Chapter 9: Urban Geography Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Chapter 9: Urban Geography

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Field Note: Ghosts of Detroit?

“The semicircular shaped Grand Circus Park in Detroit, Michigan is divided by several streets, making it look like the hub and spokes of a bicycle wheel from above. The grouping of buildings along Grand Circus Park (Fig 9.1) reflects the rise, fall, and revitalization of the central business district (CBD) in Detroit. The central business district is a concentration of business and commerce in the city’s downtown…Abandoned high-rise buildings called the ghostsof Detroit are joined by empty single-family homes to account for 10,000 abandoned buildings in the city.”

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Key Question 9.1

9.1 When and why did people start living in cities?


• urban: the built-up space of the central city and suburbs

• includes the city and surrounding environs connected to the city

• is distinctively nonrural and nonagricultural


When and Why Did People Start Living in Cities?

• A city is an agglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.

Concept caching:Kansas City, MO


© Barbara Weightman

http://www.conceptcaching.com/view_a_cache.php?cid=488



Agricultural Villages

Before urbanization, people often clustered in agricultural villages – a relatively small, egalitarian

village, where most of the population was involved in agriculture (mostly subsistence).

about 10,000 years ago, people began living in agricultural villages

The First Urban Revolution

Two components enable the formation of cities:

1. an agricultural surplus (irrigation & large scale farming)

2. social stratification (a leadership class that

controlled resources)

• The innovation of the city is called the first urban revolution, and it occurred independently in six separate hearths, a case of independent invention.

• The six urban hearths are tied closely to agriculture.


The Hearths of Urbanization


Five Hearths of Urbanization

In each of these hearths, an agricultural surplus and social stratification created the conditions necessary for cities to form and be maintained.

The Six Hearths of Urbanization

1. Mesopotamia, 3500 B.C.E.2. Nile River Valley, 3200 B.C.E.3. Indus River Valley, 2200 B.C.E.4. Huang He Valley, 1500 B.C.E.5. Mesoamerica, 1100 B.C.E.6. Peru, 900 B.C.E.


The Hearths of Urbanization


• served as economic nodes• were the chief marketplaces• were the anchors of culture and society,

the focal points of power, authority, and change


The Role of the Ancient City in Society


• populations in Mesopotamia grew with the steady food supply and a sedentary lifestyle

• people migrated out from the hearth, diffusing their knowledge of agriculture and urbanization

Diffusion of Urbanization



Mesopotamia social inequality reflected in varying sizes of

homes walled villages palaces priest-king class levied taxes & collected tributes from harvest temples and shrines at centers of towns

built on artificial mounds often over 100 ft high mud walled homes for regular class leadership class held slaves no waste disposal or sanitation

disease was rampant, which kept the population small

Nile River Valley

link between urbanization and irrigation power concentrated in the hands of

people who controlled the irrigation systems

no walled cities = singular controlgreat pyramids, tombs, & sphinx

were built by slaves

Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were two of the first cities of the Indus River Valley.

- intricately planned- houses equal in

size- no palaces- no monuments-leadership class but

no variation in houses-all homes had

access toinfrastructure,

includingdrains & stone lined wells-thick walls-significant trade

overlong distances

(coins)

Indus River Valley

Huang He and Wei River Valleys

The Chinese purposefully planned their cities.- centered on a vertical structure- inner wall built around center- temples and palaces for the leadership classplaced inside the innerwall-rulers demonstrated their power by buildingelaborate structures,like the Great Wall of ChinaTerracotta Warriors guarding the tomb of the Chinese Emperor

Qin Xi Huang

Mesoamerica

Mayan and Aztec Civilizations many ancient cities were theocratic centers where rulers were

deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings

Mesoamerica

Between 300 and 900 CE, Altun Ha, Belize served as a thriving trade and distribution center for the Caribbean merchant canoe traffic.

Greek Cities• Greece is described as a secondary hearth of

urbanization because the Greek city form and function diffused around the world centuries later through European colonialism.

• Urbanization diffused from Greece to the Roman Empire.




The Greek Citiesby 500 BCE, Greeks were highly urbanized. network of more than 500 cities and

towns▪ connected to trade routes diffusion of

urbanization▪ influenced Roman cities

on the mainland and on islands poor sanitation, compact housing each city had an acropolis and an agora

▪ acropolis- highpoint of a city where most impressive structures were built

▪ agora- public space (focus of commercial activity)

Athens, Greece

the acropolis

the agora

• When the Romans succeeded the Greeks (and Etruscans) as rulers of the region, their empire incorporated not only the Mediterranean shores but also a large part of interior Europe and North Africa.

• The site of a city is its absolute location, often chosen for its advantages in trade or defense, or as a center for religious practice.

• The situation of a city is based on its role in the larger, surrounding context:• A city’s situation changes with times.• Ex.: Rome becoming the center of the Roman

Catholic Church.

Roman Cities



The Roman Citiesa system of cities and small towns, linked together with hundreds of miles of roads and sea routes. (transportation network) sites of Roman cities were typically for trade

▪ also considered defensibility and religion a Roman city’s Forum combined the acropolis and

agora into one space. (focal point of public life) Roman cities had extreme wealth and extreme

poverty (between 1/3 and 2/3s of empire’s population was enslaved)

used Greek rectangular grid pattern most cities had arenas


• urban morphology: a city’s layout; its physical form and structure.

• Whenever possible, Romans adopted the way the Greeks planned their colonial cities; in a rectangular, grid pattern.

• functional zonation reveals how different areas or segments of a city serve different purposes or functions within the city.

• Ex.: the forum



Roman Cities

Field Note“There can be few spaces of greater significance to the development of Western civilization than the Roman Forum. This was the nerve center of a vast empire that transformed the face of western Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa. It was also the place where the decisions were made that carried forward Greek ideas about governance, art, urban design, and technology. The very organization of space found in the Roman Forum is still with us: rectilinear street patterns; distinct buildings for legislative, executive, and judicial functions; and public spaces adorned with statues and fountains.”


Urban Growth After Greece and Rome• During Europe’s Middle Ages, urbanization

continued vigorously outside of Europe.• In West Africa, trading cities developed along the

southern margin of the Sahara.• The Americas also experienced significant urban

growth, especially within Mayan and Aztec empires.


Site and Situation during European Exploration

• The relative importance of the interior trade routes changed when European maritime exploration and overseas colonization ushered in an era of oceanic, worldwide trade.

• The situation of cities like Paris and Xian changed from being crucial to an interior trading route to being left out of oceanic trade.

