Chapter 11 Urban Systems and Urban Structures

11.1 An Urbanizing World

Merging Urban Regions * When separate major urban complexes expand along the superior transportation facilities connecting them * They create extensive urban regions or conurbations * Conurbations * Extended urban area, typically consisting of several towns merging with the suburbs of one or more cities

11.2 Settlement Roots

Major cities of today had humble origins in the simple cluster of dwellings that was the starting point for human settlements everywhere
Rural settlements in developing countries are often expressions of subsistence economic systems
When settlements are not self-contained * Become part of a system of towns and cities engaged in urban activities and exchange

11.3 Origins and Evolution of Cities

Cities and civilization are inseparable
8,000 years ago, cities originated in the early culture hearths that first developed sedentary agriculture.
Centers of cultural, economic, religious, and political life are among humanity’s greatest achievements
Earliest cities depended on the creation of agricultural surpluses
The Nature of Cities * Whether ancient or modern, all cities must have an economic base * All urban settlements exist for the efficient performance of functions required by the society that creates them * The totality of people and urban functions constitute distinctive cultural landscapes
The Location of Urban Settlements * Urban centers are functionally connected to other cities and to rural areas * Cities exist not only to provide services for themselves, but for others outside of it * In order to add new functions as demanded by the larger economy, the city must be efficiently located
Transportation Epochs * Break-of-bulk and head-of-navigation sites demonstrate the importance of transportation to the location of urban settlements * When a new transportation system emerges, it changes the optimal locations for urban growth * Chicago emerged as hubs of regional railroads that collected and distributed resources from the vast interior of the continent
The Economic Base * Cities depend on close relationships with their hinterlands * They provided the market where rural produce could be exchanged for the goods produced * they constitute the basic sector of the city’s total economic structure * the basic sector makes up the economic base of the community and is essential for * health of the local economy
Increase in total population is equal to the added workers plus their dependents

11.4 The Functions of Cities

Modern city functions * Manufacturing * Retailing * Wholesaling * Transportation * Public administration * Housing cultural and educational institutions * The housing of their own citizens
Cities as Central Places * Central places are nodes for the distribution of economic goods and services to surrounding non urban populations * Small cities provide a range of goods and services that suffice for most everyday needs * Central place theory * A pattern of interdependent small, medium, and larger towns that could together provide the goods and services needed by dispersed rural populations * People would have to travel only short distances for low order items

11.5 Systems of Cities

The Urban Hierarchy * The most effective way to recognize how systems of cities are organized is to consider the urban hierarchy * Urban hierarchy * A ranking of cities based on their size and functional complexity * The hierarchy is like a pyramid * A few large and complex cities are at the top and many smaller, simpler ones are at the bottom * Separate centers interact with the areas around them, but because cities of the same level provide roughly the same services
World Cities * Top of national systems of cities are a relatively few places that may be called world cities * Large urban centers are command and control points for the global economy * London and New York were the world’s two largest cities in 1950
Rank-Size and Primacy * Considering city systems on a global scale, urban geographers also inquire about the organization of city systems within regions or countries * The city size hierarchy is summarized by the rank-size rule * The nth largest city of a national system of cities will be 1/n the size of the largest city
Network Cities * History of urban growth includes episodes of intense competition between cities, * A new kind of urban spatial pattern, the network city, has begun to appear as nearby cities work together * Network city * Evolves when two or more previously independent cities with potentially complementary functions develop high-speed transportation corridors and communications infrastructure to facilitate cooperation

11.6 Inside the City

Defining the City Today * Urban settlements come in different sizes, shapes, and types * Their common characteristic is that they are nucleated, nonagricultural settlements * End of the size scale, urban areas are hamlets or small towns with at most a single short main street of shops * Beginning of the size scale are complex multifunctional metropolitan areas or megacities * Towns * Smaller in size and have less functional complexity than cities, but they still have a nuclear business concentration * Suburbs * A subsidiary area, a functionally specialized segment of a larger urban complex * Central city * The principal core of a larger urban area, separately incorporated and ringed by its dependent suburbs * Urbanized area * A continuously built-up landscape defined by building and population densities, with no reference to political boundaries * Metropolitan area * A large-scale functional entity, perhaps containing several urbanized areas, discontinuously built up but nonetheless operating as an integrated economic whole
Classic Patterns of Urban Land Use * The Central Business District * The radiating mass transit lines focused on downtown gave it the highest accessibility within the growing urban complex * Building lots within the emerging central business district (CBD) could command the highest rental and purchase prices * The intersection where the major mass transit lines converged was called the peak land value intersection * Outside the CBD * Industry controlled land next to essential cargo routes * Lower-order commercial centers developed at the outlying intersections of the mass transit network * Light industries, and high-density apartment structures could afford and benefit from location along high-volume transit routes * Least accessible locations within the city were left for the least-competitive bidders * Automobile-Based Patterns * In the 1940s, automotive transportation became dominant in the movement of people * Goods and streetcar systems lost riders and were often converted to bus systems * Highway systems were extended outward after World War II * As wealthy and middle class families moved away from the city center, the zones shifted outward * Regional Differences * Only the oldest parts of eastern cities such as Old Quebec and Boston’s Beacon Hill still display remnants of the walking city * The density and design of the newer cities have been influenced primarily or exclusively by the automobile and motor truck, not by mass transit and railroads * Models of Urban Form * Mental maps * Help us summarize and make sense of the diverse places we’ve experienced in large cities * Concentric zone model * Developed by University of Chicago sociologists * Explain the structuring of U.S. cities, specifically ethnically diverse, mass transit–based cities like Chicago in the 1920s * Each type of land use and each residential group tends to move outward into the next outer zone as the city matures and expands * The common starting point of the early models is the distinctive CBD found in every older central city * Peripheral model (galaxy model) * The major changes in urban form that have taken place since World War II, especially the suburbanization of what were once central city functions

