Suburban Infrastructure Research Articles

Rainbow infrastruggles: The infrapolitics of LGBTQ2S surplus visibility in suburban infrastructure

ABSTRACT Municipal rainbowization has proliferated globally in tandem with LGBTQ+ equalities gains. The rainbow—a globalized aesthetic of an imagined community that symbolizes LGBTQ+ empowerment, belonging, and safety—is increasingly integrated into municipal infrastructure as a neoliberal place-branding tool of social inclusion and performative progressiveness. On urban peripheries, the rainbowization of infrastructure embeds LGBTQ+ imaginaries in heteronormative suburbia, simultaneously evoking rainbow infrastruggles—morality-led conflicts over questions of representational excess and legitimacy. In the absence of queer infrastructure on the Vancouver city-region periphery, this paper examines how municipal rainbowization generates infrastruggle through bureaucratic processes that perform progressiveness by aestheticizing LGBTQ2S social inclusion in generic crosswalks, city hall plaza lighting, and flagpoles. It argues that as a metaphoric policy intervention, such rainbow aestheticization performs surplus visibility as progressiveness and confines LGBTQ+ issues to the symbolic realm. To compensate for inaction on more substantive LGBTQ+ social inclusion, municipal rainbowization is a rhetorical move in which queer bodies are absented in a quest for political absolution that maintains citywide heteroneutrality. The neologism infrastruggle contributes an understanding of infrastructure as a buried site of heteronormative political assumptions and a way of seeing the inconspicuous infrapolitics of a subordinated group in the public realm.

From a Small Village to an Exclusive Gated Community: Unplanned Suburbanisation and Local Sovereignty in Post-Socialist Hungary

In Hungary, after the regime change in 1989, one of the most important institutional changes concerning suburbanisation was the high sovereignty of local authorities, albeit without appropriate funding for sovereign operation. This type of local sovereignty made mezzo-level planning and cooperation of independent municipalities ineffective. The inherent systemic political corruption of the rapid post-socialist privatisation hindered spontaneous cooperation as well. As a result, suburban infrastructure, even in municipalities with high-status residents, remained underdeveloped (from traffic connections through waste management to water provision). Our research field, Telki, was successful in selling land because its scenic location and the absence of industrial and commercial activities made it attractive for high-status suburban settlers. These newcomers were not interested in the further functional development of the village, and, as they took local political power, they successfully restricted economic and functional development. Consequently, selling land and introducing property taxes remained the most important source of income. The colonisation of the village by newcomers also meant the displacement of lower status original villagers and, today, mostly high-status families with young children feel at home in Telki. Others feel excluded not only because of real estate prices but also by the lack of appropriate functions or simply by the narrow concept of an appropriate lifestyle in the village defined by local power. The consequence of a complete lack of cooperation and rational planning is not only social injustice, elite segregation, and environmental harm, but also the reduced economic and housing potential of the Budapest agglomeration.

Applying principles of EIA post-project analysis in the context of suburban infrastructure development

Residential, commercial, and infrastructural construction is a worldwide phenomenon that is monitored and evaluated in various details in different countries in terms of environmental impact. The prediction verification approach in the sense of principles of post-project analysis (PPA) within the EIA process for a residential complex was performed in this study. Re-analyses for selected environmental factors were done, the results of which were compared with reference values measured, modelled, or predicted during the EIA process. Hydro chemical changes and noise levels were selected as the most important factors. The results of the comparison of individual predictions and measurements of noise levels indicate the accuracy of former EIA outcomes. However, it is possible to identify an ever-increasing rate of noise level loading, which is caused by an overall cumulative effect, due to which the predicted values will most probably be exceeded in upcoming years. The results of the comparison of hydro chemical parameters show certain changes after the implementation of the project for some measured factors, such as water saturation by oxygen or pH. In some parts of the monitored water profile, significantly higher values of chlorine ions, sulphates, or surfactants were measured. Results show that the prediction and conclusions regarding selected parameters of EIA evaluation were accurate for the construction phase and the first year’s use of the residential complex; however, they could not precisely identify medium to long-term cumulative effects. Similar studies in the sense of EIA PPA principles focuses on urban development are an opportunity for improving predictions within the EIA process and from the lessons gain more sustainable development could be achieved.

