The role of metropolitan opportunity structures for understanding variation in the rate of Black household affluence

This study explores Black household affluence at the metropolitan scale and suggests that metropolitan-level opportunity structures shaped rates of Black affluence for the 100 largest American metropolitan areas in 2000. I hypothesize that affluent black households favored metropolitan areas of opportunity, those places characterized by having (1) economic opportunities, (2) favorable Black–White relational standing, (3) metropolitan diversity and residential opportunities, and (4) their location in the South, which serves as a Black homeplace. Results fail to suggest evidence regarding the role of the ‘new South’ for understanding metropolitan-level rates of Black affluence. More generally, findings from this study challenge our understanding of socioeconomic stratification by investigating diversity within America’s Black community.     

SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN GROCERY PRICES: FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT MODELING

Significant housing discrimination against Blacks continues to exist in Metropolitan Miami, as it does in most other large United States cities. Blacks in Miami live in neighborhoods that are not nearly as segregated by socioeconomic status as are Hispanic and non-Hispanic White neighborhoods. This study uses data derived from interviews of 432 Black heads of households living in Miami neighborhoods that are at least 50% Black. Although most of the African Americans interviewed said they think their neighborhood is desirable and said they want to live where they do, it is clear that they are not living where they most prefer. They live in predominantly Black neighborhoods because they feel unwelcome in White neighborhoods and they fear housing discrimination in the latter. Among other problems, the continued residential concentration of Blacks in predominantly Black neighborhoods of mixed socioeconomic status in Miami results in a bidding up of the price of housing that is left for the less affluent Blacks.     

Ethnic Place Identity Within A Parisian Neighborhood

The Goutte d'Or neighborhood of Paris has long been seen as an impoverished yet colorful quarter of the city. In recent years, it has also developed a reputation as a center for immigrants. Three populations now share the neighborhood: the European French, the Maghrebi immigrant population and their children, and the newest population of migrants from former Francophone colonies. This paper examines how the Goutte d'Or's social and ethnic identity is revealed in the built environment and in its social and economic activity. This neighborhood demonstrates how different communities and place identities coexist. It also shows how global networks of migration, exchange, and visits infuse local places. The Goutte d'Or distills many aspects of French immigrant identities, providing an example for increasing numbers of immigrant neighborhoods in France and across the world.     

Reconsidering Race,Class, and Residential Segregation in American Cities

Scholars have often discounted social class as a substantial contributor to residential segregation by race, in part as a result of using the dissimilarity index, which is likely to show high levels of uneven group distribution regardless of socioeconomic status (SES), and in part as a result of using limited categories of SES. This study expands on prior research by examining residential segregation between black-alone and white-alone households in 36 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with 2000 decennial census data, using both spatial unevenness (dissimilarity) and two types of experiential indicators (exposure indices), measuring SES across income levels and accounting for the presence of other races. Findings show that black households with higher incomes live in neighborhoods with greater exposure and lower isolation than do black households with lower incomes. Additionally, while the dissimilarity of black households decreases with income, unevenness is not as strongly connected to income as are the experiential measures. While race remains a primary determinant of residential segregation, results indicate substantial class differences.     

Using Photography to Visualize Children's Culture of Play: A Socio‐Spatial Perspective

Visual methodologies have great potential to offer insight into children's culture and how it shapes childhood. We explore children's culture of play in an urban, low‐income neighborhood using photographs as a means of encouraging participatory research with elementary school students. Focus group interviews were conducted to validate children's perspectives on play, and all data were analyzed inductively using open coding to develop categories and emergent themes. Findings suggest that adults often define the physical boundaries of play, but children were largely able to determine the nature of their activities. Children's culture of play in this study highlighted issues of power and privilege, while concurrently emphasizing the socio‐spatial nature of childhood.     

Residential perspectives: the value of Floodplain‐ buyout open space

This mixed‐methods case study identifies how floodplain property acquisition—a buyout—impacts an urban environment at the neighborhood scale while considering the role of individual residents in formal and informal land‐use decision making. In floodplain buyouts, the reopening of urban space is enabled by federal structural drivers, primarily Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), but it is repurposed as a cultural landscape constructed and produced by individuals. This research explores how residents perceive and ascribe values to the buyout landscape in Lexington, Kentucky. Enabled by federal funds, but left largely to their own devices, residents in Lexington adopted uses, ascribed values, and produced their own land‐use norms in each buyout neighborhood.     

