Four years Old in an Urban Community

Urban Studies Research

When it comes to access to health care, two-thirds of rural residents say this is either a major or minor problem where they live. Suburban residents are significantly less likely than their urban or rural counterparts to characterize access to grocery stores as a problem in their community. Across community types, majorities of Americans say drug addiction is a problem in their community.

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Views on the severity of this problem do differ significantly along socio-economic lines. Similarly, those who describe themselves as upper class express less concern about drug addiction than do those who describe themselves as middle or lower class. These gaps hold up — for the most part — across community types, although the class differences are not evident among rural residents.

Perceptions about local job conditions differ not only by community type but also by key demographic characteristics. This gap can be seen across community types, with significantly larger shares of nonwhites voicing concern about the availability of jobs where they live. Views on the availability of jobs differ by educational attainment and income as well. These patterns are consistent among urban, suburban and rural residents. A mericans have mixed views about how the job situation will be in the future.

Adults from urban areas are more optimistic than those living in suburban and rural areas. Rural residents are the least optimistic. Roughly one-in-five across community types say they expect the job situation to get worse where they live. Nonwhites consistently voice greater concern than whites about the magnitude of a variety of problems in their community. In many cases, the racial gap persists across community types. The term "urban sprawl" was first used in an article in The Times in as a negative comment on the state of London 's outskirts.

However, London had been sprawling out of its medieval confines within the City since the 18th century, when the city experienced its first great urban surge. Areas to the west of Westminster were increasingly built up for the wealthy, to live in the suburbs of the city. A dramatic increase in the city's urban sprawl began in the 19th century, when labourers flocked from the countryside to work in the new factories that were then springing up. Large developments of small terraced houses began to appear and the new public transportation systems - the metro , buses and trams - allowed workers to commute into the city daily.

By the midth century, the first major suburban areas were springing up around London as the city then the largest in the world became more overcrowded and unsanitary. A major catalyst in the growth in urban sprawl came from the opening of the Metropolitan Railway in the s. The line joined the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the suburbs of Middlesex.

Unlike other railway companies, which were required to dispose of surplus land, the Met was allowed to retain such land that it believed was necessary for future railway use. By the early twentieth century then, amid increasing middle-class affluence, large low-density suburbs of semi-detached houses had sprung up all around the city, doubling the area of built-up London in the interwar period alone, despite the population increase being just 10 percent.

G Wells even predicted in that within a hundred years most of southern England would have been subsumed into one gigantic conurbation centred in London. Starting in the early 20th century, environmentalist opposition to urban sprawl began to coalesce, with roots in the garden city movement , as well as pressure from campaign groups such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England CPRE. Under Herbert Morrison 's leadership of the London County Council , the first formal proposal was made by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee "to provide a reserve supply of public open spaces and of recreational areas and to establish a green belt or girdle of open space".

New provisions for compensation in the Town and Country Planning Act allowed local authorities around the country to incorporate green belt proposals in their first development plans. The first urban growth boundary in the U. Presently, the NRI classifies approximately , more square kilometres 40, square miles an area approximately the size of Kentucky as developed than the Census Bureau classifies as urban.

The difference in the NRI classification is that it includes rural development, which by definition cannot be considered to be "urban" sprawl. Currently, according to the Census , approximately 2. Nonetheless, some urban areas like Detroit have expanded geographically even while losing population. But it was not just urbanized areas in the U. According to data in "Cities and Automobile Dependence" by Kenworthy and Laube , urbanized area population losses occurred while there was an expansion of sprawl between and in Amsterdam, the Netherlands ; Brussels, Belgium ; Copenhagen, Denmark ; Frankfurt , Hamburg and Munich , Germany ; and Zurich , Switzerland , albeit without the dismantling of infrastructure that occurred in the United States.

One of the major environmental problems associated with sprawl is land loss , habitat loss and subsequent reduction in biodiversity.

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A review by Czech and colleagues [38] finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity. Regions with high birth rates and immigration are therefore faced with environmental problems due to unplanned urban growth and emerging megacities such as Kolkata. At the same time, the urban cores of these and nearly all other major cities in the United States , Western Europe , and Japan that did not annex new territory experienced the related phenomena of falling household size and, particularly in the U.

Due to the larger area consumed by sprawling suburbs compared to urban neighborhoods, more farmland and wildlife habitats are displaced per resident. As forest cover is cleared and covered with impervious surfaces concrete and asphalt in the suburbs, rainfall is less effectively absorbed into the groundwater aquifers. Sprawl increases water pollution as rain water picks up gasoline , motor oil , heavy metals , and other pollutants in runoff from parking lots and roads.