Suburban Restaurants as Evolving Suburban Anchors: The Sportsmen’s Lodge, Ventura Boulevard, and the Growth of Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley

Examining the historical evolution of the Sportsmen’s Lodge, a restaurant and banquet facility located on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley, this essay argues that suburban restaurants have served as vital “suburban anchors” facilitating suburban growth and place-making. Established in the 1920s as a recreational fishing concession for the film industry, the Sportsmen’s Lodge expanded to become a renowned restaurant and banquet hall by the 1940s. Its facilities were used not only for social gatherings among politically conservative white homeowners, but also for business meetings where attendees strategized for the suburban region’s growth. Ironically, their success in recruiting suburban industry and infrastructure produced an increasingly dense and diverse suburban landscape in which the Sportsmen’s Lodge’s itself ultimately became obsolete. The Lodge’s recent demolition and redevelopment as a mixed-use retail complex signals the multiple purposes fulfilled by suburban restaurants, while highlighting the limits to their evolution in diversifying suburbs.

Policing Race and Performing State Power: Immigration Enforcement and Undocumented Latinx Immigrant Precarity in Central Florida

AbstractIn the United States, undocumented Latinx immigrants’ precarious social positions are rooted in aggressive immigration enforcement practices that create a contestant threat of detection and deportation. This threat extends into the US interior, and in some US cities, immigrant policing practices rely on law enforcement officers racially profiling Latinx immigrants. Several social scientists have described the numerous consequences of racially‐based immigrant policing, but insufficient scholarship examines the role urban and suburban spaces play in constructing the policing regimes that structure undocumented immigrants’ precarity. In this article, I examine the relationship between immigration enforcement regimes, automobiles, and the suburban roadways in a previously rural Central Florida exurb. Using frameworks of automobility, illegality, and necropolitics, I show how Central Florida’s expanding suburban infrastructure contributes to immigrant policing efforts. I further show how spectacles of immigration enforcement, such as parking border patrol vehicles along specific highways, are performances of state power to reinforce racial hierarchies. Overall, I argue that spatial and material conditions—such as driving vehicles that law enforcement officers associate with undocumented immigrants on specific roadways—serve to simultaneously underscore undocumented immigrants’ vulnerability and to signal to white residents how law enforcement officers maintain white supremacy by targeting undocumented Latinx drivers.

Probing the Fiscal Implications of Multipurpose Development Districts: An Institutional Analysis of Florida Community Development Districts

Across the U.S., private land developers are forgoing traditional financing of new suburban infrastructure in favor of an institutional innovation in special government—multipurpose development districts. This article presents an exploratory analysis of the fiscal characteristics of this relatively novel financing and governing mechanism. Focusing on residential developments financed through the creation of Florida multipurpose development districts, or community development districts (CDDs), we ask: What is the general profile of CDD borrowing and spending? What functional trends are reflected in CDD borrowing and spending and how do they compare to those of their general-purpose counterparts? How does CDD borrowing and spending change over time as residents, not developers, take over responsibility for district administration? We consider two institutional design principles important for self-governance of such developments—accountability and representation. The discussion raises self-governance implications, particularly whether multipurpose development district financing creates incentives for developers to “oversupply” infrastructure to maximize profits.

