This dissertation presents an integrated framework that was developed to examine trajectories of neighborhood change, mechanisms of suburban diversity, and the relationships between neighborhood change and employment accessibility. First, this dissertation extends the study of neighborhood change to a greater time and spatial span, systematically examining the trajectories of neighborhood change at the census tract level. The results show that neighborhood change is complicated and exhibits various trajectories. The dominant patterns do not always conform to classical models of neighborhood change, providing counterpoints to some long-established assumptions. This dissertation also provides evidence of the mechanisms through which metropolitan and suburban characteristics influence suburban diversity. Most importantly, it highlights a remarkable increase in suburban diversity with respect to neighborhood composition. Finally, this dissertation investigates the relationships between neighborhood change, spatial transformation, and employment accessibility in the North Carolina Piedmont region during the last three decades. Spatial patterns of the neighborhood distributions suggest that job accessibility varies by neighborhood typology. A detailed analysis of the trajectories of neighborhood change shows interesting patterns in both central city and suburban ecological succession and transformation. These geographical shifts of neighborhoods were shown to be associated with changes in job accessibility to a certain extent. In sum, by introducing an integrated framework including social, spatial, and employment factors, this dissertation develops a more balanced understanding of neighborhood change in the United States. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Lacee Satcher / This study explores the role that institutions of higher education play in gentrification in the cities they occupy. I use Northeastern University and the Roxbury neighborhood in the city of Boston as a case study, specifically with the expansion efforts of the institution over the past decade, to examine universities as potential drivers of gentrification. Using publicly available data, Google Street View data, and semi-structured qualitiative interviews with long-term Roxbury residents, I find notable neighborhood change occuring in the area in relation to Northeastern University, including changes to racial/ethnic and SES demographics, as well as changes to the neighborhood's physical environment. Moreover, interviews with the residents of Roxbury revealed the mixed reactions to the univeristy expanding into the neighborhood and the concerns of the community who want a say in the changes occuring. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

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This report examines how the neighborhoods along the Metro Blue line have changed over the past two decades, and reflects on the current emerging issue in Transit oriented development (TOD), which is promoting equitable transit neighborhoods. The primary study area includes the route of the Metro Blue line through Los Angeles County where the most economically disadvantaged and marginalized communities are located in the county. In order to investigate the impact of the rail line effectively, the concept of Walksheds are used as the units of analysis, which is defined as the area within a half-mile walking distance from the transit station. Focusing on social equity impact of the transit system operation, the comparison analysis between Los Angeles County and the twenty-two Walksheds of each station in the line evaluates the changes in the close-by neighborhoods while also looking at various social demographic indicators that can reflect demographic shifts using decennial Census data of 1990, 2000, and 2010. While looking at the change through time series data analysis vertically, the performance of each station area is examined horizontally. Therefore, comparative analysis is conducted in four stages to figure out the extent to which the neighborhoods have changed, how rapidly the change occurred and whether the neighborhood change occurred in a positive way or not. The result from the four comparative analyses indicates that the Metro Blue line did not work as a catalyst for promoting economic opportunity in the region in spite of the initial expectations of its advocates. In the beginning of the rail operation of 1990, the neighborhoods along the rail line were excluded and poverty was widespread in the region. However, even after two decades, the twenty-two Walksheds along the Metro Blue Line still remain as undesirable places to live and marginalized as compared to the rest of the county. Moreover, the neighborhood change in the twenty-two Walksheds is negatively linked to the Walksheds based on the result of the comparative analysis. / text

The U.S.-American foreclosure crisis and related economic crises have had severe and wide-reaching effects for the global economy, homeowners, and municipalities alike. These negative changes led to federal, state, regional, and local responses intended to prevent and mitigate foreclosures. As of yet, no research has examined the community- and neighborhood-level impacts of local foreclosure responses. This research seeks to determine the economic, physical, social, and political changes that resulted from these responses. A mixed methods case study of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, home to Cleveland, was used to identify local level foreclosure responses—i.e. those carried out at the county level and below—and their effects. The qualitative component was comprised of semi-structured stakeholder interviews, including local governmental representatives, advocacy groups, and neighborhood representatives. Two community subcases were investigated in depth to further examine the mechanisms and effects of foreclosure responses. The quantitative component supplements the qualitative component by means of a quantile regression model that examines relationships between foreclosure responses and changes in property value at the Census tract level, used to approximate communities. The model integrates data for the entire county and estimates coefficients at various quantiles of the dependent variable, which uncovers variations in the associations between the variables along the dependent variable’s distribution. That is, with quantile regression it is possible to determine whether foreclosure responses have different effects depending on community conditions. The results indicate that the national and local context are of particular importance when responding to the foreclosure crisis. Lackluster national level responses necessitated creative and innovative responses at the local level. The Cleveland region is characterized a weak housing market and its concomitant vacancy and abandonment problems. Thus, post-foreclosure responses that deal with blighted property are essential. A wide variety of foreclosure responses took place in Cuyahoga County, in the form of systems reform, foreclosure prevention, targeting, property acquisition and control, legal efforts, and community- and neighborhood-level efforts. Several strategies used in these responses emerged as themes: targeting, addressing blight, strengthening the social fabric, planning for the future, building institutions and organizational capacity, and advocacy. Physical and economic impacts are closely linked and are brought about especially by responses using targeting and blight reduction strategies. Social impacts, such as increased identification with, investment in, and commitment to the community occurred as the result of responses that used the strategies of strengthening the social fabric and planning a shared future for the community. Finally, the strategies of building institutions and organizational capacity and advocacy resulted in increased political power in the form of more local control and additional resources for neighborhoods and communities. These results provide deeper insight into the effects of the foreclosure crisis and local responses to it on neighborhoods and communities. This case study identifies the importance of targeting, blight removal, strengthening social bonds, planning for a shared future, increasing organizational capacity, and advocacy in addressing the foreclosure crisis on the community and neighborhood levels, especially in weak housing market cities where need far outstrips the available resources.

