Urban social and spatial geography is largely connected with household income. In class the texts of Kaplan and Berube have been examined to demonstrate that these concepts are directly related. The Claritas Corporation has created “lifestyle clusters” that attempt to explain the division in social geography along with the occurrence of different divides within cities. The complexity theory goes along with this concept explaining that a city is a series of intricate processes and can be understood through the different elements of an urban area.
Cities are often considered emergent systems and processes that can be related to biology and these processes are often driven by human activity. This is often called macro societal behavior, which are behaviors that endure longer than their component elements. Urban areas can also be related to top-down processes and then studied through the neighborhoods. Cities are not areas that can be viewed as a whole, but are broken down for better understanding of their complexity.
By examining different texts, and especially census data and Claritas Corporation’s “lifestyle clusters” a definition of urban spaces socially and spatially is created. Also, due to technological advances, the ability examines cities and their functioning is more accurately determined. The lifestyles also resulted in the Potential Rating Index for Zip Markets, New Evolution, or PRIZM NE. This was a process that assigned zip codes to predefined clusters according to the socioeconomic characteristics of the area. Different characteristics included; wealth, race, age, ethnicity, family structure, etc. This study also explained spatial information and how cities are divided. A goal of these clusters is to reach the com...
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...ing neighborhoods in Cincinnati.
Ultimately by reading and understanding the texts of Kaplan and Berube, along with supporting theories, the segregation of neighborhoods socially and spatially can be better understood. The urban core of Cincinnati is deteriorating due to this segregation and this is not only factual but something that can be said by visually examining the area. Cincinnati is not just an urban area that experiences this fragmentation, it is defined by this seperation. Ultimately, Cincinnati must work against the trends that have occurred to limit residential segregation and converge cities. It is a challenge to remove people from what they are familiar, but through education and an awareness of this fragmentation and the deteriorating city people can overcome their comfort to embrace different nationalities and ethnicities that are not their own.
In the book The Great Inversion, author Alan Ehrenhalt reveals the changes that are happing in urban and suburban areas. Alan Ehrenhalt the former editor of Governing Magazine leads us to acknowledge that there is a shift in urban and suburban areas. This revelation comes as the poorer, diverse, city dwellers opt for the cookie cutter, shanty towns at the periphery of American cities known as the suburbs. In similar fashion the suburbanites, whom are socioeconomic advantaged, are looking to migrate into the concrete jungles, of America, to live an urban lifestyle. Also, there is a comparison drawn that recognizes the similarities of cities and their newer, more affluent, residents, and those cities of Europe a century ago and their residents. In essence this book is about the demographic shifts in Urban and Suburban areas and how these changes are occurring.
Chicago was the best place to live and visit for anyone. Many people traveled from far places to visit and live in Chicago. Long after the World War II many things started reshaping America. One of the most significant was the racial change all over America but specifically in Chicago. Many southern blacks started to move into Chicago. Chicago started to become mostly dominated by blacks and other minorities while whites started to move into the suburbs of Chicago. "Beginning in the 1930s, with the city's black population increasing and whites fleeing to the suburbs, the black vote became a precious commodity to the white politicians seeking to maintain control" (Green, 117). Many of the mayors such as Edward J. Kelly, Martin H. Kennelly, and Richard J. Daley won over the blacks and got their votes for them to become mayor. The black population grew by 77 percent by the 1940. The white population dropped from 102,048 to 10,792 during the years of 1940 to 1960. With all of these people moving into Chicago there had to be more housing. There were many houses built to accommodate all the people. Martin H. Kennelly at one time wanted to tear down slums and have public housing built in the black ghetto. Many of the blacks wanted to escape these ghettos so some of them; if they could they would try to move to the white communities. When the blacks would try to move into the white communities they were met with mobs. There were many hurdles that blacks had to overcome not only in Chicago but all over America. The blacks of Chicago had to fight for a place to live and to find a mayor that would help them for who they are, not their color.
