1. THE SUBURBS Patterns And Challenges Every day I’m Hustlin’

2. URBAN EXPANSION ANNEXATION Until recently, US cities grew by adding land to their peripheries. ANNEXATION is the process of legally adding land area to a city. Annexation was attractive to residents of peripheral areas because joining the city provided access to services (water, sewer, trash, paved streets, public transportation, police and firemen). DEFINING URBAN SETTLEMENTS Today, few cities annex peripheral land because the residents their prefer to organize their own services (rather than pay city taxes for them), and to legally independent suburbs. A CITY is an urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit. A CENTRAL CITY is a city surrounded by suburbs, and the central city plus its suburbs (with pop density > 1000 per sq. mile) is called an URBANIZED AREA. Population has been declining in many US cities as residents move to the surrounding suburbs. But 70% of US pop lives in urbanized areas (30% in central cities and 40% in surrounding suburbs). The area of a city’s influence extends far beyond its boundaries and immediate suburbs. Many people commute from surrounding towns to work/shop in the city/suburbs (or watch its TV stations/read its newspapers). The functional region at which a given city is the center is called a METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREA (MSA) (urbanized area with pop 50,000+, and county that includes the city, and adjacent counties with high pop density and large % of people working in central city’s county). In 2009, the US Census Bureau designated 366 US MSA’s that held 83% of the US population. The Census Bureau also designated 574 MICROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREAS (μSA) (urbanized area with pop 10,000-50,000, and county including the central city, and adjacent counties tied to the functional region).

3. LOCAL GOVERNMENT FRAGMENTATION Since each urban settlement that is incorporated (at any size) has it’s own local government, it can be difficult to solve regional problems (traffic, waste disposal, affordable housing, etc). For example, in NYC area alone, there are over 1,400 local governments, and over 20,000 in the US as a whole. Trouble can multiply especially where the government boundaries border each other. Many would like to form metropolitan governments to coordinate or replace local governments, and many US MSAs already have a COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT (a cooperative agency of representatives from various local governments in the region). Some US regions have established strong Metro-wide governments that come in one of two kinds. CONSOLIDATE CITY AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT Indianapolis has done this so that the city expands its official border to match the county and there is one, single government body. FEDERATIONS Toronto and may Canadian cities do this. The various municipalities in a larger metro region come together to form a single metro government.

4. MEGALOPOLIS A MEGALOPOLIS is a continuously urbanized area formed from overlapping and contiguous MSAs. While individual cities within Megalopoli are distinct, the peripheries overlap. BosNyWash (at left) is the megalopolis formed from Boston through NYC to Washington. Chicago-Milwaukee-Pittsburgh form another. Tokaido is Tokyo and Yokohama. Randstad is Amsterdam, Hague and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The German Ruhr is Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Essen. Los Angeles-San Diego- Tijuana.

5. THE PERIPHERAL MODEL Chauncey Harris (who also created the multiple nuclei model) states that North American urban areas follow what he calls the PERIPHERAL MODEL. 1. Urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential/business area that is tied together by a beltway/ring road. 2. Surrounding the beltway are nodes of consumer/business services called EDGE CITIES. Edge cities were originally suburban residences for people working in the central city, then services (shopping malls) moved to be close to them. Now, edge cities also contain manufacturing centers and office parks to take advantage of cheaper land and better access to transportation hubs. Edge cities often specialize (see diagram above). Edge cities contribute to SPRAWL (the progressive spread of development over the landscape).

6. DENSITY GRADIENT As you travel outward from the center of a city, the population density changes. Generally, the density is greater towards the center of the city (more people living in highrises, condominiums and apartment complexes) and lesser in outer bands (more single-family homes with yards). DENSITY GRADIENT is the change in population density over space in an urban area, where the number of houses per unit of land diminishes as distance from the center of the city increases. CHANGES IN THE DENSITY GRADIENT 1. FEWER PEOPLE LIVING IN THE CENTER (now there is a gap in the city center with very low population density). 2. MORE EVEN DESNITY WITHIN URBAN AREA (population is declining in central and density is increasing in periphery areas as residents move to suburbs). Cleveland, OH

7. SUBURBAN SPRAWL SPRAWL is the progressive spread of development over landscape. Many families wants large tracts of land, and developers often choose sites that are cheap and easily prepared for construction. These sites are often NOT CONTIGUOUS to other developed land. Peripheries of US cities, therefore, are patchworks of developed and undeveloped land. NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SPRAWL --High cost of extending roads/utilities to isolated suburban developments --Land waste as suburbs consume prime agricultural land --Increased difficulty to access wilderness recreation --decreased accessibility of local dairy and vegetable supply --Increased pollution and energy waste through longer auto commute EUROPEAN SUBURBAN GROWTH European cities limit land available for development and designate mandatory GREENBELTS (rings of open, undeveloped space). New housing is built in existing suburbs or in planned extensions of towns beyond the greenbelt. Housing prices tend to be higher in many European cities as a result. Many US cities are now trying to protect rural land for agriculture, recreation and wildlife by producing a pattern of compact, contiguous development. SMART GROWTH is a system of legislation and regulations to limit urban sprawl and protect farmland. (Article and video on smart growth in El Paso)Article (OR, TN, NJ, RI, and WA were all pioneers in smart growth) NEW URBANISM promotes the creation /restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities (website)website Contains housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities within walking distance of each other coupled with increased use of trains and light rail, instead of more highways and roads.

