Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, 404-414 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06298820

© 2007 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Exploring Changes in Income Clustering and Centralization during the 1990s
Casey J. Dawkins

Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech, Virginia Center for Housing Research

This article employs a new "spatial ordering index" to describe and explain changes in the degree of income clustering and centralization within U.S. metropolitan areas during the 1990s. The results suggest that while the spatial pattern of household income became more decentralized and less clustered during the 1990s, the patterns established as of 1990 were highly persistent over the decade. Factors associated with metropolitan area size and growth affected changes in both the degree of centralization and the degree of clustering. Although traditional determinants of suburbanization were associated with increases in income decentralization during the 1990s, densely developed cities with an increase in the percentage of white residents saw increases in income centralization during the decade. Furthermore, changes in the patterns observed were shaped by various policy influences, including the number of Low Income Housing Tax Credit units, urban containment policies, and the degree of local government fragmentation.

Key Words: economic segregation • spatial analysis • metropolitan governance • urban containment • growth management

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, 435-449 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06297860
© 2007 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

The Sustainable Communities Experiment in the United States
Insights from Three Federal-Level Initiatives
Carla Chifos

School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati

This paper documents and analyzes a portion of the U.S. government's attempt to adopt the concept of sustainability after 1992. Numerous case studies of individual sustainable community development projects exist, although almost no literature describes the coordinated federal-level effort to create and implement a sustainable development policy from 1993 to 2000. Case studies of three prominent federal-level sustainable community programs are developed from twenty guided interviews and existing government documents. The analysis of these three cases reveals serious attempts to translate sustainability into federal programs and changes in agency cultures despite institutional barriers. Although the primary outcome of these efforts was a stronger framework for facilitation of planning at the federal level, it still remains unclear why planners were not more involved in this process.

Key Words: sustainable communities • federal policy • sustainable development • Clinton-Gore administration • President's Council on Sustainable Development