11.7 Social Areas of Cities

Early models of U.S. cities are evident in the observed social segregation within urban areas
Social Status * Social status of an individual or a family is determined by income, education, occupation, and home value * May differ due to cultures * Social status divisions are often perpetuated by political boundaries between separate municipalities or school districts nowadays
Family Status * Singles, young professionals without children, and older people whose children have left home live close to the city center * Arrangement that emerges is a set of concentric circles divided according to family status
Ethnicity * Ethnicity is a more important factor in residential location than social or family status * Some ethnic groups, cultural segregation is both sought and vigorously defended * Certain ethnic or racial groups, especially African Americans, have had segregation forced on them * This occurs through housing discrimination or real estate agents who “steer” people of certain racial and ethnic groups into neighborhoods that the agents think are appropriate
Institutional Controls * They have strongly influenced the land-use arrangements and growth patterns of most U.S. cities * Have been designed to assure an orderly pattern of urban development * Are based on broad applications of the police powers of municipalities to ensure public health, safety, and well-being * Nonmarket controls on land use are designed to minimize incompatibilities

11.8 Changes in Urban Form

Suburbanization and Edge Cities * Two most prominent patterns of change were metropolitan growth and, within metropolitan areas, suburbanization * When developers were converting open land to urban uses at the rate of 80 hectares (200 acres) an hour Suburban expansion reached its maximum * Edge cities now exist in all regions of the urbanized United States
Central City Decline * The dominance of the CBD was based on its being the focus of urban mass-transit * Redistribution of population caused by suburbanization resulted in both spatial and political segregation of social groups * These newer “automobile” metropolises placed few restrictions on physical expansion
Central City Renewal and Gentrification * Central cities hit their low point in the 1970s when New York City went bankrupt * Pundits proclaimed the end of cities as the latest digital communications technologies would eliminate the need for face-to-face interaction * Some of the new office workers chose to live in central city neighborhoods that offer residential revival called gentrification * By purchasing and renovating houses in struggling neighborhoods, immigrants have helped revitalize many inner-city neighborhoods

11.9 World Urban Diversity

The West European City * Western European cities are unique historically and culturally share certain common features * Residential streets of the older sections tend to be narrow, and front, side, or rear yards or gardens are rare * European cities also enjoy a long historical tradition
Eastern European Cities * Russia and the former European republics of the Soviet Union, once part of the communist world, make up a separate urban class * Post-communist cities share many of the traditions and practices of West European cities * The planned city of the communist era is compact, with relatively high building and population densities
Rapidly Growing Cities of the Developing World * Fastest-growing cities and the fastest-growing urban populations are found in the developing world * Influences of the Past * Cities in developing countries' legacies and purposes influence their urban forms * The product of colonialism, established as ports or outposts of administration and exploitation * Urban structure is a product not just of the time when a city was founded, or who the founders were, but also of the role it plays in its own cultural setting
Urban Primacy and Rapid Growth * The population of many developing countries is disproportionately concentrated in their national and regional capitals * Squatter Settlements * Most developing-world cities are ringed by vast, high-density squatter settlements * A substantial proportion of the population of most developing world cities is crowded into squatter settlements built by their inhabitants * Latin American City Model * At the center is the: * Traditional market area * Key government and religious buildings * Modern CBD * Outward from the center is a commercial spine that features high-status establishments and terminates at a suburban mall * Squatter settlements are found at the urban periphery and in disamenity zones * Near dumps * In flood-prone areas * steep slopes * Planned Cities * Some national capitals have been removed from their earlier primate city sites and relocated outside the core regions of their countries * Other relocations have been planned or announced for example: * South Korea’s primary government administrative agencies 150 kilometers (93 miles) to the southeast of Seoul * A number of developing countries have also created or are currently building some new cities * This is because they want to draw population away from overgrown metropolises