Small–City Dualism in the Metro Hinterland: The Racialized “Brooklynization” of New York's Hudson Valley

Abstract

How does the metropolis influence population change and amenity development in small cities of the adjacent hinterland? We examine one scenario in five cities of New York state's Hudson Valley, a region north of metropolitan New York City that reveals dual trajectories of urban change. In some cities, immigrant revitalization brings population growth, revitalizes main street economies, and extends cities’ majority–minority legacies. In other cities, amenity development attracts metropolitan newcomers, triggers residential and retail gentrification, sustains majority–white demographics, and fails to offset out–migration associated with rustbelt decline. These dual trajectories are connected through a metropolitan process of “Brooklynization”: sociospatial changes in hinterland regions set in motion by racialized amenity pursuits. Culturally, metropolitan outsiders encounter small cities through ‘rural’ frameworks that emphasize outdoor/agricultural amenities, small–town ‘authenticity,’ and the implicit whiteness of the hinterland landscape. Economically, immigrant revitalization and amenity development are connected via linked migration that channels an immigrant proletariat to some cities and the amenity migrants they labor for to other cities and towns.