MUEBLES RÚSTICOS IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT. Sales of muebles rústicos, or rustic wooden furniture made in Mexico, have grown rapidly in the United States since 1994. Analysis of the recent rise of the industry tracks manufacturing and marketing methods in major production areas of Mexico. Consumer taste for “authentic” handmade goods of simple design and the vogue of the “Santa Fe” style across the American Southwest mesh with Mexican producers' need to seek foreign markets during an economic crisis. Changing style preferences, along with the furniture's handcrafted appearance, its competitive cost, and the makers' flexible production methods, are reasons for the increased popularity of this folk commodity.     

CELLULAR TOWER PROLIFERATION IN THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT. Since the early 1980s the growing popularity of cellular communication has wrought dramatic landscape changes on the American scene through an invasion of thousands of cellular telephone towers. Objections raised to new tower construction by local residents, interest groups, and regulatory boards range from visual impacts to perceived health risks. This essay traces the origins of wireless telephony, its proliferation across the United States, and the visual impacts associated with tower construction. Three stages in the geographical expansion of wireless networks are identified.     

PROPRIETARY RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT. Proprietary residential communities constitute a major component in the evolving geography of urban America. In many metropolitan regions, proprietary residential communities or common‐interest developments, and associated forms of urban management, have emerged as the dominant form of residential development. Critical discourse on these communities and their residential community/homeowner associations has focused principally on the negative consequences for urban social and political life. It is argued here that many critical assessments are grounded in an idealistic view of contemporary society and an outdated conceptualization of citizenship. This article is intended to reenergize debate on these developments through a realist interpretation of the benefits and disbenefits of a form of residential development destined to exercise a major influence on the sociospatial structure of U.S. metropolitan areas in the early twenty‐first century.     

MOISTURE TRAJECTORIES ASSOCIATED WITH HEAVY RAINFALL IN THE APPALACHIAN REGION OF THE UNITED STATES

Synoptic data associated with a sample of 554 heavy rainfall events is utilized to carry out a trajectory analysis that identifies the movements of moisture towards regions of heavy rain. Both seasonal and regional variations are found in the moisture trajectories associated with heavy rain events occurring in three regions in the Appalachian study area. Numerous events in the region west of the mountain range are tied to westerly and south-southwesterly circulations that bring moisture from the Mississippi River Valley and the Gulf of Mexico during the warm and cool seasons, respectively. Many events southeast of the mountain range are associated with southerly to southeasterly circulations that advect moisture from the Atlantic Ocean. Because of orographic precipitation enhancement and a good exposure to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, the southern and southeastern slopes of the Appalachian mountains display high frequencies of heavy rainfall, particularly during the cool season. The interior portions of the mountain range and the adjacent plateau to the northwest, on the other hand, are sheltered from moisture source regions and, therefore, exhibit low heavy rain frequencies. [Key words: precipitation, synoptic climatology, Appalachia.]     

AVOIDING THE DEMISE OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES

This is the second of two articles about challenges that confront geography departments in a changing academic environment. College enrollment trends and tightening budgets are placing geography programs in jeopardy because the discipline is not considered by society to be indispensable. Departmental survival in a period of retrenchment may depend upon successfully demonstrating utility and quality, identifying unfilled niches in individual institutions, developing new interdisciplinary organizational arrangements, or finding ways to strengthen geography's position in governmental definitions of useful academic training.     

VARIATIONS IN DEW-POINT TEMPERATURES IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES

Atmospheric humidity as measured by dew-point temperatures is an important component of the climate of the southern United States. The South experiences the country's highest dew-point temperatures throughout the year. A gradient is established between moist air along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts inland toward the drier areas of northwestern Texas. This gradient is strongest in winter and weakest in summer when consistent southerly circulation maintains humid conditions throughout the region. Interannual variability also is largest in the winter and smallest in summer. Dew-point temperatures are strongly related to air temperatures in the non-summer season, but are more fundamentally linked to air mass and circulation changes. Recent increases in southerly flow in the spring and autumn seasons have led to a significant increase in dew-point temperatures in many portions of the region. However, there is no evidence at this time to suggest that increased evaporation from greenhouse warming has altered dew-point temperatures in the southern United States.     

