Thursday, April 21, 2011

Poverty and Connectivity: Crossing the Tracks

by Ann Carpenter and John Peponis

The spatial structure of cities influences the patterns of development and the spatial distribution of income groups. Past studies have shown that historically the integration of streets is a strong predictor of wealth and poverty in London. Although the current societal and regulatory characteristics of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. differ considerably from those that have historically prevailed in London, recent research has shown that street network integration and connectedness correlate significantly with measures of wealth and poverty in different manners at different scales. The spatial concentration of poverty and the segregation of income classes are associated with specific problems in the U.S. as elsewhere: negative externalities include poor access to employment, lack of social networking opportunities, vulnerability, psychosocial effects, political disenfranchisement, and the inadequate provision of services, shops, and amenities. The poor tend to be less mobile, making the spatial mismatch between jobs and low-income housing a significant concern for planners and policy makers. Vulnerability to crime and lack of resistance to disasters are also serious problems. As witnessed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, poor neighborhoods have fewer resources and insufficient social and physical infrastructure for rebuilding or transforming unfavorable urban conditions. Finally, the funding of public schools and patronage at inner-city hospitals is tied to the income of surrounding neighborhoods in the U.S., thus making the equitable provision of services harder.
This paper seeks to understand how urban form, specifically measures of street connectivity, relate to poverty in Atlanta. Initial results indicate that at the scale of larger spatial units, or U.S. Census block groups, connectivity increases as the number of households living in poverty increases. This trend expresses the tendency whereby middle and upper income groups have fled to the suburbs and peripheral urban centers since the 1960s. However, using household-level and other finer-scale data, the results invert. Within a local area, connectivity is associated with an increase in household income. The segregation of income groups by neighborhood is responsible for the larger-scale trend, while the recent popularity of neo-traditional and mixed-income housing as part of a return to a more urban life style for the middle classes may contribute to the smaller-scale trend.


more papers about Space Syntax indicators:

THE EFFECTS OF PROPOSED BRIDGES ON URBAN MACROFORM OF ISTANBUL: a syntactic evaluation

Planning a Deep Island: introducing Space Syntax to an urban planning process for Phuket, Thailand

WALKABILITY, MOVEMENT AND SAFETY FOR THE CITY OF BERKELEY

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