and had higher frequencies of status improvement. The majority of suburban neighbourhoods occupied the highest status ranking in all decades. Stability was the most common trajectory for suburbs, and stable suburban neighbourhoods were higher status than stable urban neighbourhoods. The findings highlight geographies of neighbourhood inequalities and contribute to our understanding of regional and suburban neighbourhood change dynamics.

Suburban revalorization: Residential infill and rehabilitation in Baltimore County’s older suburbs

This paper is a critical examination of redevelopment in the older suburbs of Baltimore County, Maryland between 2000 and 2014. Using exploratory spatial analysis techniques and qualitative methods, we identify the location of concentrated forms of suburban redevelopment, capturing incremental changes to single-family suburban homes in the form of residential rehabilitation, and new construction as well as larger-scale infill in the form of single-family subdivisions and apartments. We find that redevelopment among older suburbs is multifaceted, encompassing reinvestment in single-family housing in old elite residential suburban neighborhoods; the replacement of publicly subsidized apartment complexes with market rate, single-family dwellings in formerly industrial suburbs; the replacement of waterfront postwar housing with more expensive structures in formerly industrial suburbs; and the densification of older edge suburban core areas. The local planning regime has been instrumental in the redevelopment process across suburban types. Based on our findings, we suggest that suburban planners take a more active role in considering the potential direct and indirect displacement of low-income residents from redeveloped suburban spaces. This is imperative as inner-ring suburban devalorization occurs and suburban poverty grows.

A Tale of Hidden Cities

Hidden cities within a city? During the last decade there is a large trending literature concerning urban and suburban poverty concentration patterns. However, few are the cases where adequate data exist at a low spatial level, in order for scientists to explore that kind of socio-spatial phenomena. This paper tries to investigate the evolution of poverty within urban and suburban space, under a multidimensional framework, during a period of severe economic crisis and austerity measures. The metropolitan area of Athens is used as our case study, for which available data at a municipal level enable the calculation of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for the years 2006 and 2011. Using cluster analysis based on the MPI values, three groups of municipalities are derived within Athens. For each one of them, a mean MPI index is calculated and then decomposed. The results indicate that there is a clear spatial concentration of poverty in the west suburban areas of Athens. The urban core of the city is characterised by middle-income municipalities, whilst the north-east and the south-east suburban areas experience low-poverty indicators. Finally, the results suggest that during the economic crisis period poor areas were affected the most.

People and Places Left Behind

This article examines the unique issues faced by rural people and places in the new century, with the goal of raising the profile of disadvantaged rural populations for both scholarly and policy audiences. It begins with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. official poverty measure—based on absolute money (rather than in-kind) income—for evaluating material disadvantage in rural areas. It then considers six key features of contemporary rural poverty that distinguish it from big-city or inner-city poverty (or suburban poverty). It also places current poverty patterns in rural America in the international context, providing a comparative assessment of theory, measurement, and policy on rural disadvantage in the United States and countries of the European Union including the UK. Finally, it looks at alternative approaches to the social welfare state, to conceptualizing poverty, and to better understanding the implications for rural people and places.