1. The Urban World, 9th Ed.
J. John Palen

2. Chapter 11: Cities and Change
Introduction
The Urban Crisis: Thesis
Urban Revival: Antithesis
A Political Economy Look at the Urban Crisis
21st-Century City Developments
Gentrification
Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods
Successful Working Class Revival
Summary

3. Introduction
There is confusion and dispute about the future of the city
It is a cliché that we live in an age of urban crisis
Certainly there is no lack of prophets to passionately catalog urban ills

4. The Urban Crisis: Thesis
The last decades of the 20th century heard voices raised everywhere proclaiming the inevitable decline, if not death, of the city
Are these pessimistic predictions accurate?
Loss of manufacturing jobs
Growing need for services while revenues decreased
Aging city properties and municipalities

5. Urban Revival: Antithesis
The last two decades have witnessed a rebirth of hope
An urban renaissance has taken place
The recession and housing bust kept people from moving to the suburbs
In 2010, many cities posted their highest growth rates in a decade

6. A Political Economy Look at the Urban Crisis
Political economy academics hold that city problems do not occur in a vacuum, and city problems cannot be examined separately from the political, historical, and, particularly, economic systems of which they are a part
The quest for ever-greater profits by large monopolistic corporations is seen s leading to government policies
Gentrification is seen as a conscious product of land-based interest groups able to control the real estate market

7. 21st-Century City Developments
New Patterns
The economic and social health of cities shows a mixed pattern
During the 21st century, it seems clear, not all cities are going to experience similar situations
The urban renaissance is uneven, but clearly more prevalent than a decade ago

8. Central Business Districts
The Central Business District (CBD) is the economic heart of the city
Generally have been reasonably successful in retaining business and government offices
Downtown buildings use space effectively
Cities are actively promoting downtown convention centers as an economic growth strategy
Downtown stores will never again have the unchallenged control of retail trade they exhibited during the centralizing era of the streetcar and subway

9. Mismatch Hypothesis Downtown Housing
Central-city offices provide new jobs—but only for those possessing specific white-collar skills
City factories and manufacturing plants continue to move to the suburbs—or, more frequently, abroad
The so-called “mismatch hypothesis” is that cities have blue-collar job seekers and white-collar job opportunities
Downtown Housing
In the last decade downtown population in major U.S. cities increased about 10 percent
The most successful North American city in bringing residents downtown is Vancouver
There is a need for balance of people and business

10. Crumbling Infrastructure
Fiscal Health
Today municipalities are largely left to sink or swim on their own
Without federal help cities have substantially abandoned their earlier programs to fight poverty and solve social problems
Of every dollar of taxes, 65 cents go to the federal government, 20 cents go to the states, and only the remaining 14 cents go to the local governments
Crumbling Infrastructure
The most severe problem is often antiquated water and sewage systems
80,000 acres of lad are polluted with toxic chemicals and deserted

11. Neighborhood Revival
There is now a clear movement, especially by young professionals, toward residence in the central city
The gentrification movement is taking place in older neighborhoods that are recycling from a period of decay
The last decade has seen the rapid expansion of gentrification with cities such as Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco

12. Gentrification Government and Revitalization Who is Gentrifying?
In the postwar years the federal government sponsored urban clearance and renewal
By contrast, until recently urban gentrification has been funded almost entirely by the private sector
Today, municipal governments overwhelmingly support gentrification, largely because it brings more affluent taxpayers
Who is Gentrifying?
Gentrifiers are perhaps better described as “urban stayers” than as “urban in-movers”
Generally young or middle-aged adults, childless, white, urban-bred, well-educated, etc.

13. Why is Gentrification Taking Place?
Demographic Changes
Decline in marriage, later age at marriage, increases in unmarried couples, and declines in the umber of young children per family
All factors represent a decline of the sort of “familism” that played such an important part in the postwar flight to the suburbs
Economic Changes
Commuting and utilities are expensive
Revitalizing existing city housing can be less expensive than new construction on the suburban periphery

14. Displacement of the Poor
Lifestyle Choices
Urban living is “in”
A serious liability of many central-city neighborhoods—the low quality of city schools—does not weigh as heavily on urbanites without children
Older restored houses are now considered more desirable
Displacement of the Poor
Those displaced are most often low-income renters, and low-income renters as a group have high residential mobility
Elderly property owners do face higher property assessments, but higher assessments mean that their property is sharply appreciating in value

15. Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods
The number of middle-income neighborhoods is shrinking
U.S. middle-income neighborhoods made up six out of ten of all metro neighborhoods in 1970, they made up only four out of ten in 2000
Rising income inequality has led to rising income segregation
Neighborhoods are becoming more and more economically homogenous

16. Successful Working-Class Revival
Is it possible for cities to provide decent housing for low-income working-class residents?
Working with community groups and local nonprofit housing corporations, the city of New York, for example, has worked a quiet revolution, building just during the early 1990s some 50,000 new residences in what had been the most devastated areas of the city