Nancey Green Leigh

Intrametropolitan Spatial Differentiation and Decline of Inner-Ring Suburbs: A Comparison of Four U.S. Metropolitan Areas

This article examines the impact of metropolitan growth patterns on intrametropolitan spatial differentiation and inner-ring suburban decline in the four metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Portland, using longitudinal census data from 1970 to 2000. The findings of this study show that inner-ring suburbs were increasingly vulnerable to socioeconomic decline relative to other metropolitan subareas. In contrast, the outer-ring suburbs continued to thrive, drawing most of the new population and housing development in the context of intrametropolitan spatial differentiation. The downtowns and some parts of the inner city showed a gradual recovery from the pattern of deterioration. By recognizing the interdependence of all the subareas and applying sound, holistic policies, the public policy decision-making entities can ensure the future stability of the inner-ring suburbs as well as all the surrounding areas of a metropolitan region.

The Role of Inner Ring Suburbs in Metropolitan Smart Growth Strategies

Strengthening the effectiveness of metropolitan smart growth policies requires an understanding of the role and conditions of inner ring suburbs. Nevertheless, the issue of the deterioration of the inner ring suburbs has only recently received significant consideration by urban scholars and policy makers. In this article, the authors review the literature on metropolitan formation and the smart growth movement to critically assess how well it characterizes and explains the evolution of inner ring suburbs, as well as to emphasize the role that inner ring suburbs can play in metropolitan smart growth strategies. They next characterize the literature specifically focused on inner ring suburbs in terms of what it has to offer on defining such areas. After identifying the gaps in the literature, the authors offer a methodology for accurately defining inner ring suburbs and conclude with a discussion of policy for effectively addressing the socioeconomic needs of the inner ring suburbs within the context of metropolitan smart growth.

Smart Growth's Blind Side: Sustainable Cities Need Productive Urban Industrial Land

Problem: For many cities and planners, adopting smart-growth sprawl-containing strategies is associated with the conversion of relatively inexpensive industrial-zoned land to land zoned for mixed-use commercial and residential redevelopment. This can weaken the urban economic base, reduce the supply of good-job producing land, and contribute to industrial-sector suburban sprawl. Purpose: We expose smart growths blind side by revealing the lack of attention to urban industrial redevelopment in planning practice. We expand the smart growth dialogue by describing a) the impacts on productive urban industrial land of adopting smart policies, and b) local government measures to protect urban industry while pursuing smart growth. Methods: We review the recent local industrial policies of 14 cities and 10 practice-oriented smart growth publications with local economic development components to reveal the disconnect between urban industrial development and smart growth approaches. We compare elements of adopted local industrial policies from selected cities with commonly accepted smart growth principles to illuminate the challenges smart growth policies pose for protecting and revitalizing urban industrial areas. Results and conclusions: Our review of cities initiating local industrial policies reveals that significant amounts of industrial land have been converted to other uses as cities pursued smart growth. The smart growth literature provides little to no acknowledgment of the need to coordinate urban industrial development practices with other mainstay smart growth activities. Although development pressures to convert industrial land to higher densities and other uses persist, the national economic crisis has led to a call for strengthening manufacturing. There has also been a decline in the nonindustrial infill development that epitomizes smart growth projects. Together these trends present opportunities and challenges for city and regional planners to change smart growth approaches. Takeaway for practice: Industrial land is at risk in cities. Recent efforts to reduce this risk, such as explicit local policies to preserve industrial land and jobs while also pursuing smart growth, illustrate how challenging it is to attract new manufacturers and prevent further industrial decline in urban neighborhoods. Pursuing smart growth and sustainable urban industrial development should not be an either/or proposition, and requires approaches that explicitly safeguard productive urban industrial land and discourage industrial sprawl.

Planning, Urban Revitalization, and the Inner City: An Exploration of Structural Racism

The almost inextricable weaving together of the issues of race and inner-city revitalization presents a complex and seemingly intractable problem for urban and regional planners, scholars, policymakers, activists, and citizens. This article presents an overview of the dilemma from a city and regional planning perspective. It begins with a brief summary of basic planning theory, followed by a more detailed description of specific theories of revitalization, as well as a discussion of four of the most important forces of structural racism that confront inner cities. The article closes with a discussion of those approaches that have shown some promise and with suggestions for potential new approaches that will promote successful inner-city revitalization and reduce the isolation and deprivation of racial minorities inhabiting America’s cities.

