Do U.S. Cities Follow the Urban Life Cycle? A 200-Year Analysis
The urban life cycle (ULC) theory suggests that metropolitan areas evolve through four distinct stages: urbanization, suburbanization, de-urbanization, and re-urbanization. Recent research analyzing the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas from 1790 to 2020 reveals that while these cities followed a path from urbanization to persistent suburbanization, they frequently bypassed the final stages of the … Read more