Polar Donkey just sent me some maps that prove his point (comments re: Fill 'er up) that, with so many employers located along Germantown Parkway, people might gravitate there instead of the urban core.
In this map of total employer establishments by zip code, downtown does have a lot of employers, but so do big chunks of Cordova and East Memphis. (Click to enlarge.)
What I think is interesting about this 1990 commute map is that the highest commute time on the map is 17-18 minutes (in red). Most people in the area had a less than 15 minute commute.
But when you compare that to the 2000 commute map, a commute of 1 to 18 minutes (remember, 17-18 miles was the longest commute in 1990) is the shortest commute. Sure, the longest commute on the 2000 map is 26 minutes (and comparatively, that's not horrible) but the Frayser commute almost doubled, from 12 to 14 minutes to 23 to 24 minutes. And in Whitehaven, you see basically the same thing.
Thanks, Polar Donkey!
3 comments:
I've only started thinking about job and population consolidation in Germantown Pkwy area the past couple of days. So I took a look just now at a map I made of population changes between 2000 and 2007.
http://polardonkey.blogspot.com/search?q=population+declines
In the 1990's there were intense population shifts in specific areas. Over the last 7 years the population shifts aren't as concentrated rather much more widely dispersed. Comparing places that had population increases and commute decreases you get 4 areas-
North side of 40 around Wolfchase
Hickory Hill
Germantown
Cordova
This may really hurt the city's chances at economic development and drawing people back into the city core. As gas energy prices increase people will people cluster closer to their jobs? At what level do energy prices destroy the service industry jobs around Germantown Pkwy? Perhaps most importantly, are vast area of the city going to continue to economically deteriorate until we reach an Escape From New York situation.
I'm really concerned about the negative feedback loops of foreclosure, energy prices, crime, etc speeding up a downward slide. Currently, the home vacancy rate in the city 15% and apartment vacancy rate is a multiple of that. Where are the people?
Thanks for the downer to my day Mary.
Sorry!
The people are home selling on ebay.
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