Aphg Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Urban Geography
Field Note: Changing Greens

CBD in Detroit, Michigan is along Grand Circus Park and takes shape of a
bike wheel
The revitalization process in Detroit brings many buildings that were
abandoned or sold to be made better and renovated
- Kales building, old K-Mart HQ, is now an apartment complex
- Adams theater was unable to be renovated but the faade is still kept up
and a new building is being built up
- Grand Park Centre went into renovation for more office space
- Many former commercial buildings have been transformed into living
spaces such as apartments
People are interested in moving towards the CBD of Detroit because of the
low crime rate and high gas prices
Other neighborhoods of the city are not bouncing back as well as Grand
Circus Park
- Abandoned high-rise building are called the ghosts of Detroit
- Many large buildings have once been active but the downturn of the
automobile industry in Detroit caused them to abandon
Run down parts of the city such as high-rise office buildings, apartments,
government buildings, hotels, and train stations have been abandoned
- Despite renovation attempts there was no growth and the funds that went
to funding the renovation have led to financial woes
Detroit announced a plan in 2010 to demolish 10,000 abandoned buildings
and houses in Detroit by 2014
Synekism: The possibility of change that results from people living together
in cities
Figure 9.1

Figure 9.2

(Other parts of Detroit are riddled
with high crime rates and remnants
of a once bustling commercially
successful place but now is a rust
belt)

(Picture of Detroit, Michigan
showing the West Adams Street
and the buildings that reside on it)
(Picture of the Lafayette Building
in Detroit that once held the offices
of the Michigan Supreme Court.
You can see the boarded up
windows and how it looks
rundown)
When and Why Did People Start Living in Cities?
Worldwide, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas today
- China reached the point where more than 50% of its population lived in
urban areas in 2010 but in 2000 only 36.1% lived in urban areas
Urban: refers to the built up space of the central city and suburbs
- Urban areas include the city and surrounding environs connected to the
city
- Non-rural and non-agricultural
From the beginnings of human history, to about 3000 BC less than 1% of
people lived in urban areas
- Cities in Mesopotamia, Nile River, Mesoamerica, and Asia
IR caused explosion in population growth in the mid-1700s in Great Britain
western Europe, US, Canada, and Japan, 4/5 people lived in cities or towns
- China 5/10
- India in 2011 7/10 living in RURAL AREAS
The agglomeration of people, services, and goods in cities affords people in
luxury of time to innovate
- Cities are centers of political power and industrial might, higher
education, and technological innovation, artistic achievement, and
medical advances

(How much of the US is rural and
do not live in urban areas? Are
rural places in the US affected by
urban areas?)

(The factories brought labor to that
country which then paid the
workers as they did not want to
work the fields)


- Great markets, centers of specialization and interaction, sources of news
and information, suppliers of services, and providers of sports and
entertainment
City: is an agglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve
as a center of politics, culture, and economics
In the modern world, urbanization can happen quickly
- Chinese government announced a major economic development project
in Guangdong, a province in southern China which caused the small rural
area turned into a special economic zone (SEZ)
- Hundreds of industries moved from Hong Kong to Shenzhen because of
cheap labor and the small fishing village experienced a population
growth and saw urbanization
Human communities have existed for over 1000,000 years, but more than
90,000 years passed before people began to cluster in towns
- Archaeological evidence indicates that people established the first cities
about 8000 years ago
- Only last 200 years ago did cities begin to resemble their modern size
and structure
The Hearths of Urbanization
Archaeologists agree that first cities came several millennia after the
origins of agriculture
Agricultural village: a relatively small, egalitarian village, where most of the
population was involved in agriculture. Starting over 10,000 years ago,
people began to cluster in agricultural villages as they stayed in one place to
tend their crops
- Populations were permanent, reflected in the dwelling units where people
moved rocks in, built structures, and laid out floors made of plaster
In cities, people generate personal wealth, trade over long distances, live in
stratified classes that are usually reflected in the housing, and engage in
diversity of economic activities not just agriculture
Agricultural surplus: One of two components, together with social
stratification, that enable the formation of cities; agricultural production in
excess of that which the producer needs for his or her own sustenance that of
his or her family and which is then sold for consumption
Social stratification: One of two components, together with agricultural
surplus, which enables the formation of cities; the differentiation of society
into classes based on wealth, power, production, and prestige
One theory maintains that advances in technology such as irrigation generated
an agricultural surplus, and a leadership class formed to control the surplus
and the tech that produced it
- Another theory holds that a king or priest-king centralized political
power and then demanded more labor to generate an agricultural surplus
Leadership class: consisted of a group of decision makers and organizers
who controlled the resources, and often the lives of others
- Controlled food supply, including its production, storage, and
distribution
- Did not work the fields but devoted time to other pursuits such as
religion and philosophy which developed writing and recordkeeping
- Built walls to protect themselves from the outside but still had power
outside the walls
Figure 9.4

Figure 9.5

(Did the idea of agglomeration
appeal to humans because we are
social creatures? Or did we see the
benefits it gave us?)

(Do some agricultural villages
exist in core countries? Or are they
prevalent in periphery countries
with subsistence agricultural
practices?)

(Did early leadership classes face
problems with corruption and the
greediness of human beings?)