Exploring spatial heterogeneity in accessibility and transit mode choice

Since accessibility is an important goal for sustainable transportation planning, this study analyzes the impact of accessibility on transit mode choice to investigate the potential reasons for the differences in the travel behavior of urban and suburban residents. To attain this purpose, two levels of spatial heterogeneity are considered. The first level is residential spatial heterogeneity, which represents the variations in the impacts of the factors between urban and suburban regions. The second level is the OD spatial heterogeneity, which represents whether the travel is between urban and suburban areas. Taking Xiamen city as a case study and considering the relationships between three OD characteristics (OD transit accessibility, OD travel distance, and OD spatial heterogeneity), this paper uses a joint analysis of the probit model and the structural equation model for multi-group samples. The results indicate that the low transit accessibility in suburban areas is related to lower public transportation use by suburban residents and less inter-regional bus travel by urban residents. The findings provide empirical support for the importance of suburban infrastructure development.

Emerging anti-poverty infrastructural gaps in suburbia: Poverty and the voluntary sector across Metropolitan Sydney

Suburbs are subject to numerous stereotypes, including that they lack density, diversity and inclusivity. While these stereotypes have largely been dispelled, the deficit around anti-poverty infrastructure remains understudied. The focus of this paper is to systematically investigate the ostensible mismatch between (a) the emerging suburbanization of poverty, and (b) the potential lack of anti-poverty infrastructure to serve it, with a focus on suburban voluntary sector provision. These aims address the potential infrastructural deficit around voluntary sector provision in suburban areas of prosperous global cities in the Global North. Using Metropolitan Sydney as the case study, we investigate the extent of the suburban infrastructure service deficit across metropolitan space in 2016, comparing poverty patterns and supply of voluntary sector organizations. We find that poor inner and outer suburbs featured fewer services than the inner city, both per capita and per low-income residents, confirming an anti-poverty infrastructural gap.

Recomposing Aesthetic Anxiety and Perforating Suburban Infrastructures: Informal Religious Meeting Places in Melbourne

ABSTRACT A permit for a Buddhist place of worship in suburban Melbourne was rejected by the local Planning Committee. The application by the Mirror of the Dhamma Society to hold small religious gatherings in a semi-detached single storey house in an area zoned General Residential was deemed inappropriate. The paper focuses on this event that circulated contagious global white affects of anxiety and fear in response to potential changes in the Australian suburban infrastructure. What escaped scrutiny, however, was state-sanctioned aesthetic judgements of appropriate suburban infrastructures that were underpinned by invisible but dominant social and cultural norms. This paper calls for undoing these norms, recomposing white affects, and remaking Australian suburbia in ways that veer away from stigmatising or exoticizing material expressions of cultural diversity in the built landscape. Responding to Felix Guattari’s call for a new aesthetic paradigm with ethico-political implications, I explore the possibilities for new suburban ecologies that transcend the secular/sacred binary. The paper is written from my shifting positionality as a first-generation migrant woman and Australian of Indian heritage who arrived in Melbourne 19 years ago. It is informed by my broad research agenda on everyday multiculturalism, grounded religiosity, and belonging in cities with white majority cultures.

Surface Infrastructure Development of Astana Sub-urban Area as Part of the Functions of the Central and Local Authorities

Infrastructure development of Astana suburban area remains imperative for the complete provision of comfortable life activities of the population. The principal objective of the research is to analyse the infrastructure development of Astana suburban area as part of the functions of central and local authorities. The authors assessed different groups of the infrastructure factors which finally allow concluding the extent of efficiency of the measures regarding the modernisation of the system of agro-food supply. To accomplish the objectives, necessary calculations are conducted in the research through the weight ratio method for the factors’ assessment. The authors found that the provision of Astana suburban area population in various aspects will be most efficiently performed through the conclusion of the long-term agreement on the cooperation of the state authorities with the rural commodity producers. It was established that among the factors that contributed to the development of engineering and transport ground infrastructure, there was water supply, roads and public transport network. The most significant importance among environmental factors belongs to air pollution, water and soil. The complex assessment of the suburban area infrastructure allows to implement socio-economic zoning of the territory and unite them by the similar features into the assessment zones and sub-regions. The regional authorities implement the state programmes, carry out direct work with the economic entities, and provide the information to the higher-level authority. It was determined that the local authorities in the structure and content dealt with particular aspects of the agro-food market functioning.

