Urban development Flashcards
What proportion of the world lives in rural settlements? Urban?
50/50
Define clustered rural settlement
An agricultural-based community in which a number of families live in close proximity to each other with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings
Define dispersed rural settlement
Typical of North American rural landscape. Is characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other farmers in settlements
Provide an example of a linear rural settlement and describe (or draw) how it is laid out
Kraal villages in sub-Saharan Africa. Built by Masai ppl. Women mostly construct them. Enclosures for livestock in the center, surrounded by s ring of houses. Kraal to corral
Why did many European countries convert to dispersed patterns?
To improve agricultural production bc they were considered more efficient for agriculture than clustered settlements
. Describe the enclosure movement. Pros? Cons?
The British government transformed the rural landscape by consolidating individually owned strips of land surrounding a village into a single large farm owned by an individual. Cons- sometimes forced ppl to give up their former holdings p. Farmers lost time moving between fields, more roads had to be built to connect small lots, farmers were restricted in what they could plant. No more village life. Farms operated more efficiently at a larger scale.
Consumer services
Places to bury the dead
Religious leaders station at burial cites to perform
service of saying prayers for the deceased. (Encouraged the building of more permanent structures for ceremonies and dwellings)
• manufacturing centers
Public services
- Primarily tasked with offering protection to everyone in the settlement
- walls built around settlements for protection
- defenders (soldiers)
Business services
• Settlement served as a neutral ground whee several
groups could safely come together to trade goods and services
• Officials in the settlement provided producer services
◦Regulating the germs of transactions
◦Setting fair prices
◦Keeping records
◦Creating a currency plan
Provide an example (with region) of one of the oldest prehistoric urban settlements.
Ur in present day Iraq. Surrounded by a wall, ziggurat center. Mesopotamia Fertile Crescent
. Large cities, such as ancient Athens, began to supply what types of things not available in smaller settlements?
Public and consumer services
With a dense network of small market towns, who controlled the new medieval urban settlements?
Lords
What are the two dimensions or urbanizations?
An increase in the number of people lounging in urban settlements. An increase in the percentage of people living in urban settlements
When did the population of urban settlements exceed rural settlements for the first time?
2008
Who has more of the world’s largest urban areas MDCs or LDCs?
MDCs
Characteristics of urban settlements according to Louis Wirth: Large size
Rural- know the people who live there
Urban- know only a small percentage of the other residents
Characteristics of urban settlements according to Louis Wirth: High density
Social consequences. The only way a lot of ppl can be supported in a small areas is specialization.
Everyone performs a specific role and function. High density encourages social groups to occupy the same territory
Characteristics of urban settlements according to Louis Wirth: Social heterogenetiy
- Larger the settlement, the greater the variety of ppl
- Urban settlement ppl freer-more tolerant of diverse behavior
- Everything now is urban
Define the term CBD in one word.
Downtown
List four characteristics of a typical CB
Compact- less than 1% of the urban land area but contains a large percentage of the public, business, and consumer services. CBD is the easiest part of the city to reach from the rest of the region and is the focal pt of the region’s transportation network. Services are attracted to the SBD bc of its accessibility. One of the oldest districts in the city
Downtown shop:High Threshold
High amount of ppl needed to support the business. You need many people to support a Forever
21 on Michigan Avenue because of high costs
Downtown shop: High range
The area that ppl are willing to travel to get to it is far. People travel from Indiana to get to a Cubs game. .
Why are these shops decreasing in the CBD?
They are moving to suburban areas bc now it’s mostly downtown office workers, inner-city residents, and tourists
Another type of shop in the CBD are those which provide services to downtown workers. Give three examples
Retailers that sell office supplies, computers clothing, rapid show repair, rapid photocopy, dry cleaning.
Why are retailers that sell office stuff shops increasing
They cater to the type of people there- office workers. Mostly downtown employees that shop during the lunch hour. Pattern of demand has changed
What is happening to the old manufacturing districts in American CBDs?
They clear them and construct docks, parks, walkway s ships, museums, offices, boutiques, entertainment centers, etc.
Factor pushing residential uses out of CBD
From CBDs by high rents that business and retail services were willing to pay and by the dirt, free, congestion, and poverty that they experienced living downtown
Factor pulling residential uses out of CBD
Pulled to suburbs bc larger homes with private years and
modern schools
Describe how the intense land use of CBDs has created expansion of the CBD “above” and “below” in order to
maximize the small space of the downtown?
New apartment buildings and townhouses have been constructed and abandoned warehouses and outdated office buildings have been converted into residential lofts. Downtown living is attractive to ppl who don’t have kids.
