Statement by the Editors

STATEMENT BY THE EDITORS Both Atlanta and the Urban South generally are growing at an unprecedented rate. In the decade of the sixties, the rate of increase of urbanization in the South, as a census region, was the highest in the nation (up 10 percent to 65 percent urban). For most southern states the black population has become more urbanized than the white, and for the first time since 1880 the South experienced a net gain in migration (inmigration over outmigration) during the 1960-70 decade. These figures indicate that a new South is emerging. Yet, as measured by the number of practitioners, the status of urban geography in the southeast is low. In part this is due to the slow urbani­ zation of the South in the past, to the dominance of agrarian values, to the paucity of geographers in the region, and to the cautiousness with which geographers in the South have turned their attention to urban problems. However, urban geography will come of age in the South, as evidenced by the research efforts reflected in this issue of the South­ eastern Geographer. These papers are all current, relevant, and point the way for involvement in urban problem-solving. The first three papers focus on Atlanta. The lead article, which deals with delimiting shopping center trade areas, documents the fan­ tastic growth of retailing in Atlanta, and illustrates the rationale of shopping center behavior patterns in the large city. Dr. Dent identifies trade area regularities for each of 10 major shopping centers in the Atlanta area. The second paper discusses current societal issues from the viewpoint of urban-citizen perception of problem priorities at the local and national levels. A methodology is proposed to examine the issues, and generalizations concerning the Atlantan’s point of view are summarized. The third paper, concerned with the spatial distribution of the incidence of leukemia in Atlanta, examines a problem in medical geography. Although the results are at times contradictory, the study does show that areas of low risk and high risk need to be examined separately and in careful detail. Dr. Dever was fortunate in having ready access to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta for data used in this study. The second set of three papers deals with other urban areas in the South. The first is an exciting study of the greater Charlotte area, or Metrolina. A good case is made for the concept of a “dispersed urban area,” and recognition of the essential “urban” character of a region with low population density but having an unusually high proportion of employment in manufacturing. Such is the case in Metrolina. It is described as being comparable to many SMSA’s of similar population size even though only 2 of its 12 counties are included in the Charlotte SMSA. The second article in this series is concerned with an urban political problem, land fragmentation, and its impact on optimal travel behavior 68 S o u t h e a st e r n G eo g r a ph er patterns. Using Boca Raton as a case example, Dr. Tata introduces a flexible technique to measure land fragmentation which he applies to three school districts. This technique has the advantage of pin-pointing transportation bottlenecks and should be useful in investigations that monitor transportation inefficiencies. Quality of life, a topic of concern in our everyday lives, is the sub­ ject of the next paper. At the intra-urban level, perhaps “spatial injustice” is a more appropriate term to employ in these investigations as the con­ cern is with monitoring social conditions spatially. The study area of the Dickinson-Gray-Smith paper is Gainesville, Florida. The authors’ tech­ nique identifies several impacted areas such as the black ghetto and the “student ghetto,” as well as areas with high levels of well-being in the northern and western suburbs of Gainesville. The third group of papers is regional in scope. The first deals with the emergence of the Republican Party in the South in the 1948-68 era. From a one party region in 1948 the South is shown as emerging, if inconsistently, toward a two party system by 1968. An interesting...