This paper critically evaluates the traditional metropolitan model of an urban core and a homogeneous suburban ring. Using place data from the US Bureau of the Census from 1980 to 2000, it examines 1639 suburbs from a sample of 13 metropolitan areas in the US. Poor, manufacturing, Black and immigrant suburbs are identified to show that metropolitan areas are less a simple dichotomous structure and more a mosaic of very diverse suburban places. The results suggest the need for more subtle frameworks in order better to understand the structure of contemporary metropolitan areas.

This paper analyzes the transformation of Baltimore's inner suburbs from 1980 to 2000. After developing a geographic definition of inner suburbs, we then spatially analyze them using census place-level data. The analysis shows evidence of socioeconomic decline in Baltimore's inner suburbs, but the extent of this decline varies among these suburbs. Since 1980, many declining inner suburbs had difficulty attracting new residents, White flight was the prevailing trend, and the housing stock was outdated relative to the outer suburbs. The analysis suggests three major influences on decline among the inner suburbs of Baltimore: labor market restructuring, the nature of the local housing market, and income and racial segregation. This paper concludes with a classification of Baltimore's inner suburbs based on our understanding of the processes of suburban decline in the region.

The evolution of first‐tier suburbs has emerged as an important topic of scholarly and popular attention in the past decade, yet little is known about the diversity of neighborhood spatial structure. This article analyzes data on 152 census tracts in 21 first‐tier suburban census designated places in metropolitan Baltimore. A total of 49 socioeconomic variables are used to measure the population, income dynamics, nature of the housing, and structure of the labor force. The analysis provides evidence of spatial restructuring in 1970 and 2000. The racial composition, socioeconomic status, occupation, and nature of the housing stock differentiate the spatial structure of Baltimore's first‐tier suburban neighborhoods from one another over time. A typology of five neighborhoods in 1970 and six in 2000 is derived from a partitional clustering procedure that groups principal components analysis scores. The policy implications of suburban diversity and decline are discussed.

This book is a systematic examination of the historical and current roles that cities and suburbs play in US metropolitan areas. It explores the history of cities and suburbs, their changing dynamics with each other, their growing diversity, the environmental consequences of their development and finally the extent and nature of their decline and renewal. Cities and Suburbs: New Metropolitan Realities in the US offers a comprehensive examination of demographic and socioeconomic processes of US suburbanization by providing a succinct guide to understanding the dynamic relationship between metropolitan structure and processes of social change. A variety of case studies are used in the chapters to explore suburban successes and failures and the discourse concludes with reflections on metropolitan policy and planning for the twenty-first century. The topics of discussion include: Key ideas and concepts on the demographic and sociospatial aspects of metropolitan change The changing nature of city and suburban population migration and their relationships with changes at the local, metropolitan, national, and global levels Current metropolitan public policy issues of large cities and suburbs Links of suburbanization to metropolitan transformation and the growing dichotomy between suburban decline and suburban sprawl in metropolitan areas. Cities and Suburbs relies on theorized case studies, demographic analysis, maps, and photos from North America. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book addresses various fundamental questions about the socioeconomic role that suburbs and cities play in shaping metropolitan areas, their environmental impact, the political consequences, and the resulting policy debates. This is essential reading for scholars and students of Geography, Economics, Politics, Sociology, Urban Studies and Urban Planning.

Using census data from 2000, the authors examine differentiation among urban immigrant neighborhoods in a sample of U.S. metropolitan areas. They use principal components analysis (PCA) followed by cluster analysis to identify four types of urban immigrant neighborhoods: Hispanic, White Working Class, Asian, and Gentrified. This typology describes the diversity of immigrant populations and immigrant neighborhoods across the urban U.S.