Restructuring the Philadelphia Region: Metropolitan Divisions and Inequality (review)

Restructuring the Philadelphia Region takes a fresh look at a social landscape that is no longer easily broken down into city vs. suburbs, or even older suburbs vs. newer suburbs. Examining opportunity structures in employment, housing and education, Adams and her co-authors argue that traditional categories do not work. Instead they suggest five community types: Urban Centers, Stable Working Communities, Established Towns, Middle-Class Suburbs and Affluent Suburbs.

The authors use a variety of theoretical frames and data sources to provide a comprehensive new look at a predominantly older urban region. In updating Philadelphia: Neighborhoods, Divisions, and Conflict in a Postindustrial City, a 1991 book written by many of the same co-authors, Adams et al. continue to focus on how development patterns, private investment and government policies produce the "inequalities of life chances." However, in this book they expand the focus to the entire Philadelphia metropolitan area. Adams et al. effectively recognize and draw from urban research orientations as diverse as "uneven development," the "LA School's poly-centered model" of regionalism, and New Urbanism, in explaining the realities of 21st century Philadelphia.

The chapter on housing opportunity was particularly valuable not only in understanding the Philadelphia region, but in guiding anyone interested in the challenges facing most American cities. Although written before the national housing market meltdown of 2008, the authors' documentation of the inequities in the housing market as well as the increasingly risky investments being made by developers, banks and middle-class homeowners speaks to the perspicacity of the book. Perhaps it underscores that fact that policy makers and regulators should be paying much more attention to the on-the-ground research than to the promise of a perpetual cornucopia of rising housing values as the way the middle class can expand its wealth and the lower class can pull itself out of poverty through home ownership. The authors document how mortgage discrimination and over reliance on sub-prime loans in lower-income communities negatively affect community economic and social health.

In the next chapter on educational opportunity, the authors do an excellent job in, first, pointing out how educational attainment is central to the health of the region, and second, analyzing how educational theory and innovation meets practice in schools throughout the Philadelphia region. For example, they document how the overall educational attainment of a community is a better predictor of school performance than income. At the same time, they document the continuing racial gap in education, with black students consistently performing more poorly; this was apparent even after researchers control for district differences in property taxes, per student expenditures and other factors. The analysis of impact of school choice, charter schools and private schools (the Philadelphia region has a particularly high percentage of students attending private schools) is especially informative.

The analysis of the "value proposition," or the extent to which households are rational in their decisions to move to or stay in particular communities, is also provocative. There appears to be a disconnect between what prospective movers say they are looking for in new community and the type of community into which they ultimately move. Although "good schools" are high on many home shoppers' wish list, analysis of actual moves shows those same buyers do not necessarily move to communities with higher average SAT scores or school expenditures per student. Although part of this may be a product of limited detailed knowledge, Adams et al. make a strong case that household moves are most heavily "influenced by expectations regarding a return on one's investment."(165)

A concluding chapter focuses on "Who Takes Responsibility for Addressing Inequality?" Here the authors' focus on the "Third Sector," including business improvement districts, neighborhood development organizations, community development financial institutions, foundations and quasi-public corporations. While helpful in understanding some of the policy actors in Philadelphia, the reader gets the feeling that...