• After European exploration took off during the 1400s, the dominance of interior cities declined.


• Coastal cities remained crucial after exploration led to colonialism.

• The trade networks European powers commanded (including the slave trade) brought unprecedented riches to Europe’s burgeoning medieval cities, such as Amsterdam (the Netherlands), London (England), Lisbon (Portugal), Liverpool (England), and Seville (Spain)

• As a result, cities that thrived during mercantilism took on similar properties.


Site and Situation during European Exploration

“The contemporary landscape of Genoa stands as a reminder of the city’s historic importance. Long before Europe became divided up into states, a number of cities in northern Italy freed themselves from the strictures of feudalism and began to function autonomously. Genoa and Venice were two of these, and they became the foci of significant Mediterranean maritime trading empires. In the process, they also became magnificent, wealthy cities. Although most buildings in Genoa’s urban core date from a more recent era, the layout of streets and public squares harkens back to the city’s imperial days. Is it a surprise that the city gave birth to one of the most famous explorers of all time: Christopher Columbus?”

Field Note



• During the late 17th century and into the 18th century, Europeans invented a series of important improvements in agriculture.

• The second agricultural revolution also improved organization of production, market collaboration, and storage capacities.

• Many industrial cities grew from small villages or along canal and river routes.

A Second Agricultural Revolution


• Around 1800, Western Europe was still overwhelmingly rural. As thousands migrated to the cities with industrialization, cities had to adapt to the mushrooming population, the proliferation of factories and supply facilities, the expansion of transport systems, and the construction of tenements for the growing labor force.

A Second Urban Revolution




When industrialization diffused from Great Britain to the European mainland, the places most ready for industrialization had undergone their own second agricultural revolution, had surplus capital from mercantilism and colonialism, and were located near coal fields.


The Chaotic Industrial City

• With industrialization, cities became unregulated jumbles of activity.

• Living conditions were dreadful for workers in cities, and working conditions were shocking.

• The soot-covered cities of the British Midlands were deemed the “black towns.”



• In mid-1800s, as Karl Marx and Frederick Engels encouraged “workers of the world” to unite, conditions in European manufacturing cities gradually improved.

• During the second half of the twentieth century, the nature of manufacturing changed, as did its location.

Concept Caching:Duisburg, Germany


The Chaotic Industrial City


EVOLUTION OF US URBAN SYSTEM

Five Epochs of Metropolitan Evolution – John Borchert

1. The Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790-1830): primitive overland and waterway circulation - leading cities northeastern ports heavily oriented to European overseas trade - Hinterlands barely accessible.

2. The Iron Horse Epoch (1830-1870): dominated by steam-powered railroad, provided nation-wide transportation system, New York primate city by 1850

3. The Steel-Rail Epoch (1870-1920): full establishment of national metropolitan system, increasing scale of manufacturing, rise of steel and automobile industries, steel rails

4. The Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920-1970): maturation of national urban hierarchy, key elements were airplane and automobile, expansion of white-collar services jobs, growing pull of amenities (pleasant environments) stimulating urbanization of the suburbs

5. The Satellite-Electronics-Jet Propulsion Epoch (1970- ): newest advances in information management, computer

technologies, global communications, and intercontinental travel; favors globally-oriented metropolises.

Five Epochs of Metropolitan Evolution – (cont.)

The Modern Process of Urbanization –

a rural area can become urbanized quite quickly in the modern world

Shenzhen, China

Shenzhen changed from a fishing village to a major metropolitan area in just 25 years. 25 years ago, all of this land was duck ponds and rice paddies.

Shenzhen, China


Archaeologists have found that the houses in Indus River cities, such as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, were a uniform size: each house had access to a sewer system, and palaces were absent from the cultural landscape. Derive a theory as to why these conditions were present in these cities that had both a leadership class and a surplus of agricultural goods.


Key Question 9.2

9.2 Where are cities located, and why?

Concept Caching:Mount Vesuvius

Where Are Cities Located, and Why?

• Urban geographers discovered that every city and town has a trade area, an adjacent region within which its influence is dominant.

• Three key components arise frequently in urban geography: population, trade area, and distance.



• The rank-size rule holds that in a model urban hierarchy, the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy.

– If the largest city has 12 M people, the second largest will have 6 M (or ½); the third city will have 4 million (1/3 of 12)

• German Felix Auerbach, linguist George Zipf.• Random growth (chance) and economies of scale

(efficiency) explain why the rank-size rule works where it does.

• The rank-size rule does not apply in all countries, especially countries with one dominant city.

• Mark Jefferson: A primate city is “a country’s leading city, always disproportionately large and exceptionally expressive of national capacity and feeling.”

Rank and Size in the Urban Matrix

Positive effects of a primate city within a country

• Lots of economic opportunities• Large market (pop.) for goods and services• Ability to offer high-end goods and services

(including education) because of larger threshold population

• Advantages of centralized transportation and communication network

• Global trade opportunities; primate cities can compete on a global scale and attract foreign investment


Negative effects of primate city on a country

• Unequal distribution of investments deters national economic development

• Unequal economic and/or resource development• Unequal distribution of wealth and/or power• Transportation network (hub and spoke) prevents equal accessibility to all

regions• Impact of centrifugal forces and difficulties of political cohesion on

economic development• Brain drain – migration and unequal distribution of education,

entrepreneurship, opportunities• Disproportionate effect of disaster in the primate city on the entire

country• Negative externalities, e.g., unsustainable urban

growth/slums/environmental impacts if these are related to economic development, e.g., burden on national economy to cope with problems


Central place theory: Walter Christaller, The Central Places in Southern Germany (1933), had five assumptions:1. The surface of the ideal region would be flat and

have no physical barriers.2. Soil fertility would be the same everywhere3. Population and purchasing power would be

evenly distributed.4. The region would have a uniform transportation

network to permit direct travel from each settlement to the other.

5. From any given place, a good or service could be sold in all directions out to a certain distance.

Central Place Theory


Central Place Theory• 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. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Central Place Theory Activity

Central PlaceHexagons

Threshold, Range, Multiplier Effectshttp://wn.com/central_place_theory

http://wn.com/central_place_theory

Christaller looked at the arrangement of urban place and functions. He started trying to model what he saw. Ok, pour out your crackers

onto your paper towel and start hypothesizing as Christaller did.http://myfundi.co.za/e/Settlements_II:_Rural_settlements&usg

Arrangement and Spacing of Urban Places

• circular shapes resulted in unserved or overlapped areas

• hexagons had no gaps or overlaps• this suggests an inverse relationship

of higher order and lower order settlements (towns and cities)

• theoretically, settlements will be equidistant from each other

• in other words, big towns/cities are farther apart from each other

• Why?

