Chapter 13: Urban Settlements

Key Issue 1: Why do services cluster downtown?

I. CBD LAND USES

-Downtown known to geographers as the central business district (CBD)
-Compact land area (1% of urban area) but holds a large number of offered public,
business and consumer services
-Attractive because of its accessibility
-Easiest part of the city to reach from rest of the region
-Focal point of transportation network
-Oldest district in a city
-At or near original site of settlement
-CBDs of older cities near body of water, principle transportation route before 20th
century
A. Public Services
-City hall, courts, county/state agencies, libraries
-Historically clustered downtown in substantial structures
-Today they still remain to provide access for all people in town
-Similarly, semi-public services (social service agencies and places of
worship) locate in the CBD for similar reasons in historic structures
-Sports facilities and convention centers
-Also include suburban and out-of-town people
-Cities place these facilities here in CBDs to stimulate more business for
downtown restaurants, bars, hotels, etc.
B. Business Services
-Cluster in a CBD for accessibility
-Advertising, journalism, business, banking, finance services all depend on
professional colleague proximity
-Lawyers locate close to courts

-Secretarial agencies and instant printers locate close to law firms

-Chain of interdependency that draws offices to the center city
-Businesses prefer face-to-face over telecommunication to establish a relationship
of trust based off shared values; so offices are centrally located to facilitate rapid
communication through spatial proximity
-Helps businesses find employees from a variety of neighborhoods, only a central
location is readily accessible
C. Consumer Services
-In the past, three types that cluster in CBDs:
1. Retailers with high threshold
-Needed a lot of customers, CBDs were accessible in 100 percent
corner
-Ex. department store
-Most downtown branches have closed, more likely to be in suburban
malls
2. Retailers with high range
-Of specialists, infrequent patrons, attracted wide range of customers
from all over the place
-Also moved to the suburbs
3. Retailers that serve CBD workers
-Office supplies, printers, computers, dry cleaning, photocopying, etc.
-Expanding the CBDs due to increasing downtown office workers and
downtown offices need more services
-Shoppers during lunch time
-Gradually changing to the suburbs due to changing shopping habits and
residential patterns
-Total sales volumes hasnt changed but demand pattern has
D. Activities Excluded From CBDs
-High rents and land shortage discourse industrial and residential activities
-Industrial
-Require large parcels of land, suitable land available in the suburbs
-In the past, inner-city factories relied on waterfront CBDs to load and unload
warehouses for goods storage, but todays large ships cant fit into the ports or
harbors, and thus moved to more modern facilities downstream
-Port activities change from industry to commercial and recreational
-Boston, Toronto, Baltimore, San Francisco, Barcelona, London

-Constructed parks, docks, walkways, museums, parking lots

-Large convention centers to house professional meetings and trade shows
-Hotels and entertainment centers for tourists and conventioneers
-Residential
-Many people used to live in or near the CBD, poor people in tiny apartments
and rich people in downtown mansions
-20th century, many left due to push/pull factors: suburbs had larger homes
that were private and had modern schools, urban cities had high rents, dirt, crime,
poverty and congestion.
-Modern day, more are returning to the urban cities because of newly
reconstructed apartments and townhouses and empty nesters (people without
children), attracted due to entertainment options
-Grocery stores are still lacking however, despite population growth in US
cities
-Food desert area in a developed country where healthy food is difficult to
obtain
-Common in low-income inner-city areas
-Baltimore Food Policy Initiative is a joint venture of John Hopkins
University Center for a Livable Future and several local government agencies that
discovered 20% of Baltimore residents lived in a food desert, mostly AfricanAmericans and children
-Criteria to be identified a food desert:
-Distance to nearest supermarket is more than mile
-Median household income was at or below 185% of the federal
poverty line
-At least 40% of the areas household didnt have a motor vehicle
-Average Healthy Food Availability Index low for nearby
supermarkets and convenience stores
E. CBD Land Competition
-Limited and expensive land has forced CBDs to develop vertically above ground
and underground
-Underground
-Garages, loading docks, pipes, cable, etc.
-Wires and poles above ground would be overcrowded and ugly
-Subway trains
-Cold-weather climate cities such as Minneapolis, Montreal and Toronto have
built-in extensive underground pedestrian passages and shops, segregate them
from vehicles and harsh winter

