Status shifts within the city.

An analysis of changing status over a 30-yr period among Community Areas within the City of Chicago shows that, over time, residential areas follow the neighbourhood life cycle. Three dimensions of status are measured, by means of indices of relative status, within the metropolitan context. Techniques of cohort analysis are employed to discriminate among areas constructed at different times. Two kinds of cohorts emerge in the city, prewar and postwar. The latter never attain the upper-middle status previously held by the older places. Hypotheses regarding the effects on status change of age-of-place, age and race composition, and housing are tested in multiple regression analyses. The analyses show the dramatic decline of status among city areas relative to the suburban communities. Residential areas conform to the neighbourhood life cycle; most city areas are in a stage of decline, although a few are rising in status.-from Author