Unit 7 HGAP vocab

  • Primate city: A city much larger than others in the country, leading in economy, politics, and culture.

  • Megalopolis: A chain of connected large cities that function as one big urban area.

  • Gravity model: A way to predict how people move between cities based on size and distance.

  • Boomburbs: Large suburbs with over 100,000 people, but not the main city.

  • Blockbusting: When realtors scare homeowners into selling by claiming minorities are moving in.

  • Exurbs: Wealthy, semi-rural areas located beyond the suburbs.

  • Greenbelts: Areas of green space, like parks or farms, surrounding cities.

  • NIMBYs: People who don’t want developments like housing or factories near their homes.

  • Site: The physical location of a place, including its land features.

  • New Urbanism: City design that encourages walkable neighborhoods with diverse housing and businesses.

  • Squatter settlement: Poor, makeshift housing on land people don’t own.

  • High-Tech corridors: Areas near highways focused on technology businesses.

  • Zone of abandonment: Areas where people have left, leaving empty, neglected buildings.

  • Infilling: Building on unused land within a city.

  • World cities: Major cities like New York, London, and Tokyo that have global influence.

  • Slow growth city: A city that limits its expansion to reduce urban sprawl.

  • Megacities: Cities with more than 10 million people.

  • Metacities: Cities with over 20 million people.

  • Edge city: A suburban area with lots of businesses, shopping, and entertainment.

  • Compact design: Building taller instead of spreading outward to save space.

  • Gentrification: Wealthier people moving into poorer areas, raising housing costs.

  • DINKS: Couples with two incomes and no kids, often with higher spending power.

  • Walkability: How easy it is to walk around a city to reach shops, restaurants, and work.

  • Mixed land use: A city design where homes, shops, and businesses are close together.

  • Urban renewal: Fixing up run-down parts of a city.

  • Zoning regulations: Rules about how land can be used in a city.

  • Urban heat island: Cities being warmer than surrounding areas due to buildings and pollution.

  • Affordability: How much people can reasonably pay for housing.

  • Central place theory: A model explaining why cities are located where they are.

  • Suburbanization: People moving from city centers to the suburbs.

  • Fiscal imbalance: When a city spends more money than it earns.

  • Smart growth policies: Laws to control urban sprawl and promote sustainable development.

  • Diverse housing options: Creating homes for people of different income levels in one neighborhood.

  • Rank-size rule: Larger cities have more people, but smaller cities have fewer.

  • Redlining: Banks refusing loans to people in minority neighborhoods.

  • White flight: White residents leaving cities for the suburbs.

  • Brownfields: Polluted areas that are hard to develop.

  • Growth boundaries: Limits on how far a city can expand.

  • De facto segregation: Racial separation that happens without laws enforcing it.

  • Urban hierarchy: Ranking cities by size and importance.

  • Situation: A place's location in relation to other places.

  • Urban footprint: The environmental impact of a city.

  • Urban sprawl: Cities expanding outwards without much planning.

  • Range: How far people will travel to buy something.

  • CBD (Central Business District): The busy downtown area of a city.

  • Fiscal zoning: Using land rules to increase property tax income.

  • Disamenity zone: Extremely poor city areas lacking basic services.

  • Decentralization: Moving businesses from downtown to the suburbs.

  • Ecological footprint: The effect of a city on the environment.

  • Urban sustainability: Building cities in ways that protect resources for the future.

  • Farmland protection policies: Laws to prevent farmland from being used for buildings.