APHG Chapter 13 Core Content Review

Define the term **CBD** in ***one word***

Downtown

List some of the characteristics of a typical CBD

A typical CBD is compact (comprises under 1% of urban land), but contains the largest percentage of shops, offices, and institutions. 

Give an example of a typical downtown shop with a ***high threshold***

Department stores

What is a 100% corner?

A clustering of large department stores along an intersection.

Why are department stores *decreasing* in the CBD? Where are they going?

Department stores are leaving the CBD because they have closed downtown branches to move to suburban malls.

Give an example of a typical downtown shop with a ***high range***

Jewelry stores

Why are high-range stores *decreasing* in the CBD?   Where are they going?

These shops are in some cases declining in the CBD because they are not generating enough income and must move to suburban malls, but some that provide unusual goods/services may attract more consumers and remain in the CBD.

Another type of shop in the CBD are those which provide **services to downtown workers**.  Give some examples.

Office supply stores, computer stores, clothing stores, rapid photocopying, and dry cleaners.

Why are shops that provide services to downtown workers *increasing*?

These shops are increasing because they appeal to downtown office workers, whose numbers have been increasing, thus needing more services.

Why do business services cluster in CBDs? Provide examples of these services.

Business services cluster in the CBD for accessibility. Certain jobs rely on proximity to professional colleagues. Advertisers, bankers, journalists, and lawyers.

Still other types of businesses that locate in CBDs are those in which workers require **face-** **to-face contact with other workers**.  Give some examples of these.

Financial analysts and lawyers. 

How does the location of the CBD help businesses that locate there?  Discuss various types of employees.

The location of the CBD helps businesses that locate there employ workers from multiple neighborhoods. Top executives may live in the same neighborhood, junior executives in another, secretaries in another, and custodians in another.

Provide examples of public services in the CBD. Why do these services remain in the CBD?

Government (local, state, and federal), police officers, and firefighters. Public services remain in the CBD because a large number of people need to be protected from the potential of mass amounts of crime.  

Describe the price differential between rural, suburban and urban land (ie Tokyo).

A hectare of rural land may cost several thousand dollars, tens of thousands in the suburbs, and tens of millions in the CBD if it was available. Tokyo’s CBD land costs around $15,000 per square meter.  

Describe the typical “underground city”.  Include infrastructure, transportation.

The typical underground city contains multistory parking garages, loading decks for office/shop deliveries, utility lines (typically phone, electric cable, sewer, and water), and subways.

How has cold weather impacted the underground CBD? 

Cold weather has caused expansion underground for pedestrians so they can be protected from the harsh cold conditions.

What do skyscrapers give a city?

Their distinct image and act as a unifying symbol.

In the 1880s, what inventions allowed for skyscrapers?

The elevator and the iron-frame building construction

What further inventions helped solve the issues of light and air movement in skyscrapers?

Artificial lighting, ventilation, central heating, and air conditioning have solved the issues of light and air movement.

How do zoning ordinances impact a city’s skyscrapers?

Zoning ordinances affect the location and height of skyscrapers.

How is “land use” distributed within typical skyscrapers?

Retailers reside on street-level space for accessibility to consumers for high rent, professional offices occupy the central levels at lower rents, and apartments comprise the upper floors to take advantage of low noise levels and views.

What is the only major US city **without** skyscrapers?   What is its tallest building?  What is the result of this height limitation?

The only major US city without skyscrapers is Washington DC. Its tallest building is the US Capitol building and no building may be taller than it, so the height cap is 13 stories.

What is happening to the **old manufacturing districts** in American CBDs?   Where are they going?  Why?

Old manufacturing districts in American CBDs are moving to places with large amounts of land (enticing site factors) like suburbs

Describe the situation in port cities.  Provide examples of the cities and how have these cities changed over the years.

Port cities were formerly industrial warehouse sites to store transported goods, but large vessels can no longer maneuver in the shallow waters. These port cities transformed from industrial to commercial/recreational locations with offices, shops, parks, and museums. Examples are Boston, Toronto, Baltimore, San Francisco, Barcelona, and London which cleared prior industrial sites and replaced them with new parks, docks, etc

20th century: Identify push factors driving them FROM the CBD and another that is pulling them elsewhere.

Push: CBD land was expensive, it was dirty, crime was high, it was congested, and there were high rates of poverty.

Pull: Suburbs offered larger homes with personal lawns and good schools.

21st Century: Identify push factors from elsewhere and pulling people TO cities.

Push: Loss of need for good schools with no children living at home.

Pull: New housing (apartments and townhomes) and entertainment for those without kids (or those who have already left home). 

List 4 ways that a **European CBD** **differs** from a North American example.

