The uneven shrinking city: neighborhood demographic change and creative class planning in Birmingham, Alabama

ABSTRACT

This research examines the uneven spatial-demographic distribution of population loss in one US “shrinking” city, Birmingham, Alabama, and analyzes the city’s planning role in and response to population loss. It examines the connections between Birmingham’s historic racial zoning law and urban renewal practices and the resulting patterns of depopulation and demographic change, and its present-day use of creative class planning – an approach critiqued for perpetuating inequalities – to revitalize neighborhoods and reverse depopulation. Using a novel methodological approach, this research describes the characteristics of Birmingham’s population loss from 1970 to 2010 and examines the city’s planning response to this population loss. Findings demonstrate that the variables associated with depopulation change over time and space. By linking these spatialized demographic trends to the city’s current planning approach, we problematize creative class and residential attractiveness-based planning logics, while highlighting the importance of addressing inequality in the planning of shrinking cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Shrinking cities
• creative class politics
• residential attractiveness
• neighborhood change
• Birmingham
• Alabama

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Daniel Yurcaba for his research assistance, and the editors and anonymous reviewers of Urban Geography for their valuable feedback on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding to support this research was provided by Auburn University’s Intermural Grant Program.