Central City Locations Research Articles

U.S. Housing: Determinants of Structural Adequacy and Crowding

This paper studies structural adequacy and crowding as dimensions of housing quality. American Housing Survey of Metropolitan Areas data for seven metropolitan areas, Atlanta (Georgia), Baltimore (Maryland), New York (New York), St. Louis (Missouri), San Diego (California), Seattle (Washington), and Washington D.C. are analyzed using a logit model to determine the factors that influence structural adequacy and crowding. We report the prevalence of structural adequacy and crowding in the seven metropolitan areas. A logit model of the determinants of structural adequacy and crowding is specified and estimated. The data reveal that there exist significant disparities in housing quality across metropolitan areas and population groups by race, household type, tenure, and central city or suburban location. The results of the logit analysis indicate that even after statistically adjusting for many factors, race, tenure, location, household type, age of the structure and income are significant in determining housing quality. We find that while structural adequacy has stronger economic and engineering determinants, such as, income, vehicle ownership, unit type and age of the building, crowding has stronger cultural and life-cycle determinants, such as, race, education and presence of young children.

Changes in the Distribution of Banking Offices

The past twenty years have been marked by major structural and regulatory changes in the banking industry. This article explores the relationships between these changes and the distribution of "brick and mortar" banking offices between 1975 and 1995. The analysis explores how population shifts, deregulation, and mergers, acquisitions, and failures may have influenced changes in the number and location of banking offices. Special attention is given to changes in banking office distributions across neighborhoods grouped by the median income of their residents and their central city, suburban, or rural location.

Unmet Housing Needs: The Role of Mortgage Markets

Regulatory efforts aimed at financial institutions to address the needs of depressed neighborhoods go back to at least the 1970s when the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) was passed. The GSE Act of 1992 represents the most recent effort of this type. This study aggregates mortgage credit flow measures at the census tract level and examines the basic flows motivated by the studies used to support CRA. The regression results indicate that income and minority status are better indicators of areas with potential special needs than is central city location, the vintage, or the structural type of housing.

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE COMMUTING BEHAVIOR OF WOMEN IN BUFFALO, 1980-1990

Disagreement persists about whether or not African American workers in U.S. metropolitan areas are more distant from centers of employment opportunities than European American workers are. But few studies on employment accessibility focus on racial differences among women. Analyses of 1980 and 1990 census Public Use Microdata Samples for Erie County (Buffalo), New York show that, by 1990, African American and European American women who use private vehicles generally spend about the same time commuting. However in both years, work trips to destinations outside the central city penalize African American women relative to European American women. If employment opportunities, especially service jobs, continue to expand in suburban locations and not in central-city locations, the African American women who have to reverse commute (even when they use a car) are unlikely to enjoy the relative convenience of short commutes that characterize the journey-to-work behavior of European American women with suburban employment.

THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL

ABSTRACTGraffiti can be a marker of territory. Youthful grafffiti writers in Auckland have adopted ‘tagging’, a form of graffiti writing linked to the Americanisation of popular culture in New Zealand. Regularities in the presence of ‘tags’ are documented through field observation in suburban and central city locations and related to the daily activities of the taggers. Self‐proclamation, not the marking out of turf appears to underlie the territorial dimensions of graffiti in Auckland's urban space.

Two Approaches to School Desegregation and Their Impacts on City-Suburban Choice: Cincinnati, Ohio, and Wilmington, Delaware

: This paper employs step wise multiple regression to test the effectiveness of combined city-suburban school districts in increasing the willingness of families with children to choose central city locations. Over 5000 recent homebuyers in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), Ohio, and New Castle County (Wilmington), Delaware, were surveyed. New Castle County had combined city-suburban school districts and families living there were expected to be more likely to choose the central city when all other relevant characteristics were controlled. Just the opposite occurred. Hamilton County buyers were more likely to choose the city, reflecting the greater variety of attractive middle income neighborhoods within the City of Cincinnati. It is suggested that efforts to attract middle income families to cities should focus on maintaining the quality of the older housing stock and on improving neighborhood business districts. Additional research is needed on the impact of different school desegregation schemes on location choices.

MANUFACTURING LOCATION IN A POLYCENTRIC URBAN AREA: A STUDY IN THE COMPOSITION AND ATTRACTIVENESS OF EMPLOYMENT SUBCENTERS

Attention has shifted to the role of subsidiary urban centers as the new “spatial nodes” within metropolitan areas as manufacturing employment has dispersed away from its traditional central city locations over the past decades. Understanding the character and evolving functions of these new “centers” is crucial to predicting (or influencing) future metropolitan spatial patterns. This paper explores the nature and role of the principal employment centers within the Dallas-Fort Worth region from the perspective of locational choices by firms in three-digit SIC Manufacturing. First the centers are empirically identified via a methodology that “maps” employment land-use polygons onto a zip code-level geography. The industrial attributes of firms choosing such centers are then investigated using multinomial logit. The general attractiveness to firms in manufacturing of various spatial characteristics of these centers are next studied through a discrete choice framework. Finally, a “mixed” conditional logit mo...

