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soon followed. Ringed by af(luen[ suburbs, the city' was virtually the only place open to Ihe poor wi[hin Ihe metropolitan landscape. Loss of popula[ion and [rade were soon accompanied by the erosion of Ihe ci[y's primary streng[h - indus[ry. Changes in technology and [he emergence o( a world economy weakened [he competitive position of the city's industrial infrastructure and its unionized labor force... Deple[ed of iLS resources, disadvantaged by aged and obsole[e infras[rucmre, s[rapped with an increasingly dependent population, the central city faces an unprecedented c�sis. Researchers report that during the 1980s the differences in income and other social and economic characteristics between suburban and city residents within U.S. metropolitan areas have increased (Cutler and Glaeser 1995; Madden 2000). The average poverty rate increased by over 9 per cent in metropolitan areas and by almost 18 per cent in their central cities. The acceleration in the violent crime rate in central cities is often identified as one of the most powerful statistics. In the 1950's and into the early 1960's the violent crime rate in Central American cities remained at roughly 175 incidents per 100,000 persons. From then on it rose rapidly, peaking at 750 per 100,000 in the early 1990's (The Howell Group 2001). [t is important to keep in mind that not all U.S. cities experienced decline. Among the nation's lazgest urban areas, there are many - on the West Coast, in the Sunbelt, and in the Southeast - that have been booming £nancially and economically for the past 20 years. Las Vegas, Phoenix, Arlington and Austin, Sacramento and San Diego, Raleigh and Charlotte, and Jacksonville, all have rapidly rising incomes, populations, and employment and low poverty and crime rates (Moore and Stansel 1994). The following case study material drawn from the literature highlights the nature and chazac[eristics of decline in selected American cities. 2.2.1. Chicago: Business and Population Decline on the South Side In his book When Work Disappears (1996), Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson refers to Woodlawn, a neighbourhood on the south side of Chicago, as an example of social decline. In the 1950s, Woodlawn had over 800 businesses. In 1996 only about 100 of them were left, mostly represented by tiny catering shops, barbershops, and thrift stores with no more than 1 or 2 employees. The population of the neighbourhood declined from over 80,000 in 1960 to 36,323 in 1980. By 1990, Woodlawn only had 24,473 residents - a decline of almost 70% since 1960 (ibid.). In a black respondenYs survey, conducted by Wilson, residents of inner-city neighbourhoods raised concerns about crime and violence, diminished personal hope, public education, and drug consumption. Only 23% of the survey respondents indicated a preference to remain in their own neighbourhood (ibid.). ' The city in this case refers to the older residential neighbourhoods and to original central business distnct. 3