Demographic inversion in US cities

[murtagh]

Hi,

I am making my way through this article. Maybe some of you would be interested in it too?

http://tnr.com/story_print.html?id=264510ca-2170-49cd-bad5-a0be122ac1a9

"In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be "demographic inversion." Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city--Vienna or Paris in the nineteenth century, or, for that matter, Paris today. The poor and the newcomers are living on the outskirts. The people who live near the center--some of them black or Hispanic but most of them white--are those who can afford to do so."

 

[boomtown]

Uh. Thats normal. Rich living on the outside and poor in the middle is the "inversion" and Im not aware of anywhere that it happens outside of the US.

 

[Peter Parker]

Uh. Thats normal. Rich living on the outside and poor in the middle is the "inversion" and Im not aware of anywhere that it happens outside of the US.

An 'inversion' is not uncommon, eg Melbourne several decades ago.

Housing commission towers in Richmond, Prahran, Flemington & Collingwood and poor people in Footscray or Fitzroy.

There are still traces of this today, though generally replicated further out (with the exception of the still standing commission towers); Doveton and Laverton have lower incomes than Narre or Hoppers and relatively inner Braybrook or West Heidelberg have lower incomes than most other suburbs. Ditto for Broadmeadows/Dallas vs Greenvale/Roxburgh Park.

And don't let this be consided a short-term pattern; before train/tram fares became affordable the poor walked to work while the affluent rode steam trains from suburbs further out with larger blocks. Eventually the workers got better access to rail and this pattern became less marked.

A similar pattern ocurred with cars and freeways; initially these were for the affluent, but motorisation became more general after WWII. This encouraged a drive to the suburbs, with the affluent moving first, leading to an inner suburban decline. The effect is not unlike Sydney more recently; Australian born residents moving interstate or coastal, to be replaced by migrants. This started to reverse from about the late 1970s (first oil shock) and the reversal has continued since.

Peter

 

[boomtown]

I have now taken the time to read the article. Fantastic read - thank you for linking it.