Explain the concept of a food desert
An area in a developed country where healthy food is difficult to obtain
How is the underground utilized in cities?
There are garages, loading docs, pipes for water and sewer services. Telephone, electric, TV. Subway. Underground pedestrian passages and shops in cold areas
How is “land use” distributed within a typical skyscraper?
Retail services pay a high rent for street-level space to entice customers. Business services, less-dependent on walk-in trade occupy offices on middle levels at low rates. Apartments on the upper floors take advantage of lower noise levels and panoramic views.
What is the only major U.S. city without skyscrapers?
Washington D.C. no building can be higher than the U.S. Capital dome. The buildings are more horizontal and the CBD spreads over a greater amount of area.
What are census tracts?
Compact areas with a about 5000 residents each and correspond if possible to neighborhood boundaries
What is social area analysis?
Compare the distributions of characteristics and create and overall picture of where various types of people tend to live
List five ways that a European CBD differs from a North American CBD.
Less dominated by skyscrapers for business services. Most prominent structures may be public or semi public. Like churches and parks. Low rise structures and narrow streets. More people live downtown. Ban motor vehicles from busy shopping streets
Describe the elite spine sector developed in Latin American cities
Forms on either side of a narrow spine of offices, shops, and amenities attractive to wealthy people. Like restaurants, theaters, parks, and zoos. Services like water and electricity are more readily available.
What are the causes of squatter settlement?
Rapidly growing number of poor people. Population increase and migration from rural areas for job opportunities. Lack of housing, a large amount of immigrants like in squatter settlements
Describe services and amenities in a typical squatter settlement
Few services bc the city and the residents cannot afford them. Lack schools, paved roads, telephones, and sewers. Latrines are built and water is carried from a Central well or dispensed by a truck
Cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America resemble European cities in their structure. This is not a coincidence
because….
European colonial policies left a heavy mark on cities in developing countries.
List the elements of an urban area according to the peripheral model
An inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road
What are the three basic characteristics of a city?
Has legal entity
Is a continuously built- up area
A metropolitan area is a functional area
What does the MSA include?
Urbanized area with a population of at least 50 thousand
Country within which the city is located
Adjacent counties with a high population density and a large percentage of residents working in the center so city’s count
. What is the Megalopolis from Boston to D.C. called?
Boswash corridor
What is required before an area can be annexed by a city?
Only if a majority of residents in the affected area vote in favor of the annexation
In the past, why did peripheral areas desire annexation?
The city offered better services like water supply, sewage disposal, trash pickup, paved streets, public transportation, and police and fire protection
What has changed since cities desired annexation
Annexation is less likely to happen because residents prefer to organize their own services
rather than pay city taxes for them.
Describe the density gradient of an urban area.
Very dense amount of people in the city, gets less and less dense amount of people as you move away from the
city. Number of houses per unit of land finishes as distance from city center decreases.
. In what two ways has the density gradient changed in recent years?
There are fewer people living in the center
Fewer differences in density within urban areas
What is meant by the statement: the “periphery of U.S. cities looks like Swiss cheese”?
There are pockets of development and gaps of open space because developers want to develop isolated
areas
What has prevented the peripheries of European cities from looking like Swiss cheese?
The supply of land for construction of new housing is more severely restricted in European urban areas than in the US. Officials attack sprawl by designating areas of open space.
Maryland smart growth
Discourages the state from funding new highways and
other projects that would extend suburban sprawl and
destroy farmland. State money must be spent to fill in
already urbanized areas.
Oregon and tennessee smart growth
Have defined growth boundaries where new development must occur. Cities fan annex only land that have been included in the urban growth areas.
Smart growth
Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland
n what two ways are suburban areas segregated?
Segregated social classes and segregated land uses.
What is the strongest criticism of U.S. suburbs?
Low-I some people and minorities are unable to live in them because of the high cost of the housing and unfriendliness of established residents
Suburbanization of
Consumer Services
Consumer services have moved to suburbs because most of their customers live there
Business services and manufacturers have moved to suburbs because land is cheaper and more plentiful there.
Edge cities (a large nose of business and consumer service in the suburbs of an urban area) Retailing
concentrated in shopping malls.
Suburbanization of
business services and
factories
Offices that don’t require face-to-face contact moving to suburbs. Factories and warehouses migrated to
suburbia for more space, cheaper land, better truck access. Good access to main highways and no central city traffic congestion
. Identify two ways in which the U.S. Government has encouraged the use of motor vehicles by its citize
Government built highways
Policies keep the price of fuel below the level found in Europe
- List four ways demand for congested roads is being reduced?
Congestion charges, tolls, permits, bans
What is rush hour and how much of a city’s traffic does it account for?
