Chapter 13.1: Where Have Urban Areas Grown?

• In 1800, only 3 percent of the Earth’s population lived in cities and only one city in the world had 1 million (Beijing).

• Today there are over 400 cities with more than 1million people.

Urbanization• Urbanization has two factors• Increasing percentage of people in cities

– Remember that 3 percent? In 2000, 47% of world population lived in cities

– MDCs have a higher percentage of people living in urban areas (3/4 MDC vs. 2/5 LDC)

– This change is taking place because the IR created factory jobs in cities

– Improvements in farming also reduced rural population– This process has ended in MDCs as the percentage living in urban

areas cannot really increase any more (people now choose to stay in rural areas)

• Increasing number of people in cities– MDCs might have a higher percentage,

but LDCs actually have more of the extremely large urban settlements (Delhi, Mexico City, Seoul)

– These high populations are a result of high NIRs and people migrating for jobs that are not available

– So this is NOT a measure of development

Defining Urban Settlements• People cannot always agree on what areas are urban and

which are rural• Geographers use social and physical factors to determine if

it is an urban area• Social differences- way of life in city is different that rural

– Large size: Small town vs. huge city where you know only a very small percent of residents, usually through your business dealings (cashiers, boss, lawyer, etc.)

– High density: Each person plays a specific role (specialization), social groups also compete for territory

– Social heterogeneity: Large cities have much more diversity and end to be more accepting of different social behaviors.

• Physical definitions- cities used to be surrounded by walls, now it is more difficult to measure– Legal definition: Local governments

draw boundaries defining the extent of a city

– Urbanized area: Urban areas consist of the central city and surrounding built up suburbs where population exceeds 1000 people per square mile

– Metropolitan statistical area: Includes a cities zone of influence (TV stations, sports teams, etc.) Includes the following:• County where the city is located• Urbanized area with 50,000 plus• Adjacent counties with high

population densities and large percentage of citizens working in the central cities county

Large Cities

Fig. 13-2: Cities with 2 million or more people. Most of the largest cities are now in LDCs.

Percent Urban by Region

Fig. 13-2b: Although under half of the people in most less developed regions are urban, Latin America and the Middle East have urban percentages comparable to MDCs.

Chapter 13.2: Where Are People Distributed Within Urban Areas?

• People are not randomly distributed within an urban area. – They concentrate in certain neighborhoods

depending on their social characteristics.

Three Models of Urban Structure• Each helps to explain where different types of

people tend to live in an urban area– Concentric Zone Model

• Says a city grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings

• Width and size of each ring varies from city to city, but each city has the rings– CBD- nonresidential activities– Zone in Transition- Industry and

poorer housing– Working Class Homes- Modest,

older homes owned by stable working class families

– Better Residences- Newer homes, occupied by middle class

– Commuter Zone- Smaller towns outside the built up area

Concentric Zone Model

Fig. 13-5: In the concentric zone model, a city grows in a series of rings surrounding the CBD.

– Sector Model• Says that a city develops in numerous sectors, not rings• Some areas of the city are more attractive to certain

groups and as a city grows its activities expand in a wedge• Showed the highest social class district stayed in the

same area and expanded outward

Sector Model

Fig. 13-6: In the sector model, a city grows in a series of wedges or corridors extending out from the CBD.

– Multiple Nuclei Model• States that a city is a complex structure that includes

more than one center around which activities revolve• Nodes include ports, business centers, universities, etc.• Each node attracts different groups of people (heavy

industry- working class, university-educated/wealthy)

Multiple Nuclei Model

Fig. 13-7: The multiple nuclei model views a city as a collection of individual centers, around which different people and activities cluster.

Use of the Models Outside North America

• The three models were developed in the US• Social groups in other countries might not have

the same reasons for choosing where to live• European Cities– Wealthy Europeans tend to cluster together in cities

but are more likely to be in the inner ring– As the downtown areas are very small, many wealthy

Europeans purchase rural farms or other areas to “get away”

– Poorer people tend to live on the outskirts of the city

• Less Developed Countries– The poor are usually located in the suburbs just

like European cities– This is not a coincidence, but a result of

European colonialism– The wealthiest neighborhoods are located

where energy, water, and sewage is available– With the rapidly expanding populations of these

cities, squatter settlements pop up– Extremely high density with very few services– Begin with people sleeping in the street, then

building crude shelters with whatever materials are available

– Percentages of people living in these conditions range from 33% in Sao Paulo Brazil to 85% in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Professionals in Glasgow

Fig. 13-11: Top professionals in Glasgow, Scotland, are more likely to live near the center of the city, in contrast to most U.S. cities.

