Small US Cities Research Articles

Food for thought: unveiling urban transitions in a small US city through the lens of foodscape typologies

This paper explores whether changes to a small city’s food landscape can indicate neighbourhood change. We have adapted the conceptual framework in Roe et al. on ‘urban foodscape typologies’ to assess and categorise changes in the urban food environment. Our study focuses on the following inquiry: How can identifying different types of foodscape categories in Newburgh, NY – a small US city – assist in tracking urban trends? This study demonstrates how the Roe et al. framework can be adapted to study food landscapes in small American cities. In addition, we introduce approaches, such as mental mapping, that help identify residents’ perceptions of changes to the foodscape. By understanding the potential challenges and opportunities shifts in the foodscape can cause, small cities can implement strategies to ensure that development and revitalisation are inclusive and beneficial for all residents.

Optimal income taxation: An urban economics perspective

We derive an optimal labor income tax rate formula for urban models that nests the Mirrlees model as a limiting case. Optimal tax rates are determined by traditional forces plus a new term arising from urban forces: house price, migration and agglomeration effects. Based on the earnings distribution, housing costs and housing tenure in large and small US cities, we find that in a benchmark model (i) the optimal income tax rate schedule is U-shaped, (ii) urban forces raise the optimal tax rate schedule at all income levels and (iii) adopting an optimal tax system induces agents with low skill levels to leave large, productive cities.

How life course events trigger changes in bicycling attitudes and behavior: Insights into causality

This paper uses a mobility biography approach to investigate how life course events explain changes in attitudes towards and levels of bicycling. We use 54 interviews conducted with residents of a small US city that include retrospective questions covering six life stages.Three life events emerged from the interviews as influential: parenthood, residential relocation, and meeting a new partner. Most participants with children related their level of bicycling and bicycling attitudes to their children. The impact of children on parental bicycling was non-linear over time, and varied throughout the child’s development and between couples or partners. Residential relocation affected attitudes towards and use of bicycles as well. The presence of bike infrastructure, supportive peers, and bicycling culture moderated this process. Meeting new partners prompted participants to discover new types of bicycling and contributed resources that facilitated or impeded bicycling. Our findings provide evidence for a bi-directional relationship between bicycling attitudes and behavior. As life events trigger changes in one of these two variables they are likely to change the other variable as well.The results point to four causal mechanisms that drive changes of bicycling attitudes and behavior in response to life events: Life events trigger a deliberation process, change social norms, unleash a latent demand for bicycling, and change interest in destinations and activities. These causal mechanisms may be generalizable to other transport modes as well. Life events may present a “windows of opportunity,” when persons are more susceptible to change, that planners could make use of to encourage behavior change.

Revitalisation of a small US city: Assessing potential gentrification impacts of Middletown, Connecticut’s renaissance

This research focuses on Middletown, Connecticut’s revitalisation of its downtown and adjacent North End neighbourhood. In the early 1990s, these areas were considered blighted, with many boarded-up shopfronts and substandard housing structures that most city residents avoided entirely due to perceptions of crime. Since that time, the city government partnered with the North End Action Team (NEAT), a non-profit advocacy group, to advance key redevelopment projects, resulting in an award-winning renaissance of the downtown area. Downtown Middletown is now an attractive place for locals and visitors alike to stroll, dine and spend money. While the downtown has become desirable, it is not clear if this renaissance has resulted in gentrification-related displacement of existing low-income residents. This study assesses socioeconomic indicators commonly associated with gentrification and determines that, despite Middletown’s rapid transformation, residential displacement from gentrification has not yet occurred. The strong role of NEAT in advocating for the provision of mixed-income housing and for maintaining social service providers while the city began redeveloping a brownfield site into a business incubator are key factors in preventing widespread displacement of low-income residents.

