Chapter 13- Urban Areas

Key Issue 1- Why do services cluster down town?Key Issue 2: Where are people distributed within urban areas?Key Issue 3- Why Do Inner Cities Face Distinctive Challenges?Key Issue 4- Why Do Suburbs Face Distinctive Challenges?

Cities and Urban

Geography• In 1950 1/3 of the

world lived in a city. • Today 1/2 of us live

in cities and the number is increasing.

Historic City Functions

1. Commercial Centers - Fresno, Venice, New York

2. Industrial Cities - Manchester, Detroit, Los Angeles

3. Primary Resources - Scotia, Minas Gerais, Nevada City

4. Resort Cities - Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, Marseille

5. Government / Religious Centers - Monterey, D.C., Brasilia

6. Education Centers - Palo Alto, Berkeley

U.S. Urban Growth Stages

Ancient World CitiesOldest cities are found in Mesopotamia,

Egypt, China and Indus Valley.Mesopotamia (Jordan/Iraq)

Jericho 10,000 B.C. Ur 3,000 B.C. (Iraq)Walled cities based

on agricultural tradeZiggurat (stepped temple)

Ancient Ur in Iraq

Ancient World CitiesOldest cities are found

in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Indus Valley.

E. MediterraneanAthens 2,500 B.C. 1st city to exceed

100,000 Many cities organized

into City-States

Ancient Athens

Medieval World CitiesAfter collapse of Roman

Empire in 5th Century, Europe’s cities were diminished or abandoned.

European Feudal CitiesBegin in 11th Century Independent cities

formed in exchange for military service to feudal lord.

Improved roads encouraged trade

Dense and compact within defensive walls

Cittadella, Italy

Paris, France

Medieval World Cities

Cittadella, Italy

Cittadella, Italy

Major Cities of the World

Modern World CitiesA high percentage of world’s business is

transacted and political power is concentrated in these cities.Headquarters of large businessesMedia control centersAccess to political power

London, New York, TokyoChicago, Los Angeles, Washington,

Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich, Sao Paulo, and Singapore

Urban Planning

Building Better Cities

How to Make a Great City Famous Planned Cities

Canberra, Australia Brasilia, Brazil Washington, D.C. Irvine, CA Seaside, FL Poundbury, England

Smart Growth Pedestrian Friendly Increase Density Mix Ethnic and Income

Groups

Rank-Size Rule

Rank-Size Rule: n th-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement. In other words, 2nd largest is 1/2 the size of largest. Works best in most developed countries that have full distribution of services.

Primate City RuleLargest settlement in a country has more than

twice the number as the second ranking city. These cities tend to represent the perceived culture of the country.

Largest City Population Second-largest City Population

Paris 9 million Marseille 2 millionLondon 9 million Birmingham 2 million

Key Issue 1- Why do services cluster down town?

• Urbanization- the process by which the population of cities grows – increase in the number of people living in cities – increase in the percentage of people living in the cities

• A large percentage of people living in urban areas is a measure of a country’s development. – In MDC’s approx ¾ of pop live in urban areas, compared to 2/5

for LDC’s. • The increase in service sector jobs pull people to the cities, while the

need for fewer farm workers has pushed them out of the rural areas.

• Although MDC’s generally have a higher percentage of people living in the cities, LDC’s have most of the world’s largest cities. – About half the growth results from people emigrating from the

countryside to the city, even without the prospect of available jobs

• Defining where urban areas end and rural areas begin is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in areas dominated by urban sprawl, like the U.S. – Louis Wirth argued that an urban resident follows a

different way of life from a rural dweller. Wirth socially defined the city as having these three characteristics:

-Large size-High density-Social heterogeneity

• Physically designating a “city” is even more difficult. Various methods are used, sometimes interchangeably, sometimes overlapping.

