Bodegas or Bagel Shops? Neighborhood Differences in Retail & Household Services

Rachel Meltzer and Jenny Schuetz

No 33, Working Paper from USC Lusk Center for Real Estate

Abstract: Social scientists studying the disadvantages of poor urban neighborhoods have focused on the quality of publicly provided amenities. However, the quantity and quality of local private amenities, such as grocery stores and restaurants, can also have important quality of life implications for neighborhood residents. In the current paper, we develop neighborhood-level metrics of "retail access" and analyze how retail services vary across New York City neighborhoods by income and racial composition. We then examine how retail services change over time, particularly in neighborhoods undergoing rapid economic growth. Results indicate that lower-income and minority neighborhoods have fewer retail establishments, smaller average establishments, a higher proportion of "unhealthy" restaurants, and in certain cases, less diversity across retail sub-sectors. In addition, the rate of retail growth between 1998 and 2007 has been particularly fast in neighborhoods that were initially lower-valued and experienced relatively high housing price appreciation compared to the city overall.

Keywords: retail; low-income neighborhoods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://lusk.usc.edu/sites/default/files/working_papers/wp_2010_1006.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:luk:wpaper:33

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper from USC Lusk Center for Real Estate Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Steins ().