AP Human Geography

Chapter Thirteen Urban

Patterns
Seth Adler

Seth Adler
I. Why Do Services Cluster Downtown?
a. The downtown is usually the oldest part and located on the original settlement.

A. CBD Land Use
a. Central Business District (CBD) The downtown portion of a city.
(1) Compact.

1. Retail Services in the CBD
a. The three types of retail services located in the CBD are those with high thresholds,
long range, or have worked for people who worked in the CBD.

- Retailers With A High Threshold
a. Department stors can access a lot of people.
(1) Large department stors would cluster at intersections so they could reach
the most customers.
i. Known as 100 percent corner
ii. Highest rent.
b. Today, there are very few, if not any, department stores located in CBDs.

- Retailers With A High Range
a. High range retailers are often specialists.
(1) Jewlery or clothing store.
b. Most of these businesses have moved to suburbs.
(1) The ones that stayed are unique.
i. Examples are:
Boston: Faneuil Hall Marketplace, in renovated 18
th
century
buildings.
Baltimore: Harbor Place, Next to waterfront museums and
attractions.
Philidelphia: Gallery at Market East, a suburban-shopping style.
San Francisco Ferry Building: A food center on the docks.
c. Some CBDs have restored their food market with individual stalls.

- Retailers Serving Downtown Workers
a. These serveces serve the workers who work downtown on lunchbreaks and such.
(1) These businesses sell computers, ink, shoe repair, dry cleaning, and photo
copying.

2. Business Services in the CBD
Seth Adler
a. Offices cluseter in the center for accissablity.
(1) Lawyers chose locations close to government offices. Instant printers are
close to the lawyers.
(2) In the middle for all of the employees.
b. Many professionals exchange information face-to-face.
(1) Establishes trust.

B. Competition for Land in the CBD
a. The amount of competition leads to high prices.

1. High Land Costs
a. In a rural area, a hecacre may cost several thousand dollars; in a suburb, it might cost
tens of thousands; in a CBD, it night cost tens of millions.
(1) Tokyo has the highest cost.
i. High prices in Tokyo because of lack of building space.
b. There are two characteristics of CBDs because of high prices.
(1) Land is used more intensively in the center.
(2) Some activities are excluded from the center.

- Intensive Land Use
a. There are underground cities.
(1) Parking garages, loading docks, offices, shops, and utility lines.
i. Utility line are unsafe, unplesent to look at, and not enough space for
them.
b. These areas segregate pedestrians from cars and from the winter.

- Skyscrapers
a. Each city has its unique skyline.
b. The first skyscrapers were built in Chicago in the 1880s.
(1) Made possible by two inventions.
i. The elevator.
ii. Iron-framed buildings.
(2) Blocked light and heating to neighboring buildings.
i. Solved with lightbulb and air conditioning.
c. The type of activity determines which floor it is located on:
Retailers pay a lot of money to be on the first floors to attract
customers.
Offices are located in the middle.
Apartments are located at top because of less noise and views.
Seth Adler

2. Activities Excluded from the CBD
a. High prices exclude residential and industrial activities.

- Lack Of Industry In The CBD
a. Modern factories require a lot of horizontal space.
b. Factories rely on water for trade from ships.
c. Ports have been changed from commercial to recreational activities.

- Lack Of Residents In CBDs
a. Many people used to live downtown.
(1) Poor people in apartments.
(2) Rich people in mansions.
b. People moved in the 20
th
century because of push and pull factors.
(1) They were pulled for larger homes in the suburbs, privacy, and schools.
(2) They were pushed from dirt, high rent, crime, and poverty.
c. Today, the residential population is increasing.
(1) People with out of school age children.
i. empty nesters
(2) Couples who do not have children, so they do not care about schools.
(3) These two groups like the nightlife and attractions.

C. CBDs Outside North America
a. The most prominent buildings may be churches on hilltops.
b. Low-rise structures and narrow streets.
c. Some CDBs have a hight limit.
(1) In the 1970s, Paris built a building (Tour MontParnasse) that was 688 feet.
i. Public outcry led to lower limits.
d. CBDs are more likely to contain supermarkets and other food stores.
(1) 24 hour supermarket is rare.
e. Ban on cars in some CBDs.
f. Because construction of new buildings is so difficult, companies may restore older ones.
(1) This costs more and may not provide enough space.
g. Rents are sometimes higher in European cities.

