Chapter 13 Urban

Patterns

Key Issue 1: Why do services cluster

downtown?

3 traditional types of services

clustered in the CBD

- Retailers with a high

threshold, such as

department stores

- Retailers with a high range,

like high end jewelers

- Retailers serving

downtown workers; office

supplies, to shoe repair

In recent years however

many of the high

threshold and high range

businesses have moved to

malls in the suburbs

Business services often put

their offices in the CBD for

accessibility to people in

banking, advertising,

journalism, law, etc.

High costs and a shortage of land has

led to tall skyscrapers, fewer

residents, and little industry in the

CBD’s of America

CBD’s in Europe

- often built around

cathedrals, or palaces

- more low-rise

structures instead of

skyscrapers

- more residents living

downtown

- many have pedestrian

areas where cars are

banned making them

similar to U.S. malls

Key Issue 2: Where are people distributed

within urban areas?

Concentric zone model

Sector model

Multiple nuclei model

Many wealthy Europeans still live in the inner rings of

the upper-class sector while poorer people have been

pushed out to the suburbs

LDC’s:

pre colonial = few big cities, small cities usually built around religious core

colonial cities = central plaza, wider streets, walled houses w/gardens

cities since independence = wealthy in center, millions of poorer on outskirts

Squatter settlements:

( favelas, kampongs, etc.)

In 2003 the UN estimated

about 175 million people

living in squatter

settlements

- generally lack basic

services like water, power,

sewer, schools, etc.

Key Issue 3: Why do inner cities

face distinctive

challenges?

Inner-city physical issues:

- filtering (subdividing houses)

- redlining by banks and lending groups

urban renewal - cities acquire

blighted neighborhoods,

update them with roads,

utilities, etc. and sell them

back to private developers

public housing – low

income residents pay 30%

of income for rent

gentrification – middle-class

people move into deteriorated

inner-city neighborhoods and

renovate the housing (how can this be a bad thing?)

Inner-city social issues

– nearly 1 million

Americans sleep in

doorways, heated street

grates, and in bus and

subway stations

LDC’s are often much

worse – Kolkata, India has

several hundred thousand

people who sleep, bathe,

eat, etc. on sidewalks and

traffic islands

underclass – group in society trapped in an unending cycle of

economic and social problems – suffer from high

unemployment, illiteracy, crime, drugs, gangs, etc.

Culture of poverty: U.S. inner-city neighborhoods

- ¾ of babies born to unwed mothers

- ¾ of children live with only one parent

Inner-city economic issues:

- eroding tax base

(reduce services, raise tax revenues)

- housing crisis and recession

Key Issue 4: Why do suburbs face

distinctive challenges?

urban expansion

- annexation

- city

- central city

- urbanized area

study these – most likely test questions

metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

micropolitan statistical area (µSAs)

look these over briefly – less likely to be test questions

core based statistical areas (CBSAs)

combined statistical areas (CSAs)

primary census statistical areas (PCSAs)

Local government fragmentation

can complicate issues:

- traffic laws

- fines

- etc.

council of government:

a cooperative agency

consisting of representatives

of the various local

governments in the region

peripheral model: an urban area consisting of

an inner city surrounded by large suburban

residential and business areas tied together by a

beltway or ring road

edge cities:

- malls

- industry

- etc.

density gradient – less houses per unit of

land farther from city sprawl – progressive

spread of

development

many cities are using greenbelts and smart growth

plans to control suburban sprawl

Suburban segregation:

- social class (housing costs)

- land uses

(zoning ordinances to separate

residential, commercial,

manufacturing, etc.)

transportation and suburbanization:

more than 95% of all trips within

U.S. cities are made by car,

compared to fewer than 5% by bus

or rail

rush hour is the four

consecutive 15-minute periods

that have the heaviest traffic

do we need more or less public transportation?

All photos: Sean Simons