Many urban scholars have assumed that urbanization has had adverse effects on the quality of life of suburban residents, but there are few empirical tests of their hypotheses. The 1982 and 1991 Orange County, California, Annual Surveys indicate that perceived quality-of-life ratings have declined over the decade that this suburban region experienced urbanization. The hypothesis that city-level measures of urbanization, such as population size, density, heterogeneity, and growth rates, are related to lower quality-of-life ratings was only partially confirmed. Over time, high density and perceived rapid growth emerge as strong predictors of perceived quality of life.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Baldassare, M.1981. The growth dilemma. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
2.
Baldassare, M.1986. Trouble in paradise: The suburban transformation in America. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
3.
Baldassare, M.1990. Suburban support for no-growth policies: Implications for the growth revolt. Journal of Urban Affairs12:197-206.
4.
Baldassare, M.1991. The growth revolt in the suburbs: A new political movement. Research in Community Sociology2:61-77.
5.
Baldassare, M.1992. Suburban communities. Annual Review of Sociology18:475-494.
6.
Baldassare, M. , and W. Protash. 1982. Growth controls, population growth and community satisfaction. American Sociological Review47:339-346.
7.
Bensman, J. , and A. Vidich. 1975. Metropolitan communities. New York: New Viewpoints.
8.
Binford, H.1985. The first suburbs. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
9.
Bloomquist, G. , M. Berger, and J. Hoehn. 1988. New estimates of quality of life in urban areas. American Economic Review78:89-107.
10.
Burgess, E. W. [1925] 1967. The growth of the city. In The city, edited by R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess, and R. D. McKenzie, 47-62. Reprint, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
11.
Campbell, A. , P. E. Converse, and W. L. Rodgers. 1976. The quality of American life. New York: Russell Sage.
12.
Cervero, R.1986. Suburban gridlock. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research.
13.
Clark, T. N. , and L. Ferguson. 1983. City money: Political processes, fiscal strain and retrenchment. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
14.
Clark, T. N. , and R. Inglehart. Forthcoming. The new political culture. In The new political culture, edited by T. N. Clark and V. Hoffman-Martinot. Boulder, CO: Westview.
15.
Dahmann, D.1985. Assessments of neighborhood quality in metropolitan America. Urban Affairs Quarterly20:511-535.
16.
Danielson, M.1976. The politics of exclusion. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
17.
Dowall, D.1984. The suburban squeeze. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
18.
Farms, R. , and M. Dunham. [1939] 1967. Mental disorders in urban areas. Reprint, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
19.
Fischer, C.1984. The urban experience. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich.
20.
Fishman, R.1987. Bourgeois utopias: The rise and fall of suburbia. New York: Basic Books.
21.
Fuguitt, G. , and J. Zuiches. 1975. Residential preferences and population distribution. Demography12:491-504.
22.
Gans, H.1962. Urbanism and suburbanism as ways of life: A re-evaluation of definitions. In Human behavior and social processes, edited by A. Rose, 625-648. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
23.
Gans, H.1967. The Levittowners. New York: Pantheon.
24.
Garreau, J.1991. Edge city. New York: Doubleday.
25.
Glickfeld, M. , L. Graymer, and K. Morrison. 1987. Trends in local growth control ballot measures in California. UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy6:111-158.
26.
Gottdiener, M. , and M. Neiman. 1981. Characteristics of support for local growth control. Urban Affairs Quarterly17:55-73.
27.
Hawley, A. , and V. Rock. 1975. Metropolitan America in contemporary perspective. New York: Wiley.
28.
Hawley, A. H.1972. Population density and the city. Demography9:521-529.
29.
Jackson, K.1985. Crabgrass frontier. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
30.
Kasarda, J. D.1978. Urbanization, community and the metropolitan problem. In Handbook of contemporary life, edited by D. Street, 27-57. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
31.
Kasarda, J. D. , and M. Janowitz. 1974. Community attachment in mass society. American Sociological Review39:328-339.
