CP Midterm

Gordon Childe

Famous author of “Urban Revolution”

Cities vs civilization

the city provides the dense population and farming surplus.

These create the conditions for specialists, rulers, writing, trade and the state, which together make up civilization.

Gordon Childe’s revolutionary ideas

1. Evolutionary stages

2. Childe’s 10 Criteria for cities

Childe’s Evolutionary stages

Savagery

Nomads with no production surplus

Barbarism

Triggered by Neolithic revolution

Intro to agriculture and animal domestication (early social surplus); larger villages forming; religion

Civilization

Triggered by urban revolution 

Fully developed economies and uses of technologies; full time specialists (long distance trade)

Neolithic revolution

The shift from hunting and gathering to farming and herding

People started to settle and product food instead of just collecting (farming)

Urban revolution

Farming surpluses grew large enough to support cities, full-time specialists, rulers, writing, monuments and the state

Childe’s 10 Criteria for cities

pinned down exactly what changed when villages became cities, so “civilization” had a concrete meaning instead of a vague one

• Size and density

• Full time specialization

• Surplus

• Monumental public buildings

• Class structure

• Knowledge

• Writing and record keeping

• Artistic expression

• Long distance trade

• Political organization

Size and Density

More densely populated than previous settlements (not just nomad groups)

Surplus Production

The production of more food and resources than was consumed by the population (farming instead of collecting)

Monumental Public Buildings

Large and impressive public structures (temples, palaces, etc.)

Class Structure

Clear distinction between social classes (rulers, elites, working classes)

Knowledge of Science and Engineering:

public projects on infrastructure

Long-distance Trade

Cities as centers of foreign trade for raw materials

Political Organization

Functioned as political centers; based on residence rather than kinship

what is urbanization

higher percentages of the population come to live in the city

migration of country to city

S curve

defines migration of country to city

• Increased rapidly and slowed down

• Rural population is fairly constant while urban population is growing

  • RURAL POPULATION ISN’T DECLINING 

• Population growth caused more population in urban areas (Great Migration and postwar baby boom)

Urban Graveyard effect

• Urban population was declining due to deaths until clean water systems were implemented (urban natural growth became positive) 

Where do urbanites come from?

• Reclassification of growing settlement to towns or cities (rural places become urban places)

• Excess births over deaths is greater in the city than the country

• People moving from the country to city (ONLY REAL SOURCE)

• immigration

Rural Urban Migration influences

• Workers freed to take on other specializations other than agriculture

• Increase in factory production (boost for consumer goods)

How do Gordon Childe’s 10 criteria still apply today?

Which of Childe’s 10 criteria need to be modified or added?

and large-scale infrastructure, such as water, sewage, electricity, transit?

Urban Agglomeration

the concentration of people, firms, economic activity in a geographic area

• Non agglomeration economy example: long distance trade

How is productivity quantified

High wages:

• urban workers earn more than rural workers

• higher wages=higher productivity

High rents

• office and housing costs more

• high cost=high value of location

Why do firms and people stay in expensive cities?

For firms: high wage and rent means higher operating costs

• firms stay because cities make them more productive than anywhere else

For workers: higher wages are offset by commuting and housing costs

• But they benefit from culture and social amenities 

Three causes of agglomeration

Sharing, Matching, Learning

Sharing aspect of urban agglomeration

• Large markets allow efficient share of infrastructure and supplies (would be costly to maintain alone)

• ex: shared hospitals, airports, ports, suppliers, workers, and infrastructures (roads, transit, utilities)

Matching aspect of urban agglomeration

• Lots of people; better match between employees and employers and buyers/sellers

Learning aspect of urban agglomeration

• Knowledge passes easier (workers switch jobs and pass knowledge as well)

• ideas spread at coffee shops, conferences, and meetings

Survival of the fittest firms

Cities create productivity by filtering out the unproductive firms

Are there new forms of agglomeration economies in the digital age?

Virtual/digital agglomeration: online networks link workers and firms without being physically close

Can remote tools like Zoom replicate the matching and learning benefits of cities?