(Picture of Shenzhen, China and
the huge skyscrapers that dominate
the landscape)
(A map or drawing of Catal
Huyuk. It is an early city dated
back to 12,000 years ago in the

First urban revolution: The innovation of the city, which occurred
independently in six separate hearths
- in each urban hearths, people became engaged in economic activities
beyond agriculture
- specialty crafts, military, trade, and government
Six urban hearths are tied closely to the hearts of agriculture
- First hearth of agriculture, the Fertile Crescent is also evidence of first
cities
Mesopotamia: the region of great cities located between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers
- Social inequality in the city
- The elite had very elaborate palaces with walls
- Lots of arts
- Elite and priest-king class developed a religious-political ideology
- Taxes and harvest was asked for by the rulers of the cities
Much has been discovered about the ancient cities of Mesopotamia
- Usually was protected by mud walls which surrounded community, or
sometimes a cluster of temples and shrines in the center
- Temples dominated the urban landscape as they were built on artificial
mounds up to 100 feet high
Mesopotamian priest and other authorities lived in palaces
- Ordinary citizens lived in mud-walled houses with no space
Figure 9.6

Nile River Valley: second hearth of urbanization and dated back to 3200
BCE
- Interrelationship between urbanization and irrigation in this region
distinguishes it from other urban hearths.
- Rulers of the valley reflected feats of architecture such as the great
pyramids, tombs, and sphinx
- It was thought that slaves built these building but in fact was ordinary
citizens and it was their taxes
Indus River Valley: third urban hearth and dated back to 2200 BCE
- Another place where agriculture likely diffused from the Fertile Crescent
- Scholars are still unable to translate the ancient Indus writing and the
cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro confuse us (first cities of the valley)
- The planning of the city shows there was a leadership class present
- All houses are equal in size and no palaces or monuments
- All dwellings in cities had access to same infrastructure
- Carefully maintained stone-lined wall
Huang He and Wei Valleys: the fourth urban hearth dating back to 1500
BCE
- Chinese purposefully planned their ancient cities to center on a vertical
structure in the middle of the city with an inner wall around it
- Within the inner walls resided the leadership class
- Urban elite of the valley shows power by building big structures
- Emperor Qin Xi Huang directed the building of the Great Wall of China
- Created an elaborate tomb with his terracotta soldiers
- 700k workers working on tomb and 40 years to make weapons and an
army of 7k terracotta soldiers
Mesoamerica: fifth urban hearth dating back to 1100 BCE
- Ancient cities were religious centers
- Olmec built cities and carved stone monuments from rocks believed to
have been moved over 50 miles
Fertile Crescent)

(Map of the world showing the six
hearths of urbanization)

(Why have we not been able to
obtain and learn the writings of the
ancient Indus people? Is it like no
other language?)

(Was there an outer wall to protect
the village as a whole?)


- Olmec and Maya built cities in the same region also centered on religious
temples
Peru: the sixth urban hearth dating back to 900 BCE
- Largest settlement, Chavin, was sited at an elevation of 10,530 feet in the
Andean highlands
Figure 9.7

The Role of the Ancient City in Society
Ancient cities not only were centers of religion and power, but also served as
economic nodes
Cities were the chief marketplaces from which wealthy merchants, land and
livestock owners, and traders operated
Educational centers
Anchors of culture and society
By modern standards, ancient cities were not large
- Cities of Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley may have had between
10,000 and 15,000 inhabitants after nearly 2000 years of growth
- Maximum sustainable size based on existing systems of food production,
gathering, distribution, and social organization
Figure 9.8

Figure 9.9

Diffusion of Urbanization
Urbanization diffused from Mesopotamia in several directions
- Populations in Mesopotamia grew with steady food supply and sedentary
lifestyle
- People migrated from hearth and diffused knowledge of agriculture and
urbanization
- Urbanization diffused to the Mediterranean from Mesopotamia
Greek Cities
Greek is not an urban hearth because agriculture and urbanization diffused to
Greece from Mesopotamia rather than being innovated in Greece
Secondary hearth: an early adopter of a cultural practice or trait that
becomes a central locale from which the practice or trait further diffuses
Greek cities began more than 3500 years ago, when the city of Knossos on
the island of Crete became the cornerstone of a system of towns in the
Minoan civilization
By 500 BCE, Greece had become one of the most highly urbanized areas on
Earth
- Ancient Greece ushered in a new stage of evolution of cities
- It encompassed a network of more than 500 cities and town, not only on
the mainland but also on the many Greek islands
- Athens and Sparta became Greeces leading cities
Acropolis: literally high point of the city. The upper fortified part of an
ancient Greek city, usually devoted to religious purposes
- Parthenon of Athens remains the most famous acropolis as it still remains
through 2500 years of time
SWA cities were crowded and small while Greeces cities were large and
open
- Square and open spaces invited Greeks to debate, lecture, judge, plan
military campaigns, and socialize
Agora: market

(Map of the Indus River Valley
and showing the deserts and
wetlands of the region)

(picture of the Terracotta warriors
guarding the tomb of the Emperor
Qin Xi Huang)
(Map of Mesoamerican region and
showing what was Mayan domain
and Aztec domain)

(Did Greece have a bigger impact
than Mesopotamia?)

(Did the cities surround this
point?)


Greece also had excellent theaters
- Aristocracy attended plays and listened to philosophical discourses
- But for many people it was miserable to live in the city as there was not
good housing
No good housing, sanitation, and health conditions for the poor of the country
Urbanization diffused from Greece to the Roman Empire and was heavily
influenced from Greece culture
Roman cities
Majority of Greeces cities and towns were located near the Mediterranean
Sea on peninsulas and islands
- When Romans succeeded the Greeks as rulers of the region, their empire
incorporated the Mediterranean shores but also a large part of interior
Europe and North Africa
Roman urban system was larger than Greeces domain
Capital, Rome, served as the apex of hierarchy of settlements ranging from
small villages to large cities
- Romans linked these areas with transportation means through hundreds
of miles of roads
- There were also sea-routes along with trading ports along the roads, sea,
and rivers
- Roman regional planners displayed a remarkable capacity for choosing
right site of cities, for identifying suitable locales for settlements
A certain site may be chosen for a city as there will be advantages in trade or
defense, or as a center for religious practice
Situation: The external locational attributes of a place, including its absolute
location, its spatial character and physical setting
Rome was the center of the Roman Empire but when empire fell Romes
situation changed
- Developed into the center of the Roman Catholic Church
Figure 9.10

Figure 9.11

Figure 9.12

Urban morphology: The study of the physical form and structure of urban
places
- Romans were influenced heavily by Greeks and is seen in mythology of
Romans
Greeks planned colonial cities in grid pattern and so did Romans
Figure 9.13