Definitions we need to know• hamlet, village, town, city, metropolis, megalopolis• population threshold - # of people• market threshold – amount of $ in the place/area• range or range of sale• functional hierarchies• low order goods• high order goods• complementary region- exclusive hinterland within which the town

has a monopoly on the sale of a certain good(s)• rank-size rule• basic sector• non-basic sector• multiplier effect

Assumptions of Central Place Theory• isotropic plane – no variation (e.g., flat with no barriers to impede movement• even population distribution• rational behavior by consumers – assume that people will minimize the

distance they travel to obtain a good or service• that is, Consumers visit the nearest central places that provide the function

which they demand• perfect competition and all sellers are trying to maximize their profits• consumers have similar purchasing power and demand for goods and services• transportation costs are equal in all directions• no provider of goods or services is able to earn excess profit(each supplier has

a monopoly over a hinterland)• central places vary in size - small village to a conurbation• is part of a link in an urban hierarchy

Application of Threshold and Range using Christaller’s Model

• low order goods have a low range and low threshold – fewer people needed to support it and thus shorter distances traveled to obtain it

• Where are low order goods/services?• higher ranges and higher threshold goods are sold in

larger towns/cities – people will travel longer distances to obtain these goods/services

• Examples?• How about a ski resort in DFW?• Is there the threshold (market or population) for it?

Limitations to CPT

• large areas of flat land are not common• many forms of transport – costs of each are

not necessarily proportional• people and wealth not evenly distributed• purchasing power of people differs• perfect competition is not realistic – there are

rich and poor

Christaller’s Model Review:

1. Urban places are ranked in an orderly hierarchy. One is moved? Everything will shift to balance

2. Real world has no absolutes, but Locational Theory does seem to work

3. Places of same size with same number of functions would be spaced same distance apart

4. Large cities are spaced farther apart from each other than towns or villages

So, let’s diagram with the model

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas




“Many trade areas in the United States are named, and their names typically coincide with the vernacular region, the region people perceive themselves as living in. In promoting a trade area, companies often adopt, name, or shape the name of the vernacular region. In Oklahoma, the label Green Country refers to the northeastern quarter of the state, the trade area served by Tulsa.”Credit: Brad Bays, Oklahoma State University

Guest Field Note:Broken Arrow, Oklahoma


Central Places Today

• 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.


Where Are Cities Located, and Why?

http://www.edugen.com:30121/geodiscoveries/resources/ch38/print/central_place_hexagon/index.htm


• primate cities – a country’s largest city that is always disproportionately large and exceptionally expressive of national capacity and feeling; next largest city is much smaller and much less influential

• rank-size rule – in a model urban hierarchy, the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy. If the largest city


Key Question 9.3

9.3 How are cities organized, and how do they function?


Models of the City

• 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.


How Are Cities Organized, and How Do They Function?

Functional Zones

• A 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).

• The 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 outlying, functionally 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.


• P.O. Muller: Contemporary Suburban America (1981):• Found suburban cities ready to compete

with the central city for leading urban economic activities.

• In addition to expanding residential zones, the process of suburbanization rapidly creates distinct urban regions complete with industrial, commercial, and educational components.


Functional Zones

Six processes at work in the city

concentration — differential distribution of population and economic activities in a city, and the manner in which they have focused on the center of the city

decentralization — the location of activity away from the central city

segregation — the sorting out of population groups according to conscious preferences for associating with one group or another through bias and prejudice

Six processes at work in the city

specialization — similar to segregation only refers to the economic sector

invasion — traditionally, a process through which a new activity or social group enters an area

succession — a new use or social group gradually replaces the former occupants

The following models were constructed to examine single cities and do not necessarily apply to metropolitan coalescences so common in today’s world.

Modeling the North American City

• 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:1. CBD is itself subdivided into several

subdistricts.2. Zone of transition is characterized by

residential deterioration and encroachment by business and light manufacturing.

3. Zone 3 is a ring of closely spaced but adequate homes occupied by the blue-collar labor force.

4. Zone 4 consists of middle-class residences.5. Zone 5 is the suburban ring.


Concentric zone model

Developed in 1925 by Ernest W. Burgess A model with five zones.


A model with five zones.– Zone 1

the central business district (CBD) distinct pattern of income levels out to the commuters’

zone extension of trolley lines had a lot to do with this pattern



characterized by mixed pattern of industrial and residential land use

rooming houses, small apartments, and tenements attract the lowest income segment

often includes slums and skid rows, many ethnic ghettos began here

usually called the transition zone



the “workingmen’s quarters” solid blue-collar, located close to factories of zones 1

and 2 more stable than the transition zone around the CBD often characterized by ethnic neighborhoods — blocks

of immigrants who broke free from the ghettos spreading outward because of pressure from transition

zone and because blue-collar workers demanded better housing



middle class area of “better housing” established city dwellers, many of whom moved outward

with the first streetcar network commute to work in the CBD



consists of higher-income families clustered together in older suburbs

located either on the farthest extension of the trolley or commuter railroad lines

spacious lots and large houses from here the rich pressed outward to avoid congestion

and social heterogeneity caused by expansion of zone 4


Theory represented the American city in a new stage of development– before the 1870s, cities such as New York had

mixed neighborhoods where merchants’ stores and sweatshop factories were intermingled with mansions and hovels

– rich and poor, immigrant and native-born, rubbed shoulders in the same neighborhoods


In Chicago, Burgess’s home town, the great fire of 1871 leveled the core– the result of rebuilding was a more explicit social

patterning– Chicago became a segregated city with a

concentric pattern– this was the city Burgess used for his model– the actual map of the residential area does not

exactly match his simplified concentric zones


critics of the model– pointed out that even though portions of each

zone did exist, rarely were they linked to totally surround the city

– Burgess countered there were distinct barriers, such as old industrial centers, preventing the completion of the arc

– others felt Burgess, as a sociologist, overemphasized residential patterns and did not give proper credit to other land uses

• Homer Hoyt: Sector model• 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.