NO

• Matching works fairly well online through job boards (Linkedin)

• Learning : Less face-to-face contact: hallway chats, mentoring, casual discussions

What industries will always need to cluster, and which ones dont

• Will keep clustering: anything tied to physical places, such as healthcare, hospitality and advanced manufacturing.

• Can disperse: =customer service, data entry, software maintenance

3 theories of Urban Form

Concentric Ring Theory, Sector Model, Multiple Nuclei Theory

Concentric Ring Theory

Central business district in the middle, and the surrounding rings have distinct uses

• inner rings are factories and working class

• outer rings are wealthier residential zones

Central Place Theory

Triangular lattice of a hierarchy of places (each size of a settlement with a different function)

Growth in wedges/corridors radiating along transit lines

• Industry/manufacturing sector: follows railroads, rivers or highways outward.

• Low-income housing: grows next to the industrial sector because of noise, pollution and cheap land

Multiple nuclei theory

• Closest to modern urban area

• Polycentric (more than one distinct center)

• Lots of blobs of different districts (Growth around multiple specialized

  centers)

Friedrich Engels

Wrote “The Condition of the Working Class in England”

Concentrate on consequences of urbanization

• overcrowding, health hazards, spatial segregation

John Snow

Found out that a contaminated water pump was the cause of cholera

(influenced the creation of GIS)

Study of Cholera by John Snow

• Deaths were concentrated around one pump

• Beer craftsmen only really drank beer (they lived)

• Workhouse had a well (clean source of water)

US’s mini revolution

• Major technological advances led to increased transportation, communication, urbanization

  • Steam, electricity, steel buildings, railroads

Problems in early US cities

Poor housing and overcrowding

sanitation issues (cholera spread, horse manure)

social disorder (gangs)

traffic congestion

Jacob Riis

Wrote “How the Other Half Lives”

• Descriptions and photographs of unsanitary and unsafe housing

• Lack of light, ventilation, immigrant labor

• Inspired reformers

Why did housing have such horrible living conditions, and why were landlords able to find so many loopholes

• Residents were making maximally rational decisions given a set of options that were all bad

• The root cause is the economy itself, not individuals poor morals

• The argument is still live today

City Beautiful Movement Goal

create aesthetically pleasing cities to enhance urban areas and make them more sanitizing

City Beautiful details

• APPROACHES: Public buildings, streets be lined with trees

• Daniel H Burnham and Olmstead led the City Beautiful Movement

  • Efficiency, beauty, civic pride (residents should be proud)

  • Introduction the Plan of Chicago (Grant Park, museums)

  • ex: central park in New York

Druid Hills, ATL

created as “ideal residential suburb”

used beauty, parks and planned order to create an “ideal” place to live

Garden City Movement main idea

 concept of a city that is hierarchy based (criticism because it’s utopian, literally creating a new city)

central ideas;

• Combine urban and rural life

• Communal ownership of land

ebenezer howard

City beautiful criticism

Physical and aesthetic focus at the expense of social conditions (assumes buildings would fix housing/social issues)

Focus only on public architecture

Led by elites

Garden City Movement controversy

Utopianism / unrealistic

Inaccessible to those who could not afford

Negative environmental impact (lawns)

Might lead to social isolation

For City Beautiful, Who is the intended beneficiary? Who is left out

• Intended beneficiary: in theory, the whole public

• Left out: the poor, immigrants and minorities. Clearing land for grand projects often displaced low-income residents.

For Garden City, Who is the intended beneficiary? Who is left out

• Intended beneficiary: the working class. Howard wanted to give industrial workers healthy homes

• Left out: the poorest workers. ended up mostly middle class because rents and moving costs were too high

What are wicked Problems

Problems that scientists and engineers focus on don’t consider social aspects (benign)

Wicked problem: No definitive formulation

can’t formulate atlanta traffic: road capacity, public safety

No stopping rule

when is it “good enough”?

