dissertation idea

[angledge]

A LJ member from philadelphia just gave me a pretty cool dissertation idea: studying reverse sprawl, which is what he called the growing trend of building suburban-style developments within the city. Any input on this idea?

Comments

[hollyinpa.livejournal.com]

Interesting topic for a dissertation! I think it would be worth doing some initial research. I have looked at research on sprawl and would be interested to learn more about reverse sprawl. What do you think about it?

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I've seen instances of reverse sprawl in Philadelphia - if you take any of the northern SEPTA lines into the city, you can see blocks where areas have been cleared & suburub-like residential areas have been built.

I'm wondering what the effects are on surrounding areas. Jane Jacobs, in her groundbreaking book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, states that cities require development of a certain density to sustain city life. Areas that drop below this density tend to have problems with street safety & become undesirable.

[marasca.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this would be included in the reverse sprawl trend, but in DC there's a lot of effort from the DC government to form and revitalize communities through imrpoving community centers. For example, where I live now we have a sort of ghetto mall that's mostly shut down and 2 out-of-use EPA buildings. They're planning the rip the whole thing down and rebuild it. The local theater (stage, not movie) is also planning a $100 million renovation. I think the problem with some of thses type of projects is they end up causing rent rates to skyrocket and push out people who can't afford it (good old gentrification). I don't know if this is too social rather than science oriented, but it could be interesting to look at suburbanization of the city or reverse sprawl and then also the effect that's having on lower income people and how they're compensating or where they're going.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I think was suburbanization of the city meant was more a reference to the density of redevelopment in a city, not just the fact that redevelopment occurs. I.e., it's OK if they build a community center, as long as they build it in a intense-use fashion - so no big parking lots, preferably more than one floor, etc. The idea is that you have to keep land-use density in a city high.

[marasca.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. That could be interesting to look into.