Ground-level ozone in Montreal, Canada

Analysis of hourly O 3 and NO x data for nine stations for the period 1984–1990 indicates that urban Montreal forms a net sink for O 3 in a regional regime characterized by the long-range transport of O 3 and its precursors northeastward along the Windsor-Quebec corridor. At central city sites and those adjacent to major transport routes, scavenging of O 3 by NO reduces maximum daily O 3 concentrations by ∼50% on average. This effect is strongest in winter, when increased stability and reduced mixing leads to high NO x concentrations. The combination of scavenging and channeling of flow along the St Lawrence Valley produces distinct and persistent spatial patterns in the O 3 field. The 82 ppb hourly O 3 standard is exceeded simultaneously at two or more stations in Montreal on about 10 days per year. These episodes tend to be associated with persistent, slow moving anticyclonic systems. The considerable interannual variability in the frequency of high ozone episodes is related to interannual variability in the synoptic meteorological conditions conducive to ozone formation and long-range transport. VOC/NO x ratios of ∼5 ppbc/ppb at central city locations suggest that local NO x reduction strategies would likely increase ozone concentrations in urban Montreal. Consequently, effective VOC/NO x control initiatives need to be regional and international in scope.

Housing, Gentrification and Urban Regeneration Policies

The paper examines the role of housing in recent urban regeneration policies and the question of whether this involves a process of gentrification. Using examples from Tyneside, it notes the emphasis on riverside and city centre locations away from established residential areas, and on high-cost housing for sale. It is suggested, though, that this is not gentrification in the most direct sense, in that it does not displace or reduce housing opportunities for low-income residents. Evaluation must take account of non-housing issues, such as the employment effects and the political and ideological implications of these housing policies.

Why Higher Income Households Move to Central Cities

: To the extent that urban revitalization depends on the attraction and retention of affluent households, it is important for planners to know why higher income movers choose central city destinations. Data from the 1983 national Annual Housing Survey are used to examine the destination choices of recent movers and their reported reasons for moving to central cities and suburbs. Contrary to expectations, no statistically significant differences exist between reported reasons for moving to cities and suburbs among higher income households; rather, former central city locations plays the most important role in predicting central city destination. Implications of these findings for policy planning are discussed.

Housing Price Indexes from the 1974–1983 SIMSA Annual Housing Surveys

This paper reports residential real estate price indexes computed from the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) Annual Housing Survey (AHS) for the 1974 through 1983 period. During this ten‐year period, the U.S. Bureau of the Census conducted detailed surveys of the housing stock in sixty metropolitan areas in a three to four year cycle. This information is used to compute tenure specific hedonic housing price indexes for: (1) the entire metropolitan housing market; (2) separately for properties located in the central city and in the suburbs (whenever central city locations are identified); and (3) for three points in the dwelling quality distribution‐for substandard housing (using the definition employed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), for new housing (housing less than three years old and not substandard), and for existing standard quality housing (everything else). In addition, the hedonic prices reported here are adjusted for the finite sample bias introduced when taking the exponential of a lognormally distributed random variable.

Intrametropolitan Locational Changes in Manufacturing: The Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 1958 to 1976