Sector model

Homer Hoyt, an economist, presented his sector model in 1939.

maintained high-rent districts were instrumental in shaping land-use structure of the city

because these areas were reinforced by transportation routes, the pattern of their development was one of sectors or wedges

Sector model

Hoyt suggested high-rent sector would expand according to four factors– moves from its point of origin near the CBD, along

established routes of travel, toward another nucleus of high-rent buildings

– will progress toward high ground or along waterfronts, when these areas are not used for industry

– will move along the route of fastest transportation– will move toward open space

Sector model

as high-rent sectors develop, areas between them are filled in– middle-rent areas move directly next to them, drawing on

their prestige– low-rent areas fill remaining areas– moving away from major routes of travel, rents go from high

to low there are distinct patterns in today’s cities that echo

Hoyt’s model he had the advantage of writing later than Burgess

— in the age of the automobile

Sector model

Today, major transportation arteries are generally freeways.– surrounding areas are often low-rent districts– contrary to Hoyt’s theory– freeways were imposed on existing urban pattern– often built through low-rent areas where land was

cheaper and political opposition was less

Multiple nuclei model

suggested by Chauncey Harris and Edward Ullman in 1945

maintained a city developed with equal intensity around various points

the CBD was not the sole generator of change


equal weight must be given to:– an old community on city outskirts around which

new suburbs clustered– an industrial district that grew from an original

waterfront location– low-income area that began because of some

social stigma attached to site


more than any other model takes into account the varied factors of decentralization in the structure of the North American city

many criticize the concentric zone and sector theories as being rather deterministic because they emphasize one single factor

multiple nuclei theory encompasses a larger spectrum of economic and social possibilities

most urban scholars feel Harris and Ullman succeeded in trying to integrate the disparate element of culture into workable model


rooted their model in four geographic principles– certain activities require highly specialized facilities

accessible transportation for a factory large areas of open land for a housing tract

– certain activities cluster because they profit from mutual association

– certain activities repel each other and will not be found in the same area

– certain activities could not make a profit if they paid the high rent of the most desirable locations

• Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman: multiple nuclei model

• This model recognizes that the CBD was losing its dominant position as the single nucleus of the urban area.

• Edge cities: Suburban downtowns developed mainly around big regional shopping centers; they attracted industrial parks, office complexes, hotels, restaurants, enter-tainment facilities, and sports stadiums.



http://www.edugen.com:30121/geodiscoveries/resources/ch38/print/shape_of_city/index.htm

Figure 9.23Tysons Corner, Virginia. In the suburbs of Washington, D.C., on Interstate 495 (the Beltway), Tysons Corner has developed as a major edge city, with offices, retail, and commercial services. © Rob Crandall/The Image Works.


Modeling the Cities of the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery

Primate cities in developing countries are called megacities when the city has a large population, a vast territorial extent, rapid in-migration, and a strained, inadequate infrastructure.


Concept Caching:Mumbai, India

© Harm de Blij

• Griffin-Ford model• South American cities blend traditional

elements of South American culture with globalization forces that are reshaping the urban scene, combining radial sectors and concentric zones.

• The thriving CBD anchors the model.• Shantytowns are unplanned groups of

crude dwellings and shelters made of scrap wood, iron, and pieces of cardboard that develop around cities.

The South American City



http://www.edugen.com:30121/geodiscoveries/resources/ch38/print/griffin-ford_2/index.htm

Latin American model

more complex because of influence of local cultures on urban development

difficult to group cities of the developing world into one or two comprehensive models

Latin American model is shown in next slide


generalized scheme both sensitive to local cultures and articulates pervasive influence of international forces, both Western and non-Western

in contrast to today’s cities in the U.S., the CBDs of Latin American cities are vibrant, dynamic, and increasingly specialized– a reliance on public transit that serves the central city– existence of a large and relatively affluent population

closest to CBD


outside the CBD, the dominant component is a commercial spine surrounded by

the elite residential sector– these two zones are interrelated and called the spine/sector– essentially an extension of the CBD down a major

boulevard– here are the city’s important amenities — parks, theaters,

restaurants, and even golf courses– strict zoning and land controls ensure continuation of these

activities, protecting elite from incursions by low-income squatters


inner-city zone of maturity– less prestigious collection of traditional colonial

homes and upgraded self-built homes– homes occupied by people unable to participate

in the spine/sector– area of upward mobility


zone of accretion– diverse collection of housing types, sizes, and

quality– transition between zone of maturity and next zone– area of ongoing construction and change– some neighborhoods have city-provided utilities– other blocks must rely on water and butane

delivery trucks for essential services

Latin American modelzone of peripheral squatter settlements

– where most recent migrants are found– fringe contrasts with affluent and comfortable suburbs that

ring North American cities– houses often built from scavenged materials– gives the appearance of a refugee camp– surrounded by landscape bare of vegetation that was cut for

fuel and building materials– streets unpaved, open trenches carry wastes, residents

carry water from long distances, electricity is often “pirated”– residents who work have a long commute– many are transformed through time into permanent

neighborhoods

Field Note

“February 1, 2003. A long-held hope came true today: thanks to a Brazilian intermediary I was allowed to enter and spend a day in two of Rio de Janeiro’s hillslope favelas, an eight-hour walk through one into the other. Here live millions of the city’s poor, in areas often ruled by drug lords and their gangs, with minimal or no public services, amid squalor and stench, in discomfort and danger.


The African City

• The imprint of European colonialism can still be seen in many African cities.

• During colonialism, Europeans laid out prominent urban centers.

• The centers of South Africa’s major cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban) remain essentially western.

• Studies of African cities indicate that the central city often consists of not one but three CBDs: a remnant of the colonial CBD, an informal and sometimes periodic market zone, and a transitional business center where commerce is conducted.


The Southeast Asian City

Figure 9.27Model of the Large Southeast Asian City. A model of land use in the medium-sized Southeast Asian city includes sectors and zones within each sector. Adapted with permission from: T. G. McGee, The Southeast Asian City, London: Bell, 1967, p. 128.


Three Classical Models of Urban Structure

Urban Realms Model

Each realm is a separate economic, social and political entity that is linked together to form a larger metro framework.