TYPE VERSUS STEREOTYPE: AN ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF US CITIES AND PUBLIC SPACES

In their minds, people have images of places they have never visited. In the twenty-first century, the constant exposure to media has had a great role in shaping people’s perception of foreign places. Despite the revealing aspect of media, they also play an important role in creating misconceptions about other countries. This paper explores international college students’ perceptions of United States cities and public spaces before and after coming to study in the US. It also investigates the role of media and representations in shaping their conceptions or misconceptions of the US. Forty-one Kansas State University international students from different countries participated in an online survey about their perceptions of US building types, infrastructure, and governance/policy regarding the built environment. About 58% of the participants claim that their image of US cities and public spaces changed after studying there; with only 15% claiming that US cities and public built environment are shown “like they are” in their home countries. Small US cities have a poor image in international students’ perceptions in comparison to the rich image of big cities most notably New York City. This paper not only argues that peoples' perceptions of places can change after visiting them in person, but also it highlights the role of media in creating misconceptions about foreign places. The findings can highlight the importance of media in managing city branding.

‘What is up with my sisters? Where are you?’ The origins and consequences of lesbian-friendly place reputations for LBQ migrants

Drawing on a comparative ethnography of four small US cities with growing lesbian populations, this article explicates the gap between lesbian, bisexual, and queer female (LBQ) individuals’ expectations (before moving) and experiences (after relocation). The article asks how prospective LBQ migrants encounter knowledge of lesbian-friendly reputations, and, once encountered, why they are so powerful. Four mechanisms communicate lesbian-friendly reputations and make them particularly dominant, with different mechanisms doing this work to different degrees in different cases. First, some of the sites are situated in regions that possess lesbian-friendly reputations; prospective migrants attend to regional reputation, missing the heterogeneity of places within a region. Second, facts and figures mislead; while LBQ migrants conduct background research before relocating, their attention to facts and figures related to lesbian-friendliness, such as the proportion of lesbian couples, out politicians, and marriage votes, distracts from knowledge of on the ground LBQ ties and identities. Third, much initial contact with place is with heterosexuals. Many such actors – realtors, business owners, institutional ambassadors – go out of their way to present a place as lesbian-friendly to prospective migrants. Yet, such individuals are often unaware of or otherwise fail to communicate the particularities of LBQ culture in their city. A final force is the belief that a certain set of cities belong in a “lesbian-friendly” category with corresponding expectations of cultural homogeneity. Cumulatively, the article highlights the (sometimes obscuring) power of place reputation, underlines gaps between place reputation and identities on the ground, and advances knowledge of the heterogeneity and place-specificity of contemporary LBQ identities and communities.

‘The big ole gay express’: sexual minority stigma, mobility and health in the small city

Recent research has examined how gay and bisexual men experience and navigate the variations in sexual minority stigma that exist across geographic contexts, with implications for their health. We extend this literature on stigma, mobility, and health by considering the unique and understudied setting of the small city. Drawing on semi-structured interviews (n = 29) conducted in two small US cities (New Haven and Hartford), we find that these small cities serve as both destinations and points of departure for gay and bisexual men in the context of stigma. New Haven and Hartford attracted gay and bisexual men from surrounding suburbs where sexual minority stigma was more prevalent and where there were fewer spaces and opportunities for gay life. Conversely, participants noted that these small cities did not contain the same identity affirming communities as urban gay enclaves, thus motivating movement from small cities to larger ones. Our data suggest these forms of mobility may mitigate stigma, but may also produce sexual health risks, thus drawing attention to small cities as uniquely important sites for HIV prevention. Furthermore, our analysis contributes to an understanding of how place, stigma and mobility can intersect to generate spatially distinct experiences of stigmatised identities and related health consequences.

A Perspective on the Larger World: Newspaper Coverage of National and International Events in Three Small US Cities, 1870–1920

This article explores one of the principal channels through which residents of a small US city became knowledgeable about the world beyond their community— the newspaper. This exploratory study examines and compares newspaper coverage in three small cities in the United States—one from the South (Galveston, Texas), one from the Western Expansion (Boise, Idaho), and one from the more established East Coast (Fitchburg, Massachusetts). This study examines news events from 1870 (the post–Civil War Reconstruction era) to 1920 (just after the First World War and prior to the economic boom that followed the war, often known as the Roaring Twenties).