Sprawl leads to increased driving, and increased driving leads to vehicle emissions that contribute to air pollution and its attendant negative impacts on human health. In addition, the reduced physical activity implied by increased automobile use has negative health consequences. Sprawl significantly predicts chronic medical conditions and health-related quality of life, but not mental health disorders.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Newson, John, Four years old in an urban community / John Newson and Elizabeth. Newson. p. cm. Young children in urban areas: Links among neighborhood . Another comprehensive study of ten-year-old children in three U.S. cities found that . The associations between the activity measures and a four-category weight.

In the years following World War II, when vehicle ownership was becoming widespread, public health officials recommended the health benefits of suburbs due to soot and industrial fumes in the city center. However, air in modern suburbs is not necessarily cleaner than air in urban neighborhoods. On average, suburban residents generate more per capita pollution and carbon emissions than their urban counterparts because of their increased driving.

A heavy reliance on automobiles increases traffic throughout the city as well as automobile crashes, pedestrian injuries, and air pollution. Research covered in the Journal of Economic Issues and State and Local Government Review shows a link between sprawl and emergency medical services response and fire department response delays.

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  • Introduction;
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Living in larger, more spread out spaces generally makes public services more expensive. Since car usage becomes endemic and public transport often becomes significantly more expensive, city planners are forced to build highway and parking infrastructure , which in turn decreases taxable land and revenue, and decreases the desirability of the area adjacent to such structures. Residents of low-density areas spend a higher proportion of their income on transportation than residents of high density areas.

Urban sprawl may be partly responsible for the decline in social capital in the United States. Compact neighborhoods can foster casual social interactions among neighbors, while sprawl creates barriers. Sprawl tends to replace public spaces with private spaces such as fenced-in backyards. Critics of sprawl maintain that sprawl erodes quality of life.

Urban area - Wikipedia

Duany and Plater-Zyberk believe that in traditional neighborhoods the nearness of the workplace to retail and restaurant space that provides cafes and convenience stores with daytime customers is an essential component to the successful balance of urban life. Furthermore, they state that the closeness of the workplace to homes also gives people the option of walking or riding a bicycle to work or school and that without this kind of interaction between the different components of life the urban pattern quickly falls apart.

Urban sprawl has class and racial implications in many parts of the world; the relative homogeneity of many sprawl developments may reinforce class and racial divides through residential segregation. Numerous studies link increased population density with increased aggression. It is argued that human beings, while social animals, need significant amounts of social space or they become agitated and aggressive. According to Nancy Chin, a large number of effects of sprawl have been discussed in the academic literature in some detail; however, the most contentious issues can be reduced "to an older set of arguments, between those advocating a planning approach and those advocating the efficiency of the market.

Urban planning

Arguments opposing urban sprawl include concrete effects such as health and environmental issues as well as abstract consequences including neighborhood vitality. American public policy analyst Randal O'Toole of the Cato Institute , a libertarian think tank , has argued that sprawl, thanks to the automobile, gave rise to affordable suburban neighborhoods for middle class and lower class individuals, including non-whites. He notes that efforts to combat sprawl often result in subsidizing development in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods while condemning and demolishing poorer minority neighborhoods.

The American Institute of Architects and the American Planning Association recommend against sprawl and instead endorses smart , mixed-use development , including buildings in close proximity to one another that cut down on automobile use, save energy, and promote walkable, healthy, well-designed neighborhoods. One of the primary debates around suburban sprawl is the extent to which sprawl is the result of consumer preference.

Some, such as Peter Gordon, a professor of planning and economics at the University of Southern California's School of Urban Planning and Development, argue that most households have shown a clear preference for low-density living and that this is a fact that should not be ignored by planners. It is a giant step backward to interfere with this effective process unless the benefits of intervention substantially exceed its cost.

Jackson [70] have argued that since low-density housing is often notably in the U. Whether urban sprawl does increase problems of automobile dependency and whether conversely, policies of smart growth can reduce them have been fiercely contested issues over several decades. Within cities, studies from across many countries mainly in the developed world have shown that denser urban areas with greater mixture of land use and better public transport tend to have lower car use than less dense suburban and ex-urban residential areas.

This usually holds true even after controlling for socio-economic factors such as differences in household composition and income. One confounding factor, which has been the subject of many studies, is residential self-selection: Some studies have found that, when self-selection is controlled for, the built environment has no significant effect on travel behaviour.

Those not opposed to low density development argue that traffic intensities tend to be less, traffic speeds faster and, as a result, ambient air pollution is lower. Kansas City, Missouri is often cited as an example of ideal low-density development, with congestion below the mean and home prices below comparable Midwestern cities. Wendell Cox and Randal O'Toole are leading figures supporting lower density development. Longitudinal time-lapse studies of commute times in major metropolitan areas in the United States have shown that commute times decreased for the period to even though the geographic size of the city increased.

Reviewing the evidence on urban intensification, smart growth and their effects on travel behaviour Melia et al. Planning policies that increase population densities in urban areas do tend to reduce car use, but the effect is a weak one, so doubling the population density of a particular area will not halve the frequency or distance of car use. There is also some concern that anti-sprawl policies will increase housing prices. Some research suggests Oregon has had the largest housing affordability loss in the nation, [82] but other research shows that Portland's price increases are comparable to other Western cities.