Feminist critiques

models assume only one person is a wage worker — the male head

ignore dual-income families and households headed by single women

women contend with a larger array of factors in making locational decisions– distances to child care and school facilities– other important services important for different members of

a family traditional models that assume a spatial separation

of workplace and home are no longer appropriate

Feminist critiques

results of a study of activity patterns of working parents– women living in a city have access to wider array of employment

opportunities– better able to combine domestic and wage labor than women in

suburbs– many middle class women choose a gentrified inner-city location to

live hope this area will offer amenities of suburbs—good schools and

safety accommodate their activity patterns

– other research has shown some businesses locate offices in suburbs because they rely on labor of highly educated, middle class women spatially constrained by domestic work

Feminist critiques

most criticisms of above models focus or their inability to account for all the complexities of urban forms

all three models assume urban patterns are shaped by economic trade-offs between:– desire to live in suburban neighborhood

appropriate to one’s economic status– need to live close to the city center for

employment opportunities

Feminist critiques

most women seek employment closer to home than men even those without small children

criticism of models by women– most families require two real wage earners– models tend to reflect an urban structure that isolates

women who do not participate in the urban labor market– raises problems of timing and organization for those who

combine waged and domestic labor– created by men who shared certain assumptions about how

cities operate, and represent a partial view of urban life

Feminist critiques

other theories incorporated alternative perspective of female scholars– studies using mostly female students, focused on “race,”

ethnicity, class, and housing in Chicago– emphasized role of landlords in shaping discrimination in

the housing market study by urban historian Raymond Mohl

– follows the making of black ghettos in Miami between 1940 and 1960

– reveals role of public policy decisions, landlordism, and discrimination

apartheid and post-apartheid city

apartheid —state-sanctioned policies of segregating “races”

intended effects of these policies on urban form are delineated in next slide


important components of the apartheid state– policies of economic and political discrimination were

formalized under National Party rule after 1948– government passed two major pieces of legislation in 1950

first was the Population Registration Act — mandated classification of population into discrete racial groups: white, black, and colored

second called the Group Areas Act — goal was to divide cities into sections that could be inhabited only by members of one population group


important components of the apartheid state– government passed two major pieces of

legislation in 1950 effects of the two acts

– downtowns were restricted to whites– areas for non-whites were peripheral, restricted, and often

without urban services—transportation or shopping– large numbers of non-whites were displaced with little or

no compensation– buffer zones were created between residential to curtail

contact


model apartheid city most closely resembles the sector model

cities were artificially divided into discrete areas non-white populations suffered the consequences notorious example — Sophiatown in Johannesburg remains to be seen what form the post-apartheid city

will take

Soviet and post-Soviet city

cities were shaped by the Bolshevik revolution of 1917– socialist principles called for the nationalization of

all resources– economics would no longer dictate land-use—

allocation planners would new ideals had profound effect on urban form

of Soviet cities

The Soviet and post-Soviet city

Soviet policies attempted to create a more equitable arrangement of land uses– relative absence of residential segregation according to

socioeconomic status– equitable housing facilities for most citizens– relatively equal accessibility to sites for distribution of

consumer items– cultural amenities located and priced to be accessible to as

many people as possible– adequate and accessible public transportation


The situation outlined above was less than ideal.– By the 1970s and 1980s many Soviets realized their

standards of living were well below those in the west.– A centralized planning system was not successful.

In the late 1980s economic restructuring introduced perestroyka.

The post-Soviet city– market forces are again the dominant force in shaping

urban land uses– pace and scale of urban change are unprecedented


privatization of the housing market —example of Moscow– private housing grew from 9.3 percent in 1990 to 49.6

percent in 1994– does not mean better housing for all people– many people cannot afford the high prices– apartments are particularly expensive in the center of

Moscow– most people have no choice but to live in communal

apartments from the old Soviet system


cities are taking on the look of western cities– downtowns now have most expensive land– increasingly dominated by retailing outlets of familiar

Western companies– tall office buildings housing financial activities are replacing

industrial buildings– processes akin to gentrification are taking place in city

centers displacing residents to peripheral portions of the cities

The outcome of the new changes is not certain and will be continued to be studied.

Culture Regions

urban culture regions cultural diffusion in the city the cultural ecology of the city cultural integration and models of the city urban landscapes

Themes in cityscape study

landscape dynamics– because North Americans are a restless people,

settlements are cauldrons of change downtown activities creeping into residential areas deteriorated farmland on city outskirts older buildings demolished for new

– when visual clues are mapped and analyzed, they offer evidence for current of change


Equally interesting is to note where change in not occurring.– an unchanging landscape conveys an important

message part of the city is stagnant because it is removed from

those forces effecting change in other parts conscious attempt by local residents to inhibit change preserve open space by resisting suburban

development preserving a historical landmark

Landscape Dynamics:Alexandria, Virginia


Cities grow through intensification of already urbanized areas and by extensification into rural areas.

This new development is on agricultural land near Washington, DC.

Many farmers on urban peripheries, lured by rising land prices, ultimately sell to developers.


As a mixture of open land and urban structures, this is a good example of leapfrog, or checkerboard development.

Moreover, the houses are being sold as “Gentlemen Farms,” a landscape of the elite.


The city as palimpsest– Because city landscapes change, they offer a field for

uncovering remnants of the past– palimpsest

an old parchment used over and over for written messages before a new message could be written, the old was erased,

but rarely were all previous characters and words completely obliterated

the mosaic of old and new is called a palimpsest — used by geographers to describe visual mixture of old and new in cultural landscapes

City as palimpsest: Singapore

City as palimpsest: Singapore

Like many cities, Singapore’s landscape is one of historic artifacts amidst the contemporary fabric. This is the core of old Singapore, as developed by the British after 1819. Strategically situated on the Straits of Melaka, the city functioned as an important entreport in Southeast Asia attracting a population of Chinese, Indians, Malays, and Europeans.

City as Palimpsest: Singapore

Trade offices, shophouses, and godowns (warehouses) lined the Singapore river and commercial activity choked the area. After Singapore became independent in 1963-1965, the combination of rapid population growth and aging infrastructure called for a renewal plan. Old housing stock and godowns were razed to be replaced by modern public housing, malls and office buildings.

City as Palimpsest: Singapore

In the 1980s, people realized that they were destroying the character of the city and efforts were made to preserve and restore some of old Singapore. Waterfront shophouses have been “boutiqued” into clubs and restaurants. Here, remnants of the past stand in the shadow of the symbols fo the future: The Bank of the People’s Republic of China (left) and the Telecom building.


symbolic cityscapes– landscapes contain more than literal messages about

economic functions loaded with figurative or metaphorical meaning subjectivized emotion, memories, and content essential to the

social fabric– to some, skyscrapers are more than high-rise buildings– historic landscapes help people define themselves in time

establish social continuity with the past codify a forgotten, yet sometimes idealized, past


D.W. Minig maintains there are three highly symbolized townscapes in the United States– the New England village– Main Street of Middle America– California Suburbia

each is based upon an actual landscape of a particular region

each has influenced the shaping of the American scene over broader areas


Cultural landscape is important vehicle for constructing and maintaining social and ethnic distinctions.– conspicuous consumption is a major means for conveying social

identity– elite landscapes are created through large-lot zoning, imitation

country estates, and detailed ornamental iconography cultural geographers are interested in how townscapes and

landmarks take on symbolic significance– question whether idealizations are based on some sort of reality or

fabricated from diverse predilections– interested in how to assess the impact of symbolic landscapes– messages inherent in loaded landscapes determine how we treat

our environment-bow it is managed, changed, or protected

Pigeon Problems: Rome, Italy


Pigeons, starlings, and sparrows thrive in urban environments. Feral pigeons, descended from rock doves, favoring cliff-face roosts, like to nest in similar building niches. Accumulated droppings raise serious problems. They corrode stonework, particularly limestone, and many historic buildings and statues have been irreparably damaged.