40%
What is happening to: Trolleys
Used to have a lot of trolleys and tracks, now only have a few. 50 cities with trolleys to 8 cities
What is happening to: : Buses
Replaced trolleys with buses. Offer more flexibility service than trolleys. Bus riding has decreased
What is happening to: :
Rapid Transit
(subway & fixed
rail line)
New subway systems built in major cities. Subway riders is increasing. Some cities can use money meant for highways towards modernizing public transit. More light-rail networks in more cities
List four ways in which public transportation is better than an automobile.
Better suited to moving large number of people
Cheaper
Less polluting
More energy efficient
Briefly explain ways cars may become more energy efficient in the future.
Be more efficient. Diesel burns more efficiently. Hybrids store energy. Ethanol- fuel made from crops.
What is the major problem faced by inner-city residents?
The poor condition of the housing
Describe the inner-city process known as filtering.
Process of subdivision of houses and occupancy by successive wave of lower-income people. Large
houses for rich people, small houses for poor people
What is the ultimate result of this process?
Landlords stop maintaining houses when the rent they collect becomes less than the maintenance cost.
Building deteriorates
Public Housing: Who builds & maintains it?
local and federal government
Public Housing: Reasons high-rise public
housing is unsatisfactory
Drug use and crime rate high. The buildings were responsible because too many low-income families were concentrated into a high-density environment
Public Housing: How are recent public
housing projects different?
U.S. Government has stopped funding of new public housing. Fed program called Hope VI supports renovation of older public housing and a dif program helps other pay their rent inprivate housing.
Define gentrification:
The process by which middle-class people move into deteriorated innercity neighborhoods and renovate the housing.
. Why has gentrification been criticized?
Public expenditures for renovation have been criticized as subsidies for the middle class at the expenses of the people with lower incomes, who are forced to move out of the gentrified neighborhood because the rent is too high
List and briefly describe four specific social problems of the underclass.
Trapped in never ending cycle of social and economic problems
High rates of unemployment, alcoholism, drug addiction, illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, crime
Schools are deteriorated
Affordable housing is difficult to get
Tend to ignore good learning habits and the tendencies needed to elevate someone out of the underclass
What financial crisis does the high proportion of low-income residents in the inner city create?
The low income inner-city residents require public services, but they can pay very little of the taxes necessary to support those services.
Explain the two choices a city has in order to solve this problem.
Reduce services or raise tax revenues
Give three examples of some thriving CBDs that have been revived and explain why they’re doing well.
Boston, Baltimore, Chicago (Nancy Pier), New York(South Street Seaport), San Francisco (Ferry building)
Attract suburban shoppers and out-of-town tourists. Retailing combined with leisure activities
Provide an example of a circular rural settlement and describe (or draw) how it is laid out
`Kraal villages in sub-Saharan Africa. Built by Masai ppl. Women mostly construct them. Enclosures for livestock in
the center, surrounded by s ring of houses. Kraal to corral
In a linear rural settlement, why are settlements clustered around roads and/or rivers?
So that everyone has access to it
- Provide an example of a linear rural settlement and describe (or draw) how it is laid out
Clustered along road, river, or dike. Fields extend from buildings in long narrow strips. St. Lawrence river in Québec.
Why did New England colonists prefer clustered settlements (3 reasons)?
They traveled to the new world in a group
The colonists wanted to live close together to reinforce common cultural and religious values
Defense against attacks from Native Americans
What factors led to the decline in rural settlements in America
Today’s residents work in shops and offices rather than on farms
What three types of data are reported by the U.S. Census Bureau regarding the population of each census tract?
Median income, how much your household makes, basic demographics of race and ethnicity, marital status. Level of education. Big one is income
. What two things can we deduce by combining all three models rather than considering them independently?
Explain where different types of people live in a city.
Identify patterns
What are the advantages of living in the inner-ring near the city center?
Close to CBD. Services. Near culture, etc
List three points about the conditions of European suburbs, where the poor live
In us. Colored, low income. In Europe, the low income are pushed out of the suburbs and the poor people are pushed out of the CBD. Densely populated and low income. High rises.
. What is the functional area of a city?
Business and consumer services
Public housing cost
Tenants pay 30% of their income and government pays the rest
What groups are attracted to gentrified areas and why
Middle class. Houses larger and less expensive. Houses may have attractive architectural details. No more communizing. Near amenities. Single people not concerned with schools. Middle DINCs. Hipsters, artsy, 20/30. Double income no kids.
What things are happening to homeowners who have been unable to repay their subprime loans?
Lenders take over the property (foreclosure)
