Confronting Suburban Decline

by Lucy, William H.

• ISBN13: 9781559637701
• ISBN10: 1559637706
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Island Pr

Summary

Sprawling commercial and residential development in outer suburbs and exurban areas has for a number of years masked increasingly severe socioeconomic problems in suburban America. In recent decades, income declines, crime increases, and tax base erosion have affected many suburbs to an extent previously seen only in central cities.In Confronting Suburban Decline, William H. Lucy and David L. Phillips examine conditions and trends in cities and suburbs since 1960, arguing that beginning in the 1980s, the United States entered a "post-suburban" era of declining suburbs with maturation of communities accompanied by large-scale deterioration. The authors examine: why suburban decline has become widespread how the "tyranny of easy development decisions" often results in new housing being built outside of areas that people prefer how strategic planning can help assess dangers how some suburbs have stabilized or revived how interactions between residential mobility and the age, size, and location of housing can help policy makers anticipate dangers and opportunities facing neighborhoods and jurisdictions Making the case that a high quality natural and built environment is key to achieving economic stability, the authors set forth a series of policy recommendations with federal, state, regional, and local dimensions that can help contribute to that goal.In-depth case studies are provided of Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C., along with examples from Minnesota, Oregon, Maryland, Tennessee, and other locations. In addition, the book offers information and statistics on income, population, and racial transitions in 554 suburbs in the nation's twenty-four largest metropolitan areas.Confronting Suburban Declineprovides a detailed look at the causes of and responses to urban and suburban decline. Planners and policymakers as well as students and researchers involved with issues of land use, economic development, regional planning, community development, or intergovernmental relations will find it a valuable resource.