Solutions are not true or false, but good or bad

• What’s good for one group may be bad for another

• Those in political power and wealth those needs are always met first

No immediate ultimate test of a solution

• Effects through complex systems ripple over decades; some impacts may only become visible after political or economic changes

• Ex: I-20 destroyed black neighborhoods

Every solution is a one shot operation

no trial or error

No enumerable set of solutions

• Infinite list of possible solutions

• New ideas and issues can always emerge

• Could implement youth programs or crime efforts

Even if problems look similar, local context (culture, history, environment) can make a big difference

Ex: “my state has the worst drivers”: based on different causes

Symptom of another problem

• Traffic can be bc of poor lane planning, which could be a cause of something else

• Can’t divide the problems; they’re interconnected

Wicked Problems applied to the beltline

Wicked Problems applied to the beltline cont

Who was the lead figure in the growth machine, and what is he asking?

Moltoch

who runs cities, and why?

Moltoch’s arguments against the growth machine

• argues that a city operates essentially as a mechanism for local elites to generate wealth and enhance property values 

• Explained the city as an engine for land value intensification driven by a coalition of local elites whose wealth depends on land use and growth

Growth machine’s view on land

• Land is the central commodity

  • Rising land value=rising rent (profit for owners)

  • Landowners need local governments to maximize their investments

Growth machine’s view on elites

• Growth unites rival elites

  • Local businesses lobby for highways, stadiums, airports

  • Try to attract federal investments and infrastructure

Growth machine supposed benefits

• Growth reduces property taxes for everyone

• Creates jobs and reduces employment

Molotoch’s reality of the growth machine

• Growth often costs existing residents more as infrastructures scale with population

• No significant correlation between city growth and unemployment (workers migrate nationally. Growth just distributes jobs)

who challenges the growth machine?

Anti-growth movements

workers

environmentalists

political vision of molotch

break up the growth machine; better the local government

Molotch wanted residents to challenge the pro-growth consensus and push for local government that serves people’s quality of life (use value) rather than landowners’ profits (exchange value)

Who is the growth machine and what claims are they making? waht are they not saying?

Land use planning vs zoning

Land use planning: goal and plan of what a city will become

zoning: laws and regulations

What are the broad categories of zoning

residential, commericial, agricultural, mix use, industrial

Types of zoning

Euclidean, performance, form-based

Euclidean zoning: the basic one

separates land by use: residential, commercial and industrial each get their own zones

Called “exclusionary zoning”: it can keep certain people out, especially low-income and minority residents

Hierarchical: Uses are ranked from most to least protected (open space and single families are most protected)

performance zoning

sets standards for things like noise, traffic, pollution, density and open space, so any use is allowed if it meets them (floor area ratio)

form-based zoning

regulates the physical form of buildings and streets, such as height, placement, façades and how buildings relate to the street

encourages walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods

Comprehensive plan

presents a city’s vision for the future (ATL updates it every 5 years)

Why does zoning still exist?

homeowners gain profit from scarcity of homes.. zoning limits supply

Kevin Lynch’s core question

How do people form mental images of hte places they live in?

kevin lynch research method

interviewed residents and asked them to draw mental maps of hteir cities

lynch’s 5 elemnts

paths

edges

districts

nodes

landmarks

path

where people move (streets, walkways)

connects destination to orgin points

edges

boundaries between two phases (shores, railroads, walls)

districts

medium to large sections of cities (ex: china town)

nodes

strategic spots in which to enter (major railroad stations, crossing of paths)

ex: shibuya in tokyo

landmarks

external point of reference that helps people identify where they are (stands out) ex: eiffel tower

What’s ferst drive

path

what’s tech square

district

whats tech green

node

whats bobby dodd

landmark

William Whyte’s study: what did it focus on

documented pedestrain behavior and city dynamics

how did whyte conduct his study

he observed pedestrains in different cities

how did his method help him reach his conclusion

revealed patterns invisible in the moment, such as why one plaza was crowded and another empty

William Whyte conclusions

people tend to sit most where there are places to sit

• benches are awkward

• must be centrally located

sun: people follow the sunlight

trees: sense of closure

water: works best when fountain water can be touched

food: vendors

triangulation

the process where something causes strangers to interact and talk together (ex: surrounding a street preformer, finding a bank robber)

Economic growth vs economic development

economic growth: increase in a region’s output of goods and services

economic development: broader improvement in wellbeing (social, economic, environmental aspects) (economic development is more broad and CAN include economic growth)