Urban Vocabulary

There is a major difference in the “built environment” of American and European urban areas.

Many cities have a “symbolic” landscape that reflect’s the city’s history and becomes synonymous with the city.

When people used to think of Houston, they thought of?

The “redlining” of neighborhoods made it difficult for many low income people (particularly minorities) in certain areas to get loans for home improvements, mortgages, and businesses.

The Civil Rights movement in the USA opened the schoolhouse doors of “white” schools to black students.

This also paved the way for blacks to legally move into “white” neighborhoods.

In the 1960’s, the government subsidized the building of low income public housing.

Public housing is much more prevalent in European cities than American cities.

In order to facilitate the desegregation of schools, the federal courts forced many school districts to begin a program of busing white students to black schools and vice versa.

This created a “white flight” from the cities to the new suburbs. New freeways enabled much of this flight.

Many unscrupulous real estate companies made the situation worse. They created a situation called “blockbusting” which increased the number of whites moving out of the city. This was illegal but still done.

The real issue that faced cities with the advent of white flight was a shrinking tax base.

As the middle class abandons the city, a number of negative factors grow….

As homes move further from the core of the city the density gradient changes. This means:

Population density declines toward the suburbs.

Urban Sprawl

Today, many people leave the city for the suburbs and create:

Explain the role “bid rent” plays in urban sprawl.

Sprawl creates a constant pressure for developers to acquire more land to continue to build housing and shopping centers, which require infrastructure.This is most apparent in the Periphery and Multiple Nuclei models of city development.

Outlying suburbs demand more land and services.

Businesses move to the suburbs to make a profit (in areas like the airport) and are not dependent on the CBD.

More commercial centers (malls) to serve the suburban population.

Entertainment centers: Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion.

Many regional cities are attempting to limit sprawl by a number of methods.

Environmentalists are using the courthouse and protest to limit sprawl.

Zoning ordinances can limit the amount of growth in a area.

Taxes can be raised in areas to discourage development (Austin in the 1980’s.)

And in the due course, many people begin to move back into the city in a process called ”Gentrification.”

The land becomes more valuable, driving up the tax rate.

This forces many long time residents out because the can’t pay the taxes.

Who are the people who are moving back into the city and why?

As wealthier people return to the inner cities, they often have “restrictive covenants” passed to force out or keep out “undesirables.”

The process of urban patterns.

1. Urban core homes2. Zones of transition3. Urban core homes deteriorate4. Suburban growth5. Gentrification

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