Portland, suburbs both remain stable
Thursday, December 14, 2006
By Kimberly A.C. Wilson
The Oregonian
Authors of a new study about race and urban revival dub Portland and its suburbs "the best balanced" in the nation.
The study shows that most U.S. cities are making a comeback because of an influx of well-off non-Hispanic whites. But few cities are ringed with equally strong suburbs the way Portland is, according to William H. Lucy and David L. Phillips, University of Virginia urban-planning professors, who analyzed U.S. Census data on 40 cities from 2000 to 2005.
"For most of the period since World War II, cities on average have been declining," Lucy said. "But Portland has been a relatively strong city for a long time, and it is doing as well as its suburbs. Having that balance is an appropriate goal, but finding it . . . that's unusual."
Here's why, the study's authors say: Portland was one of only six cities to see a jump in per capita income among African Americans. It also remains one of the whitest cities. And while median family incomes have declined in cities compared with metropolitan areas -- think Phoenix or Buffalo -- they have steadily grown here.
Put another way: While most cities are getting poorer compared with their suburbs, our burbs and city are stable.
Coupled with rising housing values and condominium construction, the trajectory points up for the City of Roses.
The conclusion is not exactly news to local planning scholars.
"It seems to be saying the economic prospects of the people in the city and the suburbs is pretty much the same," says Ethan Seltzer, director of Portland State University's School of Urban Studies and Planning, "and any historic difference is flattening."
"That makes the notion that the city is simply becoming the playground for the rich a vast, vast overstatement."
The study's results seem to dovetail with a report released last week by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. That report found that while the number of poor people living in 100 cities in 1999 was roughly even with the number living in suburbs, suburban poor outnumbered their urban counterparts by about 1.2 million in 2005.
Portland and its 32 suburbs may have dodged that fate -- for now. But Karen J. Gibson, an assistant professor of urban studies and planning at PSU, said there's a measurable exodus of the poor from inner North and Northeast Portland for cheaper suburbs in the wake of intensive redevelopment and demand for central city land.
In a word, Gibson said, "gentrification."
"Sure we stand out, but what are we saying here?"
Kimberly Wilson: 503-412-7017;
kimberlywilson@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/o...370.xml&coll=7
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