-Skyscrapers
-Unique aspect of urban cities, skyline
-First skyscrapers built in Chicago in the 1880s, made possible by several
inventions such as elevator, steel girders, glass structures because they blocked
light and air
-Artificial light, ventilation, central heating, air-conditioning have solved
those problems
-Most North American and European cities enacted zoning ordinances, a law
that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a
community, in the early 20th century to control location and height
-Activity influences floor location
-Retail services - street-level space for expensive rents
-Business services - middle levels at lower rents
-Apartments - upper floor for lower noise levels and city views
-Exception is Washington D.C. because no building can be higher than the White
House. Wider spread CBD area as a result.

Key Issue 2: Where are people distributed within urban areas?

I. MODELS OF URBAN STRUCTURE

-Developed in Chicago, a city on a prairie, with a CBD called The Loop due to
transportation network
A. Concentric Zone Model
-First model to explain the distribution of different social groups within urban areas
-1923 E. W. Burgess
-A city grows outward from a central area in a series of rings
1. CBD - innermost zone, non-residential
2. A zone in transition - industry and poorer-quality housing, usually houses
immigrants to the city in small dwelling units (subdivided larger houses into
apartments). Rooming houses for single individuals.
3. A zone for working-class homes - modest older houses occupied by stable,
working-class families
4. A zone better residences - newer and more spacious houses for middleclass families
5. A commuters zone - beyond the city
B. Sector Model
-1939 Homer Hoyt
-A city develops in a series of sectors, certain areas are more attractive for various
activities. As a city grows, activity expands outwards in a wedge from the center.
-Chicago
-Burgess said it followed the concentric model, broken only by Lake Michigan
-Hoyt said best housing developed north of CBD, industry among railroads in
the south, southwest and northwest
C. Multiple Nuclei Model
-1945 C. D. Harris and E. L. Ullman
-A city is a complex structure that includes more than one center around which
activities revolve
-A university attracts well-educated residents, pizzerias, and bookstores but an
airport attracts hotels and warehouses

-On the other hand, incompatible activities avoid each other. Ex. heavy industry
and high-class housing

II. GEOGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS OF THE MODELS

-Information used to create these models come from the census
-Census tract - area delineated by the US Bureau of the Census for which stats are
published
-Urban area - each tract contains about 5,000 residents and correspond to
neighborhood boundaries
-New data released each decade, estimates issued weekly through American Fact
Finder service
-Number of nonwhites
-Median income of all families
-Percent of people who finished high school
-Social area analysis is when social scientists compare the distributions of
characteristics and create an overall picture
-Critics say all three models arent independently accurate, they do not consider a
variety of reasons and were created pre-WWII so its relevance is questionable
-Combined, they make more sense
1. Applying the concentric zone model
-Two families with the same ethnic background and income, one of which
lives in a newly constructed house and the other an older one. The newer house
will most likely live on the outer ring while the older will live in the inner.
2. Applying the sector model
-Two families who own their homes, the family with the greater income will
not live in the same sector of the poorer one.
3. Applying the multiple nuclei model
-People with the same racial background are likely to live together.
-Using all three, we can identify a neighborhood where a high-income, Asian
American owner-occupant is most likely to live.
III. APPLYING THE MODELS OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA
A. CBDs in Europe
-

Less dominated by skyscrapers for business services

Most prominent structures are public and semipublic services such as

churches or formal royal palaces on important squares, road junctions,
hilltops, etc.
Parks that were once aristocratic gardens now opened to the public
Low-rise buildings and narrow streets from medieval times
Limit high-rise buildings and cars to preserve historic CBDs (Ex. Tour
Montparnasse received so much negativity lower height limit laws were
reestablished)
More people live in the city downtown, so there are more consumer services
No 24-hour supermarkets
Motor vehicles are banned in Northern Europe on shopping streets, countries
such as Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands
Rome periodically bans vehicles to reduce pollution and congestion
Constructing large buildings so difficult but many shops and offices want to
be in the center, alternative of reconstructing and renovating old buildings is
more expensive and doesnt produce enough space, so rent is significantly
higher in Europe than America

B. Applying the Models in Europe

-

Sectors in European cities

o Wealthy people live in the inner portions of the upper-class sector