THE INTRAMETROPOLITAN LOCATION OF SERVICES IN THE UNITED STATES

In metropolitan areas, firms trade-off land and information costs. Firms that gain the most from access to the knowledge and know-how of other firms in the same sector are willing and able to pay for expensive central city land. We found that legal services, advertising, and accounting and auditing services are the most centralized services in the 74 largest metropolitan areas of the United States. Maps of seven fast-growing business and professional services in Phoenix, Arizona, show that central city services are mainly located in the CBD. Using a logarithmic function, we found that service jobs are more decentralized in the larger metropolitan areas and in metropolitan areas outside the Northeast. Analysis of disaggregate service sectors shows significant intersectoral variation in this relationship.     

JAPAN'S DIRECT MANUFACTURING INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Japan is the most important foreign investor in the United States. Japanese companies are trade-oriented and have ownership-specific advantages in select industries; their US investment is aimed at protecting their market share. The distribution of Japanese plants correlates well with US manufacturing, except that the West Coast and states that aggressively sought Japanese investment have more employees in Japanese plants. Japanese presence in US manufacturing is most prominent in consumer electronics, steel, automobiles, and high-technology industries.     

VARIABILITY IN HIGH TEMPERATURE EXTREMES IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

Forty-one years of data from 13 first-order National Weather Service stations in the southeastern United States were analyzed to determine the spatial variability in the frequency and duration of hours and days when temperatures were ≥32° C (high-heat). Spatial analysis indicated that extreme high temperature characteristics from individual stations should not be combined into a regional or statewide average. For determining high-heat scenarios, May through September (summer) average maximum temperature (Tmax) was found to be a more appropriate indicator of high-heat conditions than the average temperature (Tmean). Comparing conditions in average warm and cool summer seasons indicated that: (1) increases in the frequency and duration of high-heat hours and days from cool to warm summer seasons range from 70 to 997%; (2) the number of high-heat hours per day increases significantly (27 to 118%) from cool to warm summer seasons; (3) increases in Tmax from cool to warm summer seasons are greater than increases for Tmean; (4) Tmean values underestimate the number and duration of high-heat events; and (5) the diurnal temperature range increases during warm summer seasons. These results show that great variability already exists in today's climate characteristics, and that any potential shift in average temperature will cause even greater changes in the frequency and duration of extreme high temperatures in this region. [Key words: climate variability, temperature extremes, southeast United States.]     

REGIONAL PATTERNS OF FEMALE STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES

Two measures of female status displayed dissimilar spatial distributions. Absolute status, measured by income, education, and occupation, was highest in the West and Northeast and lowest in the South. Female status was high where male status was high. The relative status of women compared to men, however, was high in the West and the rural Middle West and South but low in the Mountain West and industrial Northeast. Nationwide, where men enjoyed high absolute status, the relative status of women compared with men was poor.     

OCCUPATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT. Acquiring good jobs is vital for the economic success of immigrants, yet occupational attainment is understudied in the immigration literature. One particularly neglected aspect is the role of ethnicity in occupations beyond the ethnic niche. This study examines the occupational attainment of long‐term Latin American immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Ecuador, and Colombia in four metropolitan areas with large Latino populations. The findings show that occupational attainment varies considerably by country of origin across these areas, although important human and social capital factors also are significant variables. These findings lend support to the proposition that, for immigrants, place of origin and destination play an important role in job‐queue position.     

WHY WAS HUMBOLDT FORGOTTEN IN THE UNITED STATES?*

ABSTRACT. In the nineteenth century Alexander von Humboldt was acclaimed as “the second Columbus” and “the scientific discoverer of America.” His prestige and fame were such that on 14 September 1869, the hundredth anniversary of his birth, a grand celebration was held with parades, speeches, concerts, and the unveiling of memorials in cities across the country. Humboldt's popularity in the United States endured for the remainder of the nineteenth century, but he dropped from public consciousness in the twentieth century. To account for the eclipse of Humboldt's fame in the United States three hypotheses are discussed: a shift in the character of scientific endeavor; the quality of Humboldt's written work; and the rise of anti‐German sentiment with a concurrent rush to “de‐Germanize” the United States in the early twentieth century.