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The plight and issues facing central cities have occupied much of the discussion regarding the deterioration of American urban centers. Suburbs have occupied a well-defined role in these conversations, being seen as a level above and not in need of as much attention. However, a closer look reveals that this is not the case, and the situation there might be worse and have greater ramifications. Suburbs are in a sharp decline that threatens to have bigger consequences than that of inner cities. This paper summarizes reports from four articles discussing this issue.
The first article is Scott W. Allard and Benjamin Roth’s Strained Suburbs: The Social Service Challenges of Rising Suburban Poverty. The authors examine data from a survey of social services providers in three major cities, in-depth interviews, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Census Bureau to determine the challenges associated with rising suburban poverty. More specifically, they looked at the situation’s impact on local community-based organizations and safety nets in Washington, D.C, Los Angeles, CA., and Chicago, Il. The team found that the poor population in the suburbs was large and growing rapidly (Allard et al., 2010). Further, these areas have fewer social services infrastructure compared to inner cities to keep the poverty rate in check, which exacerbates the situation.
In their article Suburban Decline: The Next Urban Crisis, William H. Lucy and David L. Phillips present the urgency of poverty in American suburbs. The authors touch on the trends, causes and possible solutions to this troubling situation. Relative income in suburban areas is declining more rapidly than in inner cities, which leads to little reinvestment in structures, increased disparities in local government tax resources, and the expansion of geographic areas with severe problems (Lucy & Phillips, 2000). The combination of these factors pushes away potential investors and developers who prefer fringe development because it is relatively easier to do, so they keep worsening without being checked. The authors posit that using innovative policies is the best way to turn the situation around.
Aaron Wiener echoes Lucy and Phillip’s sentiments in his article, poverty is moving to the suburbs. The war on poverty hasn’t followed. Wiener uses the story of a character named Delonte Wilkins to tell of the plight of people in American suburbs. Through Wilkins, the author talks about the suburbs’ slow and steady decline into poverty. This increase is going unchecked because non-profit organizations and social services are yet to make any meaningful attempt at stopping it (Wiener, 2018). These entities are still held up in inner cities and cannot keep up with the rate of poverty. Worse still, they spend more per poor resident in inner cities than in the suburbs.
John Rennie Short, Bernadette Hanlon and Thomas J. Vicino explore the decline of suburbs in their article The Decline of Inner Suburbs: The New Suburban Gothic in the United States. The authors divide the evolution of suburbs into four chronological phases; suburban utopia, suburban conformity; suburban conformity, and suburban dichotomy (Short et al., 2007). The first phase was characterized by an idealized image of suburbs between the 19th and 20th Centuries. Between 1945 and 1960, the image of the suburbs became that of homogenous and cluttered places. The next phase between 1960 and 1980 saw suburbs become divided between ethnic, class, and racial lines. The last phase from 1980 onward saw older suburbs decline and newer ones boom. Most suburbs in America are caught in the last phase, owing to deindustrialization, poor land-use planning, and aging housing stock.
References
Allard, S. W., & Roth, B. (2010). Strained suburbs: The social service challenges of rising suburban poverty. Brookings Institute Metropolitan Opportunity Series.
Lucy, W. H., & Phillips, D. L. (2000). Suburban decline: The next urban crisis. Issues in Science and Technology, 17(1), 55-62. Web.
Short, J. R., Hanlon, B., & Vicino, T. J. (2007). The decline of inner suburbs: The new suburban gothic in the United States. Geography Compass, 1(3), 641-656. Web.
Wiener, A. (2018). Poverty is moving to the suburbs. The war on poverty hasn’t followed. The Washington Post. Web.
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