Where has the Urban Crisis Gone?

Abstract

Two national phenomena, economic transformation and the baby boom's young households, have brought new life to the Boston economy and that of other cities. The transformation has been largely downtown-oriented, however, and few of the benefits have spilled over into the poorer neighborhoods where most of the city's population lives. Substantial public infrastructure investment and the urban renewal write-down of land costs helped stake the private investment boom evident since the mid-1970s. Property values have skyrocketed. The rise in one-and two-person households and nonfamily households also has been accelerating since the mid-1970s and ushering in a return to the cities. The expanding concentration of minority and other poor populations in the cities have lagged behind, real income has eroded, poverty has increased, housing has become scarce, and gentrification holds a threat of displacement. The beneficence of the economic boom has not flowed into the public coffers; Boston, New York, and other large cities have been held on a tight fiscal leash by cutbacks in federal aid, state parsimony, and tax limitation legislation. City public services have been reduced. Boston is attempting to cope with new populist directions. New city legislation and zoning regulations (patterned, in part, on San Francisco's pioneering effort) are designed to induce developers to fund and become involved in neighborhood housing and development. With the shift from throw-away housing to scarcity, investment and fix-up have become more attractive, and there is new interest in the neighborhood potential.