chapter 8 notes

Question 1

City characteristics:

Answer 1

Dense population concentrations
Functional complexity (the town can support lots of different workers – nonfarmers)
Centers of power (business, government, etc)
Specialised land use
Cities are linked (trade, transportation)
Contradictions (wealth/poverty)

Question 2

Defining “urban”

Answer 2

No ingle definition of what constitutes “urban”
Is distinctively nonrural and nonagricultural
United States: > 2,500 people and 1,000 people/sq mile
Japan: > 50,000 people

Statistics Canada: > 1,000 and no fewer than 400 persons/km2 = “urban”

United Nations: settlements > 20,000 = “urban“

Question 3

Urbanization area

Answer 3

Urbanized area
A continuously built-up landscape
Defined by building and population densities (not political boundaries)
May include a central city with town suburbs etc.

Question 4

Metropolitan area

Answer 4

Large population centre and areas socially and economically connected to it
May contain several urban areas

Question 5

urbanization

Answer 5

the process through which the proportion of population living in cities increases

1880: 5% of total global population lived in urban areas
1997: 43%
2025: Projected 61%

Question 6

Megalopolis

Answer 6

High population density
Demand for goods from outside
Urban centers growing towards each other
Freeway culture

Question 7

Megacities

Answer 7

Metrapolitian area with a population > 10 million

Question 8

Primate Cities

Answer 8

a country’s leading city economically, culturally, historically, and politically

2x larger population than the next largest city

Dominates the population, political and economic landscape

World’s largest primate cities are in LDCs
(e.g. Lagos, Nigeria; Jakarta, Indonesia)

Question 9

world cities

Answer 9

A centre of global economic power, influencing the world’s businesses
Two influential factors in creation of world cities:
Growth of multinational corporations
Concentration of professional services (banking sector, legal services, accounting, accounting )

Question 10

centralization

Answer 10

Forces that draw people and business downtown

Question 11

urban decentralization

Answer 11

when metropolitan areas sprawl in all directions and suburbs have characteristics of traditional downtowns

Question 12

agglomeration

Answer 12

clustering of similar or unlike activities activities

Question 13

urban land use

Answer 13

Land values reflect accessibility and desirability of a site

-Bid-rent curves show the amount a bidder will pay for land relative to distance from the CBD
Zoning law regulate land use

Question 14

Central Place Theory

Answer 14

Walter Christaller, The Central Places in Southern Germany (1933), had five assumptions:
The surface of the ideal region would be flat and have no physical barriers.
Soil fertility would be the same everywhere
Population and purchasing power would evenly distributed
The region would have a uniform transportation network to permit direct travel from each settlement to the other.
From any given place, a good or service could be sold in all directions out to a certain distance.

Each central place has a surrounding complementary region, an exclusive trade area within which the town has a monopoly on the sale of certain goods

Hexagonal Hinterlands
Christaller chose perfectly fitted hexagonal regions as the shape of each trade area

Question 15

Central Places Today

Answer 15

New factors, forces, and conditions not anticipated by Christaller’s models and theories make them less relevant today.

Ex.: The Sun Belt phenomenon: the movement of millions of Americans from northern and northeastern states to the South and Southwest.

Question 16

Models of the city

Answer 16

functional zonation: the division of the city into certain regions (zones) for certain purposes (functions).

Globalization has created common cultural landscapes in the financial districts of many world cities.

Regional models of cities help us understand the processes that forged cities in the first place and understand the impact of modern linkages and influences now changing cities.

Question 17

Functional Zones:

• zone
• central city
• a suburb
• suburbanization

Answer 17

Zone is typically preceded by a descriptor that conveys the purpose of that area of the city.
Most models define the key economic zone of the city as the central business district (CBD).
Central city describes the urban area that is not suburban. In effect, central city refers to the older city as opposed to the newer suburbs.
A suburb is an outlaying, funcutionally uniform part of an urban area, and is often (but not always) adjacent to the central city
Suburbanization is the process by which lands that were previously outside of the urban environment become urbanized, as people and businesses from the city move to these spaces.