Largest World Metropolitan Areas

Ten Most Populous Today

Rank City Population

1 Tokyo, Japan 28 million

2 New York City, United States 20.1 million

3 Mexico City, Mexico 18.1 million

4 Mumbai, India (Bombay) 18 million

5 Sao Paulo, Brazil 17.7 million

6 Los Angeles, United States 15.8 million

7 Shanghai, China 14.2 million

8 Lagos, Nigeria 13.5 million

9 Kolkata, India (Calcutta) 12.9 million10 Buenos Aires, Argentina 12.5 million

Largest World CitiesTen Most Populous in A.D. 19751. Tokyo 19.8 million

2. New York 15.9 million

3. Shanghai 11.4 million

4. México 11.2 million

5. São Paulo 9.9 million

6. Osaka 9.8 million

7. Buenos Aires 9.1 million

8. Los Angeles 8.9 million

9. Paris 8.9 million

10. Beijing 8.5 million

Source: U.N., 2001

* Note that five of these cities are in the Core or more developed world.

Largest World CitiesTen Most Populous by A.D.

20151. Tokyo 28.7 million

2. Bombay 27.4 million

3. Lagos 24.4 million

4. Shanghai 23.4 million

5. Jakarta 21.2 million

6. São Paulo 20.8 million

7. Karachi 20.6 million

8. Beijing 19.4 million

9. Dhaka, Bangladesh 19.0 million

10. México 18.8 million

Source: U.N., 2001

* Note that only one of these cities is in the Core of the more developed world!

• City- The area of urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit

-Urbanized area- In the U.S, the central city and the surrounding built-up suburbs.

-Metropolitan Statistical Area- the U.S. Census official method of measuring the functional area of a city. 4 characteristics

-urbanized area with a pop of at least 50,000.-The county within which the city is located.-Adjacent counties w/a high pop density and

large % of residents working in the central city’s county.

-Micropolitan statistical areas- same as MSA only designed for smaller urban areas.

• Sometimes the MSA of cities will overlap resulting in a mega city commonly referred to as a megalopolis, such as the Boswash corridor. (The “continuous” city of Boston, Washington D.C., and New York City)

Megalopolis

Illustrates the difference between strict city proper definitions and broader urban agglomerations.

To define urbanized areas, the U.S. Census Bureau uses the term Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or Consolidated MSA (CMSA) if two of them overlap.

• CBD land uses– Central business districts (CBDs)– Retail services in the CBD

• Retailers with a high threshold• Retailers with a high range• Retailers serving downtown workers

– Business services in the CBD

CBD of Charlotte, NC

Figure 13-1

• Competition for land in the CBD– High land costs

• Some of the most expensive real estate in the world = Tokyo

• Intensive land use– Underground areas

• Skyscrapers – “Vertical geography”

Skyscrapers• Why build up?• Why copy

Western model?

• Activities excluded from the CBD– Lack of industry in the CBD

• Modern factories require large, one-story parcels of land

– Lack of residents in the CBD• Push and pull factors involved

• CBDs outside North America– Less dominated by commercial

considerations.

Key Issue 2: Where are people distributed within urban

areas?• Models of urban structure

– Are used to explain where people live in cities– Three models, all developed in the city of

Chicago• Concentric zone model• Sector model• Multiple nuclei model

• Concentric zone model- created in 1923 by E.W. Burgess, it shows the city as growing outward in concentric rings. Though the ring size may vary betwixt cities, the same order is always evident: CBD; – zone of transition (industry and slums); – working class zone; – middle-class family zone; – commuter zone.

This model displays that wealth is what designs the city, as one moves out from the CBD, the residences in each zone are progressively nicer, and the people are progressively richer.

Concentric Zone Model

Figure 13-4

• Sector model- created in 1939 by Homer Hoyt, it is essentially a modification of the concentric zone model. Rather than rings however, this model uses sectors that lead out from the CBD generally in a radial pattern, with transportation and industry sector running alongside the CBD. As in the concentric zone model, wealth increases as one moves out from the CBD.

• This model is especially helpful in showing the clustering of ethnicities along certain sectors.

Sector Model

Figure 13-5

• Multiple nuclei model- created in 1945 by C.D. Harris and E.L. Ullman, it says that the pattern of urban development is that there is no pattern and a city is a complex structure that includes more than one center around which activities revolve.