8. SUBURBAN SEGREGATION The population in suburbs is growing much faster than that in inner city neighborhoods. Suburbs offer detached dwellings, private yards, off- street parking and home ownership. In the US, suburbs tend to have lower crime rates and better schooling. SEGREGATION BY SOCIAL CLASS SEGREGATION BY LAND USE US suburbs, however, are also segregated in two primary ways. Suburban housing is usually built for people of a single social class. Due to the high cost of suburban homes, the poor are concentrated in urban areas. Before the 20 th century, classes and activities were separated vertically (the poor were in basements and top floors). With sprawl, segregation became horizontal. ZONING ORDINANCES also separated single family homes, apartments, industry and commerce. In the US today, wealth is concentrated in suburbs and gentrified urban neighborhoods with poverty in inner suburbs adjacent to the central city. NY TIMES WEBSITE EVERY CITY, EVERY BLOCK Businesses have moved to peripheral locations in the suburbs to follow upper and middle class consumers who moved there and because land costs are cheaper. Prior to WWII, urban residents bought food at small, local stores and shopped for other goods in the CBD. Now, due to the low density of suburbs and stipulations of zoning ordinances, retailing concentrates in suburban shopping malls. Malls require a large footprint and often locate near major road junctions. Malls tend to have a few, large, key ANCHOR STORES and smaller stores locate near them. RETAIL OFFICES Factories, warehouses have migrated to suburbia for more space, cheaper land (for single-story facilities) and better access to road junctions for trucks. Offices that do not require face-to-face contact with consumers have located to suburban sites for lower rent. Suburban sites are more convenient for executives but pose hardship for less wealthy employees.

9. TRANSPORTATION AND SUBURBANIZATION Human travel is not aimless: it has a precise origin, destination and purpose. More than 50% of trips are for work (commuting, business travel and delivery), shopping accounts for 25% and personal travel accounts for 25%. Historically, suburban growth was constrained by poor transportation. Suburbs then grew with phases of technological improvement in transportation. PHASE I: CONGESTED CENTRAL CITIES PHASE II: INVENTION OF RAILROADS (19 TH CENTURY) PHASE III: INVENTION OF THE AUTOMOBILE (20 th CENTURY) PHASE IV: CONSTRUCTION OF INTERSTATE SYSTEM (1956) Most travel was by foot (or animal). People lived vertically in crowded urban settings. Many cities built street level railroads (streetcars), subways. Suburban expansion along narrow ribbons along the rail lines. Houses built further from cities, roads fill gaps between rail lines. Cities construct arterial highways for direct commuter access to CBD Major highways connect 209 out of the then 237 MSAs. Highways and beltways allowed for greater expansion of suburbs. 95% of trips in US cities are by car. The US Gov paid for 90% of the cost of the interstate system. The US interstate system covers 46,000 miles. The US Gov subsidizes the price of gasoline. Roads and parking lots comprise 25% of urban land area.

10. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION Fewer than 5% of trips in the US are made by bus or rail (public transportation). The increased number of people commuting to central cities from suburbs puts an increased strain on road systems. 40% of all US trips into and out of the CBD occur during two morning hours and two evening hours. ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC TRANSIT --Travelers take up less space. --Travel is cheaper, less polluting and more energy efficient. --One bus can move 30 people in same space as one car. --Rapid Transit can move same amount as 16 lanes of freeway --Cars are expensive and cause increased delay, construction, road maintenance and pollution. PUBLIC TRANSIT IN US Some cities have well-developed and well-used public transit systems (NYC, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia). In Most cities, public transit is minimal or non-existent. --Public transit has decreased by 57% since 1940. --Trolley lines have decreased from 30,000 miles of track to a few hundred. --Bus ridership has decreased 50%. Rapid Transit (heavy rail/subways and light rail/streetcars) has been experiencing something of an upswing (Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, San Fran Washington, SLC, NYC, LA, St. Louis, Portland, Sacramento, etc.) Without developed public transit lines, low income workers have difficulty reaching increasingly suburbanized workspaces PUBLIC TRANSIT IN EUROPE --Many European (and world) cities have extensive bus, subway and tram lines. --Govs subsidize public transport and DO NOT subsidize gasoline.