Fouled pavements are slippery and hazardous to pedestrians. Pigeon excreta, feathers and detritus can block gutters and drains providing a potential health hazard. In many cities today, people are discouraged from feeding pigeons and renovated buildings are fitted with spiked rails to discourage roosting.


perception of the city– Social scientists assume if we know what people

see and react to in the city we can design and create a more humane urban environment.

– Kevin Lynch, an urban designer, assumed all residents have a mental map of the city.

figured out ways people could convey their mental map to others

What do people react favorably or negatively to? What do they block out?


perception of the city– On the basis of interviews, Lynch suggested five

important elements in mental maps of cities: pathways — threads that hold our maps together edges — tend to define the extremes of our urban vision nodes — any place where important pathways come

together districts — small areas with a common identity landmarks — reference points that stand out because of

shape, height, color, or historic importance.


Lynch saw some parts of the cities were more legible than others.– legibility comes when urban landscape offers clear

pathways, nodes, district, edges, and landmarks– less legible parts of the city do not offer such precise

landscape Lynch found some cities more legible than others.

– Jersey City is a city of low legibility wedged between New York City and Newark fragmented by railroads and highways

– residents’ mental maps of Jersey City have large blank areas


distinct ethnic, gender, and age variables to mental maps of cities– often influence everyday behavior– women feel more vulnerable to crime, especially

rape– women will tend to avoid certain areas of a city at

night

The new urban landscape

shopping malls– most are not designed to be seen from the outside– retail districts of the 18O0s~and early 1900s cities had

grand architectural displays along the major boulevards– malls are often located near an off ramp of a major freeway– close to middle and upper-class residential neighborhoods


shopping malls– characteristic form of malls of the 1960s

simple, linear form, with department stores at each end functioning as anchors

usually had 20 to 30 smaller shops connecting the two ends– in the 1970s and 1980s, larger malls had a more complex

form example: Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota malls today are often several stories tall and may have 5 or 6 anchor

stores, and up to 400 smaller shops


office parks– office buildings no longer need to be located in

the center city development of communication technologies major interstates connect metropolitan areas cheaper rent in suburban locations convenience of easy-access parking and privacy of a

separate location– being constructed throughout suburban America


office parks– next slide shows location of office parks in

metropolitan Atlanta– many are occupied by regional and national

headquarters of large corporations or local sales and professional offices

– many offices will locate together and rent or buy space from a land development company to take advantage of economies of scale


office parks– the use of the term park points to conscious anti-

urban imagery tend to be horizontal in shape — three to six stories tall many are surrounded by a well-landscaped outdoor

space human-made lakes and waterfalls, jogging paths, fitness

trails, and picnic tables


office parks– do remove workers from social diversity of an

urban location– many office parks are located along what have

been called high-tech corridors — areas along limited-access highways

– this new type of commercial landscape is gradually replacing downtowns as the workplace for most Americans


master-planned communities– many newer residential developments on

suburban fringes are planned and built as complete neighborhoods by private development companies

include architecturally compatible housing have a variety of recreational facilities exploit various land-use restrictions and zoning

regulations to maintain control over land values


master-planned communities– example of Weston in south Florida

covers approximately ten thousand acres land use is completely regulated within gated area and

also along the road system connecting Weston to the interstate

shrubbery is planted to shield residents from roadway view

signs are uniform in style


festival settings– often gentrification efforts focus on a multiuse

redevelopment scheme built around a particular setting, often one with historical association

– waterfronts are commonly chosen as focal points– complexes integrate retailing, office, and entertainment

activities– Knox suggests these developments are “distinctive as new

landscape elements merely because of their scale and their consequent ability to stage — or merely to be — the spectacular”

Festival Marketplace: Hong Kong


Festival settings, both outdoors and indoors, are used to attract customers. There is typically one or more themes with flamboyant flags, signs, music and entertainment. Retail establishments include trendy shops, restaurants, and entertainment facilities.


This is one of the several ultra-modern, enclosed malls in Hong Kong. The theme here is the Dragon Boat Festival, held annually in the lunar calendar’s fifth month. This view is from an open, tiered restaurant.


festival settings– Some festival settings serve as sites for concerts,

ethnic festivals, and street performances. also focal points for more informal human interactions

usually associated with urban life in this sense do perform a vital function in the attempt to

revitalize downtowns– massive displays of wealth and consumption

often stand in contrast to neighboring areas that have received little benefit from these projects


“militarized” space– meaning the increasing use of space to set up defenses

against elements of the city considered undesirable– includes landscaping development that range from:

lack of street furniture to stop homeless living on the streets gated and guarded residential communities complete segregation of classes and races’ within the city

– As Davis says, “cities of all sizes are rushing to apply and profit from a formula that links together clustered development, social homogeneity, and a perception of security.”

– Has taken on epic proportions as many big American cities become “militarized” spaces.


decline of public space– related to the increase in “militarized” space– change in shopping patterns from downtown to shopping

malls– many city governments have joined with developers to built

enclosed walkways above or below city streets provides climate-controlled conditions provides pedestrians with a “safe” environment to avoid

possible confrontations on the street– some scholars suggest the Internet is a new forum for

social and political interaction

A New Landmark: London, England


This is the high-tech, engineering style (1986) of Lloyd’s of London Insurance building. Designed by Richard Rogers, co-designer of the Pompidou Center in Paris, it stands as a challenge to those in love with the past.


It stimulates controversy and has become a landmark enhancing the legibility of the city. Not only is it made of reflective materials and the glass atrium suspended on central pillars, but much of what is traditionally inside, such as stairways, elevators and lavatories, is now on the outside. It is a building with its guts exposed. The black structure is Barclay’s Bank.

