THE CULTURAL EBOOK

- 472 THECULTURALLANDSCAPE

APPLYING THE MODELS IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES

Learning Outcome 13.2.4

Describe how the three models explain patterns in
cities in developing countries.

In developing countries, as in Europe, the poor are accommo-
dated in the suburbs, whereas the wealthy live near the cen-
ter of a city, as well as in a sector extending from the center.

SECTORS IN CITIES OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. Geo- D Commercial D Zoneofm situaccrefion
graphers Ernest Griffin and Larry Ford show that in Latin Zoneof peripheral
American cities, wealthy people push out from the center in D Market D squattesrettlements
a well-defined elite residential sector. The elite sector forms Gentrification
on either side of a narrow spine that contains offices, shops, Industrial
and amenities attractive to wealthy people, such as restau- Middle-clasressidential
rants, theaters, parks, and zoos (Figure 13-18). The wealthy DD DEliteresidentiaslector-
are also attracted to the center and spine because services
such as water and electricity are more readily available and - zoneormaturity
reliable there than elsewhere (Figure 13-19). Wealthy and
middle-class residents avoid living near sectors of "disame-
nity," which are land uses that may be noisy or polluting or
that cater to low-income residents.

CONCENTRIC ZONES IN CITIES OF DEVELOPING A FIGURE13-18 MODEL OF A LATIN AMERICAN CITY Wealthy peo-

COUNTRIES. Cities in developing countries have ple live in the inner city and a sector extendingalong a commercialspine.
zones of the most intensive land uses and highest land (Adaptedfrom LarryR.Ford,"A New and ImprovedModel of LatinAmerican
values toward the center or along the commercial spine. City Structure,"GeographicaRl eview86 (1996):438. Usedby permissionof
Surrounding these zones is a ring of less-developed, lower-
value land. Within this framework, cities in developing the publisher.)
countries are unable to house the rapidly growing number
of poor people. Their cities are •sao.1o1~
growing because of overall population oo, Campos
increase and migration from rural
areas for job opportunities. Because CBO •Cl/lljllnal Slo Ca~no doSul
of the housing shortage, a large 4
percentage of poor immigrants to sa-Pc.aiu•lo ; •""" .Santos
urban areas in developing countries
live in squatter settlements. S1oll«narlloEc1mocl.imlf p?•C° n:f:aPSuriaoiaVGlntwndnllf

Squatter settlements are known ATLANTIC
by a variety of names, including bnr- OCEAN
riadas and favelas in Latin America,
bidonvillesin North Africa, basteesin
India, gecekonduin Turkey, kampongs
in Malaysia, and barong-barongin the • Guararai,er
Philippines. Estimates of the num-
ber of people living in squatter set-

tlements vary widely, between 175 • Adlll11111111Ja

million and 1 billion. Squatter settle- S1.00a0ndabove
ments have few services because nei- S700-$999
ther the city nor the residents can af- 8el0IVS700
ford them. The settlements generally
lack schools, paved roads, telephones,

and sewers. Latrines are usually desig- .6.FIGURE13-19 SECTORSIN SAO PAULO Thehigh-incomesectorextends
nated by the settlement's leaders, and southfromthe CBDto theAtlantic Ocean.

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 473

,ater is carried from a central well
r dispensed from a truck. Electric-
y service may be stolen by running
wire from the nearest power line.
1 the absence of bus service or avail-
ble private cars, a resident may have
) walk two hours to reach a place of
mployment (Figure 13-20).

Pause and Reflect 13.2.4

In Google Earth, go to Rua
Oscar Freire, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
How does this street in Sao
Paulo's high-income sector
compare to the suburban
neighborhood in Figure 13-20?

At first, squatters do little more ~ FIGURE13-20 SQUATTER SETTLEMENT IN SAO PAULO Thefavela in
'Jan camp on the land or sleep in the the foregroundisin a suburba, ndthehigh-risesin thebackgroundarecloseto
treet. In severe weather, they may downtown.
1ke shelter in markets and ware-
_ouses.Families then erect primitive
helters with scavenged cardboard,
mod boxes, sackcloth, and crushed beverage cans. As
hey find new bits of material, they add them to their
hacks. After a few years they may build a tin roof and
,artition the space into rooms, and the structure acquires
more permanent appearance.

Osny Percenhtousebsuilt
2000-2010

8 andabove

4-7
Lessthan4

!8PP!!S

BreUgny-sur•OrQe

f ~Ml~•

3 ti<,lomltB!>
, FIGURE13-21 CONCENTRICZONESIN PARIS,FRANCE
igh-riseapartmentsfor poorerpeopleandimmigrants.

..

474 THECULTURALLANDSCAPE

STAGES OF CITIES IN DEVELOPING and the island was laced with canals to facilitate pickup
COUNTRIES and delivery of people and goods. Over the next two cen-
turies, the Aztecs conquered the neighboring peoples and
Learning Outcome 13.2.5 extended their control through much of present-day Mex-
Describe the history of development of cities in ico. As their wealth and power grew, Tenochtitlan grew to
developing countries. a population of a half-million.

The similarity between cities in Europe and in develop- COLONIAL CITIES. When Europeans gained control of
ing countries is not a coincidence: European colonial poli- Africa, Asia, and Latin America, they sometimes expanded
cies left a heavy mark on cities in developing countries, existing cities to provide colonial services, such as
many of which have passed through three stages of devel- administration, military command, and international trade
opment-pre-European colonization, the European colo- as well as housing for European colonists. Sometimes, Exlstinf
nial period, and postcolonial independence. Mexico City native towns were either left to one side or demolishec
provides a good example of these three stages. because they were totally at variance with European ideas.

