Transportation and housing #2: precariousness and social exclusions in Latin America and the United States

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The rate of urbanization in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased from 41.3% in 1950 to 78% in 2010 and it is expected to reach 80% by 2050. In the United States, the urbanization rate has increased from 64.2% in 1950 to 81.7% in 2010 and it is expected to reach 87% in 2050. Rapid urbanization in Latin America has implied several challenges such as lack of adequate housing and infrastructure with current motorization trends causing environmental issues due to the high demographic trends. Urbanization in the United States has traditionally been associated with the provision of car-oriented infrastructure generating disperse urban structures and development patterns. More recently urban reinvestment in transit infrastructure and U.S. metro centers is further exacerbating spatial patterns of inequality. Even though the differences between Latin America and the US in terms of the urban spatial structure, both regions are facing traffic congestion and air pollution issues with implications in terms of accessibility to housing, jobs and urban services in metropolitan regions.

Transportation and Housing Panel 2 will explore how these issues have resulted in economic, social and spatial segregation patterns in urban metropolitan regions. Cases will examine cities throughout Latin American including Montevideo and in U.S. cities such as New York City and Los Angeles. What social exclusions are emerging as a result of these two different types of urbanization processes? How are processes of gentrification similar or different within each context? How does the urban spatial structure of two different contexts such as Latin America and the US influence access to adequate housing and transit by low income groups, minorities and those who are usually underrepresented? To what extent are these urbanization patterns creating or reinforcing geographic, economic and spatial disparities within urban areas in terms of segregation and precariousness? How are recent trends in transportation investment and affordable housing provision influencing the spatial structure of cities and metropolitan regions? This panel seeks to answer and discuss these questions through comparative studies looking at dynamics in metropolitan regions in the United States and Latin America.

Sub Track

• Cities, Planning, and Social Services

Session Organizer

• Erik Vergel Tovar, University of North Carolina/Chapell Hill PhD student in City/Regional Planning

Chair

• Monica Villalobos, University of Calfornia/Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• Exploring Housing and Energy Hardship among Native Born and Immigrant Low-Income Families - Diana Hernández, Columbia University- Mailman School of Public Health

• Transportation Planning, Equity, and Decision-Making in U.S. Minority Communities - Monica Villalobos, University of Calfornia/Berkeley

• Desigualdades sociales y segregación urbana en Montevideo - Danilo A Veiga, Universidad de la República

Discussant

• Enrique R Silva Santelices, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy