Joanna P. Ganning

The Divergent City: Unequal and Uneven Development in St. Louis

In St. Louis, as in many other cities, decline and displacement occurred when key policies, prejudices, and plans interacted with broad economic restructuring to devastate poor and minority communities, while leaving White and middle-class communities largely intact. Amidst overall population loss and neighborhood decline are pockets of prosperity and gentrification within the central city. In this article, we analyze three significant planning interventions in St. Louis, Missouri, that spurred displacement of populations—urban renewal, triage, and the foreclosure crisis. We argue that the differential experiences of Black and White during each of these periods represent two faces of development: one in the north of the city that is largely Black, experiencing vacant land, high crime, and crumbling infrastructure; another in the south of the city that is largely White, enjoying pockets of vibrant commercial development, larger homes, and stable real estate markets. We analyze each period through a framework of uneven and unequal development and displacement, which we call the Divergent City Theory. Based on this theory, planners face an ethical obligation to plan for the future of their cities in a way that seeks to reconcile the structured race and class inequalities of the divergent city.

Linking Local Perceptions to the Biophysical and Amenity Contexts of Forest Disturbance in Colorado

Disturbances by insects have considerable effect on the heterogeneity of forested landscapes in North America. Responding to calls for bringing human dimensions of landscape disturbance and heterogeneity into ecological assessments and management strategies, this paper explores linkages between biophysical, socioeconomic, and perceptual aspects of a mountain pine beetle (MPB) (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreak in north central Colorado. Findings are presented from surveys conducted with residents of nine Colorado communities and variations in local perceptions of MPB risks and forest management attitudes are compared to indices of tree mortality and amenity characteristics. Findings suggest respondents from lower amenity communities with more recent emphasis on resource extraction and higher tree mortality had significantly higher risk perceptions of some MPB impacts, lower trust in federal forest management, and higher faith in forest industry and specific industry options than those from higher amenity communities with less tree mortality. While not implying these contextual influences fully explain such perceptual dimensions, this paper explores possible implications of heterogeneity across human landscapes for improving the saliency and efficiency of regional forest management and planning.

Do Shrinking Cities Allow Redevelopment Without Displacement? An Analysis of Affordability Based on Housing and Transportation Costs for Redeveloping, Declining, and Stable Neighborhoods

Abstract Plans and policies to combat or mitigate gentrification typically pursue affordable housing production and preservation as the primary mechanism to avoid displacement. However, it is unclear whether affordable housing financing mechanisms function as designed in weak market cities. As such, we question whether the housing-only approach is a complete one and whether increased transportation investments in redeveloping neighborhoods in shrinking cities can be leveraged to improve the lives of the poor. Our results suggest that funding for subsidized housing does not produce units affordable to the poor in declining cities, limiting the efficacy of a housing-only approach. Furthermore, we find that transportation costs make up a larger proportion of household budgets among families living in declining neighborhoods. These results suggest that transportation improvements—particularly those aimed at bicycling and pedestrian accessibility—may be the most efficient approach to mitigating displacement and improving quality of life for low-income households in shrinking cities.

Constructing a Community-Level Amenity Index

The study of amenity-driven regional change has proliferated in recent years, especially in the American West. While methods of quantifying amenity levels have progressed, they usually rely on traditional and inflexible methods of creating indices. This research note describes a method of manual indexing that allows a flexible and replicable way of assessing amenity levels for various geographic scales and research contexts. We apply this method to nine amenity-based communities in Colorado and direct researchers to resources for exploring alterations for other applications. Results show that the method permits ranking and grouping communities according to relative amenity levels.

Assessing the Feasibility of Side Yard Programs as a Solution to Land Vacancy in U.S. Shrinking Cities

Scholars have recommended various strategies to combat land vacancy in shrinking cities. Side yard programs, in which adjacent homeowners purchase vacant lots, represent one such solution. We use the case study city of St. Louis, Missouri, to evaluate this approach’s potential for reducing residential land vacancy. The analysis reveals that while demand-side issues (i.e., affordability) exist, the supply-side barriers (i.e., restrictive guidelines and inequitable or illogical pricing structures) are the larger constraints for the program’s success. In St. Louis, the program as currently structured could find buyers for approximately 10.8% of vacant residential parcels if all eligible buyers were interested. Through comparison of policy scenarios, we conclude that program policy significantly influences a program’s potential success through a range of mechanisms including restrictions regarding buyers’ owner-occupancy status, side yard lot width maximums, and pricing structure. State legislation regarding tax foreclosure auctions and elements of urban design also influence program effectiveness.

The Spatial Heterogeneity and Geographic Extent of Population Deconcentration: Measurement and Policy Implications

Theory suggests the likelihood of spatial heterogeneity in deconcentration and restructuring within regions. Measuring deconcentration for six subregions within a 65-county area surrounding Chicago, this research estimates the varying magnitude and spatial extent of deconcentration. The results allow three primary conclusions: the magnitude of deconcentration does vary across a region; while the spatial extent of deconcentration includes an outer ring of counties (metropolitan and nonmetropolitan) framing the dominant city (Chicago), it excludes more distant counties which have access to both the dominant and smaller cities, and; the set of budgetary constraints facing commuters acts consistently across the study region. Overall, the results indicate that the strict use of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan classifications obscures our understanding of mechanisms of population growth at the urban-rural fringe. The variation in the magnitude of deconcentration cross-cuts and dissects metropolitan boundaries and contains more variation than can be easily represented by two or three groups of counties. The chapter concludes with a discussion of policy implications for counties experiencing deconcentration and those which are neither isolated nor suburbanizing.

Moving toward a Shared Understanding of the U.S. Shrinking City

Scholarly work on “shrinking” cities grew following the 2010 census, resulting in a diverse body of popular and academic literature. However, this has not produced a widely accepted definition of t...

It’s Good but Is It Right? An Under-the-Hood View of the Location Affordability Index

Abstract In 2012, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the Location Affordability Index (LAI) as an online portal and downloadable data set. The LAI has elevated the U.S. conversation on affordability to include transportation and access to opportunities, and has been used in state and federal programming, by researchers, and by private households. However, although some researchers have noted concerns with and potential limitations of the data, none has provided practitioners and researchers with an under-the-hood view of the data, analysis of its reliability or validity, or its conceptual limitations. This article recommends methodological improvements dealing with issues of variable construction, aggregation, and modeling. A recreation of the LAI at the census-tract level suggests the LAI overestimates both costs and cost burden, but especially among renters, and especially in metropolitan areas. On the transportation side, model recreation requires partnership and resourcing to both gain access to restricted data and to develop a reliable database on transit supply and use.

Goals, Challenges, and Capacity of Regional Data Portals in the United States: An Updated Understanding of Long-Standing Discussions

Abstract Online participation in political processes has grown in advanced industrial societies like the United States (E. Anduiza, A. Gallego, and M. Cantijoch, “Online Political Participation in Spain: The Impact of Traditional and Internet Resources,” Journal of Information Technology & Politics 7: 4 (2010) 356–368). Experimentation and goal-setting have been done around integrating two-way communication into online GIS portals to advance online participation. Increasingly, web development information technology enables the development of these functions. However, the state of practice has not developed to support such activities. This paper relies on literature and a survey of US geoportals to provide an in-depth overview of the state of practice for such sites, including stated goals and challenges, current applications, and both technical and realized capabilities. This paper then discusses this state of practice through the lens of the development process of a new geoportal for the St Louis region. This discussion yields a response to issues raised in the literature and provides a framework for other groups that are considering development of similar sites.

The effects of commuter rail establishment on commuting and deconcentration

ABSTRACT Historians and others have chronicled the role of highway construction in population deconcentration in the United States, but little is known about whether commuter rail produces similar outcomes. This paper studies the role of commuter rail stations in population deconcentration, modelled through the relationship between in-migration and out-commuting from census tracts. It finds that increased migration in station areas suppresses population deconcentration, seemingly enabling node-based development. However, this effect does not hold across all stations. Preliminary evidence suggests that commercial development in station areas facilitates migrants working locally, decreasing deconcentration – and possibly helping regions work toward sustainability goals.