Bernadette Hanlon

The New Metropolitan Reality in the US: Rethinking the Traditional Model:

This paper critically evaluates the traditional metropolitan model of an urban core and a homogeneous suburban ring. Using place data from the US Bureau of the Census from 1980 to 2000, it examines 1639 suburbs from a sample of 13 metropolitan areas in the US. Poor, manufacturing, Black and immigrant suburbs are identified to show that metropolitan areas are less a simple dichotomous structure and more a mosaic of very diverse suburban places. The results suggest the need for more subtle frameworks in order better to understand the structure of contemporary metropolitan areas.

A Typology of Inner-Ring Suburbs: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in U.S. Suburbia

Inner–ring suburbs initially built in the postwar period and before have evolved into places with varied characteristics, assets, and problems. Analyzing a sample of 1,742 inner–ring suburbs nationwide, this article identifies five different types: “vulnerable;”“ethnic;”“lower income and mixed;”“old;” and “middle class.” This typology indicates that inner–ring suburbs, often perceived as homogenous entities, are in fact places largely differentiated by issues of class, race, and ethnicity. as this article demonstrates, the identification of these different types of inner–ring suburbs reveals much about suburban transformation, stability, and decline in the United States.

The decline of older, inner suburbs in metropolitan America

Abstract This article develops an index of suburban decline for 3,428 U.S. suburbs. The results of this index were used to measure the prevalence and extent of decline for older, inner suburbs and newer suburbs across the nation and in different regions from 1980 to 2000. The general pattern is one of decline in selected older, inner suburbs, especially those with housing built between 1950 and 1969 and those with increasing minority populations. Regional analysis reveals that the South and the Midwest had the highest proportion of older, inner suburbs in crisis. Suburbs with housing built before 1939 emerged as areas of continuing affluence.

The Fate of Inner Suburbs: Evidence from Metropolitan Baltimore

This paper analyzes the transformation of Baltimores inner suburbs from 1980 to 2000. After developing a geographic definition of inner suburbs, we then spatially analyze them using census place-level data. The analysis shows evidence of socioeconomic decline in Baltimores inner suburbs, but the extent of this decline varies among these suburbs. Since 1980, many declining inner suburbs had difficulty attracting new residents, White flight was the prevailing trend, and the housing stock was outdated relative to the outer suburbs. The analysis suggests three major influences on decline among the inner suburbs of Baltimore: labor market restructuring, the nature of the local housing market, and income and racial segregation. This paper concludes with a classification of Baltimores inner suburbs based on our understanding of the processes of suburban decline in the region.

A Typology of Urban Immigrant Neighborhoods

Using census data from 2000, the authors examine differentiation among urban immigrant neighborhoods in a sample of U.S. metropolitan areas. They use principal components analysis (PCA) followed by cluster analysis to identify four types of urban immigrant neighborhoods: Hispanic, White Working Class, Asian, and Gentrified. This typology describes the diversity of immigrant populations and immigrant neighborhoods across the urban U.S.

From old suburb to post-suburb: The politics of retrofit in the inner suburb of Upper Arlington, Ohio

ABSTRACT Many scholars discuss post‐suburbia in terms of the urbanization of edge cities, an evolving built‐up periphery, or as a broader trend of decline among older suburbs alongside new outer‐ring suburban growth. This article explores the post‐suburban thesis in the context of the older, inner suburb of Upper Arlington, Ohio, located in the Columbus metropolitan area. This suburb is shifting from a traditional residential community to a more complex mix of domiciliary and economic functions, a process of redevelopment we characterize as a shift from an old suburb to a post‐suburb. Based on qualitative interviews and analysis, we find that the politics of redevelopment in the older, landlocked suburb of Upper Arlington is contentious, and driven in large part by this suburbs need to overcome fiscal stress and maintain its competitive edge in the new metropolitan economy. We suggest that New Urbanist suburbanization for older, inner suburbs is influenced by their desire to remain competitive in a highly fragmented metropolis.

Hotspots for Growth: Does Maryland's Priority Funding Area Program Reduce Sprawl?

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about the ability of Marylands Priority Funding Area (PFA) program to control urban sprawl. We develop an economic-based land use conversion model to estimate if the PFA program steers urban growth to locations inside targeted growth areas within a fast-growing, exurban county. The results indicate that the size of an agricultural parcel, its distance from urban parcels, its proximity to highways, the productivity of agricultural land, and location in or outside PFAs influence the probability an agricultural parcel will be converted to urban use. We find that some of the parcels experiencing the greatest market pressure for development are located outside PFAs, and Marylands incentive-based strategy is not completely effective at preventing sprawl. Takeaway for practice: Careful design of the location of entrances and exits on and off highways, limitation of agricultural parcel fragmentation, and vigilant control of land use change in unproductive agricultural areas can limit sprawl. Our analysis highlights, yet again, the importance of communication between transportation and land use planners. Research support: The research was supported by funding from the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agroecology, Inc.