Changing patterns of residential and workplace segregation in the Stockholm metropolitan area

Immigrant–native segregation is present in the spaces in which individuals from different ethnic/racial groups practice their everyday lives; interact with others and develop their ethnic, social and spatial networks. The overwhelming majority of academic research on immigrant segregation has focused on the residential domain, thus largely overlooking other arenas of daily interaction. The present study contributes to the emerging literature on immigrant residential and workplace segregation by examining changes in patterns of residential and workplace segregation over time. We draw our data from the Stockholm metropolitan region, Sweden’s main port of entry for immigrants. The results suggest a close association between residential and workplace segregation. Immigrant groups that are more segregated at home are also more segregated in workplace neighborhoods. More importantly, we found that a changing segregation level in one domain tends to involve a similar trend in the other domain.     

Residential Location and White Attitudes Toward Mixed-Race Neighborhoods in Kalamazoo,Michigan

Abstract

Past studies have suggested that white attitudes toward mixed-race neighborhoods in northern metropolises vary spatially. Nonetheless, conflicting hypotheses exist in regard to the nature of these spatial patterns and explanations for them. Data gathered within the Kalamazoo Urbanized Area indicate that white attitudes are significantly related to both: 1) the level of interaction between whites and blacks, and 2) the distance between residence and the Negro neighborhood. Attitudes tend to be more favorable with higher interaction levels, and they tend to be less favorable as distance from the Negro neighborhood increases. When control is made for interaction, the relationship between attitude and distance is greatly weakened, indicating that interaction is the dominant variable. That does not eliminate the spatial component, however, because the racial interaction patterns in Kalamazoo are strongly related to distance from the black residential areas.     

The Urban Settlement Patterns of Disadvantaged Migrants

Abstract

Disadvantaged migrants to metropolitan areas are segregated by race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status within the residential areas of central city poverty neighborhoods. Whereas black migrants are generally restricted to ghetto space, regional cultural similarities and feedback in the social communication network are important to the residential location of lower class whites. The urban settlement patterns of a sample of recent disadvantaged white migrants to Indianapolis, Indiana, vary from the clusters of migrants from Appalachia and the South to the more dispersed pattern of migrants from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, and other metropolitan areas. The residential location of migrants from Appalachia and the South is geographically restricted by cultural constraints, and heavy reliance upon a limited network of friends and relatives in the housing search. However, the sociocultural resources of the Midwest group and the previous urban experience of metropolitan migrants increase the range of housing opportunities in Indianapolis that are available and known to them.     

Black–White and Hispanic–White Segregation in U.S. Counties

Residential segregation in metropolitan areas has been the subject of much research, but this article analyzes patterns of white–black and white–Hispanic segregation in counties across the United States. Our purpose was to understand county variations in this one dimension of inequality. Conceiving of segregation as relative inequality of access to neighborhood resources, we measured segregation in 2000 by the index of dissimilarity (D) calculated by blocks, mapped the index values, and correlated them with census variables. Three filters enabled us to eliminate counties with characteristics that could have corrupted the analyses, leaving us with more than 1,000 counties in each analysis. Both minority groups were less segregated from whites in the West and South and in metropolitan counties. Lower segregation was strongly associated with higher minority socioeconomic status and higher percentages of minorities living in housing built in the 1990s, and Hispanic–white segregation was lower where more Hispanics were U.S.-born or English proficient. The racial threat hypothesis was supported only weakly and inconsistently. Mapping made it possible to identify regional and local patterns of high and low segregation as well as the lower segregation of suburban counties in some large metropolitan areas.     