A Perspective on the Larger World: Newspaper Coverage of National and International Events in Three Small US Cities, 1870–1920

This article explores one of the principal channels through which residents of a small US city became knowledgeable about the world beyond their community—the newspaper. This exploratory study examines and compares newspaper coverage in three small cities in the United States—one from the South (Galveston, Texas), one from the Western Expansion (Boise, Idaho), and one from the more established East Coast (Fitchburg, Massachusetts). This study examines news events from 1870 (the post–Civil War Reconstruction era) to 1920 (just after the First World War and prior to the economic boom that followed the war, often known as the Roaring Twenties).

Converging on sustainable placemaking through transdisciplinary process

This research examines the first phase of a multiyear initiative about “sustainable placemaking” processes at a mid-size university in a small US city. The study focuses upon the rhetoric used by five faculty members representing the industrial design, engineering, geography, art history, and political science disciplines who have begun to develop a sustainable design working group whose mission is to produce sustainable design and design process alternatives for the redevelopment of a street connecting the university to the community. Integrating symbolic convergence theory and dialogue theory from communication studies with theory about transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development, the research describes the extent to which the group achieved transdisciplinary function and articulates how co-creating meaning around sustainable placemaking shaped group processes and outcomes. Findings indicate that shared experiences of “place” and tensions amongst rhetorical boundaries play key roles. Analysis produces lessons learned for similar groups interested in transcending disciplinary boundaries when addressing sustainable development problems.

Immigrants, Aliens and Americans: Mapping out the boundaries of belonging in a new immigrant gateway

This study maps out the ‘boundaries of belonging’ in a small US city where large numbers of immigrants have radically transformed its demographics over the past decade. With somewhere between 12 000 and 15 000 unauthorized residents, municipal and community leaders in Danbury, Connecticut, estimate that the foreign born represent nearly 40 per cent of the city’s population, and as in other new immigrant gateways there are heated debates concerning ‘illegal immigration’. Qualitative data collected from participant observation, one-on-one interviews and texts point to the significance of three particular conceptual categories – Immigrants, Aliens and Americans. A cultural sociological analysis of the structures of meaning associated with these categories reveals how networks of individuals draw symbolic boundaries between US- and foreign- born city residents. Although they draw upon similar collective representations, some invoke formal and procedural criteria for inclusion or exclusion within the privileged (pure) categories of American or Immigrant (in other words, legal boundaries), whereas others embrace a more substantive, humanistic standard (moral boundaries). Most often, they call upon both. But even when similar criteria are invoked, the foreign born end up on different sides of the boundary for different people.

An Application of a Stated Preference Method to Value Urban Amenities

This is a case study analysis of how residents value the amenities of a small US city—Missoula, Montana. A measure of a community’s amenity values is needed in city planning so as to protect those elements of urban communities that are highly valued. Missoulians favoured their local amenities against an average of 30 comparison cities. Results from this study’s stated preference model indicate that Missoulians highly value amenities such as outdoor recreation, low population density and scenery; whereas, they are generally willing to tolerate less than average levels of job opportunities. The study’s results raise questions about the appropriate methods for local governments to pursue when attempting to raise wage rates by ‘growing the economy’ of a city like Missoula.

Factors associated with proportions and miles of bicycling for transportation and recreation in six small US cities

The majority of bicycling in the US is for recreation rather than transportation purposes but few studies have examined the question of bicycling purpose. We use data from an online survey conducted in 2006 in six small cities in the western US to examine factors affecting bicycling for transportation compared to bicycling for recreation. The results indicate that individual, social-environment, and physical-environment factors have important influences on the balance between transportation and recreational bicycling and on miles of bicycling for each purpose. Bicycling comfort and an aversion to driving are associated with more transportation bicycling. A culture of utilitarian bicycling and short distances to destinations are also key factors for transportation bicycling. Bicycle infrastructure appears to play an indirect role through its effect on perceived bicycling safety and through the self-selection effect, by attracting bicycling-inclined people to bicycling-supportive communities.