Integration of Historical Manor Complexes into the Urban and Suburban Infrastructure

The article is focused on the issues pertaining to capitalization of historical manor complexes within the framework of the "Smart City" concept. Information is provided regarding the major law acts on protection of architectural monuments, current programs of public and private partnership, as well as on the problems that reduce the influx of investments. Basing on the analysis of theoretical R & D of the last years, exploration of the domestic and foreign periodicals as well as on the experience gained in the best practices of capitalization of architectural heritage, the authors identified the possible options for the modern use of manor complexes. Having identified the major features of manors that predetermine the further selection of the option to be used, the authors offer the methodology helping to define the most effective option for the modern use of each particular manor depending on its features. The result of the study is presented in the Matrix, which automatically produces the multi-factor analysis for selection of the more rational option of using the given facility. This makes it possible to reduce the risks of potential investors, to attract the influx of investments in the given sphere, and thus to contribute to salvation of manors by their integration in the current life of the country.

The Effects of Urban Diversity on Geographic Polarization: Evidence from Hurricane Katrina Migration

Recent research suggests that suburbanization precipitated by the development of the Interstate Highway System drew Republican residents out of urban centers and gave rise to geographic political polarization between cities and suburbs (Nall 2015). In recent years, however, the rate of geographic political polarization has more than doubled while suburban growth declined and Interstate Highway construction ceased. In this paper, we argue that these recent trends can be explained by a complimentary push migration mechanism of demographic change facilitated by existing infrastructure in which increases to urban racial and ethnic diversity catalyze the out-migration of Republican leaning residents. Using a rapid, exogenous increase to Houston's African-American population as the result of Hurricane Katrina, we show that this mechanism can account for more recent increases in geographic polarization in the absence of concurrent changes to urban or suburban infrastructure.

Theorising suburban infrastructure: a framework for critical and comparative analysis

Suburban infrastructure holds a position of increasing geographic, political and conceptual importance in a rapidly urbanising world. However, the analytical significance of ‘suburban infrastructure’ risks becoming bogged down as a chaotic concept amid the maelstrom of contemporary peripheral urban growth and the explosion of interest in infrastructure in critical urban studies. This paper develops an open and flexible comparative theory of suburban infrastructure. I eschew concerns with definitional bounding to focus analytical attention on the relations between ‘the suburban’ (broadly considered) and multiple hard and soft infrastructures. These relations are captured in two ‘three‐dimensional’ dialectical triads: the first unpacks the modalities of infrastructure in, for and of suburbs; the second discloses the political economic processes (suburbanisation), lived experience (suburbanism) and dynamics of mediation internalised by particular suburban infrastructures. Bringing these conceptual frames together constructs a nine‐cell matrix that: (1) functions as a heuristic device providing conceptual clarity when discussing the suburbanity of infrastructures; (2) promotes comparative analysis across diverse global suburban contexts; and (3) develops tools to foreground the dialectical relations internalised in the concrete sociospatial modalities of suburban infrastructure. The paper shows that suburban infrastructure can only ever be partially suburban as a result of its co‐constituted and over‐determined production. I conclude by suggesting how the proposed approach may be mobilised to reimagine and reclaim suburban infrastructure as a crucial context and vital mechanism underpinning a progressive polycentric suburban spatial polity.

Contested Infrastructures: Tension, Inequity and Innovation in the Global Suburb

The article explores the suburban infrastructure reality at a global scale. It does so by acknowledging both the wide diversity of suburban forms across the world and the existence of common features that warrant the apprehension of suburbs as a unified object of study. Due to their rapid growth rate and an insufficient infrastructure development response, suburbs are perceived as more severely afflicted by infrastructure tensions than other urban sectors. They thus provide an ideal object of study to identify urban infrastructure shortcomings in the present age. At the same time, by virtue of their infrastructure difficulties and ongoing expansion, suburbs can be seen as a foremost source of infrastructure innovation.

