Coal Waste,Socioeconomic Change,and Environmental Inequality in Appalachia: Implications for a Just Transition in Coal Country

Resource-dependent communities are subject to both unstable economic patterns and environmental degradation associated with extractive industries. However, few studies have empirically analyzed these dynamics in tandem and over time. This paper explores whether Appalachian neighborhoods closer to coal waste impoundments experienced steeper poverty changes from 1990 to 2000. Impoundment failures have resulted in some of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history and scientists have expressed concerns over their growing heights and risks. Spatial regression models show that neighborhoods closer to impoundments have higher poverty increases on average, even after controlling for mining employment and other variables. These findings highlight the need for a deeper consideration of the environmental inequalities associated with the continued downturn of coal production and employment in the United States. Further, discussions about just transitions must recognize the legacy hazards and externalities associated with extractive industries – and their impacts on communities.     

The Distribution and Enforcement of Air Polluting Facilities in New Jersey

This study examines the spatial distribution and enforcement of air polluting facilities in the state of New Jersey, as listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Aerometric Information Retrieval System. Results show that air‐polluting facilities tend to concentrate near minority neighborhoods, although this relationship is partially explained by factors of population density, manufacturing employment, and land use. Other results suggest that facilities in areas with a relatively high percentage of minority population tend to have a weaker record of environmental enforcement as compared to other facilities. Of the socioeconomic variables considered, employment in manufacturing appears to be the most strongly related to environmental enforcement.     

邻避设施空间分布特征及其与周边住宅价格的关系——广州案例

随着中国城镇的快速发展以及市民环境意识的提高,由邻避设施引发的矛盾日益增多。合理规划邻避设施,是促进环境正义、推动社会和谐的重要课题。论文从“规划云平台”获取广州主城区邻避设施的地理信息数据,通过Python语句编码收集广州主城区小区平均房价数据,运用克里金插值法分析邻避设施的空间分布特征,构建多元线性回归模型和地理加权回归模型研究邻避设施与周边住宅价格的关系。研究发现,广州主城区邻避设施的布局与低收入住宅区的分布在空间上具有一致性,邻避设施主要分布在房价较低的住宅区周边;邻避设施对周边小区房价的影响与邻避设施的类型和所在区位相关,城市边缘区的邻避设施对房价造成了显著的负面影响,而城市中心良好的区位条件、基础设施与公共服务配套一定程度上抵消了邻避设施的负外部性;污名化类的邻避设施对房价的影响程度明显小于污染类、风险聚集类和心理不悦类邻避设施。本研究对有关城市邻避设施的科学规划布点具有一定的借鉴和指导意义。     

Do medical marijuana centers behave like locally undesirable land uses? Implications for the geography of health and environmental justice

As of 2013, medical marijuana is legal in 20 US States and the District of Columbia, but few studies have investigated the impact of the retail centers that sell the drug. We draw upon the social construction literature to frame our research and help us determine whether medical marijuana centers in Denver, Colorado, are considered locally undesirable land uses (LULUs). The geography of health and environmental justice frameworks lead us to hypothesize that marijuana centers are more likely to be opened in Hispanic, Black, and poor neighborhoods than in non-Hispanic White and affluent neighborhoods. We also hypothesize that marijuana centers will tend to increase the minority composition and poverty of the neighborhoods in which they are located. Contrary to expectations, we find no empirical support for these two hypotheses. Instead, results suggest that marijuana centers are likely to be situated in neighborhoods with higher crime rates and more retail employment. Thus, despite the view by many planners and law enforcement officials that these centers are problematic, they do not take on LULU characteristics in siting and demographic changes. This finding, while limited to Denver, has important implications for policymakers who are considering similar marijuana policies.     

Landscapes of Predation,Landscapes of Neglect: A Location Analysis of Payday Lenders and Banks*

Since the period of bank deregulation in the 1980s, deferred deposit loan operations, better known as payday lenders, have become commonplace in the landscapes of many American cities. At the same time, traditional banking facilities have become less common, especially in the inner city. Growing disparities in the type of and accessibility to credit in the inner city has generated calls for greater regulation to curb practices by payday lenders that critics claim disproportionately affect poor and minority consumers. Payday lenders argue that they serve communities neglected by traditional banks. This article analyzes the site‐location strategies of banks and payday lenders in metropolitan Louisiana, and in Cook County, Illinois, and finds that disenfranchised neighborhoods are simultaneously targeted by payday lenders and neglected by traditional banks. The implications these findings have for public policy and for ongoing discourses on the urban condition, race, and class are briefly discussed.     