THE CHANGING CITYUrbanization

Primate City

A country’s leading city, always disproportionately large and expressive of nationalistic feelings

Usually center of politics, economics, culture

Rank size rule does not apply to countries with a primate city

Urban Banana

A crescent shaped zone of early urbanization extending across Eurasia from England to Japan

Effects of Urbanization

Colonialism increased the importance of coastal cities interior cities became less important

Mercantile city brought about the “downtown” as we know it today Nodes of a global network of commerce Middle class Became engulfed by desperate immigrants looking for

opportunity Emergence of a manufacturing city

Unregulated jumbles of activity Poor sanitation DISEASE Elegant homes converted to tenement housing as

wealthy & middle class moved out of downtown areas to escape immigrants


New World cities did not suffer as much as European cities.

Sub-Saharan Africa least urbanized realm but fastest growing realm

2nd half of twentieth century manufacturing cities experience decline Shift to tertiary services Transportation advancement has led to the

creation of the modern city suburbs More dispersed

American City: A study of the suburbs

Rural to urban land use impact? PO Muller self sufficient entity

containing its own major economic and cultural activities

2000 census 50% of Americans live in the suburbs

Essence of the modern American city

Edge cities

City where focus has shifted from CBD to urban fringe Shopping malls High tech light manufacturing White collar firms Entertainment & hotel complexes Airports Located along intersections of major freeways

Canadian city

Urban area is less dispersed Urban amenities have not relocated to

the suburbs Do not display sharp contrasts of wealth

as seen in American cities Multiple family dwellings more common

European City

Many built before modern transportation so streets are narrow and layout is more compact More walking and use of metro than cars

Primate cities Legacy of past is better preserved Wars have taken their toll Outlying towns have attracted high tech industries

(outside of greenbelts) GREENBELTS areas around European cities that are

left to natural state or are preserved gardens, parks, etc. Limits urban sprawl Contains suburbanization

Environmental Impact of Urbanization

Estimate by the middle of this century, approximately 75% of ppl will live in urban settings

Hazards of site No infrastructure Land not intended for heavy urban use

Loss of land NA loses about 1 million acres of farmland every year China 3 million acres

Changed land cover Paving less rainfall permeates ground, washes pollutants into water

sources Pollution Production of waste (lack of sewer facilities) developing world Demand for water

Urbanization increases water usage by five times per person Changing consumption habits

More energy, meat (extends pastures & threatens forests)

How do People make cities?

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Immigrants cluster together in an enclave within a city All needs met Invasion and succession neighborhoods

remain the same but new groups come in and out

Policies in the US

Redlining Blockbusting Racial steering used after blockbusting

became illegal Realtors encouraged blacks and whites to look

for housing in areas that would promote changing ghetto boundaries real estate turnover

The New City

Modernism v. Postmodernism Gentrification & commercialization

DINKS & SINKS Displacement of poor residents who cannot

afford higher real estate Inner cities

Less tax base No funding Govt housing

deglomeration

The Cloverleaf vs The Access Road and the

AM-PM side of the MarketTwo Differing Ideas on Urban and

Economic Development

The Cloverleaf

The Access Road

What are the differences in development possibilities? Safety? Aesthetics?

AM vs PM

How do people share cities?

Key Question 9.4


Zoning laws: Cities define areas of the city and designate the kinds of development allowed in each zone.

Figure 9.28Lomé, Togo. The city’s landscape reflects a clear dichotomy between the “haves” and “have-nots.”© Alexander B. Murphy.

Figure 9.29Tokyo, Japan. The city’s landscape reflects the presence of a large middle class in a densely populatedcity. © iStockphoto.


How Do People Share Cities?

Field Note“Central Cairo is full of the multistory buildings, transportation arteries, and commercial signs that characterize most contemporary big cities. Outside of a number of mosques, few remnants of the old medieval city remain. The first blow came in the nineteenth century, when a French educated ruler was determined to recast Cairo as a world-class city. Inspired by the planning ideas of Paris’s Baron von Hausman, he transformed the urban core into a zone of broad, straight streets. In more recent years the forces of modern international capitalism have had the upper hand. There is little sense of an overall vision for central Cairo. Instead, it seems to be a hodge-podge of buildings and streets devoted to commerce, administration, and a variety of producer and consumer services.”


Field Note

“Moving out from central Cairo, evidence of the city’s rapid growth is all around you. These hastily built housing units are part of the (often losing) effort to keep up with the city’s exploding growth. From a city of just one million people in 1930, Cairo’s population expanded to six million by 1986. And then high growth rates really kicked in. Although no one knows the exact size of the contemporary city, most estimates suggest that Cairo’s population has doubled in the last 20 years. This growth has placed a tremendous strain on city services. Housing has been a particularly critical problem—leading to a landscape outside the urban core dominated by hastily built, minimally functional, and aesthetically non-descript housing projects.”


Shaping Cities in the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery

• Particularly in the economic periphery, new arrivals (and long-term residents) crowd together in overpopulated apartments, dismal tenements, and teeming slums.

• 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.



Shaping Cities in the Global Core• During the segregation era in the United

States, Realtors, financial lenders, and city governments defined and segregated spaces in urban environments.

• Ex.: redlining, blockbusting• White flight—movement of whites from the

city and adjacent neighborhoods to the outlying suburbs.



• In order to counter the suburbanization trend, city governments are encouraging commercialization of the central business district and gentrification of neighborhoods in and around the central business district.

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

• Gentrification is the rehabilitation of houses in older neighborhoods.

• Teardowns: suburban homes meant for demolition; the intention is to replace them with McMansions.



Field Note

“In 2008, downtown Fort Worth, Texas looked quite different than it did when I first visited in 1997. In that eleven year period, business leaders in the City of Fort Worth gentrified the downtown. The Bass family, who has a great deal of wealth from oil holdings and who now owns about 40 blocks of downtown Fort Worth, was instrumental in the city’s gentrification. In the 1970s and 1980s, members of the Bass family looked at the empty, stark, downtown Fort Worth, and sought a way to revitalize the downtown. They worked with the Tandy family to build and revitalize the spaces of the city, which took off in the late 1990s and into the present century. The crown jewel in the gentrified Fort Worth is the beautiful cultural center called the Bass Performance Hall, named for Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass, which opened in 1998.”