32.
Logan, J. , and M. Zhou. 1989. Do suburban growth controls control growth?American Sociological Review54:461-471.
33.
Marans, R. W. , and W. Rodgers. 1975. Toward an understanding of community satisfaction. In Metropolitan America in contemporary perspective, edited by A. Hawley and V. Rock, 299-354. New York: Wiley.
34.
Masotti, L. H. , and J. K. Hadden. 1973. The urbanization of the suburbs. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
35.
Masotti, L. H. , and J. K. Hadden. 1974. Suburbia in transition. New York: New Viewpoints.
36.
McKenzie, R. D. [1925] 1967. The ecological approach to the study of the human community. In The city, edited by R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess, and R. D. McKenzie, 63-69. Reprint, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
37.
Michelson, W.1976. Man and his urban environment. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
38.
Michelson, W.1977. Environmental choice, human behavior and residential satisfaction. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
39.
Milgram, S.1970. The experience of living in cities. Science167:1461-1468.
40.
Molotch, H.1976. The city as a growth machine. American Journal of Sociology82 (2): 309-348.
41.
Morrison, P.1977. Migration and rights of access: New public concerns of the 1970s. RAND Series P-5785. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
42.
Myers, D.1987. Community-relevant measurement of quality of life: A focus on local trends. Urban Affairs Quarterly23:108-125.
43.
Neiman, M. , and R. Loveridge. 1981. Environmentalism and local growth control: A probe into the class bias thesis. Environment and Behavior13:759-772.
44.
Ogburn, W. F.1935. Factors in the variation of crime among cities. Journal of the American Statistical Association30 (March): 12-34.
45.
Orange County Board of Supervisors . 1992. Orange County progress report. Santa Ana, CA. Mimeo.
46.
Orange County Chamber of Commerce . 1992. Orange County business and industrial directory. Orange, CA. Mimeo.
47.
Park R. E. [1925] 1967. The city: Suggestions for the investigation of human behavior in the urban environment. In The city, edited by R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess, and R. D. McKenzie, 1-46. Reprint, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
48.
Pisarki, A.1987. Commuting in America: A national report on commuting patterns and trends. Eno Foundation, Westport, CT. Mimeo.
49.
Popenoe, D.1985. Private pleasure, public plight. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
50.
Protash, W. , and M. Baldassare. 1983. Growth policies and community status. Urban Affairs Quarterly18:397-412.
51.
Rosen, S.1979. Wage-based indices of urban quality of life. In Current issues in urban economics, edited by P. Mieszowski and M. Straszheim, 74-104. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
52.
Schneider, W.1991. Rule suburbia: America in the 1990s. National Journal39:2335-2336.
53.
Schwartz, B.1976. The changing face of the suburbs. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
54.
Shaw, C. R. , and H. D. McKay. 1969. Juvenile delinquency in urban areas. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
55.
Simmel, G. [1905] 1969. The metropolis and mental life. In Classic essays on the culture of cities, edited by R. Sennett, 47-60. Reprint, New York: Appleton.
56.
State of California . 1992. California statistical abstract. Sacramento, CA: Department of Finance.
57.
Tiebout, C. M.1956. A pure theory of local expenditures. Journal of Political Economics64:416-424.
58.
Troldahl, V. , and R. Carter. 1964. Random selection of respondents within households in phone surveys. Journal of Marketing Research1:71-76.
59.
U.S. Bureau of the Census . 1988. City and county data book. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
60.
U.S. Bureau of the Census1990. Census of population and housing. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
61.
U.S. Bureau of the Census1991. State and metropolitan area data book. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
62.
U.S. Bureau of the Census . 1992. Statistical abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
63.
Wechsler, H.1961. Community growth, depressive disorders and suicide. American Journal of Sociology67 (July): 9-16.
64.
Wirth, L.1938. Urbanism as a way of life. American Journal of Sociology44:1-24.
