The Urban Divide

"While various regions of the United States have always differed in their economic, cultural, and demographic base, for the most part they respond somewhat similarly to broad economic cycles. Development patterns within regions can be described in terms of location—urban, suburban, exurban, or rural—and this descriptive model has been useful in explaining and even predicting development patterns in virtually all regions of the United States. The utility of this model, however, is diminishing, and its usefulness will continue to decline. Replacing it will be a new demographic land use model that can help in understanding and predicting the economic and development differences that are likely to occur among, rather than within, regions. In the future, questions about land use and sociological patterns will more likely be answered by asking first whether the region being analyzed is one of two types: a gateway magnet metropolitan region or a domestic magnet metropolitan region."

-The full text is available online only to members of the Urban Land Institute, or in print in the March 2001 issue of Urban Land Magazine.

Thanks to Urban Land Institute