Tuesdays at APA — May 2007

Effects of Regional Housing Dynamics on Older Suburbs

May 8, 2007

Until about 10 years ago, urban decline meant the economic, physical, and social decline specifically of major cities. But in the 1990s it became apparent that some suburbs — typically older ones adjacent to or near major Midwest cities — were showing similar signs of distress, and that the same "dynamics" that had been undermining central cities for decades were now undermining suburbs. In response, a number of Midwest "first suburbs" coalitions formed to combat this decline, including the Ohio First Suburbs Consortium, which focuses on the Cleveland area.

Thomas Bier, who serves on the advisory board of that consortium, discussed how the new suburban decline creates an opportunity for advances in public policies that affect development, population movement, and tax bases in our cities and suburbs.

Click on a link below to check out the PowerPoint presentation. Download it either as the original PowerPoint or as a PDF.

PowerPoint presentation (ppt)

PDF of PowerPoint presentation (pdf)

About the Speaker

Thomas Bier is executive-in-residence at the Center for Housing Research and Policy, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University. He served as the Center's director from 1982 to 2003. Prior to that he was a senior planner for the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, the metropolitan planning organization for the Cleveland area.

His research work has focused on regional housing dynamics, population movement, and the effects of government policies on cities. He has a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University.