Functional zonation: The division of a city into different regions or zones
for certain purposes or functions
- it reveals how different areas or segments of a city serve different
purposes or functions within the city
Forum: served as the focal point of Roman public life. Similar to the Greeks

(Picture of the Parthenon in
Athens, Greece. One can see the
wear that 25 centuries has put on
this structure)
(Picture of Athens Greece looking
down from the Acropolis and
seeing the market area of the area
below)
(Map of the Roman Empire in 117
CE and showing the empire, walls,
and trade routes)

(Picture of Rome, Italy in modern
days and one can see the run down
and wear of centuries. Despite the
years it still holds up and you can
see the shape and marvel it once
held)


agora which was essentially the town square
- The Forum includes the worlds first great stadium, the Colosseum
The Colosseum was the counterpart to Greeks theaters
- Roman gladiators fought each other or killed wild animals for
entertainment
- Before Christianity diffused into Rome, the Colosseum would hold
Christians inside with hungry lions for entertainment
- Is where competitions, war games, ceremonies, and other public events
took place
Had monumental buildings, impressive villas, spacious avenues, ingenious
aqueducts and baths, and sewage systems built of stone and pipe
Estimated are between 1/3 through 2/3 of the population were enslaved
peoples
- Poor were kept in poor conditions while the rich lived in luxurious
environments
Figure 9.14

Figure 9.15

Urban Growth after Greece and Rome
Roman Empire fell in 496 CE
- After the fall, Europe fell into the Middle Ages from 500-1300
During the first 2/3 of the period, Europe experienced very little urban growth
- Urbanization was declining
Urban growth started to happen during the time of the Silk Route between
Europe and Asia
In Asia, Chinese style city-building diffused into Korea and Japan, with Seoul
becoming a full-fledged city by 1200 and Kyoto was growing rapidly after
the turn of the 9
th
century
During the Middle Ages in Europe, urban growth was every outside of
Europe
- West African trading cities developed such as Timbuktu in modern day
Mali
- Americas experienced urban growth during the Middle Ages especially
in the Mayan and Aztec empires
Largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas was in the Aztec Empire on the
Mexican Plateau
- The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had nearly 100k inhabitants when
many European cities lay in ruin
Site and Situation during European Exploration
Early Eurasian urban areas extended in a crescent shaped zone across Eurasia
from England to Japan
Before European exploration, most cites in the world were sited on trade
routes in the interiors of continents
- Not just in Eurasia but also in West Africa and indigenous America
- Silk Route and the caravan routes of West Africa sustained these inland
cities and in many cases helped them prosper
As the European maritime exploration exploded the inland cities were not
included and the cities on the coast benefited the most
- European exploration took of during the 1400s
- Asian coastal cities such as Bombay, Madras, Malacca, Batavia, and

(Picture in Nimes, France showing
the aqueducts that were built
during the Roman Empire about
2000 years ago)
(Picture of a structure in Altun Ha,
Belize. It was built between 300
and 900 CE and Altun Ha served
as a thriving trade center)

(How did the Chinese come up
with such a powerful house
design?)

(Why is the Aztec doing so well
but not the Europeans?)

(Was the Silk Route the favored
route before maritime
exploration?)


Tokyo came to the lead and fore
The cites in Africa that were on the coast traded with the inland people
instead of the opposite
- Lead to the decline of interior cities
Coastal cities remained crucial after exploration led to colonialism
- Key cities in international trade networks included coastal cities of Cape
Town, Lima-Callao, and NYC
Trade networks European powers commanded brought unprecedented riches
to Europes burgeoning medieval cities
- Successful merchants built ornate mansions, patronized the arts,
participated in city governance, and supported the reconstruction of city
centers
- Money started to become the center of the city as central square was the
center of the city
Figure 9.16

Second Urban Revolution
During the last decades of the 18
th
century, the IR began in Great Britain
- None of Europes cities were prepared for what lay ahead: an avalanche
of changes that ripped the fabric of urban life
Around 1800, w Europe was still very much rural but thousands migrated to
the cities with industrialization and the cities adapted to become urban
Second Agricultural Revolution
Before the second urban revolution to take place, a second revolution in
agriculture was necessary
- During the late 17
th
century and into the 18
th
century, Europeans invented
a series of important improvements to agriculture
- Agricultural laborers migrated to the cities in hopes of obtaining jobs in
the formal economy, which included wages, usable in the growing cash-
based economies of Europe
Not all mercantile cities turned into industrial cities
- Many industrial cities grew from small villages or along canal and river
routes
- Primary determinant in the location of early industrial cities was
proximity to power sources
- For textiles, had to be near fresh water sources to power water loom
Figure 9.17

Chaotic Industrial City
With industrialization, cities became unregulated jumbles of activity
- Factories engulfed private homes
- Open spaces became garbage dumps
- Urban dwellers converted elegant housing into overcrowded slums
- Sanitation systems failed
- Water supplies were inadequate and often polluted
By the late 1800s, the IR had changed transportation and the development of
the railroad gave cities not near coal a chance to industrialize
Living conditions for workers were dreadful in cities
- Kids work 12 hours shifts in textile mills six days a week

(Picture of Genoa, Italy in modern
day. The old buildings of ancient
Rome has been restored or the
buildings are after the style of
Roman architecture)

(Map of industrialized region in
Europe in the year 1914. It shows
location of coal, iron, and
industrial areas. The red lines are
railroads)


- Health conditions are very bad
- Air was polluted along with water
- Not much safety in work places
In the mid-1800s Karl Marx and Frederick Engels encouraged workers of the
world to unite
- This caused conditions to improve in European countries
- Industrialist were forced to recognized workers rights
- NA never suffered the same as Europeans as they learned from the past
Growing too fast will cause the city to become slums and development of
ghettos
Companies simply abandoned large manufacturing plants making rust belts
out of once thriving districts
Figure 9.18

