Urban Patterns Ch. 13

Why Services Cluster Downtown

CBD Land Uses  The central business district takes up <1% of urban land area but contains a large percentage of services offered in the city  Includes public services, business services, and retail services

Competition for Land in the CBD  High demand for the limited space in the CBD has encouraged vertical development  Underground CBD  Skyscrapers

Distribution of People in Urban Areas

Models of Urban Structure: Concentric Zone Model by Burgess  Concentric Zone Model was the first to explain the distribution of different social groups within urban areas  Model suggests that a city grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings  These rings surround the CBD

Models of Urban Structure: Sector Model by Hoyt  The Sector Model suggests a city develops in a series of sectors, not rings.  As a city grows, activities expand outward in a wedge, or sector, from the center.

Models of Urban Structure: Multiple Nuclei Model by Harris and Ullman  The Multiple Nuclei Model suggests a city is a complex structure that includes more than one center around which activities revolve.  Ex: ports, universities, parks, airports

Geographic Applications of the Models  Models explain where people with different social characteristics tend to live and why.  Some models may seem too simple or dated to explain contemporary urban patterns.  Combining the models help geographers explain where different types of people live in a city.

Geographic Applications of the Models  Examples:  Concentric Zone Model  Families in newer houses tend to live in an outer ring, and families in older houses tend to live in an inner ring  Sector Model  The family with the higher income will not live in the same sector as the family with a lower income  Nuclei Model  People with the same ethnic background are likely to live near each other

Applying the Models in Europe  Sectors  In Europe, the wealthy still live in the inner portions of the upper-class sector (not the suburbs)  Concentric Zones  In Europe, most of the new housing built in the suburbs is high-rise apt buildings for low-income people and recent immigrants

Applying the Models in Developing Countries  The poor are accommodated in suburbs.  The wealthy live near the center of the city, as well as in a sector extending from the center.

Stages of Cities in Developing Countries: Precolonial Cities  Before the Europeans established colonies, most people lived in rural settlements  There were only a few principal cities in Latin America, Asia and Africa  Ex: Tenochtitlan, Mexico (present-day now Mexico City)

Stages of Cities in Developing Countries: Colonial Cities  European colonizers expanded existing cities to provide colonial services  Since independence, cities have become the focal points of change, often attracting millions of migrants in search of work.

The South American City  SA cities blend traditional elements of SA culture with globalization forces that are reshaping the urban scene, combining radial sectors and concentric zones  The thriving CBD anchors the model  Shantytowns are unplanned groups of crude dwellings that develop around cities

The African City  Europeans laid out prominent urban centers during colonialism  Their imprint is still visible in African cities, and South Africa’s major cities are essentially Western  The African city usually has three CBDs: a remnant of the colonial CBD, an informal or periodic market zone, and a transitional business center where commerce is conducted

Expansion of Urban Areas

The Peripheral Model  According to the peripheral model, an urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road.  Around the beltway are nodes of consumer and business services called edge cities.

Defining Urban Settlements  Cities have been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit.  An urban area consists of a dense core of census tracts, densely settled suburbs, and low-density land that links the dense suburbs with the core.  Includes urbanized areas and urbanized clusters

Defining Urban Settlements  The metropolitan statistical area measures the functional area of a city, including:  An urbanized area w/a population of at least 50,000  The county  Adjacent counties with a high population and residents working in the central city’s county

Urban Sprawl  Urban sprawl is the unrestricted growth of housing, commercial developments, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning  To counter this, urban planners have outlined a design vision called new urbanism, which includes development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing and jobs

Suburban Sprawl and Segregation  The flattening of the density gradient for a metropolitan area means that its people and services are spread out over a larger area  US suburbs are characterized by sprawl, the progressive spread of development over the landscape  The modern residential suburb is segregated in two ways:  Social class  Land uses

Urban Transportation: Motor Vehicles  Motor vehicles permitted large-scale development of suburbs at greater distances from the city center  As reducing pollution is a growing concern in urban areas, automakers scramble to bring alternative-fuel vehicles to the market

Urban Transportation: Public Transit  Benefits  Moves more people  Cost effective  Relatively less pollutants  More energy efficient  Limitations  Not offered in most US cities  Most Americans overlook the benefits

Challenges of Urbanization

Changing Urban Physical Geography: The Process of Deterioration  Neighborhoods can easily shift from predominantly middle-class to low- income if more low-income residents move to a city, resulting in the following:  Filtering  Redlining  Public housing

Changing Urban Social Geography: Underclass  Inner-city residents are frequently referred to as underclass and deal with a variety of problems:  Higher unemployment and poverty  Potentially higher crime rates  Deteriorated schools  Lack of affordable housing  They live in a culture of poverty

Urban Economic Challenges  Lower-income inner-city residents require public services but pay little of the taxes needed to fund the services.  As a result, cities with the choice to either reduce services or raise tax revenues