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Urban decay (also known as urban rot and urban blight) is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. It may feature deindustrialization, depopulation or changing population, restructuring, abandoned buildings, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and a desolate, inhospitable city landscape. Since the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay has been associated with Western cities, especially in North America and parts of Europe. Since then, major structural changes in global economies, transportation, and government policy created the economic and then the social conditions resulting in urban decay.〔''(Urban Sores: On the Interaction Between Segregation, Urban Decay, and Deprived Neighbourhoods )'', by Hans Skifter Andersen. ISBN 0-7546-3305-5. 2003.〕 The effects counter the development of most of Europe and North America; in countries beyond, urban decay is manifested in the peripheral slums at the outskirts of a metropolis, while the city center and the inner city retain high real estate values and sustain a steadily increasing populace. In contrast, North American and British cities often experience population flights to the suburbs and exurb commuter towns; that is, white flight. Another characteristic of urban decay is blight—the visual, psychological, and physical effects of living among empty lots, buildings and condemned houses. Such desolate properties are socially dangerous to the community because they attract criminals and street gangs, contributing to the volume of crime. Urban decay has no single cause; it results from combinations of inter-related socio-economic conditions—including the city's urban planning decisions, tight rent control, the poverty of the local populace, the construction of freeway roads and rail road lines that bypass the area,〔''The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York'', by Robert Caro, p.522. The construction of the Gowanus Parkway, laying a concrete slab on top of lively, bustling Third Avenue, buried the avenue in shadow, and when the parkway was completed, the avenue was cast forever into darkness and gloom, and its bustle and life were forever gone.〕 depopulation by suburbanization of peripheral lands, real estate neighborhood redlining,〔(How East New York Became a Ghetto ) by Walter Thabit. ISBN 0-8147-8267-1. Page 42.〕 and immigration restrictions.〔(Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival ) By Paul S. Grogan, Tony Proscio. ISBN 0-8133-3952-9. Published 2002. pp. 139-145. "The 1965 law brought an end to the lengthy and destructive—at least for cities—period of tightly restricted immigration a spell born of the nationalism and xenophobia of the 1920s", p. 140〕 ==Background== During the Industrial Revolution, from the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century, rural people moved from the country to the cities for employment in manufacturing industry, thus causing the urban population boom. However, subsequent economic change left many cities economically vulnerable. Studies such as the Urban Task Force (DETR 1999), the Urban White Paper (DETR 2000), and a study of Scottish cities (2003) posit that areas suffering industrial decline—high unemployment, poverty, and a decaying physical environment (sometimes including contaminated land and obsolete infrastructure)—prove "highly resistant to improvement".〔Lupton, R. and Power, A. (2004) ''The Growth and Decline of Cities and Regions''. CASE-Brookings Census Brief No.1〕 Changes in means of transport, from the public to the private—specifically, the private motor car—eliminated some of the cities' public transport service advantages, e.g., fixed-route buses and trains. In particular, at the end of World War II, many political decisions favored suburban development and encouraged suburbanization, by drawing city taxes from the cities to build new infrastructure for remote, racially-restricted suburban towns. The manufacturing sector has been a base for the prosperity of major cities. When the industries have relocated outside of cities, some have experienced population loss with associated urban decay, and even riots. Cut backs on police and fire services may result, while lobbying for government funded housing may increase. Increased city taxes encourage residents to move out. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Urban decay」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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