(Picture of Duisburg, Germany
with a rusted old factory in the
background. The factory is
overgrown and not well
maintained)
Where Are Cities Located and Why?
Each place is where it is because of some decision with some perception of
the site or its situation
Site and situation help explain why certain cities were planned and why cities
thrive or fail
Figure 9.19

Trade areas: adjacent to every town and city within which its influence id
dominant
- Every city and town has a trade area
- Customers from smaller towns and villages come to the city to shop and
to conduct other business
Three key components for urban areas
- Population, trade area, and distance
- Example: if one looks at map you will see many small towns with
unfamiliar names. Then a number of smaller towns along the highways
and several medium-sized cities where transportation routes converge,
and likely one familiar, dominant city
- The largest city has the largest trade area and fewer rival places as a
result
Figure 9.20

Rank and Size in the Urban Matrix
Rank-size rule: holds that in a model urban hierarchy, the population of a
city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy
- Thus, if the largest city has 12 million people, the second largest will
have about 6 million (1/2) third about 4 mill (1/3) fourth about 3 mill so
on
Feilx Auerbach (German)
- Suggested the rank-size rule in 1913
- (George Zipf credited with the math)
Scholars across disciplines have tested the rule and questioned when the rule
applies and when it does not
- Studies in 1966, 1980, and 2002 found that majority of countries they
tested had populations with more even distributions than the rank-size
rule would predict

(Map of the US showing the
regions of influence for cities in
contiguous states)

(Picture of a Green County Cycle
City store in Broken Arrow
Oklahoma. It is s trade area)

(How did he come up with this
rule? Did he just observe urban
cities?)


The rank-size rule does not apply in all countries, especially countries with
one dominant city
- A government might help the capital grow and will give an unfair
advantage to other cities
Mark Jefferson defined primate city in 1939
Primate city: a countrys leading city, always disproportionality large and
exceptionally expressive of national capacity and feeling
- Mark Jefferson saw the primate city as the largest and most economically
influential within the state, with the next largest city in the state being
much smaller and much less influential
Many former colonies have primate cities, as the colonial powers often ruled
from a single
- Former colonies include Mexico City, Mexico and Manila, the
Philippines
Central Place Theory
Walter Christaller wrote the classic urban geography study to explain where
cities, towns, and villages are likely to be located
- The Central Places in Southern Germany (1933) (book that he wrote)
- He attempted to develop a model to predict how and where central places
in urban hierarchy would be functionally and spatially distributed
Walter Christallers assumptions
- First, the surface of the ideal region would be flat and have no physical
barriers
- Second, soil fertility would be the same everywhere
- Third, population and purchasing power would be evenly distributed
- Region would have a uniform transportation network to permit direct
travel from each settlement to the other
- From any given place, a good or service could be sold in all directions
out to a certain distance
Ideal central place system
- Largest central place provides the greatest number of functions to most of
the region
- Within the trade area of the largest central place, a series of larger towns
would provide functions to several smaller places
- Smaller places would then provide fewer central functions to a smaller-
yet service area
Figure 9.21

To determine location of central place, Christaller need to define the goods
and services produced
- He studied the sale of goods and services and calculated the distance
people would willingly travel to acquire them
- Cities would be regularly spaced with central places where the same
product was sold at the same price located a standard distance aprt
- No one would travel long distance to buy one item
Hexagonal Hinterlands
Shape of central areas is hexagonal as circles would have to overlap to make
boundaries between them
- Geographers agreed with the hexagonal pattern of the chart
- Christaller knew that his model would not be perfect as physical barriers,
uneven resource distributions, and other factors all modify his hexagons

(Would the government favor a
city so much that it attracts more
and more people in and less people
are on the outside of the city?)

(Picture of the Christallers
hierarchy of settlements and their
service areas. It is a hexagon
shaped chart that shows the service
areas)

(Why not other shapes? Is the
hexagonal shape superior to other
shapes?)


Central Places Today
When Christaller made his model the world was not at the level it is today
- New factors have come into play
Larry Ford says central place notions still have a role in explaining current
developments
Sun Belt phenomenon: movement of millions of Americans from northern
and northeastern states to south and southwest states
- As Americans moved south Middle and South American migrants moved
northward into the same urban centers already growing for domestic
reasons
- This caused certain cities to become central cities as the population grew
so high such as Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix

(Is the Sun Belt the most populated
area of the US?)

How Are Cities Organized and How Do They Function?
Regions of the world have their own distinct characteristics
- Mumbai, India looks very different from Chicago, Illinois
- Tokyo, Japan looks very different from Lagos, Nigeria
- Cities in SA tend to be graced by often magnificent plazas not common
in Australia or Russia
Since 1920s, urban geographers have studied, charted, and mapped cities to
create models that describe the urban morphology, functional zonation, and
overall layout of cities in world regions
Models of the City
Functional zonation: the divisions of the city into certain regions for certain
purposes
Globalization has created common cultural landscapes in the financial
districts of many world cities
- Shanghai now is completely different from 30 years ago as now it is
filled with skyscrapers and such
- Same for Mumbai of India
Cultural landscape is still visible in spite of globalization
- In Shanghai, China the government chose to preserve the unique colonial
riverfront architecture and develop around the colonial neighborhood and
across the Huangpu River
- SA cities protecting historic plazas against modernization
- Paris protects old city from development of high rises
Functional Zones
Zone: typically preceded by a descriptor that conveys the purpose of that area
of the city
- key zones of a city might include the central business district (CBD)
Central city: describes the urban area that is not suburban
Suburb: outlying, functionally uniform part of an urban area and is often
adjacent to the central city
- Not always homes, includes schools, malls, and office parks
Suburbanization: the process by which lands that were previously outside of
the urban environment become urbanized
- Transformation of rural land to urban land
In Contemporary Suburban America (1981) P.O. Muller offered analysis of
suburbanization
- He says it evolved into a self-sufficient urban entity, containing its own
major economic and cultural activates
- No longer an appendage to the central city
- Muller found that suburban areas ready to compete with central city for
leading urban economic activities such as telecommunications, hi-tech
industries, and corporate HQs
- Residential zones are the most common in suburban areas

(cultural landscape will make cities
look different even though
globalization has happened)

(Why did they choose to keep the
colonial influence? Wont it make
it look non-nationalistic?)

