GEG 100 ONLINE! Cultural Geography Outline of Chapter 10

~/~ Home ~/~ Syllabus ~/~ Schedule ~/~ Discussion ~/~ Chapters ~/~ Review ~/~ Textbook Website ~/~

I. Early models of land use patterns in cities

A. Concentric ring model

• Dates back to 1920s
• Typical of industrial cities of early 20th century, when most jobs were downtown or in the fringe, and whose rapid growth was fueled by arrival of immigrants
• Based on concepts of invasion-and-succession and housing filtering from higher to lower income groups.

  Zones from the center out:

  • 1. Central business district (CBD)
    • Commercial core
    • Office core
    • Social and civic core

    2. Fringe zone

    • Wholesaling
    • Warehousing
    • Light industry

    3. Zone of transition

    • Encroachment of business and manufacturing from the fringe
    • Rundown housing
    • Blue-collar residences

    4. Medium-income housing

    5. High-income commuter zone

B. Sector model

• Proposed in 1939
• Land uses in pie-shaped wedges radiating from city center
• High-income areas along fashionable boulevards or rail lines, water, high ground, and far from industry.
• Industry radiates along river or rail lines.
• Low-income radiates near industry.
• Middle-income radiates between low and high income sectors.

C. Multiple nuclei model

• Developed in 1945 during early days of suburbanization of shopping centers.
• Downtown CBD is not the only nucleus of nonresidential land uses.
• Also specialized districts like retail, ports, manufacturing, etc.

D. Urban realms

• Functionally tied suburban regions and “suburban downtowns”

F. Current applicability of the classic land use models

• Rings, sectors, and multiple nuclei can still be seen, but overall pattern is far more complex.
• Family status tends to be distributed concentrically:
  • Families with children with low rates of female labor force participation gravitate towards suburbs
  • Young people living alone or with roommates, couples without children, working women attracted to multifamily housing near CBD.
• Socioeconomic status tends to be radial.
  • Occupations, incomes, education levels seem to be distributed in sectors.
• Ethnic status tends to be clustered.

II. Contemporary trends in cities

A. Modernism

• Based on a belief in preeminence of scientific rationality and the inevitability of human progress.
• Functional, boxy skyscrapers in the CBD, high-rise apartment towers placed throughout the city, followed by mile after mile of ranch houses in the suburbs.

B. Postmodernism

• Rejects the worldview that there are universal models for how the world functions or should function.
• Celebrates diversity and denies that any perspective, style, or subgroup has a monopoly on truth or beauty.
• Postmodern architecture emphasizes style, aesthetics, decoration, context, and historic preservation—form as well as function.

C. Demographic, ethnic, and family type changes

D. Social fragmentation

E. Urban underclass left behind in old decaying residential zones surrounding CBDs.

• Characterized by higher levels of:
  • Poverty
  • Joblessness
  • Crime
  • Drugs
  • Single mothers
  • Welfare dependency
• Highly concentrated in inner city.
• Predominantly composed of ethnic minorities. (White poor far outnumber nonwhite poor, but white poor are not as geographically concentrated).

F. Gentrification is drawing nonpoor back into the central city

a. Rehabbing of housing in older, architecturally significant, once fashionable urban neighborhoods

b. Stimulated by:

• revitalization of downtowns
• opportunity to make large real estate profit
• road congestion

c. Gentrifiers are mainly:

• upwardly mobile professionals
• young
• white
• childless

d. Negative side effect is displacement of previous residents who cannot afford higher real estate taxes.

G. Suburbanization of shopping and industry

H. Edge cities

• Shopping malls
• High-tech light manufacturing
• Corporate headquarters
• White-collar firms
• Entertainment and hotel complexes
• Airport complexes
• Frequently located at intersections of major freeways
• Refocusing of commuting on suburb-to-suburb and city-to-suburb "reverse commuting."

I. Old downtowns

a. Have not regained retail or manufacturing dominance

b. Reemerged as nerve centers for postindustrial information economy:

• corporate headquarters
• advertising
• accounting, finance
• legal services
• government

c. Secondly downtowns are entertainment centers

• convention business and hotels
• museums, theaters, and sports stadiums
• nightclubs, brew pubs, restaurants

d. Mixed used development and festival centers

INSTRUCTOR:

E-Mail instructor: mhealy@harper.cc.il.us
Office: J-262, 847-925-6352
Home: 815-728-1571