Spatial Patterns of Hazardous Waste Generation and Management in the United States

Hazardous waste is generated in the production of almost all consumer goods, especially those that contain plastic. The United States is the world leader in generating hazardous waste with 214 million tons produced in 1995. The majority of this waste was wastewater generated by the fifty largest generating facilities, disproportionately concentrated along the western Gulf Coast. The largest facilities also treat most of their waste on site, particularly wastewater. Most smaller generators send waste an average of 200 miles for treatment or disposal. Among both citizens and state governments there is resistance to local siting of waste facilties. Local resistance has convinced businesses or government agencies to look elsewhere to site a proposed facility. State efforts to directly control the flow of hazardous waste have not been successful due to court challenges from industry and subsequent decisions that state restrictions violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Taxes on both in‐state and out‐of‐state waste have proven effective at reducing in‐state waste disposal.     

Introduction: Geographic Contributions to Agrobiodiversity Conservation

Abstract

Since the period of bank deregulation in the 1980s, deferred deposit loan operations, better known as payday lenders, have become commonplace in the landscapes of many American cities. At the same time, traditional banking facilities have become less common, especially in the inner city. Growing disparities in the type of and accessibility to credit in the inner city has generated calls for greater regulation to curb practices by payday lenders that critics claim disproportionately affect poor and minority consumers. Payday lenders argue that they serve communities neglected by traditional banks. This article analyzes the site-location strategies of banks and payday lenders in metropolitan Louisiana, and in Cook County, Illinois, and finds that disenfranchised neighborhoods are simultaneously targeted by payday lenders and neglected by traditional banks. The implications these findings have for public policy and for ongoing discourses on the urban condition, race, and class are briefly discussed.

     

北京亚奥地区居住环境设计与管理的经济利益

为了推动城市居住区环境设计与管理模式的创新, 为相关政策提供决策依据, 有必要定量地把握环境设计与管理所带来的经济价值, 以及伴随政策导入各种利益关系可能发生的变化。运用北京市亚奥地区居住小区的调查数据, 探讨了居住区环境设计与管理的主要影响因素以及与居住区环境政策密切相关的经济利益驱动机制问题。分析表明, 居住小区的规划设计、与周边住宅区的协调性, 以及物业管理是居住区环境品质中最关键的影响因素。同时, 分析定量地证明了居住区环境设计和管理的经济价值, 由此明确了在居住区实行环境设计和管理的潜在动机, 和改善环境设计与管理对提升地区价值所产生的效果。在以上分析的基础上, 提出了推进旧住宅区的物业管理体制改革、通过政策来诱导和推动地区的有机融合、在居住区规划设计和管理方面注重地区文脉、设定适宜的物业收费标准等建议。     

A Review of “Politics and Practice in Economic Geography”

Abstract

This study examines the spatial distribution and enforcement of air polluting facilities in the state of New Jersey, as listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Aerometric Information Retrieval System. Results show that air-polluting facilities tend to concentrate near minority neighborhoods, although this relationship is partially explained by factors of population density, manufacturing employment, and land use. Other results suggest that facilities in areas with a relatively high percentage of minority population tend to have a weaker record of environmental enforcement as compared to other facilities. Of the socioeconomic variables considered, employment in manufacturing appears to be the most strongly related to environmental enforcement.     

Assessing the Impact of Airborne Toxic Releases on Populations with Special Needs

In this article, we 1) develop and demonstrate an approach for assessing the population at risk to airborne releases of extremely hazardous substances, 2) examine the relationship between potential sources of chemical hazards and the special needs population in a medium‐sized metropolitan area (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), and 3) determine whether the distribution of environmental risks disproportionately impacts the special needs population. Our approach provides a comprehensive view of the risk burden imposed on the population by examining the effects of multiple sources of toxic releases. Disproportionate impacts are evaluated by comparing the existing distribution of the special needs population at risk to 1,000 randomly simulated distribution patterns. The results indicate that a significantly high proportion of the special needs population resides in areas susceptible to worst‐case toxic releases.     

ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY IN URBAN TEXAS: RACE,INCOME, AND PATTERNS OF ACUTE AND CHRONIC TOXIC AIR RELEASES IN METROPOLITAN COUNTIES

The distribution of toxic air releases in urban Texas counties is compared to socioeconomic patterns to identify inequitable risk burdens. Chronic and acute toxic airborne release patterns from 1987 to 1990 are compared to demographics for Metropolitan Area (MA) counties. Spearman rank correlation tests indicate that counties with higher percentages of Blacks and other minority groups are more likely to have higher numbers of acute and chronic toxic releases. Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to compare the race and per capita income ranks of the top and bottom 10 counties, which indicated that Blacks and other minority groups were more likely to be associated with airborne toxics. Further analyses explored these relationships at the census-tract level for three sample counties representing distinctly different proportions of Black population. Only one of the sample counties provides supportive evidence that Blacks and other non-Hispanic minorities are inequitably burdened by airborne toxic risk from toxic facilities. [Key words: environmental equity, toxic chemicals, air quality, risk, urban.]     

Assessing green gentrification in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods: a longitudinal and spatial analysis of Barcelona

To date, little is known about the extent to which the creation of municipal green spaces over an entire city addresses social or racial inequalities in the distribution of environmental amenities – or whether such an agenda creates contributes to green gentrification. In this study, we evaluate the effects of creating 18 green spaces in socially vulnerable neighborhoods of Barcelona during the 1990s and early 2000s. We examined the evolution over time of six socio-demographic gentrification indicators in the areas close to green spaces in comparison with the entire districts. Our results indicate that new parks in the old town and formerly industrialized neighborhoods seem to have experienced green gentrification. In contrast, most economically depressed areas and working-class neighborhoods with less desirable housing stock and more isolated from the city center gained vulnerable residents as they became greener, indicating a possible redistribution and greater concentration of vulnerable residents through the city.     

Health Risks and Environmental Inequity: A Geographical Analysis of Accidental Releases of Hazardous Materials

This study examines the spatial distribution and impact of nonroutine accidental releases of hazardous materials relative to the demographic composition of residents in nearby communities. First, atmospheric dispersion modeling methods are used to delineate the impact zones of worst‐case accidents in two New York counties over the last ten years. Next, using accidental reports for 1997, GIS and statistical operations are used at the census tract level of the two counties to determine whether these incidents disproportionately affected disadvantaged neighborhoods. The results suggest that the areas of high‐impact from accidental releases of hazardous materials are best characterized by a large proportion of families below the poverty line, Hispanics, and other minorities.     

A spatial analytic approach for classifying greenspace and comparing greenspace social equity

Urban planners frequently adhere to ‘park minimum standards’ to ensure that public health and environmental benefits associated with greenspace are socially equitable. These standards denote the extent and placement of greenspaces, but rarely consider their form and function. Arguably, an inclusive evaluation of greenspace social equity requires the comparison of greenspace types. To address if greenspace types are socially equitable, I develop a novel spatial analytic approach that classifies 4265 greenspaces according to twelve functional, physical characteristics. I then compare the social equity of these greenspace types using multiple operationalizations of social equity (provision, accessibility, and population pressure) throughout 4524 neighborhoods in a capital city in Australia. I find that greenspace social equity varies for each of these types. For example, results reveal that affluent households have an abundance of amenity rich greenspaces and few amenity poor ones. Further, by comparing across multiple social equity operationalizations, I find that affluent households may have a deficit of the amenity poor greenspace type, but live closer to this type. These findings confirm that employing a greenspace typology and multiple social equity operationalizations can deepen our understanding of the association between social equity and greenspace provision. This spatial analytic approach is both adaptable for examining other urban land use types, and portable to other urban contexts, and can aid urban planners, researchers, and policy makers to understand how to improve the social equity of publicly beneficial greenspace types.     

RACIALIZED TOPOGRAPHIES: ALTITUDE AND RACE IN SOUTHERN CITIES*

ABSTRACT. This study examines altitudinal residential segregation by race in 146 cities in the U.S. South. It begins by embedding the topic in recent theorizations of the social construction of nature, the geography of race, and environmental justice. Second, it focuses on how housing markets, particularly in the South, tend to segregate minorities in low‐lying, flood‐prone, and amenity‐poor segments of urban areas. It tests empirically the hypothesis that blacks are disproportionately concentrated in lower‐altitude areas using gis to correlate race and elevation by digital elevation‐model block group within each city in 1990 and 2000. The statistical results confirm the suspected trend. A map of coefficients indicates strong positive associations in cities in the interior South‐where the hypothesis is confirmed‐and an inverse relationship near the coast, where whites dominate higher‐valued coastal properties. Selected city case studies demonstrate these relationships connecting the broad dynamics of racial segregation to the particularities of individual places.     