(Are there more people living in
suburban areas than cities?)


2000 census state 50% of American population is in suburban areas and the
other half are located in cities and rural areas(30.3% in central cities and
19.7% in rural areas)
Modeling the North American City
First model of NA cities was the concentric zone model
Concentric zone model: divides the city into five concentric zones, defined
by their functions
1. CBD
2. Residential deterioration and encroachment by business and light
manufacturing
3. Homes occupied by blue-collar labor force
4. Middle-class residences
5. Suburban ring
1930s, Homer Hoyt published sector model to answer to the Burgess models
limitations
- Focused on residential patters and the where the wealthy choose to live
- Hoyt argued city grows outward from center and low-rent area would
extend creating a pie shaped sector
Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman argued neither concentric circles nor the
sector model adequately reflected city structure by mid-20
th
century. Thus,
the nuclei model was born
- The model recognizes that the CBD was losing its dominant position as
the single nucleus of the urban area
- Several urban regions shown the in the figure have their own nuclei
Most urban geographers find the models to be too simplistic to describe
modern cities
- With easy transportation since the 1970s and 1980s, suburbanization
exploded around new transportation corridors
- Outer city grew rapidly and became more functionally independent of the
central city
Suburban areas usually located by highway intersections
- Usually has downtowns, malls, parks, office complexes, hotels,
restaurants, entertainment, and sports stadiums
Edge cities: often located near key freeway intersections
- Tysons Corner, Virginia (outside DC)
- Irvine Cali (outside LA)
- Successful and attract nearby peoples by offering work, shopping places,
leisure activities, and all the other elements of a urban environment
American suburbs surpassed the central cities in total employment as early as
1973
- By mid 1980s in some metropolises in the sun belt, the majority of jobs
in the metropolis were in the suburbs
Figure 9.23

Modeling the Cities of the Global Periphery and Semi periphery
In 1960s researchers classified colonial cities as urban areas where European
transplants dominated the form of the city
Rapid growth of population made it difficult to apply city models
Megacities: a city with large population, a vast territorial extent, rapid in-
migration, and a standard inadequate infrastructure
- Mumbai, India has more people than the country of Australia
- Sao Paulo, Brazil covers more land than the country of Belgium

(How different were North
American cities from other
countries?)

(Did the models change because
they were wrong or were the cities
just evolving?)

(Picture of Tysons Corner in
Virginia and showing the suburbs
of DC. The suburb developed as a
major edge city with offices, retail,
and commercial services)\


- The Congo is the fastest growing city in Africa
- Indonesia is the largest city in the world without a subway or metro
system
The South American City
In 1980, Ernst Griffon and Larry Ford studied South American city referred
to as the Griffon-Ford model
- South American culture with the forces of globalization that are
reshaping the urban scene, combining radial sectors and concentric zones
The center of the model is the CBD
- It is the citys primary business, employment, and entertainment focus
- Divded into a market sector and a modern sector
- From the CBD is the spine which is filled with offices, shopping, high-
quality housing for the upper and upper-middle classes, restaurants,
theaters, and such amenities as parks, zoos, and golf courses
The spine leads to the mall which is filled with high-priced residences
The reaming parts of the model is filled with lesser off residents that make up
much of the population
The inside of the city is filled with the better off people and adjacent zones
are filled with modest housing
Outer most zones are hoem to the improverished and recent migrants who
live in shantytowns
Shantytowns: crude dwellings and shelters made mostly of scrap wood, iron,
and pieces of cardboard that develop around cities
Disamenity sector: The very poorest parts of cities than in extreme cases are
not connected to regular city services
- controlled by gangs and drug lords
- contains slums such as barrios and favelas
- worst of these areas are large numbers of poor people that are in the
streets
- little regular law enforcement
- battle for control from drug lords happen for dominance
- the periferico outside of the city is also the same condition
The model shows the big spaces between the rich and poor
The African City
At the beginning of the century, Sub-Saharan Africa included countries with
some of the worlds lowest levels of urbanization
- Majority of the people were farmers in tropical areas of Africa and
remained 40% urbanized
- Outside the tropics, the regions were about 57% urbanized
- Now, Africa has fastest growing cities in the world followed by South
Asia and mainland East Asia and South and Middle America
Imprint of European colonialism can still be seen in many African cities
- Europeans laid out urban centers in Kinshasa (The Congo), Nairobi
(Kenya), and Harare (Zimbabwe) along with the ports of Africa
Africa has cities that are neither traditional nor colonial
- The diversity of Africas cities makes it hard to make a model of cities in
Africa
- Studies of African culture indicates that the central cities often consist of
not one but three CBDs and are colonial CBD, traditional CBD, and a
market zone
Figure 9.24
Figure 9.25

Figure 9.26

(Will there be any other models
proving this wrong or will the
cities evolve and change as
humans do?)

(Why do the better off people live
in the inside? Will traveling
outside the city is harder as they
are in the middle?)

