UNIT VII: Urban GeoUNIT VII: Urban Geo

Central places: service centers for local hinterlands

Transportation centers: break-of-bulk functions

Specialized-function cities: dominated by one activity

3 basic types of cities:

metropolitan areametropolitan area: continuously built-up urban area

suburbssuburbs: extensive commuters residential land use

primate city: one disproportionately larger city in a country (Ex: Paris, Mexico City, Lagos)

rank-size rule: inverse relationship between size of a city & its urban rank

- 2nd largest city = ½ size of biggest

Economic Base Theory

Basic Sector: businesses dependent upon sales outside the city

Non-basic Sector: jobs dependent upon basic sector (grocery store, barber, drycleaners, restaurants)

multiplier effect: increase in basic jobs increases non-basic jobs…

World cities: play a key role in the global economy (London, New York, Tokyo)

– financial centers– most have large pops.

Megacities: over 10 million

– over ½ of 20 largest cities today are in developing world

Problems: internal migration, slums, informal economies, poverty, crime, child labor, water, sewage

EXPLODING AGGLOMERATIONS2004: World’s top 10 cities

1. Tokyo 33.9m2. Mexico City 22.1m3. Seoul 22.0m4. New York 21.7m5. Sao Paulo 19.9m6. Mumbai 19.2m7. Delhi 18.7m8. Los Angeles 17.6m9. Osaka 16.7m10. Jakarta 16.6m

Mexico City

Cuautepec- exurb of Mexico City

Walter Christaller’sCentral Place Theory

1. nested hexagons show a hierarchal ranking of market areas

hinterland: rural area outside urban areas

2. range of services: maximum distance consumers travel

* luxury items: longer range

3. Threshold pop.: minimum # of consumers to support a business

Central Place Assumptions:

1. orderly hierarchy

2. places of the same size equally spaced

3. larger cities farther apart

Classic Urban Land Use Models:

Concentric Zone ModelSector ModelMultiple Nuclei Model

• created by Ernest Burgess (1920s)• urban land use as concentric rings • “intensive” CBD in center… “extensive” suburbs on edge

Concentric Zone Weaknesses:

• too simple

• developed only for American cities

• assumes public transit

• highways/cars allowed increased mobility

Sector Model• Homer HoytHoyt (1939) stated land use patterns defined

by “sectoral wedges”

• “transportation corridors” impacts land use

• better transport = more expensive land

Multiple Nuclei Model• Harris & Ullman (1945) see cities as multi-nucleated

w/ CBD @ center & smaller satellite CBD’s on edge

• applies to newer, faster-growing cities (Miami, L.A.)

Inner City “Ghettoes”

1. became overcrowded, expensive, crime-ridden by 1940’s

2. “filtering”: expensive older houses subdivided for low-income families

3. “White Flight”: process of higher income whites moving out of city centers to suburbs

4. low-income public housing

Suburbanization

• “decentralization” of city centers• popularity of automobile• “sprawl”: residential neighborhoods away

from CBD

edge cities: suburbs with their own CBD

greenbelts: open space for public use in suburbs

Public Policy & Suburbs

1. Gov’t policies:

• Highway Acts (1916, 1956)• FHA 30-year mortgage (1934)• GI Bill (1944)

* post-WW II “BABY BOOM” = more families

Gentrificationcgentrification: the movement of middle class people into deteriorated areas of city centers

– begins in rundown “hoods”– inner city cheaper than suburbs

Urban “revitalization”/”renewal”:Urban “revitalization”/”renewal”:

– “renewing” rotting downtown waterfronts

European CitiesEuropean Cities• central cities• wealthy live in city center• higher poverty/crime/ethnic enclaves in suburbs

Latin American CitiesLatin American Cities

• fastest urban growth in world• central plaza• wealthy live close to major blvd. near CBD• Poor live in outskirts or “disamenity sector” (lack of facilities)– “in situ accretion”: transition to slums & squatters

African CitiesAfrican Cities• N. Africa: Islamic architecture• S. Africa: remnants of apartheid (blacks segregated in

“townships”)

Asian Cities:Asian Cities:• centered around ports• open-air bazaar markets

Manila, Philippines

Mumbai, India

  

Johannesburg, South Africa

Lagos, Nigeria