1.  Cities tend to be low-rise with narrow streets
2. Many shopping streets are reserved for pedestrians (no motorized vehicles)
3. More likely to have supermarkets, bakeries, butchers, and other food stores downtown 
4. Most prominent structure are often churches or former royal palaces at important squares, road junctions, or on hilltops

How have Paris and Rome been distinctive in terms of their CBDs?

Paris began to build high-rise office buildings in the 1970s, but the public opposed this heavily, so lower height limits were reinstated.  

Rome often bans motor vehicles from CBD to prevent pollution, congestion, and damage to ancient monuments

For the Concentric Zone Model, identify the date the model was created, the geographer(s) who devised the model, the key parts of the model and other important characteristics and features.

Concentric Zone Model created in 1923 by E.W Burgess. The model is organized in concentric rings growing outwards from the CBD. The innermost ring is the CBD with nonresidential activities. Next is the zone in transition, which contains both industry and poorer-quality housing. The third ring is the zone of working-class modest homes for stable working families. The fourth ring is the zone of better residences more intended for middle-class families. The fifth and outermost ring is the commuters’ zone for people who work in the center but choose to live in small villages. 

For the Sector Zone Model, identify the date the model was created, the geographer(s) who devised the model, the key parts of the model and other important characteristics and features.

Sector Model created in 1939 by Homer Hoyt. The model uses sectors to represent cities as opposed to rings. Certain areas that are more attractive expand into a sector from the center. The best high-class housing extends from the CBD to the outer edge of the city, remaining in the same sector. Industry develops along transportation lines.

For the Multiple Nuclei Model, identify the date the model was created, the geographer(s) who devised the model, the key parts of the model and other important characteristics and features.

Multiple Nuclei Model created in 1945 by C.D Harris and E.L Ullman. The city is a complex structure in which activities revolve around multiple nodes, not just the CBD (e.g. port, university, airport, park). Some activities may be attracted to certain nodes but avoid others. Incompatible activities won’t cluster in the same locations (heavy industry and high-class housing are typically separate).

What are census tracts?

Areas delineated by the Census Bureau containing approximately 5,000 residents and correspond to neighborhood boundaries to collect statistical data.

What types of data are reported by the US Census Bureau regarding the population of each census tract?

The data that the Census Bureau collects is the characteristics of the people living in the neighborhoods, such as number of POC, median income of families, and percentage of high school graduates for adults.

Why do critics disagree with urban models?

Critics disagree with the models because they are too simple and don’t take into account the multiple reasons why people select certain residential areas.

Instead of building new buildings, Europe tends to . . .

Renovate poor-quality homes for wealthy people or destroy the poor-quality homes for office and luxury apartment buildings.

List three points about the conditions of European suburbs, where the poor live

(a) Poor people who previously lived in the city were pushed into suburbs in high-rise apartment buildings. 

(b) There are less shops, schools, and other services in the suburbs, so they must commute by public transport to work or reach downtown amenities.

(c) Many people who live in these suburbs are people of color or recent immigrants who face discrimination from Europeans

Why did Europeans encourage the construction of high-density suburbs?

It preserves the countryside from development and avoids suburban sprawl.

What is happening to poor-quality housing in European inner-city neighborhoods?  Why?

Poor-quality housing is either renovated for the wealthy to live in, or destroyed to build offices and luxury apartment buildings. This is because the wealthy have recently started clustering in the inner city due to the access to services and restored old buildings.

Cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America resemble European cities in their structure. This is not a coincidence because . . .

European colonial powers had a significant influence on the development of LDC cities.

Describe how Mexico City changed, following independence.  Be certain to include how and why the elite spine developed in modern.

Emperor Maximilian created a 14-lane tree-lined boulevard inspired by the Champs-Elysees in Paris called the Paseo de la Reforma. The Reforma became a spine for the wealthy, with multiple palaces having been built along it because sewage would flow elsewhere due to the higher elevation. Lake Texaco was drained in 1903 by a tunnel and canal project, allowing the city to expand further, though drained land was less desirable. Rapid population growth in the 20th century made it so 19th century social patterns were reinforced.

What are the causes of squatter settlements?

Rapid city growth and not enough houses for the poor.

What are the other names for squatter settlements around the world?

Barriadas/favelas (Latin America), bidonvilles (North Africa), bastees (India), gecekondu (Turkey), kampongs (Malaysia), and barong-barong (Philippines)

Globally, what is the range in the number of how many people live in squatter settlements?  Why do you think the disparity is so vast?

An estimated 175 million people globally lived in squatter settlements in 2003. Most are in urban areas of LDCs because many people are moving for job opportunities, but there isn’t housing to support all of the poor.

Describe services and amenities in a typical squatter settlement.  How do they get each of these amenities?