Multiple Nuclei Model

Figure 13-6

• No model is truly better than another Normally one can argue any of the three to fit any city.

• The three models are used primarily to help in the understanding of where people with different social characteristics tend to live within an urban area.

• Geographic application of the models– Models can be used to show where

different social groups live in the cities• Census tracts• Social area analysis

– Criticism of the models• Models may be too simple• Models may be outdated

Changes in Cities in the U.S. U.S. population has been moving out of the city centers

to the suburbs: suburbanization and counterurbanization

U.S. intraregional migration during 1990s.

Developed Countries: suburbanization wealthy move to suburbs automobiles and roads; ‘American Dream’ better services wealthy move to suburbsCounterurbanization (exurbanization)idyllic settingscost of land for retirementslow pace, yet high tech connections to services and markets

• Census tract- urban areas that contain approx 5,000 residents and try to correspond to neighborhood boundaries.

• European and less developed cities typically follow the same models, only the direction of increasing wealth is reversed. – The rich cluster downtown and the poor are

banished to the outskirts. – Many LDC cities show this trend because they

were founded by European colonists who simply imposed their urban planning upon whatever city they chose.

Intraregional Migrations in LDCs

Populations in the less developed world are rushing to cities in search of work and income.

Urbanization migration from rural areas lack of jobs in countryside lack of services in cities Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York only MDC cities on top 10 list

Rank City Population1 Tokyo, Japan 28 million2 New York City, United States 20.1 million3 Mexico City, Mexico 18.1 million4 Mumbai, India (Bombay) 18 million5 Sao Paulo, Brazil 17.7 million6 Los Angeles, United States 15.8 million7 Shanghai, China 14.2 million8 Lagos, Nigeria 13.5 million9 Kolkata, India (Calcutta) 12.9 million

10 Buenos Aires, Argentina 12.5 million

Lagos, Nigeria Mumbai, India Mexico City, Mexico

Changes in Cities in LDCs Populations of cities in the less developed world have

been surging: urbanization, migration, natural increase

Urbanization in LDCs: driven by changes in global economy that make farming more challenging the poor live in the suburbs, rich live in CBD cities struggle to provide jobs and housing services overtaxed squatter settlements common crime on the rise

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Europe versus U.S. Cities: Sprawl

European cities, including this hypothetical U.K. example, tend to restrict suburban development, thereby concentrating new development in and around existing concentrations. This leaves large rings of open space, so-called greenbelts.

What are the social costs of sprawl?

• Squatter settlements- the outskirts of many LDC cities where the poor are clustered. These settlements often lack running water, schools, electricity, mass transit, or any other service that one would expect in a city.

Income Distribution in the Paris Region

Figure 13-10

Model of a Latin American City

Figure 13-14

Toulouse, France

Ferrara, Italy

Sogne, Norway

Venice, Italy

Somewhere in France

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Florence, Italy

Copenhagen, Denmark

European Cities: result of very long histories

Complex street patterns - prior to automobile, weird angles Plazas and Squares - from Greek, Roman, Medieval High density and compact form - wall around city or low-

growth zoning Low skylines - many built before elevators, others required

cathedral or monument to be highest structure Lively downtowns - center of social life, not just office work Neighborhood stability - Europeans moved less frequently

than we do. Scars of War - many wars , many cities originally defensive Symbolism - gothic cathedrals, palaces, and castles Municipal Socialism - many residents live in buildings that

are owned by city gov’t. Some of these are massive housing projects, others small scale apartment buildings.

Key Issue 3- Why Do Inner Cities Face

Distinctive Challenges?• Inner-city physical issues

– Most significant = deteriorating housing– 5

Issues

• Filtering- the process of subdividing homes by successive waves of increasingly lower-income people.

• Redlining- the practice of some banks of drawing lines on a map to identify areas in which they will refuse to loan money.

– Urban renewal- the process in which cities identify blighted inner-city neighborhoods, acquire the property from private owner, “relocate” the residents, clear the site, build new infrastructure, and develop it into a new business district or park area; effectively developing it so well that the property value is too high for the original tenants to stay, and they must move to another area.