(The Griffon-Ford model of South
American cities)
(Picture of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
and shows the shantytown of
Brazil)
(The model of a sub-Saharan

The SEA city
Some of the most populated cities in the world are in SEA
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is a complex of high-rise development including the
1483 feet tall Petronas Towers
In 1967, TG McGee studied the medium sized cities of SEA and found that
they exhibit similar land-use patterns, creating a model referred to as McGee
model
McGee Model: A cone shaped model to represent a typical southeast Asian
city
- the focal point of the cone is the old colonial port with the surrounding
commercial district
- McGee found no CBD but rather commercial markets and districts
combined with the port
- The government zone is next to the port and Western commercial zone is
also next to it. Alien commercial zone is right next to the Western
commercial zone
- The AC is dominated by Chinese merchants whose residences are
attached to their businesses.
- Market-gardening zone at the outskirts of the urban area
- Residential zones are similar to the Griffon-Ford model as elite
residential zones includes suburbs, an inner-city zone of middle-income
housing
- Peripheral residences are lower income residents.
- McGee model has middle-income housing in suburbs unlike the Griffon-
Ford model
Models do not explain how or why cities are organized the way they are
- A model of a city shows us an end product, whether planned or not and
suggests the forces that created that end product
Figure 9.27
African city)

(Picture of the McGee model of
SEA city. It is a cone shape with
different little zones rather than
sectors)
How Do People Shape Cities?
Zoning laws: cities define areas of the city and designate the kinds of
development allowed in each zone.
Portland, Oregon is often described as the best planned city in NA
- Has central city transportation to discourage use of cars
- Office buildings and residences are close to each other to encourage
walking or biking
People shape cities by choosing to live in certain neighborhoods and by
opening stores, houses of worship, and even sporting fields
Comparing and contrasting the urban cultural landscapes of two cities help us
understand the different social and cultural forces at play
Figure 9.28

Figure 9.28

(Picture of Lome, Togo and shows
the citys landscape reflects a clear
dichotomy between the haves
and have-nots. It shows
multifamily houses and not a lot of
vegetation)
(Picture of Tokyo, Japan and
shows a high percentage of middle
class families and the housing is
single family housing)


Figure 9.30

One can observe how the city is laid out to see what types of people live in
that certain area and what they might do for a living
Shaping Cities in the Global Periphery and Semi-periphery
Many of the worlds most populous cities are located in the less prosperous
parts of the world including Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Mumbai, Dhaka, and
Delhi
People will be attracted to these cities and will move in but housing cannot
keep up with the massive increase of population and shantytowns are created
around the city
- This results in shantytowns being built overnight and people living in
unfavorable lands
Cities in poorer parts of the world generally lack enforceable zoning laws
- Without these laws periphery will have mixed lands across the city
- Madras, India has open space between high-rise buildings is often
occupied by squatter settlements
- Bangkok, Thailand elementary schools and noisy factories stand side by
side
- Nairobi Kenya hillside villas look over some of worst slums in Africa
Across global periphery, one trait sticks out, the contrast of the wealthy and
the poor
- Can be found in major cities such as DC and Cairo
Shaping Cities in the Global Core
One way people make cities is by remaking them, reinventing neighborhoods,
or changing layouts to reflect current goals and aesthetics
During segregation era, defined and segregated spaces in urban environment
Redlining: A discriminatory real estate practice in NA in which members of
minority groups are prevented from obtaining money to purchase homes or
property in predominantly white neighborhoods.
- Services would identify where the black neighborhoods were and
would refuse to help them if their houses were in the red circle circled
on the map around their neighborhoods
- It is now illegal to do this
- This caused poor neighborhoods to become rundown as funds were not
available to keep up the house or to purchase homes on sale
Blockbusting: when realtors would solicit white residents of the
neighborhood to sell their homes under the guise that the neighborhood was
going downhill because a black person or family had moved in
- this led to significant turnover in housing, which of course benefited real
estate agents through commissions they earned as representatives of
buyers and sellers
- it also prompted land owners to sell their properties at low prices to get
out of the neighborhood quickly
Developers and governments are also important actors in shaping cities
- People are moving away from the CBD and towards suburbs but the city
governments are encouraging commercialization of the CBD and
gentrification of neighborhoods in and around the CBD
- Government try to revive city but cleaning the city and removing old
abandoned buildings and building up commercial and resident buildings
Commercialization: the transformation of an area of a city into an area
attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity
- Usually happens in the CBD of a city to attract residents and tourists

(Picture of the Philippines and
shows the trash and cultural
landscape of the land)


Figure 9.32

Figure 9.33

Figure 9.34

Beginning of 1960s, central-city neighborhoods located conveniently close to
CBDs, but run down as a result of out-migration residents, began to attract
buyers who were willing to move back into the city to rehabilitate run-down
houses and live in central city neighborhoods
Gentrification: rehabilitation of deteriorated, often abandoned housing of
low-income inner-city residents
- in the US it began in cities with tight housing market and defined central-
city neighborhoods, including San Francisco, Portland, and Chicago
- it slowed in the 90s but is growing again as governments are encouraging
it through beatification programs and tax breaks for people to buy old
housing
- childless couples and singles choose not to live in suburbs and stick with
central-city housing
- central-city housing ins convenient as it will be walking distances away
from workplaces, entertainments, nightlife, and restaurants
- negative of gentrification is the rise in housing cost
Figure 9.35

suburbs are not immune to gentrification
- suburbs close to the city or connected to commuter rails will attract
people to purchase smaller or older homes to tear down and build a larger
home
Teardowns: homes intended for suburban demolition are called teardowns
McMansions: new mansions that are supersize and have a similar look
In Hinsdale, 1/3 of the suburbs houses have been torn down since 1986
Urban Sprawl and New Urbanism
Urban sprawl: unrestricted growth of housing, commercial developments,
and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning
- Sun Belt and the West have this problem
Figure 9.36

Leon Kolankiewicz and Roy Beck used US Census data on urbanized areas
and found that urban sprawl happened even in urban areas without significant
population growth
To counter urban sprawl, group of architects, urban planners, and developers
outlined an urban design vision they call new urbanism. Forming the
Congress for the New Urban in 1993
New urbanism: Outlined by a group of architects, urban planners, and
developers from over 20 countries, an urban design that calls for
development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walk-able
(Picture of Cairo, Egypts CBD
and the globalized land scape it
holds compared to the slums
outside of the city)
(Picture of Cairo, Egypt and shows
the slums or rather the non-
globalized part of Cairo)
(Picture of Fort Worth, Texas and
how it has globalized and now a
modern look rather than the
rancher look from back in the
days)

(A picture Hinsdale, Illinois house
in a upscale suburb of Chicago.)