There is a lack of services and amenities in a squatter settlement. Latrines are designated by a settlement’s leader and water is carried from a central well or dispensed from a truck. Electricity is stolen by running a wire from the nearest power line.

Use the third paragraph in this section to make a simple flowchart which depicts stages in the development of a squatter settlement.

Squatters do a little more than camping or sleeping on the street. They may take shelter in nearby markets and warehouses in severe weather. → Families build shelters from cardboard, wood, sackcloth, and cans. They add new bits of material to their shacks as they find them → They may build a tin roof after a few years and create rooms, thus becoming more permanent.

What is the major problem faced by inner-city residents?

The poor condition of housing, most of which having been built before 1940.

Describe the inner-city process known as filtering. What is the ultimate result of this process?

Filtering is the process of landlords abandoning houses if the rent collected is less than the maintenance cost. The ultimate result of the process is that the buildings become so deteriorated that not even poor families want to rent them. A government may advocate repairing these properties. 

What is redlining and its result?

Redlining is the illegal process where banks draw lines on a map for people that they will refuse loans. The result is that families trying to fix up houses have troubles borrowing money.

What is urban renewal?

A 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.

Who (primarily) builds and maintains public housing?

Federal government

Public housing accounts for what % of all housing in the US? UK?

1% in the US and 14% in the UK

Why are the high-rise public housing “projects” built during the 50’s and 60’s now considered unsatisfactory?

Elevators frequently break down, children disturb other people in hallways, and high drug/crime rates.

How are recent public housing projects and “scattered-site” public housing of today different?

Public housing is declining as the Housing Choice Voucher Program supports low-income families in paying rent for private housing, and remaining public housing is renovated instead of being expanded.

Why has urban renewal been criticized?

Urban renewal has been criticized for destroying social life in older neighborhoods and reducing the amount of low-cost housing.

Define gentrification

A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income, renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class, owner-occupied area.

Who is attracted to move into gentrified areas? Why?

Middle-class people are attracted to gentrified areas because the houses may be larger and better built, but cheaper than the suburbs, and in closer proximity to work downtown. 

Why has gentrification been criticized?

Gentrification has been criticized because it causes low-income families to be forced to move out because of increased rent.

Inner-city residents frequently are referred to as a permanent __ because they are trapped in an unending cycle of __ and __ problems

Underclass, economic, social.

List and briefly describe four specific social problems of inner-city residents

1. Inadequate education. Schools are often deteriorated and good learning habits are often ignored. Less than half of inner-city residents complete high school. 


2. Lack of employment opportunities in the inner city creates homelessness. Over 1 million Americans sleep in doorways, subway/bus stations, or heated street grates. 
3. Neighborhoods lack services. There is minimal police and fire protection, shops, hospitals, or other healthcare facilities. 
4. The loss of unskilled labor in the inner city has left many unemployed. Many are undereducated and rely on low-skill factory jobs or custodians/fast food, but those have moved increasingly to the suburbs.

Describe how the culture of poverty perpetuates.

Culture of poverty perpetuates because ¾ of inner city women give birth without a father present, which forces them to choose between employment and caring for their child. This often leads to drug usage.

Explain the problem of eroding tax base and the issues it raises.

Low-income areas need public services, but can’t afford the taxes required to support them. This creates a growing gap between how much is needed to support these services and the funds paid by residents.

What two choices does a city have to solve eroding tax base? Explain each. 

A city may either reduce services or raise tax revenues. A city may close down many services (e.g. closing libraries, collect trash less often, delay school maintenance) to close the gap between tax money collected from the amount necessary to support the services. A city may also raise tax revenues, meaning they provide tax breaks for many services. However, this spending of public funds could take away from inner-city neighborhood projects like playgrounds. 

Be certain to understand the Impact of the Recession.

The recession primarily occurred because of inner-city collapse in the housing market in which those who could not pay back loans were approved without background checks, referred to as subprime mortgages. 

What is annexation?

The process of legally adding land area to a city

What is required before an area can be annexed by a city?

Before an area can be annexed by a city, the majority of residents in the affected area must vote in favor.

In the past, why did peripheral areas desire annexation?

Peripheral areas desired annexation in the past because the city supplied better services such as water supply, sewage disposal, trash pickup, paved streets, public transportation, and police/fire protection.

Why do peripheral areas no longer desire annexation?

Residents are less likely to support annexation today because they would rather organize their own services than pay city taxes.

What are three characteristics of a “city” and their suburbs?

1. City (a legal entity)
2. Urbanized area (a continuously built up area)
3. Metropolitan area (a functional area)

Define the term “city” legally.

An urban settlement that is an independent, self-governing unit.

What cities have lost more than ½ their population since 1950?  What area of the US did these cities come from?

