Unit 6 - 3 Flashcards
Using the earth’s resources and not causing permanent damage to the environment.
Sustainability
Developed by urban planners and policy makers to fight urban sprawl and create new vision for cities that are more sustainable and equitable. Focuses on city planning and city transportation systems.
Goals: Make attractive residential neighborhoods that are walkable, develop strong sense of place among residents, ↑ livability by making it safe and easy to navigate, and involve residents and stakeholders in decisions impacting the community.
Slow sprawl by making concentrated growth in compact centers→ MIX BUILDING TYPES
Smart-growth policies
Areas of underdeveloped land around an urban area. Limits growth and saves farmland.
Greenbelts
Slow population growth and development that could consume and alter communities. Adopt policies to slow outward spread of urban areas and place limits on building permits to encourage a denser, more compact city.
Slow-growth cities
1990s, set of strategies to put smart growth in action w/ communities.
New Urbanism
Mix of homes and businesses—unlike separate residential and commercial sectors. Also all diff. size and price for socially diverse communities. Vibrant, walkable, shared spaces.
2 obstacles: Existing segregated zoning and people used to tradition
Mixed-use Neighborhoods
Process of building up underused lands within a city. Considered smart growth because reusing, not expanding. Opposite of sprawl and leap-frog development.
Ex. Central Park, Colorado, and Civita, California.
Civita—Built onsite of former quarry, now mix of housing types, parks, community centers, commercial zones, and connected by public transit. Promotes sustainability(renewable building materials, solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, and energy management tools for residents and businesses).
Urban Infill
Locates mixed-use residential and business communities near mass transit stops, resulting in more compact communities.
Transportation-oriented Development(TOD)
Set of principles that supports sustainable urban designs. Affordable and equitable housing, access to employment and community services, multiple and accessible transport modes, and social and civic engagement.
Livability
-Not affordable→ increases in cost of land and housing. Also, congestion and noise contributor.
-Limits personal choice in (single-family) housing, suburban lifestyle, quality schools, and autonomy of car ownership.
-Makes high pop. density which often have higher crime rates and less privacy.
-Unintended ethnic/econ. segregation
-Promotes displacement of low-income and ethnic communities, and destruction of historical buildings and unique places.
Transportation specifically:
-Large upfront costs
-Slow to adjust
Criticisms of smart growth
Information that can be counted, measured, or sequenced by numeric value.
Quantitative Data
Shows where people live, and descriptions of income, age, gender, ethnicity, race, family size, and more. Used to determine what services are needed and where they should be.
Population Composition
Contiguous geographic regions that function as the foundation of a census. In the U.S. = usually 4,000–12,000 people.
Census Tract
In a densely populated urban area = often very small, consisting of a single block bounded by 4 streets.
In suburban/rural = usually covers larger area because lower pop. density.
Census Block
Primarily based on surveys, field studies, photos, videos, and interviews from people who give personal perceptions and meaningful descriptions.
Qualitative Data
-Who gathered the info
-What were the questions asked
-What was the scale of data
-How often/when was the data gathered
-Did people respond accurately
Ways data can be flawed
-Poor quality
-Insufficient availability
-Significant unaffordability
Urban housing challenges in Core(MDC) countries
European: edge of cities where mass transit lines end and rent is less expensive
North American: concentrated near industrial regions built on eastern side of cities. Rents are lower because of the smells(Multiple nuclei model research).
Where are poorer residential areas in Europe and North American cities?
Process by which banks refuse loans to those who want to purchase and improve properties in certain urban areas. Historically more common w/ minorities and poor(investments are considered risky). Name comes from leading institutions identifying the no-loan areas w/ red lines on a map. Reinforces the downward spiral of struggling and predominately minority neighborhoods(no loans = less home ownership which = ↑ poverty).
Redlining
Landowners and real estate agents can deny selling/renting property to people based on race, ethnicity, gender, martial status, and religion.
Influence:
-1900s→ < 20% of African Americans owned a home vs. > 46% of white Americans
-2019→ >73% of white were homeowners vs. 42% African American and 47% of Hispanics and Latino Americans.
Illegal in U.S. in 1968(Fair housing act)
Other discriminatory laws/practices
When people live in separate neighborhoods based on ethnicity/race. Can be voluntary or involuntary. Enforced through real estate practices, tradition, and violence.
Racial Segregation
Real estate practice to enforce segregation. When people of an ethnic group sold their homes after learning that members of another ethnic group were moving into the neighborhood.
Historically in U.S., often middle-class whites leaving as Hispanic and African Americans moved in.
Blockbusting
Areas of poverty occupied by a minority group as a result of discrimination. Often feel trapped by social/pol. factors or a lack of econ. opportunity, High % of renters, poorly maintained buildings, and under-funded government services(educational). Can sometimes form from segregated neighborhoods.
Ghettos
Offer incentives or developers to set aside a % of housing for low income buyers/renters. But critics say these reduce incentives for investments in new housing.
One reason for shortage of affordable housing in urban neighborhoods: cost of constructing and managing a new building being more than profits made.
Provides decent housing and solid sense of community
Inclusionary Zoning
Approach to issues of public housing where city/gov gives rental help dispersing public housing throughout the area.
Opposition: fear that public housing near them will reduce property values and make issues for local communities.
Allows children better access to local schools and elderly access to amenities in rich neighborhoods.