(Picture of Henderson, Nevada
which is the largest suburb of Las
Vegas and most of the houses are
empty and are rented to people
visiting Las Vegas)


neighborhoods with diversity of housing and jobs
- New urbanists want to create neighborhoods that promote a sense of
community and sense of place with planning in order to prevent urban
sprawl
- New urbanist designs is to build housing more densely to take up less
space and making walk-able distances from stores
- Celebration, Florida is a very well planned town made by Disney by
Disney World and is made to give a sense of community but is very
expensive to live in
Table 9.1

Geographers Stuart Aitken, Don Mitchell, and Lynn Staeheli
- Note new urbanism strives to turn neighborhoods back in time. Things
such as parks or shopping districts
- Houses with porches or community-friendly settings are becoming the
norm as urbanism grows
David Harvey offers one of the strongest critiques of new urbanism
- Explains first that most new urbanists are greenfield projects designed
for the affluent to make the suburbs more livable
- New urbanism movement is kind of spatial determinism that does not
recognize that the fundamental difficulty with modernism was its
persistent habit of privileging spatial forms over social processes.
Harvey and others who critique new urbanism, claim that new urbanism does
nothing to break down the social conditions that privilege some while
disadvantaging others
Gated Communities
Gated communities: fenced-in neighborhoods with controlled access gates
for people and automobiles
- often have security cameras and forces keeping watch over
- objective is to create a save environment in the uncertain urban world
- secondary objective is to maintain or increase housing values in the
neighborhood through enforcement of the neighborhood associations
bylaws that control everything from the color of a house to the character
and size of additions
Figure 9.39

during the 80s and early 90s, developers in the US began building gated
communities in urban areas around the country
- 2001 census of housing, US gov reported 16 million people, or about 6%
of Americans living in gated communities
- Urban design of gating communities has diffused around the globe at
record speed, with some in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America
In poorer countries, where cities are divided between wealthy and poor, gated
communities provide another layer of comfort for the citys wealthy
- Large cities in Latin American and Africa, you commonly see walls
around individual houses, walling in yards and pools and keeping out
crime
- Johannesburg, South Africa faces severe problems with division between
the wealthy white residents and poorer residents as high crime rates scare

(A table showing top 20 urban
sprawl cities in the US. The top 3
are Riverside in CA, Greensboro in
NC, and Raleigh in NC)

(The picture is of a gated
community outside Guangzhou,
China and is a gated community
filled with apartments. The area is
well maintained and there are nicer
cars in the parking lot)


people into having blocked 2500 streets and posting guard by 2004
- Many fear that gated communities is becoming segregation problems.
Increase in gated communities in China and is crossing socioeconomic
classes and creating a ubiquitous feature on the urban landscape
- Gated communities in China privatize spaces and exclude outsiders with
gates, security cameras, and restricted access
- Gated communities in China are five to ten times more densely populated
than gated communities Europe and NA
Geographer Youqin Huang has found other differences between gated
communities in China and those in NA and Europe
- Huang argues that collective-oriented culture and tight political control
in China explain why the Chinese government built gated communities
during the socialist period
- It also explains the proliferation of gated communities during Chinas
housing reform in 1998
Figure 9.40

Gated communities in Europe and NA not only for the wealthy
- People want to have a safe place to live and is true in middle and lower
classes as it is of the rich
- Some urban planners encourage governments to recast low-income
housing as small communities, gated from each other
- Cities have torn down the enormous high rises, typically ridden tih crime
and referred to as the projects such as Cabrini green in Chicago and
Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, in effort to remake the spaces of the poor into
defensible spaces
Urban planners want to gate middle-income and low-income neighborhoods
in order to create a sense of community and to make the spaces defensible
from undesired activities such as drug dealing and prostitution
- Five Oaks district of Dayton, Ohio has best-documented cases of gating a
middle-income neighborhood.
o 50% white and has high rate of rentals. Urban planner Oscar
Newman encouraged planners in Dayton to divide the 2000
households in Five Oaks district into ten smaller gated
communities with restricted access
o The city turned most of the residential streets in each of these
mini-neighborhoods into cul-de-sacs. They have experienced a
serious reduction in crime, along with increase in housing sales
and housing values
Ethnic Neighborhoods in the European City
Ethnic neighborhoods in European cities are typically affiliated with migrants
from former colonies
- Algeria was a colony of France, and now Paris and other French cities
have distinct Algerian neighborhoods
- London has a Jamican neighborhood
- Spain has a Moroccan neighborhood
- Germany invited young men from Turkey to migrate to Germany as
guest workers and cities such as Frankfurt have distinct Turkish
neighborhoods
Migration to Europe is constrained by government policies and laws
- Many western European cities have public housing zones that were built
after WWII following the devastation of the war years
- Governments in Europe are typically much more involved in the social
rights of people, such as health care and housing than the US government

(Picture of St. Louis, Missouri in
1971 and shows the Pruitt-Igoe
housing project)

(Why arent other cities following
suit and responding with their
improvements with gated
communities? Especially in high
crime rate cities?)

(Who does London have a big
Jamaican neighborhood)