Urban interventions: understanding health co-benefits

Improving aspects of the built environment, such as retrofitting housing and designing transport options that encourage active journeys (cycling and walking), can have significant and demonstrable impacts on health and well-being. Policies that have primary goals such as improving energy efficiency can have important measureable co-benefits for health and well-being, as well as climate change mitigation. The authors carried out two community housing trials to measure the benefits of installing insulation and effective heating on households' health and well-being. These trials have shown that these energy efficiency projects increase health and well-being, reduce hospitalisations and excess winter mortality, and at the same time reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In a third trial, they remediated injury hazards in houses, significantly reducing the household injury rate. Using a quasi-experimental study, the authors evaluated the impact of retrofitting infrastructure to increase cycling and walking. This showed that the distance from housing to the new infrastructure was an important explanatory factor for positive changes in choice of modes of travel. Distance of housing from school was also an important factor in whether children walked or cycled to school. In conclusion, retrofitting urban and suburban infrastructure can increase health and well-being, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Evaluation on the Development of Shanghai Suburban Infrastructure Based on AHP-Entropy Method

Infrastructure construction plays an important role in socio-economic development and urbanization level promotion. For the development of suburban infrastructure in Shanghai, the paper establishes the system of evaluation index and introduces the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. To make up for the insufficient of identification ability for determining the index weight by the AHP, the article uses the entropy method to make the results objective, scientific and reasonable.

Twenty-first-century gateways: immigrant incorporation in suburban America

While federal action on immigration faces an uncertain future, states, cities and suburban municipalities craft their own responses to immigration. Twenty-First-Century Gateways , focuses on the fastest-growing immigrant populations in metropolitan areas with previously low levels of immigration --places such as Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C. These places are typical of the newest, largest immigrant gateways to America, characterized by post-WWII growth, recent burgeoning immigrant populations, and predominantly suburban settlement. More immigrants, both legal and undocumented, arrived in the United States during the 1990s than in any other decade on record. That growth has continued more slowly since the Great Recession; nonetheless the U.S. immigrant population has doubled since 1990. Many immigrants continued to move into traditional urban centers such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but burgeoning numbers were attracted by the economic and housing opportunities of fast-growing metropolitan areas and their largely suburban settings. The pace of change in this new geography of immigration has presented many local areas with challenges --social, fiscal, and political. Edited by Audrey Singer, Susan W. Hardwick, and Caroline B. Brettell, Twenty-First-Century Gateways provides in-depth, comparative analysis of immigration trends and local policy responses in America's newest gateways. The case examples by a group of leading multidisciplinary immigration scholars explore the challenges of integrating newcomers in the specific gateways, as well as their impact on suburban infrastructure such as housing, transportation, schools, health care, economic development, and public safety. The changes and trends dissected in this book present a critically important understanding of the reshaping of the United States today and the future impact of immigration, vital as the nation and metropolitan areas face changes to immigration policy.

Analyzing Urban Population Change Patterns in Shenyang, China 1982–90: Density Function and Spatial Association Approaches

Based on the subdistrict (jie-dao) data from 1982 and 1990 national population censuses, this research employs two approaches to investigate the urban population change patterns in Shenyang, China. The density function approach examines what function best characterizes its density distribution, how the density pattern has changed over time, how many centers can be identified in the city, and how influential each center has been on the citywide population distribution. Unlike the socialist cities in Russia, Shenyang has a negative density gradient, bearing more resemblance to western cities. A polycentric model explains the spatial variation of densities in Shenyang much better than a monocentric model. The spatial association approach analyzes the core-peripheral relationship between a city center and its neighboring areas. Both approaches show that people moved from the central city to suburbs, indicating a trend of population decentralization. This trend is attributable to the land use reform, central city renovation projects and improvements of suburban infrastructure and services.