In recent decades, the clustering of rich and poor neighborhoods in America has continued, expanding inequality.

Many recent discussions on American cities and neighborhoods have focused on how they are changing, either through gentrification or economic change. In new research, Elizabeth Delmelle finds that gentrification is only one small part of the story of America's neighborhoods since 1980. She writes that the highest poverty, majority black neighborhoods and the wealthiest and whitest neighborhoods have been relatively ..

Spatial temporal dynamics of neighborhood quality of life : Charlotte, NC

Quality of life (QoL) is an encompassing measure of a neighborhood's condition, describing the well-being an individual may expect by residing in a particular place. Over time, some or all of these conditions will change for the better or worse, yet the driving forces behind the dynamics of neighborhood-level QoL are not well understood. The purpose of this dissertation is to gain a better comprehension of the patterns, trajectories, and explanatory factors of change across the multidimensional QoL conditions of neighborhoods. Utilizing neighborhoods in Charlotte, NC over the course of the 2000-2010 decade as a case study, this dissertation employs three complementary analytical approaches to examine spatial, multidimensional dynamics: Markov Chains, self-organizing maps, and a set of cross-lagged panel models. Results highlight the role of spatial spillovers in shaping the change process; a neighborhood's mobility in terms of QoL is not independent of its immediate surroundings. Geographically, older, inner-ring suburban neighborhoods are shown to be most vulnerable to declines across multiple QoL dimensions; middle-age housing further proves to be a significant explanatory predictor of changes in crime concentrations, relative economic status, youth social indicators, and homeownership rates, thus supporting economic filtering theories of neighborhood change. Neighborhoods characterized by the highest QoL attributes are the most stable through time. Lower-income neighborhoods are found to be heterogeneous in terms of their corresponding social problems, and a temporal, reciprocal relationship between crime and youth-related problems is revealed. Improvements to the lowest QoL neighborhoods were heightened at the peak of the housing and economic boom in the city, but following the great recession, many of these neighborhoods reverted back to their conditions earlier in the decade, illuminating the shifting dynamics before, during, and after the recent, great recession. Policy implications of results are discussed

Who counts? Gender, gatekeeping, and quantitative human geography

How academic disciplines are represented and reproduced is a charged issue. In geography in particular, the challenge is not only who counts, especially with regard to gender and other factors, but also how the boundaries of the discipline are drawn and which subfields are acknowledged. This article contributes to both aspects of the discussion by extending recent research on gender, internationalization, and academic gatekeeping to additional subfields of human geography. In particular, we focus on the demographic structure and international diversity of the editorial teams of flagship quantitative geography journals. We find that women are underrepresented in our sample, with shares ranging from 23.1 to 43.5 percent—numbers unfortunately comparable to many other geography journals. We also find that career stage is an important factor and that our sample is more international and less Anglophone than the disciplinary norm. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of attending to issues of inclusive gatekeeping in geography and elsewhere.PostprintPeer reviewe

SNAPScapes: Using Geodemographic Segmentation to Classify the Food Access Landscape

Scholars are in agreement that the local food environment is shaped by a multitude of factors from socioeconomic characteristics to transportation options, as well as the availability and distance to various food establishments. Despite this, most place-based indicators of “food deserts”, including those identified as so by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), only include a limited number of factors in their designation. In this article, we adopt a geodemographic approach to classifying the food access landscape that takes a multivariate approach to describing the food access landscape. Our method combines socioeconomic indicators, distance measurements to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participating stores, and neighborhood walkability using a k-means clustering approach and North Carolina as a case study. We identified seven distinct food access types: three rural and four urban. These classes were subsequently prioritized based on their defining characteristics and specific policy recommendations were identified. Overall, compared to the USDA’s food desert calculation, our approach identified a broader swath of high-needs areas and highlights neighborhoods that may be overlooked for intervention when using simple distance-based methods

