Declining Neighborhoods: Problem or Opportunity?

Abstract

Widespread deterioration and squalid living conditions in many older residential areas in the United States stand in dramatic contrast to the large, comfortable, and attractive residences in the suburbs. The disparity in living environment is not easily explainable in terms of differences in household incomes, since real incomes in many of our older and now unsightly central-city neighborhoods have been generally increasing, not falling. A variety of explanations, none very convincing, have been offered for the anomaly of rising income and expanding decay. Over the years, various remedies have been tried without particular success. The only real hope for reversing the process of decay lies in altering the expectations of those who live and work in the affected neighborhoods, but the prospects for this are not bright. In any event, suburbanization is likely to continue draining population from the urban core because most city dwellers still aspire to joining the movement outward, and the trend of rising income will allow them to achieve this goal.