II. Where Are People Distributed Within Urban Areas?

A. Models of Urban Structure
Seth Adler
a. The three models used to describe where people live are the concentric zone model,
secror model, and the multiple nuclei model.
(1) First used to describe cities in Chicago.
i. Chicago includes a CBD known as the Loop.

1. Concentric Zone Model
a. The first model to explain the distribution of different social classes within urban
areas.
b. Created in 1923 by E. W. Burgess.
c. Concentric Zone Model A city grows outward in a series of rings.
d. Five rings:
(1) CBD: Nonresedential activities.
(2) A zone in transition. Consists of industry and poorer homes for
immigrants and singles.
(3) A zone of working-class homes. Modest, older homes for working
families.
(4) A zone for better residents. Newer and bigger homes for the
middle-class.
(5) A commuters zone.

2. Sector Model
a. Sector Model A city develops in a series of sectors, not rings.
b. Proposed by Homer Hoyt in 1939.
c. Certain areas are more attractive because of the environment and by chance.
d. As a city grows, activities expand outward in a wedge.

3. Multiple Nuclei Model
a. Geographers C. D. Harris and E. L. Ullman developed the model in 1945.
b. Multiple Nuclei Model A city is a complex structure that has more than one center.
c. Some activities are attracted to certain nodes.
(1) Hotels to airports.
(2) Bookstores to universities.

4. Geographic Applications of the Models
a. Use of these models depend on the data of the neighborhood.
b. Census Tracts An area for which statistics are published.
(1) 5,000 residents that correspond to neighborhoods.
c. Social Area Analysis Statistics used to show where people of similar demographics
live.
Seth Adler
d. Critics of the models say that they are too simple.
(1) The models may not be relevant because they were made when we were
inbetween the two World Wars.
Applying the Concentric Zone Model
a. An example is two families with one living in an apartment and
one living in a house. The person living in the house would line
in an outer ring.
Applying the Sector Model
a. If two families own a home, the person with the higher income
will not live in the same sector as the other one.
Applying the Multiple Nuclei Model
a. People with the same background are more likely to live
together.
e. By using the three models, we can determine where a high income, Asain American,
home owner would be.

B. Applying the Models Outside North America

1. European Cities
a. Contrast to the US, wealthy Europeans live in the inner rings of the city.
(1) By being closer, they are nearer to the shops and restaurants.
b. Similar to the US, they have wealthy cluster in a sector.
(1) In Paris, people moved to the hills to be near the royal palace (the Louvre).
(2) Factories were then built to the side of it.
c. In the past, poor people would also live in the center of the city.
(1) Before electricity, they would live on the top floors.
(2) Once the Industrial Revolution started, they moved near factories.
(3) The empty buildings were then renovated for the wealthy.
d. People with low incomes live in the outskirts of town.
(1) They are people of color.
(2) They need long bus rides to get to work.
(3) There is a lot of crime in the suburbs.
(4) They do not get big backyards.
(5) Tourists want them to be hidden.

2. Less Developed Countries
a. The poor live in suburbs while the rich live in cities.
b. Similar to Europeans.
(1) This is because Europe left its mark on the other countries.
Seth Adler
(2) They have passed through three stages: pre-European colonization, the
European coloneal period, and postcolonial independence.

- Precolonial Cities
a. Few cities existed.
(1) Latin America.
i. Mexico.
ii. Andies Mountains.
(2) Africa.
iii. West coast.
iv. Nile River.
v. Islamic empires.
b. Cities usually surrounded masques or churches.
c. Narrow, winding streets.
d. Lower status families lived farther from the center.
Businesses related to religion was close to the masque (selling
religious books and selling candles).
In the next ring was secular businesses (leather, jewers, and rug
shops).
Food products were sold in the next ring, then blacksmiths,
basket makers, and potters.
There would be a quarter for Jews, Christians, and foreigners.
e. The Aztecs founded Mexico city (center: Zocalo), which they called Tenochtitlan,
on a hill known as Chapultepec (The hill of the grasshopper). They were kicked
out in 1325 to Lake Texcoco.
f. They used bridges, aqueducts, and boats.

