The Tie That Binds: Downtowns, Suburbs, and the Dependence Hypothesis

ABSTRACT:

Urban scholars have been debating the causal arrow of the geographic dependence of cities and suburbs. The arguments center around whether the core city depends on the suburbs for economic vitality, whether the suburbs depend on the central city, or whether a condition of interdependence prevails. This paper presents an alternative argument: The downtown area is dependent on its edge cities and suburbs. The downtown area and suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, were used as a case study.