A Typology of Suburban Experiences in the United States

Abstract Suburbs are the prevailing urban form in the United States. In this chapter, we examine three eras of suburban development. The first is the mid-19th century when the early exclusive residential suburbs first emerged. We focused our examination on the benefits of nature that were instrumental in the design of these places. The second era is the period of postwar suburbanization beginning about 1945. We explore the notion of place attachment in postwar suburbs, and highlight the challenges for the elderly population living there to age in place. The third era is the latest form of suburban development, the suburban retrofit, which began about 1980. The suburban retrofit is a product of New Urbanism. In this chapter, we examine studies of New Urbanism and find certain benefits to the health and well-being of local residents. A challenge is to ensure these associated benefits are accessible to all socioeconomic groups.

Book Review: Suburbanization in Global Society, Suburban Governance: A Global View and Global Suburbs: Urban Sprawl from the Rio Grande to Rio de Janeiro

together of these households as well as those who experienced foreclosure into “displaced households” was a confusing methodological choice. As a consequence, one does not know for sure how the individual characteristics of the respondent relate to the experience of foreclosure. For example, the comparisons across tenure conditions (i.e., “owns home,” “rents home,” or “some other arrangement”) are obfuscated. More importantly, it makes interpretation of some of the book’s findings regarding geographic mobility caused by foreclosure difficult. For example, we cannot evaluate the veracity of the claim that the crisis did not force people to move very far because both those who went through foreclosure and those that did not occasionally live in the same “displaced household.” The authors conclude with a powerful—and justified— indictment of failed efforts of the federal government to help Americans who have been affected by the foreclosure crisis. They argue that mortgage lending is ripe for abuse in the absence of regulation and point out that the last time the country faced such a severe housing crisis (during the Great Depression), the federal government completely reformed the way people bought homes. In doing so, federal policy provided a crucial (although racially exclusive) tool for wealth accumulation and created the American middle class. The policy response to the recent foreclosure crisis has been ineffective. We have failed this “test of American democracy” (75). The authors echo the causal connection between rising inequality and the Great Recession made by others and argue that reducing the gap between the rich and poor is important in the long run. They also put forth several policy recommendations for short-term relief, such as a moratorium on foreclosures and the extension of unemployment benefits. Despite its limitations, Foreclosed America is a significant contribution to our understanding of what was arguably the most important economic event in the past half century. The unique data set and clear writing help answer questions unapproachable with other sources. This book provides a valuable resource for planners, housing researchers, and anyone else concerned with policy aimed at alleviating the Great Recession’s impacts and preventing future economic collapses.

The New Suburban History. Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue, editors.

The classic image of postwar suburbia as homogenous and harmonious persists in the popular imagination as well as in our historical understanding of U.S. suburbanization. The New Suburban History challenges this image by examining suburban heterogeneity and divergence. This collection of 10 essays retells the story of postwar suburbanization from new and varied perspectives. A number of studies examining racial differences (Blumberg and Lalli, 1966; Farley, 1970; Schnore et al., 1976), ethnic variety (Kramer, 1972), and class distinctions (Dobriner, 1963; Berger, 1968; Pinkerton, 1969) among U.S. suburbs emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Since these early studies, however, there have been few attempts to examine suburban variety as it relates specifically to the postwar period. Exceptions include various works by scholars in this collection. A long time coming, The New Suburban History is an excellent set of essays that provides an overall fresh critique of so-called suburban sameness and harmony. In the introduction, editors Kevin Kruse and Thomas Sugrue criticize the first suburban historians for being biased toward the study of suburbs that “fit the stereotype” (p. 3). They argue that many early scholars unduly emphasized suburban homogeneity and conformity, and largely ignored social and political conflict among postwar suburbs. These introductory remarks are echoed in Becky Nicolaides essay, “How Hell Moved from the City to the Suburbs.” In Chapter Four, Nicholaides aptly resets the tone for the entire collection, reintroducing explanations as to why suburbia was long-studied as a monolithic whole. In contrast, The New Suburban History adopts what Kruse and Sugrue refer to as “a metropolitan framework” (p. 7) where divisions between city and suburb are deemphasized as the divisive issues of race, class, and power are brought to the forefront. This is first demonstrated in David Freund’s essay, “Marketing the Free Market.” Freund offers a novel perspective on the role of federal government programs in shaping U.S. suburbia. He describes how the federal government helped convince White suburban homeowners that it was “free market forces” rather than state interference in the private housing market that led to metropolitan segregation. Freund argues that non-Whites were viewed as a threat to the stability of the property market. Following along this line of reasoning, Arnold Hirsch’s essay, “Less than Plessy” demonstrates how government intervention led to the segregation of poor Blacks in aging central cities while placing more well-to-do Blacks on the edge of Black neighborhoods or in select suburbs. As Andrew Wiese describes, middle-class Blacks did desire the suburban lifestyle. In his essay, “The House I Live In,” Wiese examines the difficulties middle-class Blacks encountered in their efforts to suburbanize during the postwar period. These suburbanization attempts strengthened their identity as Black people while reinforcing class distinctions among Blacks themselves. Issues of race and class are implicitly examined in Margaret Pugh O’Mara’s essay, “Uncovering the City in the Suburb.” This is an extremely well-written analysis of the emergence of high-tech suburbs in the postwar period. O’Mara demonstrates how these “cities of knowledge” developed in the Cold War era as places of work for white-collar professional and scientific elites to the exclusion of minority and blue-collar workers. O’Mara actively establishes that these high-tech suburbs did not emerge in a vacuum but rather evolved out of “the complex interactions of policy, economics and culture” (p. 77).