- Colonial Cities
a. Europeans expanded the cities by establishing military and trade.
b. Colonial cities followed plans.
(1) All Spanish cities built in Latin America had to follow the Laws of the
Indies (1573).
(2) Compared to existing cities, these ones had wider streets.
c. Fes, Morocco: 2 cities.
d. Saigon, Vietnam: Totally destroyed.

- Cities Since Independence
a. Geographers Ernest Griffin and Larry Ford show that in Latin American cities,
wealthy people are closer in the center to water and utilities.
Seth Adler
b. In Mexico City, Emperor Maximilian designed a boulevard (Paseo de la Reforma)
for 3km. It became the spine of the city.
c. In Rio de Janeiro, wealthy people are clustered to the south, near the ocean.

- Squatter Settlements
a. Because of housing shortages, poor people live in squatter settlements.
b. Squatter Settlements An area in which people establish a home illegally.
(1) 175 million people.
(2) Few services because people cant afford them.

III. Why Do Inner Cities Face Challenges?
a. Within US areas, the biggest sidtinction in cities are between the neighborhoods that
surround the CBD and the suburbs.

A. Inner-City Physical Issues
a. The major problem is the poor conditions of homes. The houses can either be
demolished or rehabilitated.

1. Process of Deterioration
a. Neighborhoods shift from middle-class to low-income class.

- Filtering
a. Filtering The changing of a house from a single-fimily owned, to be abandoned.
b. Landlords stop maintaining houses when the rent is less than the cost. At this
point, the landlord may abandon the house because the taxes are more than the
value.
c. Through the filtering process, many low-income families have moved to poorer
coditions, farther from the center.

- Redlining
a. Redlining Drawing lines on a map to identify where banks will not loan money to.
(1) Families trying to fix up homes in those areas will have a hard time.
(2) Illegal.
b. The Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to document all of their loans.

2. Urban Renewal
a. Urban Renewal Program where cities take old buildings, relocate the owners, build
roads and utilities, then sell to private owners.
b. Critisized for destroying the social oreder and removing low-preiced houses.
Seth Adler
c. It was called Negro Removal
d. The US government does not support it.

- Public Housing
a. Public Housing Housing owned by the government.
(1) Reserved for people who pay 30% of their salary for rent.
(2) US 1%; Uk 14%
b. Most of the housing built in the 1950s is unsafe for children.
(1) Elevators are broken.
(2) Drugs.
(3) These are bad because there is a high density of poor people.
c. Hope VI A program that supports renovation of older homes.
d. Housing Choice Voucher Progam Helps low-income families to pay for rent.
e. Subsidizing houses have declined.

- Renovated Housing
a. An alternative to demolishing houses, it to renovate them.
b. These attract middle-class people.
c. Gentrification The process of middle-class people moving into deteriorated
inner-city homes and renovating them.
(1) Cheaper and more room.
(2) Closer to attractions.
(3) Single people are attracted to.
d. Because renovating can be just as expensive as buying a house, cities provide low-
cost loans and tax breaks.
e. This is bad for the poor people because they are focerd to move out to where
rent is much higher.
(1) The government reimburse them for travel and 4 years rent.

B. Inner-City Social Issues
a. Inner cities contain people with low incomes and live in poverty.

1. Underclass
a. Underclass A group in society that are not allowed to participate in the benefits of
being in an MDC because of social and economic reasons.
b. Children attend bad schools.
(1) Education is poor.
(2) No regular school attendance.
(3) Hard to get a job.
Seth Adler
i. Low level jobs are in suburbs.
c. Unreliable poice and fire stations.
d. Lots of homeless.

2. Culture of Poverty
a. Working mothers must choose between income or staying home with the baby.
(1) If the father moves back, the mother will loose welfare and they will be worse
off.
b. People will use drugs.
c. African Americans and Hispanics are concentrated in large areas and whites are in
the suburbs.

C. Inner-City Economic Issues

1. Eroding Tax Base
a. Low-income inncer-city residence rely on public services but pay very little taxes.
b. A city has two choices for closing the gap between costs of services and the funding
from taxes:
Reduce Services
a. Close libraries, pick up trash less often, eliminate bus routes.
b. This would also cause middle-class families to leave.
Raise Tax Revenues
a. Give a tax break for offices, hotels, and restaurants.