- European cities are also older than American cities and are laid out for
foot and horse traffic rather than automobiles
- European cities also are compact and densely populated and walk-able
than American cities
- European cities are also historic city centers where much of the citys
history took place and is preserved and to which tourists are attracted
today
- Development is usually reserved on the outskirts of town as the center
are centers of history
Government Policy and Immigrant Accommodation
Immigration is changing the spatial-cultural geography of European cities
- As immigrants have settled in large numbers in the zone of transition,
locals have moved out
- Walking from the city center of Paris out through immigrant
neighborhoods, one can see the cultural landscape change to reflect the
significant number of immigrants from Maghreb of Africa
- The Maghreb community is filled with high crime and resentment festers
Geographers Christian Kesteloot and Cees Cortie studied housing policies
and zones in Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Found that Brussels has very little public housing and immigrants live in
privately owned rentals throughout the city
- Kesteloot and Cortie also found that immigrants in Brussels who came
from distinct region of their home country, such as the Turks in Brussels,
tend to cluster in ethnic neighborhoods (usually coming from rural)
- People that come from cities tend to choose rental units scattered
throughout the city and do not establish ethnic neighborhoods
- Amsterdam has a lot of public housing and few ethnic neighborhoods
within the public housing
- Immigration to Amsterdam from former colonies (Indonesia, Surinam)
and non-colonies (Morocco and Turkey) increased in the 1960s
- Amsterdammers moved from transition zone of public housing to
neighboring towns such as Almere
- Dutch government then implemented a policy in the public housing zone
that slowed the creation of ethnic neighborhoods
- Dutch gov allots public housing to legal immigrants by assigning homes
on a sequential basis in the citys zone of transition, where some 80%
- If one walks through Amsterdam in public housing zone one will see
many different ethnic groups and can see different local cultures such as
prayer calls for Muslims
Ethnic Neighborhoods in the Global Periphery and Semi-periphery City
In cities of periphery and semi-periphery, a sea of slum and development
typically begins where the permanent buildings end, in some cases engulfing
and dwarfing the entire city
Government control over the slums is impossible and counting population is
impractical
many people in Calcutta, India live on the streets rather than shelters
Government does not have enough resources to provide these people with
services
People that live in shanty settlements are not really squatters as they have to
pay rent
- Former farmers that owned lots of lands moved to the city but kept their
farmland and as people moved onto the farmland they had to pay rent and
- shacks are destroyed if rent is failed to be paid

(Is it due to racism or just the fact
that these new people are adjusting
to the new environment and have
to set their lives in order?)

(Are public housings free or does
one pay rent or do they just pay
normal taxes?)

(Why would they sleep on the
streets rather than shacks? Because
no rent? Or just not enough time?)


Vast slums of cities in poorer parts of the world are typically ethnically
delineated, with new arrivals precariously accommodated
Ex. Nairobi, Kenya has a large slum area called Kibera and much of it is
owned by Nubians who are of Sudanese descent
- Sudanese Nubians settled in the area of Kibera during the colonial era
- Many of the Nubians have become businesspeople in the city of Nairobi
- The inhabitants of the slum were largely Luo from western Kenya and
Luhya from NW Kenya and during 2001 some were not able to pay and
the Nubians evicted them and conflict ensued
Power and Ethnicity
Study of Mombasa, Kenya, during the 1960s, H.j. de Blij found that central
city, in effect the island on which Mombasa was built, was informally
partitioned among major ethnic groups
- The Kikyu workers and their families lived close to the port as colonial
powers granted them power to do so
- Asians, mainly Indians, control the opposite side of the central city
- The Kamba occupies the zone farther outward from the port
- Mijkenda migrated from off-island villages to work in Mombasa and live
father away from the commercial center
- Despite growth the spatial pattern still persists
- Desperate people who wish to find a job live on slums outside of the
central city
Families continue to live in slums because they save their money very
carefully
- Also, salary jobs will keep a constant flow of money and is stretched
across many members of the family
- Jobs that are found in core countries help families out through
remittances
Informal Economy
Informal economy: the economy that is not taxed and is not counted towards
a countrys GNI
- what is earned can add up to lots of money that is unaccounted for
- it worries the government because it is a record-less economy and no
taxes are paid
Remittances are sent as cash or by people to smuggle in to avoid getting taxed
on the money being sent
From Colonial to Global CBD
2002, geographers Richard Grant and Jan Nijman documented this
transformation in former colonial port cities including Mumbai, India
- In this city formerly known as Bombay, it produced a urban landscape
- It was also marked by strong segregation of foreign and local activities,
commercial as well as residential
- High levels of functional specialization and concentration
- Adjacent to the port area was a well demarcated European business
district containing mostly British companies
- Most economic activities in this European commercial area involved
trade, transport, banking, distribution, and insurance
- European district were the traditional markets and bazaars of the so-
called Native Town
Figure 9.41

(Why do people have to always go
into conflict about almost
everything?)

(Will this one day become
irrelevant as who has control over
the area?)

(A map of Bombay and Mumbai
(Bombay was the former name of
Mumbai) and shows how the
colonial city transformed into a
contemporary city. It shows the
European sectors turning into
richer parts of the city)

What Role Do Cities Play in Globalization?
Globalization has caused more statistics about economy at the global scale to
be gathered and disseminated by states
World cities: function at the global scale, beyond the reach of the state
borders, function as the service centers of the world economy
Models of cities and hierarchies of cities within states no longer represent
what is happening with the city, Taylor and Lang maintain that the city has
become something else than a simple CBD tied into a hierarchy of other cities
According to Felsenstein, Schamp, and Shachar, the world city is a node in
globalization, reflecting processes that have redrawn the limits on spatial
interaction
Most lists of world cities agree that NY, London, and Tokyo are important
world cities\
Geographer Jon Beaverstock and Peter J. Taylor and their Globalization and
World Cities Study Group and Network have produce nearly 200 research
papers, chapters, and books on the geography of world cities over the past
few years
- Studied which cities provide producer services in the areas of banking,
law, advertising, and accounting
Cities as Spaces of Consumption
Cities are products of globalization
Spaces of Consumption: areas of a city, the main purpose of which is to
encourage people to consume goods and services; driven primarily by the
global media industry
Global media giants such as Time Warner, Viacom, and Walt Disney use
cross promotion to encourage consumption of their products
In NYC the government tried to redevelop Times Square in the arly 80s
which was known for adult entertainment at the time
- Now, many spaces of consumptions are in place in Times Square because
Disney worked to make the space Sex free and family friendly
- Disney has a theater there and performs their shows
- Time Square was more improved with the mayor in 2009 closing off the
road and putting in more relaxing settings
Figure 9.42

Figure 9.43

(Map of the world showing the
world cities in the Alpha, Beta, and
Gamma rating scale)
(Shows pictures of New York,
New York and the New
Amsterdam Theater in Times
Square and how it has changed)

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