Trading Places: America Goes Through "Demographic Inversion"
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08. 6.08
Michigan Central Station by David Kohrman from Forgotten Detroit
For years, Europeans and Canadians have wondered what happened to American cities, why did their cores turn into dead zones and suburbs flourish while in Paris or Toronto, the cores were wealthy and vital while the suburbs became hotbeds of crime. Alan Ehrenhalt writes in the New Republic about how many American cities are beginning to become more like Vienna or Vancouver.
"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....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."
Lee-Statler Hotel in Detroit by David Kohrman from Forgotten Detroit
Ehrenhalt lists the reasons for the demographic inversion:
-Deindustrialization "has eliminated many of the things that made affluent people want to move away from it. Nothing much is manufactured downtown anymore (or anywhere near it), and that means that the noise and grime that prevailed for most of the twentieth century have gone away."
Cars and traffic:"In Atlanta, where the middle-class return to the city is occurring with more suddenness than perhaps anywhere in the United States, the most frequently cited reason is traffic. People who did not object to a 20-mile commute from the suburbs a decade ago are objecting to it now in part because the same commute takes quite a bit longer. To this, we can add the prospect of $5-per-gallon gasoline."
-Young adults expressing different values, habits, and living preferences than their parents. "The demographic changes that have taken place in America over the past generation--the increased propensity to remain single, the rise of cohabitation, the much later age at first marriage for those who do marry, the smaller size of families for those who have children, and, at the other end, the rapidly growing number of healthy and active adults in their sixties, seventies, and eighties--have combined virtually all of the significant elements that make a demographic inversion not only possible but likely."
Excellent reading at ::The New Republic via ::BoingBoing
TreeHugger on the Future of Cities
Eco-Towns: Three Models of Green Urban Planning
Cities of the Future, the Coming End of the Car Age and Suburbia's ...
Slow Cities Spreading Fast
Cities by the Numbers
Big Surprise: America's Fittest Cities are Also Most Walkable ...
America's 50 Greenest Cities : Popular Science Ranks 'Em
12 Cities Selected to Become New "Solar America Cities " : TreeHugger
The Top 10 Least Walkable U.S. Cities
The 10 Greenest Cities in America - TreeHugger on MSN City Guides ...
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- So Long 2008, and Thanks for All the Posts
- Dongtan, China's Flagship Ecocity Project, R.I.P.
- Get the Night + Day Cool Cities Series Guides for 45% Off
- Closer Than We Think: Rejuvenated Downtowns
New Arctic Map Shows Just What Boundaries We’ll Be Fighting Over For Oil
|
All the Benefits of Solar PV Without The Financial Risk: The Solar Power as Service Model
|
As a Detroiter...I think treehugger should do more stories on the city of Detroit and the challenges it is trying to overcome in the days post-industrialization.
The auto companies are failing, and the economy of Southeastern-Michigan is hanging dangerously in a the balance. There have been calls to switch to green manufacturing, but the stubborness of the region as a whole prohibits growth and progress.
These old buildings, of which I have been in many, are beautiful examples of a past era, not to mention the fact that all these buildings can be rebuilt to house people, businesses, and commerce.
There is always a lot of talk about New Orleans, but before the environmental disaster that was New Orleans occured, there was a social, economic, and environmental disaster happening slowly in what was once a massive city of 2.1 million people...that has now, very much like a dying star, collapsed in on itself.
Treehugger, please help to educate those in America the damage that can happen if progress cannot be acheived collectively. Use Detroit as a beacon and a tool to educate our emerging professionals about the dangers of greed, excess, and inefficient use of materials and jobs.
REBUILD DETROIT!
Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus
I am not terribly sympathetic either way: Detroit or New Orleans. I think that in the future, if our government is going to invest the money to rebuild neighborhoods, cities, or even entire regions, then those areas need to be meet higher energy efficiency standards as well as greener building practices.
I do not want my tax dollars simply being thrown at these areas without a clear emphasis on the long term. Detroit is a sad loss and I think it can be revitalized but that is very much dependent on the car makers there or the people in the area saying that they are done with the car makers.
That said... I like where this article is going. I miss Europe and how well the cities were to travel. I like in a moderate size midwestern city now and there is no option but to drive. I tried biking but came too close to getting hit by cars. I would love to live in a downtown but there's nothing close to shop or work at.