Accounting for central neighborhood change, 1980–2010

Abstract

After 1980-2000 population decline and economic stagnation, downtown neighborhoods in most large US cities experienced 2000-2010 population growth and gentri-…cation. Stark racial di¤erences in valuations of downtown amenities and suburban labor market opportunities among those with less than college that only emerged after 2000 are the primary drivers of these downtown neighborhood dynamics. As collegeeducated whites moved in, increases in valuations of downtown amenities encouraged other whites to remain in downtowns, a reversal from prior decades. Continued departures of less than college educated minorities were driven both by relative improvements in suburban employment opportunities for this group and their continued declines in valuations of downtown amenities. Our evidence highlights the importance of racial di¤erences in valuations of potentially endogenous local amenities for understanding recent downtown gentri…cation.

Unlocking amenities: Estimating public good complementarity

“…Similar issues are recognized in the urban planning literature (Weiss et al, 2011). 3 For work on urban revival, see Baum-Snow and Hartley (2017) and Couture and Handbury (2017). 1 tions for hedonic valuation (Banzhaf and Walsh, 2008), sorting behavior (Kuminoff et al, 2013), quality-of-life determination (Albouy and Lue, 2015), and environmental distributive justice (Banzhaf et al, 2018).…”

A resurgence in urban living? Trends in residential location patterns of young and older adults since 2000

“…But recent years have witnessed a reversal of fortune for many United States central cities, some of which have been growing faster than their suburbs for the first time since the 1920s (Frey, 2014) . Some observers assert that these trends can be explained-at least in part-by a "Back-to-the-City Movement," led by young adults drawn to cosmopolitan metropolitan areas (Baum-Snow & Hartley, 2016;Cortright, 2014;Couture & Handbury, 2015;Moos, 2016). Others acknowledge the urban resurgence (Belden Russonello & Stewart, 2011Nielsen, 2014;Rockefeller Foundation & Transportation for America, 2014), but are skeptical that young adults are abandoning suburbs for urban living (Cox, 2014;Kolko, 2016b;Myers, 2016).…”

“…Despite early and ongoing attention to urban revitalization and residential moves from suburbs to central cities (Laska & Spain, 1980;South & Crowder, 1997), research shows that residential location patterns were largely consistent from the late 1940s into the 1990swith 6 lower density suburbs expanding rapidly, often at the expense of denser central cities (Glaeser & Shapiro, 2003;Kasarda, Appold, Sweeney, & Sieff, 1997). However, a resurgence of city living in the 2000s marked a dramatic turnaround after decades of post-World War II decline (Baum-Snow & Hartley, 2016;Couture & Handbury, 2015;Ehrenhalt, 2013;Glaeser & Gottlieb, 2006;Glaeser & Shapiro, 2003). While this urban renaissance is not universal, most large U.S. central cities recently added residents, and in some major metropolitan areas central-city population growth outpaced that of the suburbs (Frey, 2014.…”

The Faster Growth of Larger, Less Crowded Locations

“…Consistent with this possibility, growth is positively correlated with spikes in population density, measured by the increase in log density from a metro's 95th percentile tract to its 99th percentile tract (column 4 of Table 3). This positive correlation may be closely related to the increased tendency of young professionals to live near metropolitan central business districts (Couture and Handbury 2017;Baum-Snow and Hartley 2018) Changes in agglomerative benefits and costs, as captured by partial correlations with population and population density, account for a considerable share of the variation in population growth across medium and large metropolitan areas. Together, population and 95th percentile Conley (1999).…”