Suburban Poverty.

[stephendare]

A really great essay could come out of the various posts that have been put up on this subject.

While we discussed this over a year ago on a few other threads, (I think it was on some Main Street thread or another) not much has been done to proactively respond to the easily foreseen situation of suburban decay.

It will be an impetus to urban redevelopment, or at least it could be.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4AR60M20081128

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Poverty in the United States is spreading from rural and inner-city areas to the suburbs, according to a study, a situation that can worsen as the economy confronts what may be a protracted recession.

The study by the Federal Reserve's Community Affairs department and the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program found that poverty levels in the world's richest nation were on the rise.

"It shows that concentrated poverty is still very much with us, and that it can be found among a much more diverse set of communities and families than previous research has emphasized," said Bruce Katz, a director Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

"Poverty is spreading and may be re-clustering in suburbs, where a majority of America's metropolitan poor now live."

The study was released ahead of next week's conference on concentrated poverty at the Fed. It shied away from explaining the causes of poverty, but past research have linked the phenomenon to loss of jobs in manufacturing, agriculture and mining.

With the U.S. economic outlook rapidly deteriorating, poverty could get worse.

The U.S. housing market collapse has unleashed the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, forcing business to scale back on investments and driving the unemployment rate to a 14-year high.

Data on Tuesday showed the U.S. economy contracted 0.5 percent in the third quarter, its fastest pace in seven-years, with consumer spending dropping to a 28-year low.

Many analysts believe the United States already has joined Europe in recession, though it will take another quarter of contraction to meet a widely used definition for it -- back-to-back quarters of declining output.

The study noted that a strong economy had helped to reduce the incidence of concentrated poverty across the United States, but the process might have stalled during the current decade.

"Not only does concentrated poverty affect the big, older inner cities in the North, but it also exists within smaller cities in the South and West," said Katz.

"While the case studies in this report point to unique factors that accompanied rising poverty in each of these communities, the negative consequences ring familiar across places, big and small ... African American, white, Latino and Native American.

[Springfield Girl]

The changes that neighborhoods undergo has been studied and documented extensively. Generally there is a 30 year trend starting with the developement of an area. A new area will be desirable and sought after in the beginning and will experience prosperity. As it ages and new trends emerge a neighborhood will become less desirable and the original residents and businesses will be replaced. Springfield has been at the top of the S curve, the bottom of the S curve and is now moving it's way back up. (Jacksonville has been behind in the National trend of revitalizing it's Urban Core.) If left alone neighborhood changes are organic with the market dictating the outcome. Jacksonville has stunted it's Urban Core for years though by controlling demographics and use by bad implementation of planning and policy. 

[David]

I saw an article somewhere about the aging middle ring of suburbs. I cannot recall if it was on MJ or another site, but it talked about how places such as University Blvd around the Englewood area, Emerson, some parts of Arlington etc don't have the history and charm that the in town neighborhoods do, nor do they have the larger houses/ new construction that the outer ring of suburbs have.

I've seen the Englewood area seemingly backslide since I was a teenager. (Not that it was ever that nice) Emerson seems like it's barely keeping above the poverty line, if not sinking further into it. And sadly, I don't foresee anyone fighting to revitialize it the way people have done with the more historic neighborhoods.

[stjr]

Suburban poverty could be worse than urban poverty, if that's possible.   People are more isolated due to the spacing of housing and detached housing units resulting in a greater lack of community in the suburbs.  Worse, it's even more expensive to live with maintenance of these larger, unshared structures, all with a patch of lawn, and the need to own a car due to any other viable means of transportation.  You can't run a bus up every street of every subdivision.  And walking or bicycling longer distances and/or on Jax car-friendly streets isn't too desirable.

Further, a lot of the lower priced suburban housing stock is cheaply built and is close to being throwaway housing.  Likewise, the communities such housing is built in are superficially attractive, but poorly functioning in reality.  These communities are not likely to be attractive to anyone capable of bringing up the area once the "new car smell" fades away exposing the underlying shortcomings.  It's not like when the impoverished took over former executive-style homes and mansions in neighborhoods like Springfield which were inherently well designed and sustainable.

Arlington, in particular, is also populated with lots of cheaply built apartment complexes which are probably betwixt and between.   Not worth upgrading but also not worth tearing down for redevelopment.  It will take decades more, when the rising pressure of a growing population causes an increased desire to move inward toward the city core to cut commutes and save transportation expenses, before it may be worth redeveloping these new suburban poverty areas .  Then the poverty ring will begin to move further out once again into the cheaper tract housing now being built in St. Johns and Clay counties.

The solution, it would seem in part, would be to build "sustainable" communities designed and built to standards where the inhabitants moved in with the expectation of long term occupancy.   This would require allowances for walkability, bicycling, mass transit, etc. so people could have the option of surviving without automobiles.  It also would require building more durable and low maintenance housing stock and choosing designs, buildings, amenities, and layouts that create a greater sense of community belonging, interconnectedness, and ownership.  A mix of housing space and layout options in close proximity to each other is important so that residents can transition between life's need for varying space requirements without abandoning the community.  With these attributes, investment of resources to sustain the neighborhood will be much more likely.

Also, don't underestimate the impact on neighborhoods of the perceived quality of education in neighborhood schools.   [/color] Much of the area's upwardly mobile population that might help keep neighborhoods invigorated is moving to Clay and St. Johns as the schools-du-jour are believed (not necessarily the case in reality) as being superior and/or more student friendly than Duval schools and more convenient (i.e. you don't have to be bused to a magnet school to get a superior education).  You would likely be amazed how much of a role area schools play in the selection of housing.   Unfortunately, Florida is making all education in Florida substandard by giving it such a low priority in funding.  I could see a day when Florida consists of three groups: retirees, higher income with kids in private schools, and the impoverished.  The middle class will not tolerate poor education options forever.

We also need to be more consistent in zoning.   Much of the sense of community in Jax is deconstructed by poor zoning decisions.  The long term effect on the desirability and sustainability of the community should be a more significant factor in zoning decisions.

[kellypope]

Speaking of zoning, how does one propose to change zoning laws? By petition? It's illogical that I can't keep three hens on my property or that a friend can't compost on hers. Given the history of humanity, those kinds of things are wildly outlandish, especially given the economic times.