Most study of gentrification thus far seems to focus upon the racial aspects of segregation in relation to gentrification apart from work such as that of Douglas Massey who has been a prominent writer in ethnic relations and segregation he conceives of residential segregation as a multidimensional phenomenon that is varying along five distinct axes of measurement the need for comparative analysis of the nature and consequences of inner-city transformation. (Wyly Hammel
The modern story of developed areas is a move from the inner city to the suburbs. This decentralization of metropolitan areas has left urban areas neglected. Such a transformation has had negative consequences, because it has inherently meant the abandonment of those left behind in urban centers. Furthermore, the issue is complicated by the fact that the distinction between those moving to the suburbs and those left behind has been defined largely by race. As Kain notes,
Gentrification is the keystone for the progression of the basic standards of living in urban environments. A prerequisite for the advancement of urban areas is an improvement of housing, dining, and general social services. One of the most revered and illustrious examples of gentrification in an urban setting is New York City. New York City’s gentrification projects are seen as a model for gentrification for not only America, but also the rest of the world. Gentrification in an urban setting is much more complex and has deeper ramifications than seen at face value. With changes in housing, modifications to the quality of life in the surrounding area must be considered as well. Constant lifestyle changes in a community can push out life-time
Even though people live in the same city, their perspectives and experiences may differ from one another. Factors that are affected by this would be race, gender, class and even age. The differences between the upper, middle, and lower classes have completely different lifestyles. Early suburbanization provided families with affordable house, schools, and parks. “Edge city is a middle to upper middle class area that has complete living, working, shopping and activities so that it is not dependent on the central city or other
Residential Segregation Race is an ambiguous concept possessed by individuals, and according to sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant, it is socially constructed. Race divides people into categories, which causes needless cultural and social tensions. The concept of race also causes inclusion, exclusion, and segregation in the U.S. Both inclusion and exclusion tie together to create the overall process of segregation; one notion cannot occur without resulting in the other. Segregation is a form of separation in terms of race that includes the processes of inclusion and exclusion.
Despite increased diversity across the country, America’s neighborhoods remain highly segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Residential segregation, particularly between African-Americans and whites, persists in metropolitan areas where minorities make up a large share of the population. This paper will examine residential segregation imposed upon African-Americans and the enormous costs it bears. Furthermore, the role of government will be discussed as having an important role in carrying out efforts towards residential desegregation. By developing an understanding of residential segregation and its destructive effects, parallels may be drawn between efforts aimed at combating such a grave societal problem and furthering social justice.
I knew that Milwaukee was a very segregated city. I heard that people of all races were very separated from each other. Which was actually a pretty hard concept to grasp for me. I have lived in Madison all my life, surrounded by many different kinds of people. It’s hard to imagine being so segregated.
Again, this section will give a working definition of the “urban question’. To fully compare the political economy and ecological perspectives a description of the “urban question” allows the reader to better understand the divergent schools of thought. For Social Science scholars, from a variety of disciplines, the “urban question” asks how space and the urban or city are related (The City Reader, 2009). The perspective that guides the ecological and the social spatial-dialect schools of thought asks the “urban question” in separate distinct terminology. Respected scholars from the ecological mode of thinking, like Burgess, Wirth and others view society and space from the rationale that geographical scope determines society (The City Reader, 2009). The “urban question” that results from the ecological paradigm sees the relationship between the city (space) as influencing the behaviors of individuals or society in the city. On the other hand...
Conceptually Kurbin (2009) noted that there are a wide variety of things in which constitute a neighborhood, therefore making it quite difficult to conceptually define. Kurbin (2009) also noted that in terms of operationalization, neighborhoods are often measured in different measurements, thus making the boundaries of a city often difficult to track and measure. What constitutes a neighborhood and how a neighborhood should exactly be measured are issues associated with social disorganization theory that have yet to be fully resolved (Kurbin,
The perception of the areas we live in, are of major importance to the well being of humans because the areas we choose to live in may very well affect our lifestyle. There are pros and cons to living anywhere in the United States and the most prominent factors are suburban and urban areas. Suburban areas contain more open land, and forests which are crucial factors in our environment, whereas urban areas contain more job opportunities and opportunities for investments, which result in higher payments. The factors associated with urbanization are buildings, factories, and huge amounts of pollution, whereas suburban areas contain more farms, plantations, and crops. Researchers are still debating whether urban
Massey and Denton (1993) describe the systematic segregation and isolation of black Americans—at a level not experienced by any other racial group—as the cause of persistent poverty, and the key to the creation of racial inequality and the underclass. This residential segregation leads to heterogeneous communities, the black ghetto. These black ghettos have substandard resources, and living conditions far below any other group in America. The conditions and characteristics of these ghettos lock residents into a cycle of poverty and subordination for generations.
In the early nineteenth century, during the Industrial Revolution, Americans gradually began selling their farms and trading the common suburban life with the adventurous fast-pace urban life. Today the majority of the American population chooses to dwell in cities, towns or suburbs; however, there are still many families living the country lifestyle. What influences an individual to select one way of living over another? The area in which one's home is located has effects on their way of life. Urban living and suburban living both have advantages and disadvantages, and these characteristics are what greatly influences peoples' decisions about where they should live.
When thinking about the good city naturally every person imagines a physical condition to be improved but the physical environment is not the only force that shapes the city. For example, city and urban society cannot be detached (Lefebvre, 1970/2003). Hence the urban society is, combined with the city, an important force in urban development.