CLARA - Cities + Urban Life

Central City

A city surrounded by suburbs

Urban Area

In the United States, a central city plus its contiguous built-up suburbs

Central Business District

The area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered

Gentrification

The process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.

Zone of Transition

An area of mixed commercial and residential land uses surrounding the CBD

Outskirts

The outer parts of a city or town

Filtering

A process of change in the use of a house, from single-faily owner occupancy to abandonment

Redlining

A process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries

Urban Renewal

Program in which cities identify blighted inner-city neighborhoods, acquire the properties from private owners, relocate the residents and businesses, clear the site, build new roads and utilities, and turn the land over to private developers

Revitalization

The process occurring in some urban areas experiencing inner city decay that usually involves the construction of new shopping districts, entertainment venues, and cultural attractions to entice young urban professionals back into the cities where nightlife and culture are more accessible.

Sector Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district (CBD).

Concentric Zone Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings

Multi Nuclei Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around collection of nodes of activities

Edge City

A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area

Latin America Model (Spine Model)

Large plaza in center with church (tallest building) as you go out from plaza it was grid roads. The further out, less wealthy it gets. "the spine": main transportation into city (large road). wealthy downtown and along spine. poorest on outer edge, called the

Sprawl

Development of new housing sites at relatively low density and at locations that are not contiguous to the existing built-up area

Census Tract

Small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity that are updated by local participants prior to each decennial census as part of the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program

Greenbelt

A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area

Metropolitan Area

a large population center adjacent communities with a high degree of economic and social integration

urban geography

focuses on the significance of the city's location and natural resources

Urban

Characteristics of a city or town

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.This process often involves the migration of people from rural areas to cities, leading to the growth and expansion of urban areas.

production surplus

rise of agriculture encouraged people stay put and led to a gradual transition from village to town

clustering

the degree to which miniority group member live disproportionatly in contiguous areas.

Centralization

the degree to which a group os located near the center of an urban area.

economic ethnic enclaves

Immigrants group concentrated in a distinct spatial location where the work force is comprised of immigrants (employees &employers)

segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences. Isolation of groups (base on race)
-more than any other characteristic( income occupation life cycle), residence is determined by RACE.

Suburbanization

Movement of upper and middle-class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions (perceived and actual). In North America, the process began in the early nineteenth century and became a mass phenomenon by the second half of the twentieth century.

smart growth policies

an urban planning theory that concentrates walkable and bikable city areas to prevent urban sprawl and the further destruction of farmland and wilderness