Southeastern Geographer Vol. 21, No. 1, May 1981, pp. 10-25 INTRAMETROPOLITAN LOCATIONAL CHANGES IN MANUFACTURING: THE ATLANTA METROPOLITAN AREA, 1958 TO 1976 James O. Wheeler and Sam Ock Park The dynamic character of intrametropolitan industrial location patterns in the United States has been recognized ever since manufacturing decentralization began at the turn of the century. (J) However, dramatic change in intrametropolitan manufacturing location is especially characteristic of the post-1960 period. (2) Especially since the mid-1960s, the economic advantages of central city locations have significantly diminished relative to suburban areas, which have become increasingly accessible via the urban and regional freeway system built largely during the 1960s. Suburban accessibility allowed industrial development to occur on large tracts of relatively inexpensive land and to avoid the congestion, high land costs, and increasing criminal activity of inner-city environments. (3) As a result, industrial investments have been greatly reduced in most central cities, and suburban areas have emerged as major zones of industrial expansion. This suburbanization trend is probably especially characteristic of large metropolitan areas in the manufacturing belt, which experienced suburbanization earlier than urban areas in the South and West, where most industrial parks have been developed. Similar trends can also be found in metropolitan areas outside the manufacturing belt, though the industrial decentralization in these instances may represent a more recent trend. Whereas there may be a set of stages of metropolitan manufacturing locational change, different metropolitan areas, perhaps depending on the region ofthe nation or on the industrial structure of the metropolis, will experience these stages at different times and with varying durations. OBJECTIVES. The purpose of this paper is (a) to present a general conceptual framework for intrametropolitan manufacturing change, (b) Dr. Wheeler is Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA 30602. Mr. Park is a doctoral student in the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA 30602. Vol. XXI, No. 1 11 to analyze the nature and extent of locational change in manufacturing within the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area, and (c) to assess the degree to which the Atlanta empirical findings correspond to the idealtypical conceptual model. The years 1958, 1966, and 1976 are used for comparisons. The conceptual model is based on a six phase ideal-typical sequence of metropolitan manufacturing locational change. In addition to measuring the spread of manufacturing from the inner city into suburban and peripheral areas, this study examines the degree to which manufacturing locational change conforms to a concentric zone pattern, a sectoral pattern, and an arterial (rail versus highway) pattern. Although the concentric and sectoral concepts were initially applied to residential land use, it seems reasonable to test these concepts for manufacturing land use, given the interdependence of urban land uses. The data are based on the number of manufacturing establishments and therefore somewhat understate the degree of change in suburban areas (where plant size is greatest). The purpose here is not to measure the decentralization of specific plants per se but simply to note changes in the total spatial distribution of manufacturing. DATA AND STUDY AREA. Data for this study are derived from the Georgia Manufacturing Directory for 1958, 1966, and 1976. (4) These directories list the names and addresses of all manufacturing firms and, despite occasionally out-of-date or inaccurate information, they nevertheless represent the most comprehensive areal coverage and the most detailed locational data available. With the aid of Atlanta street maps, over 95 percent of all manufacturing establishments were located and plotted on maps for 1958, 1966, and 1976. Mapping was carried out for Fulton and Dekalb counties; counts of manufacturing plants were made of the 13 additional counties of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Although Atlanta has a diverse manufacturing base, it is dominated in terms of value added by transport equipment. Overall, manufacturing is low value added. Much of the manufacturing type is related to Atlanta 's role as a distribution center to serve a growing local and regional market. In Atlanta the movement of plants from the city to the suburbs has been small in relation to the number of new plants that have always been in the suburbs. The decline in plants...

Spatial and Social Dimensions of Intraurban Elderly Migration

Migration histories are examined for a random sample of people age 60 and over who relocated within Kansas City, Kansas since age 50. Migrants are classified into two spatially defined groups, those moving toward and those away from the CBD. Analyses of group centrographic and individual distance-moved statistics reveal that two significant spatial patterns can be observed. The predominant pattern is composed of those moving from central city locations toward but seldom terminating in recent suburban areas. The second pattern consists of relocations within similar neighborhoods only slightly closer to the CBD. The socioeconomic profiles of the two groups who produce these patterns are then determined via discriminant analysis. Those moving outward are found to be wealthier, more active socially, more stable residentially, more apt to be found at home, and auto owners. Inward migrants exhibit greater socioeconomic diversity, but generally have smaller disposable incomes and consequently appear to be those most in need of social services.

Aged in Cities: Residential Segregation in 10 Usa Central Cities

This study focuses on the segregation of the aged in ten USA cities. The objectives are to determine the degree of segregation of elderly within cities, and how the pattern varied from 1960 to 1970 by size of city, age of city, and for cities that are growing and declining in population. Census data were used to compare proportions of the population 65 and over living in central city and suburban locations, and a summary Index of Dissimilarity was computed to measure the degree of age segregation by census tracts. In all metropolitan areas there was a disproportionate share of the elderly residing within the central city and considerable segregation in certain census tracts within the city. However, the degree of segregation showed no pattern of increase between 1960 and 1970. There was less segregation of the aged in older, declining cities and greater segregation in younger, growing cities. These findings suggest that age segregation is in part a function of the urbanization process.

Evaluation of oxidant results at CAMP sites in the United States.

The oxidant measurements available between 1964 and 1973 at the six CAMP sites (Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Washington, D. C.) have been evaluated. Elevated oxidant concentrations have been characterized by season of the year, hour of the day, Sunday compared to weekdays, sampling site, trend with time. Differences in results among the CAMP sites can be associated with effects of altitude, local climatology, and chemical characteristics. With the exception of Chicago, a large downward trend in oxidant concentrations has been occurring at CAMP sites. However, there also are experimental results indicating that the factors responsible for this downward trend in central city locations may not be causing a proportional downward trend at suburban sites within urban areas or downwind sites outside urban areas. These CAMP results are consistent with other results obtained elsewhere in the United States. However, the present experimental results appear inadequate to permit proper opt...