Rapid methods to estimate sky‐view factors applied to urban areas

AbstractA common parameter used to characterize the geometry of urban canyons is the sky‐view factor (ψs). Here, two simple alternatives are presented that can be used both objectively and rapidly to estimate ψs. The first method uses a Nikon CoolPix 950 digital camera fitted with a Nikon FC‐E8 fisheye lens. The second method involves a LI‐COR LAI‐2000 Plant Canopy Analyzer to measure automatically diffuse non‐interceptance (DIFN) light using a fisheye optical sensor. Through a series of intercomparisons for urban canyons of known geometry, the digital camera is shown to provide accurate estimates of ψs. The LAI‐2000 also performs well, although it tends to over‐estimate ψs (for the conditions considered here, the mean absolute error is 0.04), and has a more restricted set of sky conditions under which it performs well (ideally, uniform overcast skies). For both methods, data collection and post‐processing is rapid, and storage of data is straightforward. Thus, mobile data collection is possible which allows detailed information on the spatial variability of ψs in urban areas to be determined. An example of such an application for a small US city, Bloomington, IN, is presented. Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society

Randomised, controlled, community-level HIV-prevention intervention for sexual-risk behaviour among homosexual men in US cities

Community-level interventions may be helpful in population-focused HIV prevention. If members of populations at risk of HIV infection who are popular with other members can be engaged to advocate the benefits of behaviour change to peers, decreases in risk behaviour may be possible. We assessed a community-level intervention to lower the risk of HIV infection, focusing on men patronising gay bars in eight small US cities. We used a randomised community-level field design. Four cities received the intervention and four control cities did not. Participants were men from each city who went to gay bars. Men completed surveys about their sexual behaviour on entering the bars during 3-night periods at baseline and at 1-year follow-up. In the control cities, HIV educational materials were placed in the bars. In the intervention cities, we recruited popular homosexual men in the community and trained them to spread behaviour-change endorsements and recommendations to their peers through conversation. Population-level of risk behaviour decreased significantly in the intervention cities compared with the control cities at 1-year follow-up, after exclusion of surveys completed by transients and men with exclusive sexual partners in a city-level analysis, in the intervention cities we found a reduction in the mean frequency of unprotected anal intercourse during the previous 2 months (baseline 1.68 occasions; follow-up 0.59: p = 0.04) and an increase in the mean percentage of occasions of anal intercourse protected by condoms (baseline 44.7%; follow-up 66.8%, p = 0.02). Increased numbers of condoms taken from dispensers in intervention-city bars corroborated risk-behaviour self-reports. Popular and well-liked members of a community who systematically endorse and recommend risk-reduction behaviour can influence the sexual-risk practices of others in their social networks. Natural styles of communication, such as conversations, brought about population-level changes in risk behaviour.

HIV antibody testing of gay men in smaller US cities.

The incidence of new AIDS diagnoses among gay males indicates that risk reduction in smaller communities may be lagging behind that reported in larger cities. Contradictory evidence exists, largely from urban areas, concerning the utility of HIV testing as a means of promoting behavioural change. This study examined the relationship between HIV antibody testing and subsequent high-risk sexual behaviours among gay men in cities of 180,000 or fewer inhabitants. In February and March of 1992, male gay bar patrons in sixteen small US cities were administered an anonymous questionnaire concerning recent sexual behaviour and HIV testing history. Of the 1820 respondents, 28.1% had recently engaged in unprotected anal intercourse and 60.7% had been tested for HIV antibodies. Those who had been tested were more sexually active and reported more protected and safer sexual activities. Analyses at the individual and city levels converged to demonstrate that communities as well as individuals evidence increased self-protection in association with HIV antibody testing.