Urban Green Space and Vibrant Communities: Exploring the Linkage in the Portland-Vancouver Area Edward A
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United States Department of Agriculture Urban Green Space and Vibrant Communities: Exploring the Linkage in the Portland-Vancouver Area Edward A. Stone, JunJie Wu, and Ralph Alig Forest Pacific Northwest General Technical Report April Service Research Station PNW-GTR-905 2015 Pacific Northwest Research Station Web site http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw Telephone (503) 808-2592 Publication requests (503) 808-2138 FAX (503) 808-2130 E-mail [email protected] Mailing address Publications Distribution Pacific Northwest Research Station P.O. Box 3890 Portland, OR 97208-3890 Authors Edward A. Stone is a graduate research assistant and JunJie Wu is Emery N. Castle Chair in resource and rural economics, Department of Applied Economics, Oregon State University, 213 Ballard Extension Hall, 2591 SW Campus Way, Cor- vallis, OR 97331. Ralph Alig is a research forester emeritus, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331. This material is based upon work supported by USDA Forest Service Pacific North- west Research Station under Agreement No. 11-JV-11261985-073. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of their home institutions or the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cover: View of Portland’s 5,100-acre Forest Park adjacent to the city’s downtown and industrial core. Abstract Stone, Edward A.; Wu, JunJie; Alig, Ralph. 2015. Urban green space and vibrant communities: exploring the linkage in the Portland-Vancouver area. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-905. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 43 p. This report investigates the interactions between household location decisions and community characteristics, including green space. Household location decisions are a primary driver of land-use change, and collective location decisions affect community characteristics. At the same time, community characteristics affect location decisions. Neighborhoods or communities that have well-managed green space programs are more attractive to residents, a two-way interaction that tends to be self-reinforcing. Communities with high amenities and public services attract high-income residents, enhancing the tax base and the provision of amenities and services. This report surveys the literature investigating these interactions and explores several applicable empirical approaches for the Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, metropolitan area. The emergence of spatially explicit data and software facilitates the investiga- tion of relationships between location choice and community characteristics. Using data from Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, this report details several possible empirical approaches, including instrumental variables, reduced-form estimation, and treatment effects. The primary challenge for the researcher is the endogeneity of community characteristics. Keywords: Amenities, community characteristics, population change, residen- tial location choices, urban green space. Urban Green Space and Vibrant Communities: Exploring the Linkage in the Portland-Vancouver Area Introduction Urban green space The purpose of this report is to survey the most significant developments in theory generates many and analysis that explore interactions between household location decisions and economic and urban green space; and, based on survey results, to explore several empirical environmental benefits. approaches available for analysis of these interactions using data from Portland, It provides amenities Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. and recreational areas, The linkage between urban green space and healthy communities has long been cools urban heat recognized. Urban green space generates many economic and environmental ben- islands, moderates efits. It provides amenities and recreational areas, cools urban heat islands, moder- local climate, reduces ates local climate, reduces energy costs, enhances property values, and increases energy costs, enhances municipal revenue through property tax assessments (e.g., Donovan and Butry 2010, property values, and 2011; USDA FS 2014). It provides place for people to socialize and play, reducing increases municipal stress and benefiting the health of urban dwellers (Ulrich 1993, 1984; USDA FS revenues. 2011). Recent research (Donovan and Butry 2011) suggests that more canopy cover is associated with higher birth weights in Portland, Oregon. Urban green space also provides many environmental benefits and ecosystem services. Urban forests and trees filter air, water and sunlight; provide shelter to animals; and reduce the number of unhealthful ozone days that plague major cities in peak summer months (USDA FS 2014). As urban areas expand, the importance of the benefits that urban green space provides, as well as the challenges to their conservation, will increase (USDA FS 2014). Conserving urban forests and other green space can influence the defining features of the urban landscape, such as the location and density of residential development and the overall size of the city. Because people find it more desirable to live near urban forests and other open space, preserving urban green space can change the relative desirability of different locations in an urban area. A community with a well-managed open space program can attract more high-income households, which may lead to a larger tax base and better public services in the community. Interactions between household location decisions and municipal profiles are two-directional. For example, suburbanization is often associated with income stratification and concentrated poverty, with fiscal and social implications (e.g., Mieszkowski and Mills 1993). It has been linked to congestion and obesity (e.g., Nechyba and Walsh 2004, Plantinga and Bernell 2007). Municipal profiles in turn affect household locational patterns. The expression “flight from blight” refers to falling incomes and deteriorating public safety and services, prompting high- income households to relocate from city centers to suburbs and thus contributing 1 GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-905 to suburbanization and sprawl. Conversely, high-income communities may enact zoning and tax regimes that affect land-use patterns by attracting new residents or restricting the pattern of development. In many cases—and in many economic models (e.g., Wu 2006)—the interac- tion between household location choices and municipal profiles is self-reinforcing. “Flight from blight” further diminishes central city incomes and tax revenues, lead- ing to deteriorating public services and safety and thus more flight. High-income suburbs with better public services attract more high-income households. Other urban-development phenomena may also be self-reinforcing, including gentrifica- tion and urban revitalization. Literature Review Household preferences and collective location decisions determine land use pat- terns and neighborhood characteristics. Two primary bodies of economic literature attempt to explain historical development patterns through the lens of household locational choice. The urban economics literature, in particular the monocentric city model with early incarnations by Alonso (1964), Mills (1967), and Muth (1969), explains changes in urban land use patterns in terms of rising incomes, falling commuting costs, and newer housing on the periphery. In contrast, the local public finance approach explains development patterns in terms of preferences for alterna- tive bundles of local taxes and public goods and services. This body of literature expands on Tiebout’s (1956) household sorting model. Although urban economics models capture the primary drivers of the historical development pattern, they do not account for other factors that influence house- hold locational choice within a metropolitan area, including amenities and public finances (Nechyba and Walsh 2004). Local public finance models include these factors and better explain why many households moving to the suburbs prefer to form homogenous groups, but they are typically aspatial. Below we first review the literature on household location decisions and then focus on the interactions between location decisions and municipal profiles. Household Location Decisions Suburbanization has been a dominant trend in aggregate household location deci- sions and urban spatial development in the modern era. The classic monocentric city model offers important insights into this phenomenon. In this model (Alonso 1964, Mills 1967, Muth 1969), all employment lies within the central business district (CBD), households are differentiated by income, and the key difference between alternative household locations is distance to the CBD. Because housing 2 Urban Green Space and Vibrant Communities: Exploring the Linkage in the Portland-Vancouver Area close to the employment center is relatively expensive, households face a tradeoff between commuting time and housing price. Those who choose to live farther away incur higher commuting costs but face lower housing prices and can thus afford to consume more housing. The primary driver behind suburbanization and modern urban spatial development has been falling commuting cost owing to the prolifera- tion of the automobile and the development of highway systems. Simple CBD models account for this driver and correctly predict expanding urban footprints