This is very insigtfull, and thanks for the link to a great mapping tool!
While some regions such as Los Angelas and even St Louis or Baltimore to an extent are hybreds (Baltimore has a nerrow better off north side corrador connecting downtown and the suburbs), even then all major US metro regions seem to at least mostly fit into one of these 3 patterns. This reminds me of the notion of metro area "favored quarters" (that you and others have written about in the past) within wedged distress regions like Chicago or Dallas (also favored belts and edge cities in contained destress regions).
Just as the Chicago metro has a disfavored wedge of distress heading south that has overtaken former midscale areas all the way to exurbia, it also has an especially favored and upscale wedge heading northwest, almost opposite from its unfavored wedge, with more "average" middle and working class areas in the suburbs largely located in between. Atlanta and Washington, DC seem like other extreme examples of wedged distress regions beyond their revitalized/gentrified downtown cores.
Gotta say, the wedged distress visable in the Chicago region map is rather breathtaking in its extent!
I spent my 20s and 30s in the McKibbin lofts in “East Williamsburg” in Brooklyn as a working artist in the film industry. I am from KC and returned here in ‘17 to purchase and rehab a 130 year old mansion.
I had a front row seat for the gentrification of Brooklyn- good and bad. I now have a front row seat in Kansas City’s Northeast.
I too have been fascinated by the Distressed Communities Index mapping tool. I'll comment on Milwaukee as that's the metro area for which I am most familiar with the "facts on the ground" for virtually every part of the metro area. The map suggests that a 50-60 squares miles of distress areas nearly fully contained within the City of Milwaukee are surrounded by a sea of prosperity extending 100 or more miles north, west, and south (with the exception of a small area of distress along the lakeside areas of Racine and Kenosha to the south). This accurately reflects my experience living in the Milwaukee area for 50+ years - and is the lived experience for 80% of so of the residents in the metro area (i.e., a "sea of prosperity"). But that hardly fits the national perception of Milwaukee (and the area as a whole) as a struggling rust belt metro, because of the hidden or contained distress areas. The vast prosperous areas seem to be hidden from the national perceptions perspective. Minneapolis-St. Paul is an even vaster sea of prosperity based on the map. Both are in sharp contrast to the depiction of nearly the entirety of the southern and Appalachian states - which appear to be seas of distress with scattered islands of urban prosperity.
The national perception of the Midwest (at least the northern Great Lakes area) doesn't appear to match reality. Vast expanses of the rust belt are seas of prosperity.
This is very insigtfull, and thanks for the link to a great mapping tool!
While some regions such as Los Angelas and even St Louis or Baltimore to an extent are hybreds (Baltimore has a nerrow better off north side corrador connecting downtown and the suburbs), even then all major US metro regions seem to at least mostly fit into one of these 3 patterns. This reminds me of the notion of metro area "favored quarters" (that you and others have written about in the past) within wedged distress regions like Chicago or Dallas (also favored belts and edge cities in contained destress regions).
Just as the Chicago metro has a disfavored wedge of distress heading south that has overtaken former midscale areas all the way to exurbia, it also has an especially favored and upscale wedge heading northwest, almost opposite from its unfavored wedge, with more "average" middle and working class areas in the suburbs largely located in between. Atlanta and Washington, DC seem like other extreme examples of wedged distress regions beyond their revitalized/gentrified downtown cores.
Gotta say, the wedged distress visable in the Chicago region map is rather breathtaking in its extent!
These are excellent analyses
I spent my 20s and 30s in the McKibbin lofts in “East Williamsburg” in Brooklyn as a working artist in the film industry. I am from KC and returned here in ‘17 to purchase and rehab a 130 year old mansion.
I had a front row seat for the gentrification of Brooklyn- good and bad. I now have a front row seat in Kansas City’s Northeast.
We want ALL the lessons!!!!
We are living this problem in Kansas City Missouri.
We are forming a coalition of neighborhoods.
How do we fix this?
I too have been fascinated by the Distressed Communities Index mapping tool. I'll comment on Milwaukee as that's the metro area for which I am most familiar with the "facts on the ground" for virtually every part of the metro area. The map suggests that a 50-60 squares miles of distress areas nearly fully contained within the City of Milwaukee are surrounded by a sea of prosperity extending 100 or more miles north, west, and south (with the exception of a small area of distress along the lakeside areas of Racine and Kenosha to the south). This accurately reflects my experience living in the Milwaukee area for 50+ years - and is the lived experience for 80% of so of the residents in the metro area (i.e., a "sea of prosperity"). But that hardly fits the national perception of Milwaukee (and the area as a whole) as a struggling rust belt metro, because of the hidden or contained distress areas. The vast prosperous areas seem to be hidden from the national perceptions perspective. Minneapolis-St. Paul is an even vaster sea of prosperity based on the map. Both are in sharp contrast to the depiction of nearly the entirety of the southern and Appalachian states - which appear to be seas of distress with scattered islands of urban prosperity.
The national perception of the Midwest (at least the northern Great Lakes area) doesn't appear to match reality. Vast expanses of the rust belt are seas of prosperity.