– Public housing- government supported housing in which the low-income tenants must pay ~30% of their income for rent with the government covering the other costs not paid for by rent. Accounts for 2% of all dwellings in the U.S; the numbers differ in Europe.

– Renovated housing• Gentrification- the process by which middle-class people move into

deteriorated inner-city neighborhoods and renovate the housing. These people are often attracted by the cheap housing, proximity to CBD, and availability of city amenities. This process also results in the raising of property values beyond the range of many of the low-income residents who are required to move out.

Racial Change in Chicago

Figure 13-16

• Inner-city social issues– Underclass- common term referring

to inner-city residents because they are trapped in an unending cycle of economic and social problems.• Homelessness

– Culture of poverty

• Inner-city economic issues– Eroding tax base

• Cities can either reduce services or raise taxes

– Impact of the recession• Housing market collapse

Foreclosures in Baltimore

Figure 13-18

• Many low-income inner-city residents lack job skills because they never completed high school, and few low-skilled jobs remain downtown, most having moved out to their customers in the suburbs.

• 3 million Americans are homeless, most roaming through the cities. Because some inner-city residents are unable to escape the cycle of poverty, they turn to crime, drugs, and/or other illegal behavior to make ends meet.

• The concentration of low-income residents in the inner-city, with most of the middle and upper classes in the suburbs, has left city governments with extreme financial problems.

• Without a strong tax base, many governments are unable to fund schools or other social programs that would help end the underclass cycle, thus the problem continues.

• Cities are less able to annex compared to the past. Suburbanites wish to have their own services and have jurisdictions independent of the city. – Suburbs wish to remain close to the city to enjoy its

amenities, but not become part of it and have to join in its problems.

Key Issue 4- Why Do Suburbs Face

Distinctive Challenges?• Urban expansion

– Annexation- the process of legally adding land area to a city.

– Defining urban settlements • The city• Urbanized areas• Metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs)

– Metropolitan divisions– Micropolitan statistical areas

Annexation in Chicago

Figure 13-19

City, Urbanized Area, and MSA of St. Louis

Figure 13-20

• Urban expansion– Local government fragmentation

• Council of government• Consolidations of city and county

governments• Federations

– Overlapping metropolitan areas

• Peripheral model- developed by C.D. Harris, it suggests that an urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road. Peripheral areas lack the problems of many inner-cities, but often result in a large amount of inefficient urban sprawl. – Edge cities- areas that develop along the ring road that are

nodes of consumer and business services.– Density gradient- the density change as one leaves the inner

city. Typically drops from extremely high in the CBD, to low in the rural surroundings. However, in recent years, fewer people are living in the center thus creating a “hole” in the density gradient with the highest pop density surrounding this hole. Also, as suburbs “fill in”, the density differences are softened as one moves in a given direction.

– Sprawl- the progressive spread of development over the landscape.

Density Gradient

Figure 13-23

Suburban Stress

Figure 13-25

• Suburban segregationRacial and Economic Segregation

schools taxes democracy

School Segregation

• Transportation and suburbanization– Motor vehicles

• More than 95 percent of all trips = made by car

– Public transit• Advantages of public transit

– Transit travelers take up less space– Cheaper, less pollutant, and more energy efficient than an

automobile– Suited to rapidly transport large number of people to small area

• Public transit in the United States– Used primarily for rush-hour community for workers into and out of

CBD– Small cities-minimal use– Most Americans prefer to commute by automobile

Subway and Tram Lines in Brussels, Belgium

Figure 13-28

• Greenbelt- rings of open space found within European cities.

• Zoning ordinances- laws developed in Europe and N. America in the early 20th century that encourage spatial separation by congregating people of similar background and economic state.

• Council of government- a cooperative agency consisting of representatives of the various local governments in the region.

• Smart growth- legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.

• Rubenstein, James- Cultural Landscape; An Introduction to Human Geography

• http://www.glendale.edu/geo/reed/cultural/cultural_lectures.htm

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