Collins Glacier Retreat Process and Regional Climatic Variations,King George Island,Antarctica

This paper investigates the recent climatic variability and changes in snow line and ice front position in Collins Glacier, King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctic Peninsula. This region has recorded one of the largest temperature increases in the past fifty years and has been demonstrated to be highly sensitive to climate changes. To monitor recent changes (1983–2006), we determined the fluctuations of the terminus and snow line of the glacier via remote sensing data and field observation in the summer of 2013. We conclude that the Collins Glacier has responded slowly to regional climate changes (decades or even centuries), as glacial responses to climatic events do not depend solely on one environmental variable. The glacier presented more retreat and elevation of the snow line in the north sector. The retreat data are correlated with the mean monthly temperature and annual number of days of melting‐degree variations.     

Evaluating Environmental Sensitivity of Arid and Semiarid Regions in Northeastern Rajasthan,India

Arid regions of Rajasthan in India are characterized by harsh environments, fragile ecosystems, and limited water resources and arable lands. Desertification is one of the major land‐degradation problems in these regions. Recent changes in the regional climatic regime and the low availability of water in this northwestern state of India, pose the threat of desertification in the agriculturally productive part of the state. This study aims to delineate the environmentally sensitive areas to desertification in the districts of Jhunjhunun and Sikar in Rajasthan, India. It uses geospatial data from various sources, and combines them to calculate an environmental sensitivity index (ESI), which will allow the quantification of the area's vulnerability to desertification. The study uses the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to assign respective weights to individual factors for each index calculation. Land‐cover maps and socio‐economic data have been used to understand their relationship with ESI. Results showed that 13 percent and 45 percent of the study area are under highly sensitive and moderately sensitive zones, respectively. Mapping and monitoring of environmentally sensitive areas in such arid regions are critical to sustainable use and planning of natural resources namely water and land‐cover and are helpful in determining priority actions and their successful implementation.     

Housing Foreclosure as A Geographically Contingent Event: Columbus Ohio 2003–2007

This article seeks to better understand geographic manifestations of housing foreclosure, moving beyond the usual portrayal that highlights, e.g., race/ethnicity and income. We depart from the usual analytical strategy which centers on factors that subsume high proportions of variance. Instead, this is the starting point for considering constellations and idiosyncratic but formative characteristics—contingencies—that further understanding of, e.g., why two households with identical attributes experience different outcomes. Empirical focus is on Columbus Ohio, 2003–2007. Regression analysis identifies central tendencies, followed by regression tree procedures that reveal variable combinations which alter correlational expectations. Unique areas are examined by neighborhood reconnaissance, exploratory data analysis, interviews, and archival research. Relevant factors include race/ethnicity and socio-economic characteristics. Beyond that, differing variable combinations lead to different outcomes, as do processes such as neighborhood life cycle, institutional actions/involvement, and year of home purchase/construction relative to housing de/inflation and mortgage market characteristics.     

The Role of Residential Location in Conditioning the Effect of Metropolitan Economic Structure on Male Youth Employment

Youths have increasingly experienced labor market problems over the last several decades. One fruitful line of explanation focuses on structural changes in the demand for labor stemming from deindustrialization, changing skill requirements for employees, and increasing supply competition from women and recent immigrants. While these explanations merit attention, they have not adequately considered facts that condition their impact. This paper considers the argument that intra-metropolitan residential location conditions the effects of metropolitan labor market structure on black and white male youths' employment probabilities. Using a sample of individual-level data drawn from the 1990 census combined with metropolitan-level indicators of economic structure, it was found that some structural effects varied between central-city and suburban male youths. The conditioning role of residential location, and the subsequent nature of the structural effects, varied considerably between black and white male youths. Interpretations of the conditioning role of residential location include a variety of social and institutional effects on individual residents and the stigmatizing effects of some neighborhoods, especially on black male youths.     

Intraurban Residential Location Of The Elderly

Abstract

Many socio-economic analyses of senior citizens presume the aged to be concentrated in the central cities of American metropolitan centers. This presumption was examined by studying the intraurban residential location patterns of the aged in Toledo, Ohio from 1940 to 1970. The residential location patterns of the elderly in each census period were mapped and discussed. Also, their residential location pattern was compared with the distributions of the non-elderly population and the black population. Although a slight concentration of aged in the central city was noted, their distribution was closely related to the distribution of the non-elderly population. Furthermore, they are much less segregated than the black population.     