The Increasing Sociospatial Fragmentation of Urban America

This analysis examines the spatial fragmentation of the urban landscape with respect to neighborhoods classified according to their racial, demographic, housing and socioeconomic characteristics. The analysis is performed on the 50 largest metropolitan areas throughout the United States from 1990–2010, and looks at both global trends over time using a landscape ecology metric of edge density to quantify fragmentation over time. It then analyzes the spatial clustering of each neighborhood type over time, for each city. Results illustrate an increasingly fragmented urban landscape with respect to neighborhood type, led by Los Angeles as the most fragmented metropolitan area. Decomposed by neighborhood type, both racially concentrated high-poverty neighborhoods, as well as neighborhoods with a highly educated population, have increased in spatial concentration in large cities over time, exposing rises in spatial inequalities even as global patterns suggest a breaking up of neighborhood types. The global patterns are therefore driven by declines in more moderate-income and multiethnic neighborhoods, and a decline in the spatial concentration of newer, white, single-family housing neighborhoods

Elizabeth C. Delmelle's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity

Transit investments and neighborhood change: On the likelihood of change

This paper is focused on the identification of, and the dynamics associated with, neighborhoods that are more prone to undergo socioeconomic and demographic changes following rail transit investments. Utilizing data from 9 metropolitan areas that have invested in light rail between 1980 and 2010, a k-means clustering approach is used to construct discrete multivariate neighborhood typologies. Together with Markov chains, we are able to examine transitions between neighborhood types before and after the opening of a station. Results for affected neighborhoods are compared to city-wide transitions to uncover differences. Our findings suggest that there is a significant difference in transit and non-transit neighborhood transitions. There also appears to be a difference in trajectories between Walk-and-Ride and Park-and-Ride neighborhoods. While neighborhoods are largely stable over time, impoverished neighborhoods are most likely to experience changes (such as gentrification) following the opening of a transit station. The most affluent neighborhoods are the least likely to experience change but are associated with the most probable trajectory of change featuring densification. Finally, there is little evidence that socioeconomic ascent following station openings is associated with significant changes in racial composition. Knowledge about neighborhood dynamics associated with transit investments can aid policy makers and planners in achieving socioeconomic goals of transit investments

Evaluating the spatial equity of bus rapid transit-based accessibility patterns in a developing country: The case of Cali, Colombia

The development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems world-wide has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, most notably in cities throughout the developing world. These large, city-wide transportation projects are often central to larger urban revitalization plans intending to foster economic growth and alter city images to both residents and to outsiders. Crucial to the success of such ambitions is a system that provides equitable access to all residents and one that provides access to a large number of urban opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the spatial accessibility landscape created by newly implemented BRT system in Cali, Colombia in terms of both access to the system itself and access to three distinct activities around the city. In particular, the equitable distribution of accessibility patterns is explored in relation to neighborhood socio-economic strata. Findings indicate that walking access to the BRT system is greatest for middle income groups and most limited for neighborhoods in the highest and lowest socio-economic strata. Accessibility values to activities are largely bound to the spatial distribution pattern of activities; most equitable for intentionally dispersed recreation site, and least for spatially clustered hospitals

Impact of new rail transit stations on neighborhood destination choices and income segregation

This article examines the neighborhood destination choices made by movers in neighborhoods affected by rail transit investments in the United States between 1970 and 2013 using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The results suggest that of those that move following the placement of a new rail transit station, low-income individuals are more likely to move to more disadvantaged neighborhoods following rail transit investments in their neighborhood when a small share of the neighborhood is covered by the station\u27s service area. If the origin neighborhood is more accessible to the station however, lower-income residents are equally likely to move within the same neighborhood or to a neighborhood of similar socioeconomic status. Middle-to-high income individuals that relocated, particularly homeowners, are more likely to move to higher income neighborhoods, particularly within a few years before opening. These results contribute to the ongoing debate regarding transit-induced gentrification, affordable housing in transit-oriented developments, and public transit\u27s role in shaping residential location choice and subsequent income segregation patterns

On the link between rail transit and spatial income segregation

The link between transportation infrastructure and income segregation has long been recognized in the literature, but has received renewed attention with the increased investment in rail transit in US cities. In this paper, we examine the impacts of rail transit investments on neighborhood income diversity and metropolitan income segregation. For the neighborhood-level analysis, we apply a difference-in-difference approach combined with propensity score matching in 11 metropolitan areas that invested in rail transit between 2000 and 2005. We then estimate the effect of changes in rail transit access on income segregation across the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the US between 1990 and 2010. We find no statistical evidence that rail transit investments spur changes in neighborhood income diversity when compared to similar neighborhoods elsewhere in the city. Similarly, we find no significant impact of new or expanded rail transit lines on metropolitan wide income segregation