A Review of the Article “A Top 10 List of Things to Know About American Cities”
The article “A Top 10 List of Things to Know About American Cities” focuses on trends within American cities. The article was published in 1998. The authors establish that cities are the economic and social centers of the United States. Information for the article’s research mainly comes from the databases of the Center for Urban Policy Research and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The article identifies ten trends which are important to understand in order to appreciate the changes that our nation is going through. Taken directly from the article, the ten sections are as follows: the context of urban change, the uneven growth of metropolitan areas, increased income inequality among metropolitan areas, the effects of immigration on cities, the decentralization of metropolitan areas, interregional migration/urban flight, income and social polarization within cities, changing conditions of inner-city neighborhoods, changes in affordability and house ownership, and fiscal issues facing large cities. This paper will briefly describe the content of each section,
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In the end, the article makes a vague attempt to show that Southern cities are becoming stronger and northern cities are becoming weaker. This trend is largely caused by the comparative economic benefits of the South, such as the low taxation and low cost of living. The article breaks up the interconnected effects of the migration of firms and citizens from the frostbelt to the sunbelt. The article could have simplified its point by describing the two regions and the causes and effects of the migratory trends. Twenty years after the article was written and the effects of the migration are becoming more apparent. The information concerning the rise of the sunbelt was timely and