2. Impact of the Recession
a. One of the reasns for the recession in 2008 was a collapse in the housing market ,
primarily in the inner city.
(1) Banks gave out loans to first time house owners in inner cities that had bad
credit.
(2) People did not pay them back.
b. The housing peak was in 2006.

IV. Why Do Suburbs Face Distinctive Challenges?
a. Growth in suburbs is increasing.

A. Urban Expansion
a. Before, cities could just keep expanding, but now they cant because there are suburbs
in the way.

Seth Adler
1. Annexation
a. Annexation The process of legally adding land to a city.
(1) Normally, it will happen when the majority of the population of people in the
area being affected vote to become part of the city.
b. Peripheral residents used to desire annexation because then, they could revieve the
benefits of the city, like public transportation, police, and trash pickup.
(1) US cities grew rapidly during the 19
th
century.
c. Today, cities are less likely to annex land because the residents do not want to pay
taxes, are new communities, and have a local government.

2. Defining Urban Settlements
City: A legal entity.
Urbanized Area: A continuously built-up area.
Metropolitan Area: A functional area.

- The City
a. City A settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent unit.
b. Central City A city surrounded by the suburbs.
c. A city has elected official, power to raise taxes, and provides services.
d. Population has declined since the 1950s.

- Urbanized Area
a. Urbanized Area A central city surrounded by built-up suburbs (1000
people/mile).
(1) 70% of the US population.
(2) Hard to get information from the suburbs.

- Metropolitan Statistical Area
a. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) Includes a central city of 50,000 people,
its county, and the surrounding counties that meet one of several tests.
(1) 366 as of 2009, 80% of the population.
(2) Three are problems because it includes the Great Smokies Mountains
National Park.
b. SMSAs, or Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas which were used before
1983.
c. Micropolitan Statistical Areas (uSAs) Are area between 10 and 50,000 people,
the county, and adjacent counties.
(1) Smaller urban areas.
(2) 574 uSAs as of 2008.
Seth Adler
(3) 10% of Americans.
d. Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) The combination of all metropolitan and
micropolitan statistical areas.
e. Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs) Two or more core based statistical areas
tied together by commuting patterns.
(1) 124 of them.
f. Primary Census Statistical Areas (PCSAs) All of the combined statistical areas
and core based statistical areas.
(1) Everything.
3. Local Government Fragmentation
a. The fragmentation of local governments makes it hard to control regional problems of
traffic and other stuff.
(1) On Long Island, if there is a fire at a university, 2 or 3 fire departments will
repond because the school is in different districts.
(2) On a boundary that splits a 4 lane road, one county has a 30mph speed and the
other has a 40mph speed.
b. Council of Government An agency consisting of representatives of various local
governments in the region.
c. 2 types:
Consolidations of City and County Governments
a. Indianapolis
(1) State boundary now matches with Marion County.
b. Miami
(1) Miami and Broward share some services.
Federations
a. Toronto
(1) Created in 1953 through 13 municipals.

4. Overlapping Metropolitan Areas
a. Some MSAs overlap.
(1) Megaloplis
ii. Continuous MSAs
iii. Boston to DC
iv. Jean Gottmann
v. Great City
vi. Washington and Baltimore are now combined into a single MSA in 1990 then
split them in 2000.
(2) The Southern Great Lakes

Seth Adler
B. The Peripheral Model
a. Peripheral Model An urban area that consists of an inner city surrounded by suburbs
and business areas tied together by a ring road.
(1) Chauncey Harris (creater of multiple nuclei model).
b. Edge Cities Nodes of consumer services around the outer ring road or beltway.
(1) Manufacturing centers that are one story.
i. More efficient.
(2) Includes theme parks, hotels, and airports.

1. Density Gradient
a. As you travel outward from the city, the density of the people decline.
b. Density Gradient The change of density in an urban area.
(1) The number of houses per land diminishes as distance from the center of the
city increases.
c. Two changes affect the density gradient:
Fewer people living in the center
a. There is a gap in the center.
Fewer differences in density within urban areas
a. Density is decreasing in the inner part because people are
abandoning their homes. Density is increasing on the outer
parts because of more suburbs.
d. The result is to flatten the gradient.

