"The New Donut" (Atlanta: 2014, university, suburbs)

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Study Shows ATL's 'Donut Hole' is More Educated, Affluent - Demographic Analysis - Curbed Atlanta

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A funny thing is happening in many US cities « Stat Chat

Experts have singled out Atlanta as being emblematic of The New Donut concept that's sweeping America's metropolitan areas. The Old Donut, the theory goes, applied to U.S. cities of yesteryear where a ring of thriving suburbs surrounded an impoverished city center. Now things are little more complicated. With donuts like Atlanta's, an Urbanophile article suggests, downtown is becoming that delicious cherry center, encircled by a stale "inner suburbs + urban core" crust, with a freshly glazed ring of "Collar Counties" (i.e., exurbs) beyond that. Researchers at the University of Virginia have taken the concept and examined it with demographic data from a few of the country's largest and fastest-growing metro areas, including Atlanta, Denver and Houston. The New Donut model, researchers found, is flawed in that it's far too simplified, of course, but it manages to say "something important about the trend in most major U.S. metro areas today."