Modeling the relationship among brownfields, property values, and community revitalization

Abstract The main focus in redeveloping brownfields is on the most marketable properties, typically found in the healthiest urban neighborhoods. As evidenced by the rapid redevelopment that many communities are experiencing, this approach is helping to return brownfields to productive use. Yet not all brownfields are being cleaned up, nor are there enough resources to do so soon. Thus, from the perspective of community revitalization and of economic justice, we need to ask whether it matters which properties in which neighborhoods are receiving these scarce funds. That is, does the existence of brownfields in a neighborhood affect residential property values and capacity for revitalization? To answer these questions, we use hedonic modeling to determine the impact of brownfields on property values in Atlanta and Cleveland. Our results suggest that short‐term economic efficiency is neither the most appropriate nor the only criterion on which to base public investment decisions for remediation.

Deconstructing to Redevelop: A Sustainable Alternative to Mechanical Demolition: The Economics of Density Development Finance and Pro Formas

Abstract During redevelopment, dilapidated and obsolete buildings must often be removed to make way for new construction. One way to achieve this is through deconstruc-tion, selectively disassembling buildings rather than demolishing them mechanically. This approach can yield new jobs, workforce skills training, and small business development, and can conserve natural resources. Thus deconstruction may meet the goals of sustainability by making optimal use of existing economic, physical, and social resources. In this article, we consider existing and potential policies that support the use of decon-struction in redevelopment projects.

How Many Brownfields Are There? Building an Industrial Legacy Database

The United States began to respond to environmental contamination in 1980 with the passage of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This legislation was specifically established to address the problems associated with land contamination. It assigned responsibilities for cleanup and provided mechanisms for enforcement. Unfortunately, the environmental legislation that has developed over the last two decades—in an effort to safeguard the health of humans and other species—has had the unintended consequence of significantly increasing the diff iculties encountered in redeveloping central city properties with previous industrial and/or commercial uses. These properties have been given the label “brownfields” to distinguish them from never-before-devel oped sites, or, greenfields. Planners, land and economic developers, as well as local elected officials seeking to engage in central city redevelopment, are finding that they do not have a level playing field relative to greenfield sites because of the legal, technical, and financial hurdles that must be overcome to develop brownfield sites. As a result, central cities are saddled with yet another force (in addition to poor schools and services, higher crime and unemployment rates, and

New Insights into Electronic Waste Recycling in Metropolitan Areas

Electronic waste (e‐waste) recycling is a critical sector for sustainable urban industrial systems. U.S. residents and businesses generate an estimated 3.2 million tons of electronic waste each year; most is not recycled and is generated in urban areas. However, adoption of state environmental regulations for e‐waste recycling is increasing. Between 2003 and mid‐2011, 25 states passed e‐waste laws. There are a growing number of e‐waste collectors and certified processors in U.S. urban areas. While the landscape of e‐waste recycling is changing, there is little analysis on the economic impacts of this industry. The research presented here synthesizes e‐waste management policy developments and growth of the e‐waste recycling industry. We present an economic impact analysis at the metropolitan level through constructing an extended input‐output (IO) model that specifies an e‐waste recycling sector. In a case study, we examine changes in e‐waste recycling activities in the Seattle metropolitan area and provide simulation results of new regional economic impacts.

Income Inequality and Economic Development

This review essay examines the economic development fields approach to the issue of income inequality—an issue that is one of the fields greatest and most enduring challenges. Only academic (or policy and research) circles pay much attention to the measurement of income inequality, and this essay reviews four recent book-length treatments of the subject. These books demonstrate that this attention tends to be greatest at the national level and rare at the local level. There is a need to instill a general concern over the issue of inequality at the local and practitioner levels of economic development as the trends of recent decades reviewed here document increasing income inequality.

A Framework for Geographically Sensitive and Efficient Recycling Networks

This paper has three primary objectives. First, it seeks to demonstrate that recycling is an important component of sustainable human systems, particularly in the case of electronics, where environmental impacts of disposal are potentially severe. Second, it presents a methodology that could be used to estimate the volumes of electronics or other consumer durable goods that are available for recycling. Third and last, it illustrates, through a case study of Atlanta focused on computers, that metropolitan areas may fruitfully be viewed as opportune centres from which to mine, recycle and reuse cast-off electronic goods. From an environmental and economic development policy perspective, doing so presents an important opportunity to provide new economic opportunities in the most distressed portions of metropolitan areas which have been disproportionately impacted by previous environmentally destructive industrialization practices.