The volatile social status of older neighbourhoods has been a concern of both scholars and politicians for some time. Three competing hypotheses, representing different interpretations of past trends and contrasting scenarios for the future, have dominated recent research: the impoverishment (decline), élite (gentrified) and persistence (stability) models. This paper examines these three models with respect to changing income distributions between and within Canadian metropolitan areas and their inner cities from 1950 to 1985. All three hypotheses are found to be wanting. It is shown that the direction of change in inner cities differs markedly among the metropolitan areas, and that while inner-city-suburban contrasts continue to grow in most cities, in a few places these contrasts are overwhelmed by internal diversity and by new clusters of suburban poverty and inner-city wealth. The emerging ecology of income and social status is much more complex and variable than any single hypothesis or research paradigm can encompass.
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