2. Cost of Suburban Sprawl
a. Sprawl Progressive spread of development over the landscape.
b. When developers look for more housing sites, they look for cheap land.
(1) Not adjacent to existing land.
i. Families want large pieces of land.
c. The peripheries of US look like swiss cheese.
(1) Pockets of open space.
d. There are some problems.
(1) Roads must be built.
i. Payed by taxes or by the developer.
(2) Prime agricultural land is lost.
(3) Wastes more energy by cars because of the low density.
e. The supply of land for construction in Europe is worse.
f. Greenbelts Rings of open space.
(1) Houses are either built inside or outside of the ring.
(2) Led to higher house prices.
Seth Adler
g. Smart Growth Laws to regulate a limit urban sprawl.
(1) Oregon, Tennessee, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, and Maryland.
i. The Maryland smart growth law prohibits highways that lead to sprawl
and must fill in urbanized areas.

C. Suburban Segregation
a. People like to live in suburbs.
(1) Detached houses
(2) Private land
(3) Space to park cars
b. As incomes rose in the 20
th
century, people had money to buy the houses.
c. The suburb is segregated in two ways:
Segregated social classes
a. Normally built for a certain class of family.
b. Determined by size, price, and location.
Segregated land uses
a. Residents are segregated from commercial activities.

1. Residential Segregation
a. Before suburbs were introduced in the 20
th
century, people were segregated
vertically.
(1) Poor people lived on high floors or in the basement.
b. Zoning Ordinances A law that limits the uses of the land and the density.
(1) Encouraged spatial separation.
c. People did not want minorities and low-income families to move in for fear that the
suburb will be in poverty.
d. In some metropolitan areas, wealthy people live in the center, lower-income people
live in the inner cities and middle-class lived in the outer suburbs.

2. Suburbanization of Businesses
a. Businesses have moved to the suburbs.
(1) Land is cheaper.
(2) Their customers live there.

- Suburbanization Of Retailing
a. In the past, people used to shop for food at CBDs.
(1) People dont shop there anymore because it is too far and there is a lot of
construction.
b. People now show at malls instead of at the CBD.
Seth Adler
c. The key to a good mall is to have an ancor (department or discount store) and be
located at a junction (intersection of two highways).

- Suburbanization Of Factories And Offices
a. Factories and offices move to suburbs for more factory space, cheaper land and
better truck access.
(1) Need more land because they have everything on one story.
(2) Good access to main highways.
b. Offices that do not require face-to-face conversations move to the suburbs.
(1) Executives can drive on uncongested roads and park for free.
(2) Lower-status workers, though, who do not have cars (janitors, secretaries),
may have a hard time because there is no public transportation.

D. Transportation and Suburbanization
a. More than half of all trips are work related.
b. People lived in crowded cities because they had to be within walking distance of work.
(1) Trollies and subways were built.

1. Motor Vehicles
a. The suburbian explosion in the 20
th
century was because of motor vehicles.
(1) Most people own cars.
b. Outside of large cities, there is very little public transportation.
c. An average city allocates of the land to roads.
d. Technology improvements can help with traffic congestion.
(1) Increasing the capacity of the roads.
(2) Decreasing the need of roads.

2. Public Transit
a. 40% of all trip in CBDs are during rush hour.
b. Rush Hour The four consecutive 15-minute periods in the morning and evening with
the most traffic.

- Advantages Of Public Transit
a. Cheaper and less polluting.
b. Each travelor takes up less space.
c. It is also suited for bringing a lot of people to one area.
d. Paris added 250 miles of new subway lines since the late 1960s.
(1) New system, the Reseau Express Regional (R.E.R.), serves outer suburbs.
e. In France, there is a high-speed train known as the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse).
Seth Adler

- Public Transit In The United States
a. Public transit is primarily used for getting to work.
b. People prefer using their car.
(1) Only 5% of work trips are done by public transportation.
(2) Declining number of people use public transportation.
(3) A car is more private and flexible.
c. Fast transit are heavy rail (subways) and light rail (streetcars).
d. Cities such as Chicago and Boston attract people with construction of subways.
(1) California is a leader in fixed light-rail trasit lines.
e. Because of the minimal public transportation outside of CBDs, many low-incompe
people have difficulty getting to work.
f. Fares of public transportation does not cover the operating costs.
(1) As little people ride it, fares increase, which cause more people to leave.