Neighbourhood change in Genesee and Kent Counties, Michigan, 1970–2019

Abstract

Michigan was an industrial powerhouse until the onset of deindustrialization in 1970. This paper compares socio‐economic and demographic changes at the neighbourhood level between 1970 and 2019 in two medium‐sized cities/counties in Michigan (Flint/Genesee County and Grand Rapids/Kent County) that underwent deindustrialization. Only 35% of neighbourhoods in the two counties were of the same class in 2019 as in 1970. Middle‐class neighbourhoods declined while poor and upper‐middle class neighbourhoods increased. The contemporary spatial structure of neighbourhoods in these two counties is a mixture of classic concentric ring/sectoral models interspersed with socio‐economic downgrading inner‐ring suburbs identified within other US cities since the 1990s.