城市居住空间分异背景下青少年成长的邻里影响——以广州市鹭江村与逸景翠园为例

城市居住空间分异是现代城市社会阶层分化导致的普遍现象,西方许多研究证明这种特定人群集中居住的邻里会对其中的青少年的成长产生多方面的影响。本文以广州市鹭江村和逸景翠园社区为例进行对比研究,探究中国城市中不同邻里对居住在其中的青少年成长的影响。在此将邻里特征分为社会经济特征、家庭教育观念特征、同龄人交往特征、机构资源特征4 个方面,运用logistic 回归分析发现,上述4 个方面的邻里特征确实会对青少年的成长产生影响,其中社会经济特征对青少年的学习成绩有影响,家庭教育观念特征影响青少年的教育表现与心理状态,同龄人交往特征则对青少年性格有重要影响,机构资源特征会影响青少年发展机会的获得。而邻里影响的作用机制可以用Jencks等的邻里机构资源模式和群体社会化模式来解释。     

Residential mobility and neighborhood inequality during the transition to adulthood

There is ongoing interest on the outcomes of residential mobility during the young adulthood. In this paper, we examine movement in and out of disadvantaged and advantaged neighborhoods as individuals move out of the family home and experience significant life course events. Using longitudinal data on young adults in the United States from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we find that while the point-in-time measure of the neighborhood poverty gap (the difference between the most and least advantaged neighborhoods) remained nearly identical from adolescence to young adulthood. But the neighborhood poverty gap between individuals starting out in the least and most disadvantaged residential settings decreased by 18.2 percentage points. In other words, cross sectional estimates of the poverty gap do not capture the dynamism of changes in poverty with young adult transitions. Partner formation, home ownership, and educational attainment are important life course transitions associated with significant moves up and down the neighborhood poverty distribution.     

Neighborhood racial–ethnic change and home value appreciation: evidence from Philadelphia

A limited number of studies have addressed residential self-selection when considering the relationship between the built environment (BE) and physical activity. Ignoring self-selection may bias the estimate of the strength of the relationship and misinform public policy. Using 2011 data from the Twin Cities, this study employs cross-sectional and quasi-longitudinal analyses to disentangle the impacts between self-selection (through residential preferences and travel attitudes) and neighborhood characteristics on active travel (AT). The two approaches produce somewhat different outcomes: attitudinal factors are extensively present in the cross-sectional analysis and the associations between neighborhood characteristics and AT are greatly attenuated after controlling for attitudinal factors. In contrast, neighborhood characteristics play a dominant role in the quasi-longitudinal analysis, while attitudinal and demographic characteristics carry additional impacts on AT. Overall, both preferences and attitudes help explain the difference in AT. I find that while physical activity infrastructure impacts biking, physical activity infrastructure together with transit and accessibility affects walking, even after controlling for demographic and attitudinal characteristics. The results highlight the importance of shaping the BE in order to provide an infrastructure of alternative modes of transport and access to different land uses in policy efforts to increase AT.     

Race and (Online) Sites of Consumption

Due to the hybrid nature of material and digital spaces, more decisions are being made online that have a direct effect on offline actions. This is increasingly true for the locations where people are choosing to consume goods and services such as restaurants or retail outlets. The growth of the GeoWeb—personal data uploaded to certain Internet sites such as social media platforms—has established large databases showing the locations where people go during their daily lives for the purposes of consumption. One such repository is the social network, Foursquare, which people use to display their physical location to their friends, digitally. In looking more closely at datasets from Foursquare overlaid with information on racial characteristics in census tracts, a pattern emerges: predominantly African‐American tracts are increasingly left out of this type of online participation. This paper will compare Foursquare data from several U.S. cities to discuss the implications of being left off of social media platforms tied to economic activity. It is likely that these virtually invisible areas will have a direct impact on the economic vitality of their physical counterparts     

RESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE PATTERNS OF AFRO-AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THREE DIFFERENT STATES

The residential preferences of Afro-American students in three black colleges in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Texas are factor analyzed to determine whether major differences exist. Mapping the factor scores for the students in each college reveals that state rankings vary markedly from one region to another, black spatial preferences differ markedly from those students attending predominately white universities, and preference patterns reflect contemporary interregional black migration trends.