Builder
A new Manhattan Institute study suggests that in order to save some dying suburbs on the outskirts of cities, those inner-ring suburbs should merge with the central city, says CityLab contributor Aaron Renn, one of the researchers.
Cities such as Dolton, Illinois (outside Chicago); and Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh), have experienced significant economic transition in recent decades, often for the worse. Data including population loss, high and rising poverty rates, and declining inflation-adjusted household incomes reveal many suburbs of these cities are facing distress.
In some ways, struggling inner-ring suburbs face are harder to revive than central cities. For one thing, they are often “out of sight, out of mind.” Downtowns have the spotlight of the local media on them, and they attract attention from business and community leaders and local and national lawmakers. Inner-ring suburbs rarely get much attention until some serious problem emerges, as in the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.