Author Biography

David L. Phillips is associate professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables, and Maps	xiii
Preface	xvii
Strategic Planning and the Postsuburban Era	1	(20)
Suburban Poverty	2	(1)
Metropolitan Evolution in the United States	3	(1)
The Postsuburban Era	4	(2)
Why Suburbs Decline Rapidly	6	(3)
Isolation, Maturity, and Deterioration	9	(1)
The Postsuburban Era and Metropolitan Renewal	10	(3)
Mobility and Strategy	13	(5)
Plan of the Book	18	(3)
Sprawl and the Tyranny of Easy Development Decisions	21	(22)
Limiting Private Risk and Public Influence	21	(2)
Regional Strategic Planning	23	(2)
Mutual Adjustments	25	(2)
Actors' Decisions and Metropolitan Housing Markets	27	(5)
Jurisdictions' Policy Goals	32	(1)
Commuting Influences Decisions	33	(5)
Distance, Prices, and Developers	38	(2)
Sprawl, Regulations, and Risk	40	(3)
Strategic Planning: Assessing Dangers in a Postsuburban Era	43	(30)
The Role of Dangers in Strategic Planning	43	(4)
Can Indicators Help Predict Dangers?	47	(4)
Metropolitan Evolution	51	(2)
Connections among Dangers: Four Paired Concepts	53	(8)
Housing Comes First	61	(3)
Important Conditions and Leading Indicators of Trends	64	(1)
Are Predictive Concepts and Leading Indicators Used in Strategic Plans?	65	(4)
Policy Implications	69	(2)
Next Steps	71	(2)
The Postsuburban Era Comes to Richmond	73	(18)
Recent Evolution of the Richmond-Petersburg Metropolitan Area	74	(5)
City and Suburban Population Loss and Relative Income Decline	79	(2)
Suburban-Exurban Sprawl	81	(5)
The Postsuburban Era: Detailed Definition	86	(2)
The Richmond Region Meets Criteria	88	(1)
Maturing Suburbs	88	(3)
Planning Strategies and Market Results for Old Suburbs: The Washington, D.C. Region	91	(24)
Planning and Competition	91	(1)
The Washington, D.C. Region	92	(5)
Inner Suburban Revival in Northern Virgina	97	(1)
Arlington	98	(4)
Alexandria	102	(2)
Fairfax County	104	(2)
Stability in Greenbelt amid Rapid Decline Nearby	106	(4)
Owner-Occupied Housing Values	110	(2)
Planning and Housing Markets	112	(3)
Why Cities Succeed in Some of the 50 States	115	(48)
Federal Policies and States' Influence	117	(2)
Declining Cities in Metropolitan Areas	119	(1)
City-Suburb Income Pattern Explanations	120	(1)
Variations among the 50 States	120	(5)
State Policies and Metropolitan Disparities	125	(1)
Boundary Adjustment Policies	126	(1)
Elasticity and Market Basket Interpretations	127	(1)
Interpreting Disparities in Southeastern States	128	(12)
Effects of Income Disparities	140	(2)
City Strengths and Metropolitan Prosperity	142	(2)
Assets and Regions' Prosperity	144	(1)
Disparities and Other Influences on Economic Prosperity	144	(10)
Clusters of Metropolitan Areas	154	(2)
Economic Prosperity, Disparities, and Growing Cities	156	(2)
Policy Prospects and Strategic Planning	158	(5)
Patterns of Suburban Decline	163	(34)
The Era of Suburban Decline	163	(2)
Theories of Urban Change	165	(1)
Twenty-four Urbanized Areas and 554 Suburbs: Trends 1960--1990	166	(4)
Declining Suburbs: Brief Views	170	(4)
Income Transitions	174	(1)
High- and Low-Income Suburbs	175	(2)
Suburban Persistence	177	(2)
Income and Race	179	(2)
Income and Family Poverty	181	(1)
Population Decreases	182	(1)
Population and Income	182	(1)
Jurisdiction Population Size and Income Transitions	183	(1)
Income Decline and Population Change in a Metropolitan Context	184	(2)
Patterns of Income Decline and Revival	186	(1)
Income and Housing Value	187	(1)
Income and Housing Age	188	(2)
Housing Age in Rapidly Declining Suburbs	190	(1)
Housing Age Groupings	191	(1)
Was Decline Concentrated in Inner Suburbs?	192	(2)
Speculations about Influences	194	(3)
Housing and Neighborhood Decline: Struggles of Middle Age	197	(48)
Housing Age and Value	197	(2)
Housing Age and Value in 44 Metropolitan Areas	199	(5)
Neighborhood Age and Income Change	204	(1)
Income Decline in Middle-Aged Neighborhoods	205	(3)
Why Suburbs May Decline Rapidly	208	(3)
Reinvestment Challenges: Neighborhoods, Size, and Age	211	(7)
How Much Reinvestment Is Enough?	218	(1)
Anticipating Housing and School Trends	219	(4)
Balance, Equilibrium, and Sustainable Communities	223	(8)
Appendix 8.1: Indicators for Analyzing Dangers in Neighborhood and Jurisdiction Trends	231	(14)
Regional Governance of the New Metropolitan Mosaic	245	(30)
Eight Attempts to Cope with the Postsuburban Metropolis	246	(1)
Minneapolis--St. Paul	247	(3)
Portland	250	(3)
Maryland and Virginia	253	(4)
Tennesse	257	(2)
The New Urbanism	259	(4)
The Third Regional Plan of New York	263	(2)
Public Transit for the Postsuburban Era	265	(2)
Sustainable Region Incentive Fund	267	(5)
Recalling Concepts and Looking Ahead	272	(3)
Policies and Plans to Reduce Sprawl, Increase Reinvestment, and Limit Disparities	275	(16)
People, Places, and the Four Paired Concepts	275	(2)
Space and Place	277	(1)
Public Policy Alternatives	278	(1)
Gilding Poverty Ghettoes	279	(1)
Balance	280	(3)
Containment	283	(2)
Six Policies for Healthy Communities and Regions	285	(2)
Opportunities	287	(3)
A Few Essentials	290	(1)
References	291	(16)
Index	307	(14)
About the Authors	321