In Australia, it is claimed by some that housing affordability has hit "crisis levels" due to "urban consolidation" policies implemented by state governments.

Urban sprawl

Many critics concede that sprawl produces some negative externalities; however there is some dispute about the most effective way to reduce these negative effects. The term 'smart growth' has been particularly used in North America. The terms 'compact city' or 'urban intensification' are often used to describe similar concepts in Europe and particularly the UK where it has influenced government policy and planning practice in recent years.

The state of Oregon enacted a law in limiting the area urban areas could occupy, through urban growth boundaries. As a result, Portland , the state's largest urban area, has become a leader in smart growth policies that seek to make urban areas more compact they are called urban consolidation policies. While the growth boundary has not been tight enough to vastly increase density, the consensus is that the growth boundaries have protected great amounts of wild areas and farmland around the metro area.

Many parts of the San Francisco Bay Area have also adopted urban growth boundaries; 25 of its cities and 5 of its counties have urban growth boundaries. Many of these were adopted with the support and advocacy of Greenbelt Alliance , a non-profit land conservation and urban planning organization. In other areas, the design principles of District Regionalism and New Urbanism have been employed to combat urban sprawl.

The concept of Circular flow land use management has been developed in Europe to reduce land take by urban sprawl through promoting inner-city and brownfield development. While cities such as Los Angeles are well known for sprawling suburbs, policies and public opinion are changing. Transit-oriented development, in which higher-density mixed-use areas are permitted or encouraged near transit stops is encouraging more compact development in certain areas-particularly those with light and heavy rail transit systems.

Bicycles are the preferred means of travel in many countries. Businesses in areas of some towns where bicycle use is high are thriving. Bicycles and transit are contributing in two important ways toward the success of businesses: Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is to walking. Walkability has many health, environmental, and economic benefits. However, evaluating walkability is challenging because it requires the consideration of many subjective factors.

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Examples of urban sprawl in developing countries. From top, left to right: Rural neighborhoods in Morrisville, North Carolina are rapidly developing into affluent, urbanized neighborhoods and subdivisions. The two images above are on opposite sides of the same street. Ceteris paribus , urban intensification which increases population density will reduce per capita car use, with benefits to the global environment, but will also increase concentrations of motor traffic, worsening the local environment in those locations where it occurs.

Smart growth , Compact City , Transit-oriented development , and New urbanism. Compact city Effects of the car on societies Gentrification General Motors streetcar conspiracy Index of urban studies articles New pedestrianism Principles of intelligent urbanism Rural—urban fringe Smart growth Town centre Urban planning. Journal of the American Planning Association. But some children have a harder time calming down.

Doesn't Shelby County already support social and emotional development? Today, Shelby County spends more time talking about child social and emotional development and its importance than in the past. But, schools, community organizations, and other local child service organizations have traditionally paid less attention to social and emotional development than cognitive outcomes and academic success.

Read more about kindergarten readiness. One theory suggests that intervening with very young children at higher risk of social and emotional difficulties produces the largest gains in terms of skill development over time Figure 1. In essence, pay now or pay more later. Unfortunately, a number of children struggle with at least one area of social and emotional development.

These children and society may benefit from investments to set them on the best path forward. But we need to know what works, for whom, and under what circumstances, as well as where and how much to invest. In the next chapters, Off to a Good Start explores the issue of social and emotional development in more detail and provides insights for how each of us can help. There is no "one size fits all" approach.

Off to a Good Start offers some quick tips to support child social and emotional development, but it is important to review the evidence when selecting a more comprehensive program or policy. This book is designed to help improve understanding of the social and emotional development of children in Shelby County and help community members think about how they can make a difference. To do this, the report pulls together data from both local sources of information and national sources.

A list of these resources is available in Appendix A. The use of both local and national data highlights the knowledge available in Shelby County about social and emotional development, identifies differences and similarities between our local community and the overall United States, and emphasizes areas where additional information is needed to understand the local issues.

The first years last a lifetime. From the first day of life to the first day of school, a child grows at a phenomenal pace. A child's brain doubles in size in the first year, and by age three it reaches 80 percent of its adult volume. Want to know more? To learn more about the importance of the first three years of life, go to First Years Last a Lifetime Why ?

Thinking About the Whole Child: Domains of Development Figure 1. Emotional, cognitive, social, and physical development are interrelated and influence each other. What does a child who is slow-to-warm-up or difficult need? Signs of Difficult Temperament: Percent of infants who display behavior most times Figure 1. Regional gray matter growth, sexual dimorphism, and cerebral asymmetry in the neonatal brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 27 6 , — Stable neuron numbers from cradle to grave.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 33 , — How the timing and quality of early experiences influence the development of brain architecture.