Although recent brownfields redevelopment research using theories of real estate valuation and neighborhood change have indicated negative effects on surrounding residential housing, little evidence exists to show price impacts and sociodemographic change after remediation. This study examines the extent and size of the economic impact of Superfund sites on surrounding single-family residential properties before and after remediation in Miami-Dade County and examines trends for contemporaneous sociodemographic changes. The study combines the economic impact from changes in environmental quality with contemporaneous sociodemographic changes within the purview of environmental and social justice. This study uses spatial hedonic price modeling on a comprehensive dataset of property-level data, with corresponding sales prices of housing transactions while controlling for other structural, neighborhood, and submarkets characteristics for assessing economic impact. Findings revealed that housing sales prices for single-family residential properties significantly increases as distance to the nearest contaminated Superfund increases. Following remediation, this negative impact declined and housing values increased significantly in neighborhoods with remedied Superfund sites albeit more so in low housing submarkets than premium submarkets. Spatial hedonic models outperformed traditional OLS models in presenting unbiased efficient parameter estimates, correcting for spatial dependence. Although no evidence for gentrification was observed, there existed significant differences between certain sociodemographic characteristics of neighborhoods around contaminated Superfund sites and those of properties located elsewhere leading to concerns of environmental and social justice. Findings suggest that low-income minority populations are more likely to be living in neighborhoods around contaminated Superfund sites and experience a greater negative effect on housing sales prices; these sites are also less likely to be remedied as compared to sites located elsewhere. The findings highlight not only the revealed preferences of homeowners with respect to environmental disamenities, but also help inform policymakers and researchers of the impact of brownfields redevelopment on economic and sociodemographic characteristics of a growing urban region with evolving cultural and social diversity. Incorporating influences of housing submarkets, neighborhood amenities, and spatial dependence help provide a holistic and comprehensive model for examining environmental disamenities and provide a better understanding for neighborhood change.

Development of heavy rail intra-urban public transportation systems is an economically expensive policy tool for State and Local Governments that is often justified with the promise of economic development and neighborhood revitalization around station areas. However, the literature on the effects of rail intra-urban transit stations on neighborhoods is relatively thin, particularly on the socioeconomic effects. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the effect of heavy rail intra-urban transit stations on surrounding neighborhoods, using Atlanta, Georgia and its transit authority, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), as a case study. Atlanta is an expansive American city, with a large public transportation system, but low population density and no large-scale policies promoting growth around MARTA rail stations. The study period, 1970 to 2014, covers the entire period of MARTA’s existence – stations opened between 1979 and 2000. Neighborhood change was operationalized with a neighborhood change index (NCI), built on the Neighborhood Life-Cycle framework, with an adaptation that incorporates both the filtering (negative NCI) and gentrification (positive NCI) models of neighborhood change. The study differentiates between an initial effect of new MARTA rail stations, and a long-term effect. Control groups were formed using one and three mile buffers, as well as a matching strategy. Difference-in-difference (DID) models find very little evidence of a positive relationship of NCI with the opening of new MARTA rail stations. The economic recovery that began in 2010 is of special interest for housing research. To address this time-period this study utilized two models, with mixed results. The DID model suggested a negative effect of stations on the NCI. To control for selection bias in the 2010 to 2014 economic time-period, this study utilized propensity score matching to balance the treatment and control group on observed characteristics. A time and tract fixed effects model using the matched treatment and control groups found a significant positive effect of stations on neighborhood change. To test the long-term effect, a time and tract fixed effects model (1970-2014) with the NCI as the dependent variable found a positive NCI effect of MARTA stations on neighborhoods. Therefore, overall, positive neighborhood change (on the NCI scale) can be attributed to MARTA transit stations. Since 2002 MARTA ridership has slightly declined; therefore, the study concludes that given stagnant ridership, lack of supporting policy, and the finding of a positive relationship between MARTA transit stations and gentrification, the stations are a positive amenity, and are a significant contributor to neighborhood change. However, neighborhoods are heterogeneous on many dimensions, and the effect of rail intra-urban transit stations on neighborhoods may depend on the tract’s location, service characteristics, accessibility, and many other unobserved characteristics. Future research will supplement this methodology with additional data and compare the effect of intra-urban transit stations on neighborhood change in other cities to better address potential neighborhood heterogeneity.