Morton D. Winsberg

Changing distribution of the black population: Florida cities, 1970-1980.

Ten Florida Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas were chosen to ascertain the degree blacks were able, during the 1970s, to change their geographical distribution with regard to whites. It was found that most black population growth during the decade took place within white census tracts contiguous to tracts that were at least half black in 1970. By 1980, many of these tracts had acquired a black majority. Very little black population growth took place in white tracts distant from established black neighborhoods.

Concentration and specialization in United States agriculture, 1939-1978.

It has been hypothesized that reduced transportation costs will result in increasing concentration and regional specialization in agriculture. Yet, modern agricultural innovation would appear to reduce comparative advantage of agricultural production throughout a nation. Using United States farm sales data for 19 agricultural commodities gathered between 1939 and 1978, it was ascertained through use of the location quotient and index of dissimilarity that the farm sales of the majority of commodities had become both more concentrated and regionally specialized. Furthermore, the distribution of farm sales of most commodities has grown less similar to that of the nations population during the same period.

Are crime waves in the United States regional or national

Rates of crime rise and fall over time. It is generally assumed that these fluctuations are largely the result of local and not national factors. This study examined the fluctuation of violent and property crime rates of all 50 states in the United States and the District of Columbia individually for the period 1971 through 1991, comparing these rates with mean rates of violent and property crime for the nation as a whole during the same period. It was found that a majority of states experienced equivalent fluctuations in their violent crime rates over time, even though some had far higher annual rates than others. This was even truer for property crime. No explanation could be offered for these similarities over time among states so socioeconomically dissimilar.

ETHNIC SEGREGATION AND CONCENTRATION IN CHICAGO SUBURBS

Since World War II, the population of the city of Chicago has become overwhelmingly black, Hispanic, and Asian. Many non-Hispanic white ethnics have left their central city enclaves to live in the suburbs. Using tract data, the social distance and concentration of seven ethnic groups were calculated through use of the dissimilarity and concentration indexes. When 1960 tract data measuring social distance within the central city are compared to 1980 data for the suburbs, with the exception of the Jews, there is remarkable correlation. The Jews actually became more isolated from other ethnic groups when they moved from the city to the suburbs. Except for the Jews, in 1980 social distance between ethnic groups decreased as the median family income of the suburban tracts increased.

Religious Diversity in the Southeastern U.S.

Religious diversity—the suite of options available to believers in a given area—is an intriguing phenomenon that is under-researched by geographers, though not by other social scientists. This paper examines the geography of religious diversity in the southeastern U.S. It offers an alternative to the neoclassical economics and social ecology perspectives by employing an approach borrowed from island biogeography to explain the spatial structure of religious diversity. Regression analyses using data from the Glenmary Research Center reveal that the relationship between denomination counts and county population size is strong and consistent over a wide range of southern states. Several interpretations of the data are provided, including an evaluation of positive and negative residuals.

Non-Hispanic White Elderly in Southern Florida 1950-1980

Between 1950 and 1980 the southeastern Florida counties of Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach expanded in population from 693,705 to 3,213,147. During the period, vast social change occurred, some of it reflected in upheavals like the riots in the black ghettos of Miami or in the aftermath of the arrival of Cuban exiles. Many of these events attracted countrywide attention. But the radical spatial rearrangements of the diverse demographic groups in the three counties have received less notice, although the new settlement patterns are quite unique among U.S. metropolitan regions. This article focuses on one demographic group in the three counties: the non-Hispanic white elderly who are 65 or more years old. In 1980 this group numbered approximately one-half million. The non-Hispanic white elderly were selected for study because of their geographical isolation from younger nonHispanic white counterparts, a striking contrast with black or Hispanic elderly who remain integrated with their younger equivalents. Most of the non-Hispanic white elderly migrated to southern Florida from other parts of the United States. The majority came with sufficient economic means to exercise a wide range of choice about where they would live and in what manner. That choice was greatly influenced by the influx of other groups to the three-county area and by the white elderlys perception of local areas and neighborhoods in terms of desired physical, economic, and social amenities as well as safety from crime. The last factor weighed heavily because of the countrywide reputation of Miami as a center of drug-related crime. The relative importance of Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties as the concentration of non-Hispanic white elderly in Florida increased between 1950 and 1980, in spite of the arrival of large numbers of other immigrant groups. In 1950, 20 percent of this elderly group in Florida was concentrated in these three counties; by 1980 the proportion had risen to 34 percent. Initially this elderly group was concentrated in Dade County. With the influx of Hispanics that followed the Cuban revolution of 1959, the non-Hispanic white elderly began to move to Broward and Palm Beach counties. The proportion of this group in Dade County dropped from 71 percent in 1950 to 33 percent in 1980. In contrast, the group increased from 11 percent to 42 percent in Broward County and from 18 percent to 25 percent in Palm Beach County during those three decades. The group expanded most rapidly in Palm Beach County during the 1970s.

The Great Southern Agricultural Transformation and Its Social Consequences

The great agricultural transformation within the South began early in this century, but between 1950 and 1980 reached its greatest intensity. This transformation dislocated many lives, most particularly blacks. Whereas there was a precipitous decline in both the white and black farm population during the transformation, whites were able to enter the southern rural nonfarm population more easily than the blacks. Blacks mainly left for large cities, mostly in the North. Today southern agriculture is practiced on a far larger scale than in the past, and much of it has become highly mechanized. In areas of the regions agriculture that have experienced little mechanization, Hispanics—many undocumented and thus vulnerable to exploitation—now meet much of the labor demand. Contract labor is replacing hired because farmers find it cheaper. Despite the modernization of much of the regions agriculture, there has been little change in its geographical distribution. As in the past, many southern counties continue to depend heavily on the sale of one agricultural commodity. Today, however, it is more frequently broiler chickens than cotton or tobacco.

Urban population redistribution under the impact of foreign immigration and more recently natural disaster: the case of Miami.

Metropolitan Miami is used as an example to analyze the degree to which various new immigrant groups are either assimilating into the general U.S. population or attempting to preserve their ethnic and cultural distinctiveness. Attention is also given to the impact on population distribution of hurricane Andrew in 1992. The author concludes that the general trend is toward the preservation of separate characteristics. (ANNOTATION)

James Richard Anderson, 1919-1980

The untimely death of James Anderson on December 24, 1980 in Reston, Virginia at the age of 61 concluded a distinguished geographical career of 34 years. His life was mute testimony to the simple virtues acquired from a childhood in rural Indiana. A warm and open person, he greatly enjoyed conversation, especially about geography. He was generous of time both with his professional peers as well as his students. Field trips with him were enhanced by his profound knowledge of the rural landscape and a sensitivity to it acquired in his youth. His loyalty to his students was great, as theirs was to him, and he would go to great length to help them while in school or later. In his lifetime he held many elected and appointed offices in the Association of American Geographers and its Southeastern Division. At the time of his death he was vice president of the national association and the nominee for its presidency. Previously he had been elected to a three-year term as a national Councilor at Large. At various times he held chairmanships of the Associations Commission on Geographical Applications of Remote Sensing, Panel on Geography in Two-Year Colleges, and Publications Committee. He was president of the Southeastern Division from 1965 until 1967, and later was elected to its Executive