Question 18

Burgess concentric zone model (1920s

Answer 18

Feature: positive correlation of financial status and distance from CBD – wealthier houses further away from CBD

-Overly simplistic, does not account for transportation

Question 19

concentric zone model

Answer 19

Concentric zone model: resulted from sociologist Ernest Burgess’s study of Chicago in the 1920s. Burgess’s model divides the city into five concentric zones, defined by their function:
CBD is itself subdivided into several subdistricts.
Zone of transition is characterized by residential deterioration and encroachment by business and light manufacturing.
Zone 3 is a ring of closely spaced but adequate homes occupied by the blue-collar labor force.
Zone 4 consists of middle-class residences.
Zone 5 us the suburban ring

Question 20

Homer Hoyt: Sector model

Answer 20

The city grows outward from the center, so a low-rent area could extend all the way from the CBD to the city’s outer edge, creating zones that are shaped like a piece of pie.
The pie-shaped pieces describe the high-rent residential, intermediate rent residential, low-rent residential, education and recreation, transportation, and industrial sectors.

Model has a greater emphasis on transportation.
High income housing influences city growth. As the city grows, activities expand in a wedge, or sector from the CBD

—divided by rail lines

Question 21

Multiple nuclei model

Answer 21

This model recognizes that the CBD was losing its dominant position as the single nucleus of the urban area.
Multiple cores (or nuclei) rather than 1 CBD
For example: university nucleus contains the school, burger and pizza places, bookstores, etc.
Airport attract hotels and light industrial

Question 22

Multiple nuclei model

Answer 22

This model recognizes that the CBD was losing its dominant position as the single nucleus of the urban area.
Multiple cores (or nuclei) rather than 1 CBD
For example: university nucleus contains the school, burger and pizza places, bookstores, etc.
Airport attract hotels and light industrial

Question 23

Edge Cities

Answer 23

Edge cities: Suburban downtowns developed mainly around big regional shopping centers; they attracted industrial parks, office complexes, hotels, restaurants, entertainment facilities, and sports stadiums.
“Suburban downtowns” where several outlying activity areas rival the Central Business District (CBD)
Recognises importune of “car culture” in creating edge cities

Suburban nodes of employment and economic activity featuring high-rise office space, corporate headquarters, shopping, entertainment, and hotels.
Designed for cars rather than pedestrians
Must have more than 5 million sq. feet of office space
Must have the equivalent of a medium size mall
More jobs than homes
No urban characteristics 30 years earlier
Rarely include heavy industry

Question 24

Adams model

Answer 24

Based on breakthroughs in transportation technologies
A pattern of outward-areal expansion

5 Development Stages
<1888 - Walking-horsecar era 
Everything in 30 minute walk
1888-1920 - electric streetcar era 
30 minute travel radius and urban expansion 
1920-1945 - recreational auto era
Impact of cars and highways improving accessibility to suburbs
1945-2000?- freeway era
Suburban developments
 Present time – outer beltway ear

Question 25

zoning laws

Answer 25

Cities define areas of the city and designate the kinds of development allowed in each zone

Question 26

Economic periphery & shantytowns

Answer 26

Particularly in the economic periphery, new arrivals (and long-term residents) crowd together in overpopulated apartments, dismal tenements, and teeming slums.
Santytowns are unplanned groups of crude dwellings and shelters made of scrap wood, iron, and pieces of cardboard that develop around cities

Cities in poorer parts of the world generally lack enforceable zoning laws
Across the global periphery, the one trait all major cities display is the stark contrast between the wealthy and poor

Question 27

In order to counter the suburbanization trend, city governments are encouraging

Answer 27

commercialization of the central business district and gentrification of neighborhoods in and around the central business district.

Question 28

Commercialization

Answer 28

entails transforming the central business district into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike.

Question 29

teardowns

Answer 29

suburban homes meant for demolition; the intention is to replace them with McMansions

Question 30

Gentrification:

Answer 30

the movement of upscale individuals to run-down inner city areas
Often displaced lower-income residents, but rehabilitates deteriorated innercities

Raises property values but displaces the lower-income residents as property values and taxes increase (exploit the poor)

Question 31

New urbanism

Answer 31

A movement to make cities more livable and foster a greater sense of community by designing compact, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods with sidewalks, front porches, and a larger variety of housing types and land uses.