POVERTY SEGREGATION IN WEST GERMAN CITIES - THE "AMERICANIZATION" HYPOTHESIS AND ITS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

It is generally assumed that the segregation of the poor in German cities is increasing as a result of cumulative polarization processes in a capitalist economy. This has led to the assumption that German cities are increasingly becoming similar to American cities. The idea of an "Americanization" specifically includes the development of the inner-city "poverty ghettos" and their adverse implications for urban social development in general, which is the focus of this paper. Empirical findings based on analyses in five major German cities do not support these assumptions. In particular there is evidence that local businesses can function as a stabilizing factor in high-poverty neighborhoods, which counteracts developments that are associated with American "poverty ghettos." These findings indicate that the significance of poverty segregation is overestimated in the debate on urban social development in Germany. Rather, a conceptualization of urban social development needs to integrate the structure and development of both population and local business at the neighborhood level. [Key words: poverty, segregation, ghetto, local business, Germany.]     

An environmental justice assessment of public beach access in Miami,Florida

The scope of empirical environmental justice (EJ) research has expanded beyond hazards exposure to scrutinize social inequities in access to amenities, but no prior study has examined the EJ implications of public beach access. Furthermore, quantitative research on white privilege is very scarce. To address these knowledge gaps, our study examines racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in access to public beaches in the Miami metropolitan statistical area, Florida. Public beach accessibility is modeled with an innovative geospatial approach that involves population weighted distances to beach access sites. To assess EJ implications of public beach access for various racial/ethnic and socioeconomically vulnerable groups, spatial regression models are estimated using census tract-level data. Results indicate that beaches are more accessible to neighborhoods with a higher proportion of non-Hispanic Whites, while neighborhoods with higher percentages of Hispanics and socioeconomically disadvantaged residents have limited access. This study demonstrates the importance of assessing white privilege and access to environmental amenities in EJ research to better understand social inequities.     

THE POOR IN THE INNER CITY: STABILITY AND CHANGE IN TWO PARISIAN NEIGHBORHOODS

Gentrification causes area upgrading and population displacement, but also has wider effects. This article examines processes of planning blight and the labeling processes which create and maintain images of certain areas as being "unimprovable" by capital. A typology of poor neighborhoods in gentrifying cities is proposed with the suggestion that each type will contain populations with different and contrasted characteristics. These ideas are tested through a comparison of two neighborhoods in inner Paris. An understanding of the changing status of such districts can only be gained through a recognition of the importance of images and marketing and of the interests of capital.     

苏州老城区衰退邻里居住满意度及影响因素

转型时期中国社会经济经历了巨大转型,居住分异加剧,新城市贫困现象在特定人群和空间集聚,老城衰退邻里就是其中之一。通过对苏州老城区6个典型社区的调查,发现老城区居民居住满意度存在环境类型、空间类型、更新类型和人群分异。居住满意度主要受住房条件、社区环境、配套设施和社会网络影响,其中城市历史社会空间结构奠定了城市环境质量的总体格局,具体设施条件受建成时间、维护水平、人口密度和更新机会的影响;城市更新、原住民比例下降和外来人口迁入导致的人口置换过程破坏了原本良好的社会网络,降低了居住满意度,减少了脱贫机会。从微观社区尺度研究老城衰退邻里的居住满意度及影响因素,不仅能加深对新城市贫困现象的理解,也有利于未来有针对性地制定城市更新规划和扶贫策略。     

中国游客赴马来西亚的安全感知研究

本研究以马蜂窝和TripAdvisor（猫途鹰）两大旅游网站上的网络游记为研究样本，结合内容分析法和扎根理论分析方法对中国出境游客对马来西亚安全感知的内容与影响因素进行研究。研究结果表明：（1）结合高频词及其语义网络分析发现游客对马来西亚的安全感知主要表现为地点、人员、行为、心理四个方面。（2）影响游客安全感知的因素从高到低依次为管-人-环-机，其中管理因素是影响中国游客对马来西亚安全感知最为主要的因素，集中表现为环境氛围差、人文氛围体验不佳、治安混乱、监管不到位。个人因素、环境因素和设施因素分别表现为个人疏忽、天气异常、设施设备不完善。最后从马来西亚政府应联合整治旅游市场秩序，马来西亚旅游企业需加大旅游安全投入和游客要提高个人安全防范意识及应急技能三个方面提出了塑造马来西亚旅游安全形象和降低中国公民出境旅游风险的建议。