Baltimore, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Most of these cities are in the Northeast/Midwest.

Define Urbanized Area. What percentage of US population lives there?

A central city and its contiguous built-up suburbs. 70%

What does MSA stand for?

Metropolitan Statistical Area

What are the characteristics of an MSA?

1.  An urbanized area with at least a 50,000 population


2. Includes the county where the city is located


3. Includes the adjacent counties with high population density and a high percentage of workers commuting to the central city’s county

How many MSAs were there in 2009 and what percentage of people lived there?

There were 366 MSAs in 2009 with 84% of the population living in them.

 Identify an advantage and a disadvantage of using an MSA to define “city”?

Advantage: Accounts for a city’s extensive zone of influence

Disadvantage: Some MSAs include non-urban extensive land areas (ex. Sequoia National Park is included in Visalia-Porterville, California MSA)

Regarding ***micropolitan*** areas… What is their size? What were these cities classified as previously? How many, and where, are they in the US?

1. Between 10,000 and 50,000
2. Rural
3. 574 primarily in the South and West

Briefly note how council of government, consolidations, and federations attempt to solve the problem of the multiplicity of local governments.

Council of government: Combines the many local government units in an urban area to do planning for the area that local governments cannot do.  

Consolidations: Separate city and county governments are combined into a joint operation in the same building.

Federations: Metropolitan governments are created through the federation of different municipalities.

What are basic problems caused by the multiplicity of governments in US urban areas?

Traffic issues, solid-waste disposal problems, and complications building affordable housing.

What is the meaning of the term megalopolis? (and what was the original example?)

Large metropolitan areas are so close together that they form a continuous urban complex. The original example was Boswash.

Where are the three major US megalopoli?

LA to Tijuana, Boston to Washington DC, and Chicago to Milwaukee.

Identify two European megalopoli (regional name and major cities)

1. German Ruhr (includes Dortmund, Dusseldorf, and Essen)
2. Randstad in the Netherlands (includes Amsterdam, Hague, and Rotterdam)

 Identify an Asian megalopolis (country and major cities)

Tokaido in Japan, which includes Tokyo and Yokohama.

Who created the peripheral model?

Chauncey Harris (also created Multiple Nuclei Model)

List the elements of an urban area according to the peripheral model

An inner city is surrounded by large suburban residential and business districts tied together by a beltway or ring road.

Describe the formation of an edge city.

Edge cities start as residence for people who work in the city. → Shopping malls were built to be near the residents. → Edge cities build manufacturing centers and office parks. → Specialized nodes emerge

What problems do peripheral lack? What do they have?

Lack: Severe physical, social, and economic problems of inner-city neighborhoods

Have: Suburban sprawl and segregation

Describe the density gradient of an urban area.

The decline in the density in an urban area with increasing distance from the center of the city.

How has the density gradient changed in recent years? (2 ways.)

1. Fewer people living in the center
2. Fewer distances in density within urban areas

Define sprawl

The progressive spread of development over the landscape.

What is meant by the statement that: the “periphery of US cities looks like Swiss cheese”?

There are pockets of development and gaps of open space.

What has prevented the peripheries of European cities from looking like “Swiss cheese”?

European cities require greenbelts surrounding development.

What is smart growth?

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.

Describe how “smart growth” laws have been designed in Maryland, New Jersey, and Tennessee.

Maryland: Enacted laws that prohibited new highway funding and other projects that extend suburban sprawl and destroy farmland.

New Jersey and Tennessee: Imposed growth boundaries where new development must take place.

In what two ways are suburban areas “segregated”?

Segregated social classes and land use

What is a zoning ordinance?

A law that limits the permitted use of land and maximum density of development in a community. This discourages the mixing of land use within the same district.

Since when did most retail activities begin to move from CBDs to suburban locations? Why?

Since the end of World War II, retail activities have begun to move from CBDs to suburban locations because suburban residents far from the CBD aren’t making the long commute there. 

Where do **malls** tend to locate?

Malls tend to locate near key road junctions, but are increasingly moving to the suburbs.

Why have **factories** and **warehouses** moved to suburbs? What are the advantages of having offices in suburban locations?

Factories and warehouses have moved to suburbs because of vaster and cheaper land, and better truck access. The advantages of having offices in suburban areas is lower rent than CBD and uncongested roads with free parking.

Describe how developments in transportation affected the residential pattern of American cities.

People had to live in crowded cities to be in walking proximity to services and work. → Streetcars allowed people to live in the suburbs and travel accessible to the central city. → Suburbs exploded because cars allowed for quick transport for far distances.

Identify 2 ways in which the US Government has encouraged the use of motor vehicles by its citizens.

Paying for 90% of costs of high-speed interstate highways and keeping the price of fuel below Europe