Key Relationships Between Urban Development and Neighborhood Change

Author:
  • ADAnthony Downs
    Anthony Downs
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Abstract
Changing neighborhood conditions cannot be understood apart from the overall urban development process. U.S. urban development has been a form of technological progress beneficial to most households, but harmful to those left in concentrated poverty areas, and to many forced to move by neighborhood change. Heavy past in-migration to metropolitan areas was accommodated by a process of households upgrading through movement to “better” neighborhoods—thus causing neighborhood change. Where such in-migration has slowed, upgrading in place may now be socially preferable. Cities faced with net declines in housing demand can accommodate themselves through several different strategies best determined at the local level.