Unit 7: Urbanization and Urban Realities

Urban

describing city living and populous areas

Babylon

city in Mesopotamia located near fresh water

Catal Huyuk

settlement in Turkey near fertile farmland, trees, and freshwater

Samarkand

city in Uzbekistan located along Silk Road trade routes

Damascus

city in Syria developed as a trading post between North Africa and the Middle East

Transportation nodes

settlements located along transportation intersections

“Situation”

examination of a place’s relative location and why certain locations are more conducive to growth and importance

Dispersed settlements

separated by distance but connected through long trade routes

Clustered settlements

infrastructure and buildings are all clustered together

Linear settlements

located along a natural resource

New Amsterdam

founded in 1624; its location was advantageous for ships

San Francisco

city valued for its proximity to the Pacific Ocean and natural resources in Northern California

Spatial analysis

inspection of how humans use space in organized settlements

Walter Christaller

German geographer who popularized the concept of central place theory

Central business district

a city’s focal point where exclusive goods and services are located

Hinterlands

regions that make up different market areas across a large urban settlement

Threshold

minimum number of consumers to sustain a business

Range

maximum distance people are willing to travel for goods and services

High order goods

goods purchased less frequently and require greater market area to provide threshold necessary

Low order goods

goods bought on a regular basis and daily essentials

Ernest Burgess

sociologist who studied North American urban development patterns in the early 20th century

Concentric

circular patterns

Peak land value intersection (PLVI)

zone of urban centers with the most exclusive and expensive real estate

High density housing units

developed around CBDs and industrial zones, making up the 3rd zone

Frederick Law Olmsted

designer in Chicago who advocated for the garden city movement

“Garden City” movement

movement for well-spaced, sizable homes with front lawns and backyards

Riverside, Illinois

city designed by Olmsted that became a center for prestigious homes

Homer Hoyt

proposed sector model to explain layout of North American cities

Industrial zones

second zone of the concentric model but in Hoyt’s model appeared to be more of a section

“Ethnic” neighborhoods

low-income residential communities in the 3rd level (working class zone)

Nuclei

centers of an urban municipality

Chauncy Harris

geographer who popularized the multiple nuclei theory

Larry Ford and Ernst Griffin

proposed Latin American city model in the 1980s and 90s

Plazas

an early form of a CBD in a Portuguese or Spanish colonial settlement

Law of the Indies (1592)

regulated set up of settlements; passed in 1592

“Zone of maturity”

area where reasonably wealthy people lived in European-style buildings

In situ

subsection outside city walls that housed Indigenous and mixed-race people
working-class families and townhouses

Peripheral zone

farmland and ranches
assembly plants and industry

Squatter camps

temporary housing areas where migrants ride while looking for work

Ciudad Juarez (Mexico)

city on Mexico-Texas border with an economy build on sweatshop labor

Maquiladoras

Mexican sweatshop plants

Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

city where over half of residents live in favelas (squatter camps)

Favelas

Brazilian squatter camps

Colonias

Mexican squatter camps

Land tenure

granting legal recognition of land where squatter resident families reside

Suburb/suburban

residential communities or areas located outside of cities

Levittown, Long Island

housing area of suburban homes built from a simple model by Levitt & Sons

GI Bill

laws and programs for war veterans that helped with educational and economic opportunities

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

companies with headquarters in edge cities of DC (Tyson’s Corner)

Edge cities

occur when suburbs grow their own central business districts

Lateral commuting

commuting from suburb to an edge city

Counter commuting

commuting from city to edge city or suburb

Interstate highway system

nationwide system of multi-lane highways crossing state lines and connecting major cities

Telecommuting

working from home

Sprawl

uncontrolled growth of built industrial environment

Cape Town

second largest city in South Africa; important refueling and trading station for European ships

Fall-line cities

developed with ports located upstream on rivers connected to coastal outlets

“Break-in-bulk” points

locations where ships were offloaded and then restocked

Gateway city

city where immigrants arrive and establish communities or use the city as a transition to other communities

Entrepot

coastal port cities where significant trade occurs

Megacities

cities with populations of over 10 million

Megalopolis

formed when two or more cities fuse together, forming a single population center

“First Order” world cities

cities home to powerful political, financial, and cultural institutionsin

Primate city

an urban center within a nation that acts as its main city in the absence of any others

Rank-size rule

in countries with long social histories, the 2nd largest city is about half the size of its largest city

Colonial cities

cities, which during decolonization, had increasing diversity but also inequality

“Free people of color” (Louisiana)

people born to a European father and African mother who could be granted freedom by their fathers

De jure segregation

official laws and rules for racial segregation

De facto segregation

based on historical and social realities

Redlining

limiting minorities from living in certain neighborhoods

Restrictive covenants

homeowners associations prevented certain minorities from buying homes in a neighborhood

Sequent occupancy

chronological succession of groups and cultures living in a place or region

Slang

informal and shortened language, often used casually

Gentrification

the refurbishment and development of a poorer urban area with the intent to make the area desirable

“Flippers”

people who buy real estate with the intention of renovating and reselling at a higher price

Section 8

program that provides rental assistance vouchers to low-income families

Property taxes

annual taxes paid by owners of private structures

Rent control

municipal government setting limits on how much private landlords can charge for rentals

Mixed-use buildings

areas with commercial and residential buildings