Scattered Site
1960s-1970s→ policy allowing gov. to clear blighted inner-city slums which usually displaces the residents to low-income gov. housing complexes and built new development projects.
Urban Renewal
Often used by governments, allows them to claim private property from people, pay them for it, and use the land for public good.
Eminent Domain
Process of converting an urban inner-city neighborhood from a mostly low-income, renter occupied area to a predominantly wealthier, owner-occupied area. Often use mixed-use development and close to the CBD. Mostly core countries but increasingly in cities in periphery. Has art districts, coffee shops, commissioned street art, dog parks, trendy bars and restaurants, and amenities are accessible by public transit. Often dual-income and no kids.
Newcomers: Young urban professionals w/ high-paying jobs, LGBTQ+ looking for inclusive, accepting, and safe neighborhoods, and older couples whose children have moved out.
Gentrification
Can displace residents, create space that excludes minorities/ the poor, and eliminate the historical cultural landscape of previous residents.
Pushing out original residents? Rising rents and taxes.
Negative aspects of Gentrification
Densely populated areas built w/o coordinated planning or sufficient public services for electricity, water, and sewage. Often lack land tenure.
Informal Settlements
Legal protection of contracts to show ownership of land/building.
Land Tenure
Areas of a city that have been deserted by owners for either econ/environmental reasons. Often have decaying buildings, poor sanitation, high crime rates, and vandalism.
Zones of Abandonment
Disproportionate exposure of minorities and poor to pollution and its impacts, plus the unequal protection of their rights under the law. Often results in increased health issues(cancer, birth defects) and shorter life expectancies.
Environmental Injustice(Environmental Racism)
Walled/fenced neighborhoods w/ limited access and entry points. Represent redesign of urban living w/ an attempt to recapture features more commonly found outside urban areas(safety, quiet, and homogeneity).
Growth of them can reinforce separation in economics, social status, ethnicity, and even political views.
Gated Communities
The condition of not having a permanent place to live.
Mostly single men once, but includes more women and children now.
Homelessness
Often struggle in urban neighborhoods. If patrons are poor, prices must be low to keep customer base. This = tight margins w/ little money for maintenance or improvements to facilities.
Public ones like parks and pools are rare in places w/ low tax basis.
Private businesses and service providers rare, especially in poor and heavily urbanized states.
Ex. Bangladesh, # of doctors = 1/5 of U.S.
Services
Urban zones that lack food stores. Contributes to health problems for poorer residents(diabetes, obesity). Grocery stores and supermarkets favor suburbs(cheap land, richer consumers).
Food Deserts
Usually needs voluntary coalitions of city governments to address needs and create plans for larger region.
Regional Governance
Urban challenges(growth, mass transit, road construction, pollution, and homelessness) need regional approach to governance but it’s hard for everyone to agree on and implement plans.
Benefits: comprehensive plans and shared costs, economies of scale more likely done
Sometimes special districts are made to deal w/ long term regional needs(transport, fire, police).
Urban planners say that as networked meta-cities increase globally, regional planning will be required to improve connectivity, infrastructure, and livability of the urban giants.
Challenges of urban regions in federalism
-Portland, Oregon
-Minneapolis, Minnesota
-Amsterdam, Netherlands→ regional multi-model transportation system and large-scale smart-city initiative that limits outward growth and improves infrastructure and livability of existing urban regions.
Successful regional planning examples
Streets lines w/ tall buildings that can channel and intensify wind and prevent natural sunlight from reaching the ground.
Urban Canyons
An area of a city warmer than surrounding areas. Created by the concentration of buildings and concrete in the center of a city.
Urban heat islands
Wildlife(animals?) that can thrive in cities. Ex. rats, racoons, pigeons. Can spread diseases and be a nuisance.
Urban wildlife
Commuting periods in early morning and late afternoon/early evening when many travel to and from work.
Rush hour
When layer of hot air sits above cool air. Causes smog to be trapped and concentrated close to ground which leads to negative health effects.
Temperature inversions
Rapid spread of development outward from inner city. Reasons: availability of automobiles, creation of interstate/highways, and inexpensive land outside urban area.
Suburban Sprawl
Impact on human activity on the environment.
Ecological footprint
Usually consists of ruined buildings and polluted or contaminated soils. Expensive to repair and often stay in cities, devaluing neighboring properties. Exist in most core countries and in some semi-periphery countries(China).
If remediated = redevelopment sites
If structurally solid = renovated for new use by entrepreneurs but outside is kept for history.
Old factories = apartments, restaurants, rec centers, and artesian boutiques.
Local scale = remediating and redeveloping land = critical issue
Industry once thrived in central cities of developed countries→ new technology decreased need for workers→ weakened econ. strength of cities.
Why suburbs?
Cheaper land, closer to workers.
Brownfield
Involves renovating a site within a city by removing the existing landscape and rebuilding from the ground up. Usually begins = local gov. says area to develop is blighted/in a deteriorated condition.
Can break up and eliminate historic neighborhoods.
Private developers are also sometimes given tax break incentives to purchase and build.
Sometimes replace brownfields or low-quality housing w/ successful enterprises, but critics point out that problems can be caused(forced poor to leave their homes and communities).
Cities often use eminent domain laws to enable the building of new roads/schools but land can also be sold to private groups to build hotels, hospitals, and more.
Urban redevelopment
Urban, because they consume the least amount of resources and make efforts to regulate air pollution and other polluting sources of energy.
More sustainable— urban vs. suburban?
