What affects perceptions of neighbourhood change?

Abstract

Residents of Halifax do not perceive economic or social and cultural changes in their neighbourhoods; however, they do perceive those to the built environment.When residents of Halifax perceive changes in their neighbourhoods, they tend to be positive about them.Tabular and regression analysis show that sense of belonging increases positive perceptions of neighbourhood change and older age decreases positive views of change.Common stereotypes portray Atlantic Canadians as resistant to change. Our survey of Halifax residents challenges that view by assessing openness to three broad measures of neighbourhood change. Although most Haligonians do not perceive changes in their neighbourhoods, those who do generally perceive them for the better. Data show that sense of belonging to neighbourhoods and respondent age have a positive effect on perceptions of change. As Halifax neighbourhoods are transforming physically, economically, and socially, few Haligonians see that as problematic.

Changes in Neighbourhoods Near Urban Transformation Areas: Izmir (Turkey) Example

“…Objective variables include physical components such as the condition of housing, trash, graffiti, traffic, parking conditions, proximity to public transportation and social services, amount of green space, vacant lands and architecture, and economic composition such as homeownership, public housing, property values, employment and education (Lu, 1999;Adriaanse, 2007;Nicotera, 2007;Mohit and Nazyddah, 2011;Kaba, 2017). Subjective measures include social composition, household characteristics and social processes including neighbouring, civic participation, and social networks (Lu, 1999;Vera-Toscano and Ateca-Amestoy, 2007;Nicotera, 2007;Mohit and Nazyddah, 2011;Kaba, 2017;Gosse et al, 2016). These attributes affect the satisfaction levels of the residents (Lu, 1999;Vera-Toscano and Ateca-Amestoy, 2007;Permentier et al, 2011) and affect how they perceive their neighbourhoods (Gosse et al, 2016).…”

“…Subjective measures include social composition, household characteristics and social processes including neighbouring, civic participation, and social networks (Lu, 1999;Vera-Toscano and Ateca-Amestoy, 2007;Nicotera, 2007;Mohit and Nazyddah, 2011;Kaba, 2017;Gosse et al, 2016). These attributes affect the satisfaction levels of the residents (Lu, 1999;Vera-Toscano and Ateca-Amestoy, 2007;Permentier et al, 2011) and affect how they perceive their neighbourhoods (Gosse et al, 2016).…”

“…Methods of studies exploring the objective measures include the photoelicitation method (Cannuscio et al, 2009;van Auken et al, 2010) and using "before" and "after" photographs (Coulson et al, 2011;Chow et al, 2014), street-level photographs (Cannuscio et al, 2009;Naik et al, 2017), and photo simulation techniques (Kuo et al, 1998) that enable measuring the physical and visual changes in neighbourhoods, visual temporal image analysis mostly based on remotely sensed data and aerial photos while analysing changes in large scales (Ursu et al, 2016;Amini Parsa and Salehi, 2016). Methods of studies exploring the community perceptions of neighbourhood change and measuring satisfaction include interviews with residents (Kural, 2017;Aitken, 1992), telephone surveys (Gosse et al, 2016), and fieldwork observation (Kural, 2017;Cannuscio et al, 2009). Some studies used analytical processes such as housing survey-based multivariate and statistical analysis (Adriaanse, 2007;Ryan and Hoff, 2010;Mohit and Nazyddah, 2011).…”

Can Rust Belt or Three Cities Explain the Sociospatial Changes in Atlantic Canadian Cities?

“…Although there has been some research on Halifax, a limited amount has been done on other cities in the region (Gosse et al. ; Grant and Kronstal ; Grant et al. ; Grant et al.…”

“…Few studies have examined the social, cultural, demographic, and physical changes impacting the region's urban areas following the crisis of the 1990s. Although there has been some research on Halifax, a limited amount has been done on other cities in the region (Gosse et al 2016;Grant and Kronstal 2013;Grant et al 2008;Grant et al 2019;Prouse et al 2014;Roth and Grant 2015).…”