Concept Caching: Forth Worth, Texas



Urban Sprawl and New Urbanism• Urban sprawl: unrestricted growth of housing,

commercial developments, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning



• To counter urban sprawl, a group of architects, urban planners, and developer outlined an urban design vision they call new urbanism: development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing and jobs

• Geographer David Harvey argues the new urbanism movement is a kind of “spatial determinism” that does not recognize that “the fundamental difficulty with modernism was its persistent habit of privileging spatial forms over social processes.”

• Other critics say “communities” that new urbanists form through their projects are exclusionary and deepen the racial segregation of cities.


Urban Sprawl and New Urbanism

Field Note

“When I visited Celebration, Florida, in 1997, I felt like I was walking onto a movie or television set. The architecture in the Walt Disney designed new urbanist development looked like the quintessential New England town. Each house has a porch, but on the day I was there, the porches sat empty—waiting to welcome the arrival of their owners at the end of the work day. We walked through town, past the 50s-style movie marquee, and ate lunch at a 50s-style diner. At that point, Celebration was still growing. Across the street from the Bank of Celebration’ stood a sign marking the future home of the ‘Church in Celebration.’” © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Gated Communities

• Fenced-in neighborhoods with controlled access gates for people and automobiles.

• Main objective is to create a space of safety within the uncertain urban world.

• Secondary objective is to maintain or increase housing values in the neighborhood through enforcement of the neighborhood association’s bylaws.

• Many fear that the gated communities are a new form of segregation.



Ethnic Neighborhoods in the European City• Ethnic neighborhoods in European cities are

typically affiliated with migrants from former colonies.

• Migration to Europe is constrained by government policies and laws.

• European cities are typically more compact, densely populated, and walkable than American cities.

• Housing in the European city is often combined with places of work.



Government Policy and ImmigrantAccommodation• Whether a public housing zone is divided into

ethnic neighborhoods in a European city depends in large part on government policy.

• Brussels, Belgium: has very little public housing; immigrants live in privately owned rentals throughout the city.

• Amsterdam, the Netherlands: has a great deal of public housing and few ethnic neighborhoods within the public housing units.



Ethnic Neighborhoods in the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery City• In cities of the periphery and semiperiphery, a

sea of slum development typically begins where the permanent buildings end, in some cases engulfing and dwarfing the central city.

• Millions of migrants travel to such environments every year.

• City governments do not have the resources to adequately educate, medicate, or police the burgeoning populations.

• The vast slums of cities in poorer parts of the world are typically ethnically delineated, with new arrivals precariously accommodated.


Power and Ethnicity• The settlement patterns of cities

developed during the colonial period often persist long after

The Informal Economy• The economy that is not taxed and is not

counted toward a country’s gross national income• Remittances



From Colonial to Global CBD• Geographers Richard Grant and Jan Nijman

documented globalization in former colonial port cities, including Mumbai, India.

• A new spatially demarcated foreign presence has arisen.

• The city now has a global CBD at the heart of the original colonial city, housing mostly foreign corporations and multinational companies and linked mainly to the global economy.




Key Question 9.5

What role do cities play in globalization?


• World cities function at the global scale, beyond the reach of the state borders, functioning as the service centers of the world economy.

• Felsenstein, Schamp, and Shachar: The world city is a node in globalization, reflecting processes that have “redrawn the limits on spatial interaction.”

• World cities do not exist merely to service players in the global economy.

• Some countries such as the United States and Germany have two or more world cities within their state borders.


What Role Do Cities Play in Globalization?

Cities as Spaces of Consumption• Media corporations are helping transform

urban centers into major entertainment districts where items are consumed


Thinking through the challenges to the state presented in Chapter 8, predict whether and under what circumstances world cities could replace states as the basic and most powerful form of political organization in the world.


THE CHANGING CITYUrbanization

Primate City

A country’s leading city, always disproportionately large and expressive of nationalistic feelings

Usually center of politics, economics, culture

Rank size rule does not apply to countries with a primate city

Urban Banana

A crescent shaped zone of early urbanization extending across Eurasia from England to Japan


Colonialism increased the importance of coastal cities interior cities became less important

Mercantile city brought about the “downtown” as we know it today Nodes of a global network of commerce Middle class Became engulfed by desperate immigrants looking for

opportunity Emergence of a manufacturing city

Unregulated jumbles of activity Poor sanitation DISEASE Elegant homes converted to tenement housing as

wealthy & middle class moved out of downtown areas to escape immigrants


New World cities did not suffer as much as European cities.

Sub-Saharan Africa least urbanized realm but fastest growing realm

2nd half of twentieth century manufacturing cities experience decline Shift to tertiary services Transportation advancement has led to the

creation of the modern city suburbs More dispersed

American City: A study of the suburbs

Rural to urban land use impact? PO Muller self sufficient entity

containing its own major economic and cultural activities

2000 census 50% of Americans live in the suburbs

Essence of the modern American city

Edge cities

City where focus has shifted from CBD to urban fringe Shopping malls High tech light manufacturing White collar firms Entertainment & hotel complexes Airports Located along intersections of major freeways

Canadian city

Urban area is less dispersed Urban amenities have not relocated to

the suburbs Do not display sharp contrasts of wealth

as seen in American cities Multiple family dwellings more common

European City

Many built before modern transportation so streets are narrow and layout is more compact More walking and use of metro than cars

Primate cities Legacy of past is better preserved Wars have taken their toll Outlying towns have attracted high tech industries

(outside of greenbelts) GREENBELTS areas around European cities that are

left to natural state or are preserved gardens, parks, etc. Limits urban sprawl Contains suburbanization

Environmental Impact of Urbanization

Estimate by the middle of this century, approximately 75% of ppl will live in urban settings

Hazards of site No infrastructure Land not intended for heavy urban use

Loss of land NA loses about 1 million acres of farmland every year China 3 million acres

Changed land cover Paving less rainfall permeates ground, washes pollutants into water

sources Pollution Production of waste (lack of sewer facilities) developing world Demand for water

Urbanization increases water usage by five times per person Changing consumption habits

More energy, meat (extends pastures & threatens forests)

How do People make cities?

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Immigrants cluster together in an enclave within a city All needs met Invasion and succession neighborhoods

remain the same but new groups come in and out

Policies in the US

Redlining Blockbusting Racial steering used after blockbusting

became illegal Realtors encouraged blacks and whites to look

for housing in areas that would promote changing ghetto boundaries real estate turnover

The New City

Modernism v. Postmodernism Gentrification & commercialization

DINKS & SINKS Displacement of poor residents who cannot

afford higher real estate Inner cities

Less tax base No funding Govt housing

deglomeration

Documents

Chapter 9: Urban Geography Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved