The inner city is the central area of a major city. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the poorer parts of the city centre and is sometimes used as a euphemism with the connotation of being an area, perhaps a ghetto or slum, where residents are less educated and more impoverished and where there is more crime. Sociologists in these countries sometimes turn this euphemism into a formal designation, applying the term "inner city" to such residential areas rather than to geographically more central commercial districts.

Such connotations are less common in other countries, where deprived areas may be located in outlying parts of cities. For instance, in Paris, Vienna or Amsterdam, the inner city is the richest part of the metropolis, where housing is the most expensive, and where elites and high-income individuals dwell. Poverty and crime are more associated with the suburbs. The French word for "suburb" ("banlieue"), as well as the Swedish equivalent ("förort") often have a negative connotation, especially when used in the plural.

The peculiar American sociological usage is rooted in the middle 20th century. When automobiles became affordable in the United States, many middle and high-income residents, who were mostly white, moved to suburbs to have larger homes, less crime and less diversity. The loss of taxes caused many inner city communities to fall into urban decay. Late in the century, many such areas underwent gentrification, especially in the North-east and West coast, depriving them of the "inner city" label despite their unchanged location.

Anti-urbanism

The United States has had what has been described as a culture of "anti-urbanism" that may date back to the early days of the Union, as Thomas Jefferson wrote that "The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body." On the businessmen who brought manufacturing industry into cities and hence increased the population density necessary to supply the workforce, he wrote that "the manufactures of the great cities ... have begotten a depravity of morals, a dependence and corruption, which renders them an undesirable accession to a country whose morals are sound." Similar sentiments for rustic virtue may be found in the works of Rousseau and in the Back-to-the-land movement of the 20th century.

Modern anti-urban attitudes are found in America in the form of the housing development profession that continues to develop land on a low-density suburban basis, where access to amenities, work and shopping is provided almost exclusively by car rather than on foot. Retail and professional services may establish themselves in the area for the convenience of the suburbanites, but the cultural assets of central city rarely follow. There is usually significant opposition to expanding mass transit, typically on financial grounds. At grade or above grade systems may also be rejected for reasons based on NIMBYism, one paradox of mass transit planning being that everyone would like to have a easy access to the transit station, but nobody wants the tracks anywhere near their house.

Contemporary anti-urban attitudes in the United States may at times seem to be linked to racism. In the United States, large numbers of African Americans migrated from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North during the 20th century, in what became known as the Great Migration. Meanwhile, the development of interstate highways allowed for easy access to suburban areas, helping to spur white flight to suburban areas. However, regardless of any possible racism, aspiring to own a single family house with a yard (garden) is an almost non-negotiable cultural imperative. Young couples of any race, even living in vibrant and non-threatening city neighborhoods, very often move to the suburbs as soon as they have or expect to have a child. By the late 20th century, many inner cities of large American cities had non-white majorities, while suburbs of the cities were often heavily white. Patterns of white flight have also taken place in parts of large British cities as immigrants from South Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere have moved in.

Anti-urbanism is still indirectly extolled by politicians who tout their small-town or rural origins. This is usually more associated with Republicans; although Reagan came from a career in Hollywood and would thus otherwise be suspect, but this liability was easily overcome by his conservative views and unassuming manner. Recent Presidents or presidential nominees of both parties have tended to come from small towns, with the notable recent exception of Barack Obama, who is closely identified with the city of Chicago.

Old and new

A rival contemporary North American movement is that of New Urbanism, which calls for a return to traditional city planning methods in where mixed-use zoning allows people to walk from one type of land-use to another, as was done before the invention of mass transit and zoning. The movement seeks to have housing, shopping, office space, and leisure facilities located within walking distance of each other, thus reducing the demand for roadways and also improving the efficiency and effectiveness of mass transit.

The thriving of "old urbanism" in inner cities, in which prosperous individuals and families move into formerly poor neighborhoods, is known as gentrification.

Further reading

Harrison, P. (1985) Inside the Inner City: Life Under the Cutting Edge. Penguin: Harmondsworth. This book takes Hackney, London as a case study of inner city urban deprivation.

See also

• Bid rent theory
• Central business district
• Concentric ring model
• Da Hood
• Downtown
• Ghetto
• Industrial deconcentration
• Suburban colonization
• Urban sprawl

External links

• Inner City Press - uses the South Bronx as its example and laboratory of New Urbanism.

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