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The Incorporation of Peripheral Areas in Metropolises Undergoing Restructuring Author: Stefan Rayer Dissertation School: Cornell University Pages: 328 Publication Date: August 2001 Availability: Access Number: 10736 Abstract: The distribution of population and employment within metropolitan areas is undergoing significant changes. The dominant pattern for many years has been decentralization, deconcentration, and metropolitan expansion. This study attempts to analyze these processes over the period 1980-1990 by focusing on the transformation that is occurring at the metropolitan fringe. The study area comprises the five consolidated metropolitan areas of the highly urbanized northeastern seaboard of the United States: Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. These metropolitan areas were chosen as the focus of this study because they together form the core of Megalopolis, the prototype of an urban region of unmatched levels of urbanization and industrialization. The region was also the first to experience population deconcentration and employment decentralization on a large scale. Therefore, the dynamics of spatial structural change in the major centers of the region can be considered as harbingers of the transformation of the settlement system to be experienced elsewhere at later points in time. The first part of the analysis involves an investigation of the changes in the urban spatial structure that have occurred within the respective metropolitan fields between 1980 and 1990. It is assumed that metropolitan areas evolve in a finite number of ways including (a) spread through core and peripheral growth, (b) spread through decentralization only, (c) core growth with hinterland stagnation, and (d) core growth with hinterland decline (see Barkley et al. 1996). The study employs a destiny function approach using cubic spline regression methods for analyzing deconcentration and decentralization. This dynamic analysis will shed light on the implications of metropolitan area growth on the periphery. The second part of the study consists of a multivariate analysis of the factors that explain population and employment growth of particular types of settlement within the metropolitan periphery of the region. The analysis is executed at the tract level using data from the 1980 and 1990 Censuses. A typology is developed that classifies the entire region into non-overlapping and exhaustive settlement types at the tract level. The typology is created according to criteria that accurately reflect the increasingly heterogeneous nature of the urban periphery. Differences and similarities between the various metropolitan areas in Megalopolis are highlighted. The research contributes to HUD's "Regionalism" objective. Focusing on the major metropolitan areas of Megalopolis, the study aids our understanding of the complex demographic and economic interdependencies of the cities and suburbs in the most urbanized region of the country. Concentrating on the process through which metropolitan peripheries are incorporated into the evolving metropolitan complex advances knowledge of the impact of metropolitan expansion on demographic and economic change throughout the region. The study provides policy-relevant insights into the late twentieth century postindustrial transformation affecting the changing metropolis, and contributes to policies targeted to regional problem solving. |
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