Latin American City Model

Fig. 13-15: In many Latin American cities, the wealthy live in the inner city and in a sector extending along a commercial spine.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Fig. 13-16: High income households in Rio de Janeiro live in the CBD and in a spine along the ocean. Low-income households often live in peripheral areas.

Chapter 13.3: Why Do Inner Cities Have Distinctive Problems?

Physical Problems• The biggest physical problem is the poor condition of inner-city

housing• Process of deterioration

– As low income populations grow, the neighborhoods spread into the middle class

– Middle class families typically move out of these neighborhoods and rent their homes out

– In some cases large homes are slit into multiple residences for rent– Eventually the landlords stop paying for repairs and the buildings

rapidly deteriorate– Sometimes banks decide not to give certain parts of a city loans, this is

called redlining and while illegal it is hard to enforce– Redlining prevents people from getting the money to fix up inner city

homes

Dayton, Ohio, Inner City

Fig. 13-17: Drug-related arrests (left) have been concentrated in the inner-west side of the city. In the 2001 mayoral election, votes for Rhine McLin concentrated in the African-American section of the city.

• Urban Renewal– Cities identify deteriorated

neighborhoods and move out all residents in order to bulldoze the neighborhood and build it back up

– Often times the government replaces this land with government housing, or homes built specifically for low-income families

– An alternative to demolishing is to renovate inner-city neighborhoods

– This renovation often attracts middle class people. • When middle class families move back

into this neighborhood it is known as gentrification

Social Problems

• Inner-city residents are often referred to as a permanent underclass since they are locked in an endless cycle of social and economic problems

• They suffer from high rates of unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, poor education, and crime

• Two social problems– Lack of job skills• Due to poor education, residents are unable to

compete for skilled or technical job• Good learning habits such as doing homework and

attending school tend not to be important• Nearly 3 million Americans are considered homeless in

the course of a year

– Culture of poverty• 90% of children in the inner-city have only one parent.

Because of inadequate child services, single mothers must choose between work and raising their child• Drug use and dealing are a serious problem• Cities are also often segregated by ethnicity, with

Blacks and Hispanics often living in the inner-city while the suburbs are predominantly white

Economic Problems• With a high concentration of poor people, the inner city

often lacks enough tax money to maintain and improve the neighborhoods

• One solution is to reduce services by closing libraries, under funding schools, etc.

• Another solution is to collect more taxes by attracting new businesses

Chapter 13.4: Why Do Suburbs Have Problems?

• In 1950, only 20 percent of Americans lived in suburbs

• In 2000 that percentage has increased to 50%

The Peripheral Model• Says an urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by

large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road

• These areas lack the problems of the inner city but are characterized by urban sprawl and segregation

• Around the beltway are areas of consumer and business services called edge cities.

• Originally residential areas, they grow with the addition malls, office parks, light manufacturing and even specific nodes such as theme parks and warehouses

Peripheral Model of Urban Areas

Fig. 13-19: The central city is surrounded by a ring road, around which are suburban areas and edge cities, shopping malls, office parks, industrial areas, and service complexes.

• As you travel out of a city, the density of residents declines… this change is called a density gradient– Two recent changes to density gradient include a decline in the

number of people living in the center– And an increase in the density of the outer parts of the city… leading to

a reduction in the gradient• Suburbs are also characterized by sprawl which is the progressive spread

of development over the landscape– It is created by the desire for many families to own large areas of land– It tends to waste land and limits the ability of city dwellers to get to the

country for recreation. It also wastes energy with increased use of automobiles

• The other major problem is suburban segregation: 2 ways– Residences are separated from commercial and manufacturing

activities– Homes are also separated by social classes as suburban homes exclude

low income residents

Contribution of Transportation• Urban sprawl makes people much more dependent on transportation to

meet their basic needs• Cars

– The explosion of suburban growth is directly related to the growth of automobiles

– This has allowed the growth of sprawl as people are able to travel greater distances

– 95 percent of all trips in the US are made by car– This has also led to extensive land use devoted to highways and

roads… the average city has one fourth of its land area devoted to roadways

• Public Transportation– Forty percent of all trips made in and

out of the CBD are made during four hours of the day

– Public transportation is much better suited for moving large numbers of people, but Americans still prefer cars

– Americans lose 36 hours per year and waste 55 gallons of gas in the course of a year sitting in traffic but since

– Americans value their privacy and flexibility, most continue to avoid public transportation

– The one major exception is the use of rapid transit such as subways in New York and Boston

– Europe takes a much different view and in places such as England, France and Japan people are far more likely to use public transportation