WAS 1992–2000 THE BEST OF TIMES FOR AMERICAN URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS?*

ABSTRACT. A survey of about 400 New Jersey residents was conducted in 2001 in order to determine whether people believed that their home neighborhood benefited during the unprecedented economic boom of the 1990s. In this analysis of public perceptions and trust, most respondents did not perceive that their neighborhood had improved. The strongest correlates of no neighborhood benefits were distrust of government officials and neighbors, low personal efficacy, and lack of civic engagement, as well as fair or poor neighborhood quality. These disillusioning results underscore the difficulty of maintaining healthy neighborhoods in low‐trust environments.     

Post‐Katrina Population Loss and Uneven Recovery in New Orleans, 2000–2010

New Orleans has suffered from a significant population decline during 2000–2010, mainly due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Regression models are used here to explain the spatial variability of population change in New Orleans by variables such as proximity (distance or travel time) to the central business district (CBD), a natural environment variable “elevation”, and two composite socio‐demographic indices derived from variables in the census. The research reveals a U‐shaped population‐change profile with distance or travel time from the CBD, population loss bottomed at 4–5 kilometers (10–15 minutes) from the CBD and recovered towards both the CBD and suburbs. This suggests possible converging forces of suburbanization (that is, a nationwide trend that began long before the hurricane) and the CBD's anchoring role in the post‐Katrina recovery. Greater population loss was also observed in the socioeconomically disadvantaged and lower‐elevated areas, but neighborhoods of Hispanic concentration experienced less population loss.     

The Spatial Structure of Land Use from 1970–2000 in the Phoenix,Arizona, Metropolitan Area

This article explores the dimensions of rapid urbanization in the Phoenix Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) over the past thirty years with respect to land use change. We devote primary attention to developing an understanding of what land transformations took place, the extent to which they occurred, and where they occurred. Our findings indicate that 32 percent of the Phoenix SMSA changed between 1970 and 2000. More than half of the overall change was from agriculture to some form of urban land use, and although a large percentage of the region remains open desert the parcels of desert are increasingly fragmented. This has significant implications for urban ecology and biodiversity. The growth indicates that rather than a pattern that reflects the agglomeration effects of a polycentric metropolis, the central business district of the City of Phoenix dominates the region. This has implications with respect to employment patterns, traffic congestion, and urban air quality and climate.     

Mapping land cover changes in Mexico, 1976–2000 and applications for guiding environmental management policy

Land use conversion typically implicates deforestation and fragmentation of primary land cover types, which invariably translates into impoverishment of both natural and cultural capital. Understanding where conversion is taking place crucially underpins sound environmental policy instruments to prevent these enormous social and economic costs. This paper examines 30 years of semi‐detailed (1:250 000) land cover mapping in Mexico. Pre‐existing analogue databases describing land cover patterns in the 1970s and 1990s were reviewed, corrected, reorganized and transformed into a digital format. Current land cover patterns were depicted by conducting updated reinterpretation on Landsat ETM+ imagery. Digital cartographic overlaying was performed and the results were used to construct a spatially explicit land use/land cover change (LULCC) database with an additional accuracy assessment procedure. The value of the results of this analysis is also seen in the light of their direct applications for identifying critical watershed trends, for guiding the allocation of financial funds for sound land use planning and for assessing the effectiveness of established protected areas. This effort highlights the importance of new and more effective geographical approaches to depict, understand and contribute to informed measures to mitigate ongoing negative trends in land cover and climatic changes.