Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
central cities in favor of suburban life and what has come to be referred to as “urban
sprawl”, which is one of the United States' thorniest urban problems (see Chapter
4). The flight to the suburbs further impoverished the core city, confirmed the
relation between poverty and racial segregation and further concentrated urban
poverty in center-city enclaves. In some instances, urban enclaves became super-
ghettos covering entire cities.
Uncontrolled suburban development - urban sprawl - directly encouraged the
segregation of American society's constituent communities at a time when racial
issues were particularly pressing, so that by 1970 the spatial segregation of
American cities was firmly established at a metropolitan scale. In recent decades the
urban landscape has been further complicated by immigration from Asia and Latin
America. In many cities of the West, the confrontation between whites and blacks
gives way to a more complex multi-ethnic landscape, without, however, reducing
social cleavages.
Many factors can be used to study social divisions within urbanized spaces
although a single economic indicator is often enough to tell the story: per capita
income. The United States Census Bureau provides per capita income data at the
neighborhood level according to census tract.
1
This single indicator varies
significantly among metropolitan areas of the United States and neatly summarizes
the extent of social disparities within a geographic area. Per capita income is often
highly correlated with racial segregation so that a significant relationship may be
observed between these indicators and long term population dynamics. This is
shown through the comparative study of Atlanta and Detroit.
8.1.1.
Atlanta
Headquarters for such iconic corporations as CNN and Coca-Cola, Atlanta is a
prosperous and growing city. Atlanta was founded in the 1840s as a railway
junction. The site was chosen because of its geographical location which enabled the
circumvention of the Appalachians, and its pivotal position between the navigable
waterways of that time, the Chattahoochee River that flows westward toward the
Gulf of Mexico and the Ocmulgee River that flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
1. A census tract is a geographic region defined for the purpose of assembling decennial
census results. Its average size is 4,500 inhabitants.