PRECOLONIAL CITIES. Few cities existed in Africa, Asia, Colonial cities followed standardized plans. All Spanisl
and Latin America before the Europeans established cities in Latin America, for example, were built accordin;
colonies. Most people lived in rural settlements. In Latin to the Laws of the Indies, drafted in 1573. The laws explic
America, some cities were located in interior Mexico and itly outlined how colonial cities were to be constructed-
the Andean highlands of northwestern South America. gridiron street plan centered on a church and central plaz,
ln Africa, cities could be found along the western coast, walls around individual houses, and neighborhoods bui
in Egypt's Nile River valley, and in Islamic empires in around central, smaller plazas with parish churches or mor
the north and east (as well as in Southwest Asia). Cities asteries. Compared to the existing cities, these Europea
were also built in South and East Asia, especially in India, districts typically contain wider streets and public square
China, and Japan. larger houses surrounded by gardens, and much lower de1
sity. In contrast, the old quarters have narrow, windir
In Mexico, the Aztecs founded Mexico City-which streets, little open space, and cramped residences.
they called Tenoo..htitlan-on a hill known as Chapultepec
("the hill of the grasshopper"). When forced by other peo- After the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521, afte1
ple to leave the hill, they migrated a few kilometers south, two-year siege, they destroyed the city and dispersed or kill,
near the present-day site of the University of Mexico, and most of the inhabitants. The city, renamed Mexico City, v.
then in 1325 to a marshy 10-square-kilometer (4-square- rebuilt around a main square, called the Z6calo, in the cen1
mile) island in Lake Texcoco (Figure 13-22). of the island, on the site of the Aztecs' sacred precinct. T
Spanish reconstructed the streets in a grid pattern exter
The node of religious life was the Great Temple. Three ing from the Z6calo. A Roman Catholic cathedral was bt
causeways with drawbridges linked Tenochtitlan to the on the north side of the square, near the site of the dem
mainland and also helped control flooding. An aqueduct ished Great Temple, and the National Palace was erected
brought fresh water from Chapultepec. Most food, mer- the east side, on the site of the Aztec emperor Moctezurr
chandise, and building materials crossed from the main- destroyed palace (Figure 13-23). The Spanish placed a chu
land to the island by canoe, barge, or other type of boat, and monastery on the site of the Tlatelolco market.

Another example, Fes (Fez), Morocco, consists of t
separate and distinct towns-the precolonial city t

'Y FIGURE13-22 PRECOLONIAML EXICOCITY (left)TheAzteccityof Tenochtitlanwasbuilt on anislandin lake
Texcoco(.right)Thecenterof the citywasdominatedbythe TempleMayor.Thetwin shrineson the top of the temple
werededicatedto theAztecgodof rain andagriculture(in blue)and to theAztecgodof war (in red)

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 475

IGURE13-23 COLONIALMEXICOCITY Themainsquarein downtown CITIES SINCE INDEPENDENCE. Following independence,
ico City,the Zocalow, aslaid out bythe SpanishT.heMetropolitanCathedral cities have become the focal points of change in developing
the nearendof the squareT. heNationalPalaceis to the left,andCityHallis countries. Millions of people have migrated to the cities in
19thesquareE. xcavationast thesiteof theTempleMayorarein thelowerleft. search of work.

,ted before the French gained control and one built by In Mexico City, Emperor Maximilian (1864-1867) de-
French colonialists (Figure 13-24). The precolonial Mus- signed a 14-lane, tree-lined boulevard patterned after the
city was laid out surrounding a mosque. The center also Champs-Elysees in Paris. The boulevard (now known as the
I a bazaar, or marketplace, which served as the commer- Paseo de la Reforma) extended 3 kilometers southwest from
. core. Government buildings and the homes of wealthy the center to Chapultepec (Figure 13-25). The Reforma be-
lilies surrounded the mosque·:ind bazaar. Narrow, wind- tween downtown and Chapultepec became the spine of an
streets led from the core to other quarters. Families with elite sector. During the late nineteenth century, the wealthy
. wealth and lower status located farther from the core, built pretentious palacios (palaces) along it. Physical factors
l recent migrants to the city lived on the edge. also influenced the movement of wealthy people toward
the west, along the Reforma. Because elevation was higher
:1useand Reflect 13.2.5 than elsewhere in the city, sewage flowed eastward and
1 Google Earth, go to Fes, Morocco, and zoom in
n the buildings to see the colonial city. Then go to northward, awayfrom Chapultepec. In 1903, most of Lake
~sel Bali, Morocco, and zoom in on the buildings
>see the precolonial city. How do the buildings Texcoco was drained by a gigantic canal and tunnel project,
iffer? Which has the higher density? Which has allowing the city to expand to the north and east. The dried-
1oretrees and green space? up lakebed was a less desirable residential location than
the west side because prevailing winds from the northeast
IGURE13-24 FES, MOROCCO Theprecolonialpart of Fes,in the fore- stirred up dust storms. As Mexico City's population grew
ind,is characterizedby narrow,windingstreetsand highdensityT. hetower rapidly during the twentieth century, the social patterns in-
1eforegroundis the KaraouineMosque.Thecolonialcity lai.dout by the herited from the nineteenth century were reinforced.
chisin the backgrounds,eparateanddistinctfromthe precoloniacl ity.
CHECK-IN: KEY ISSUE2

Where Are People Distributed Within
Urban Areas?

✓ According to the concentric zone model, a city
grows by adding rings. The outer rings contain
the newer housing.

✓ According to the sector model, a city grows
along corridors. Some sectors contain higher-
income households than others.

✓ According to the multiple nuclei model, a city
grows through a series of nodes. Different
ethnicities cluster around individual nodes.

✓ The three models show some similarities and
some differences in the patterns within cities of
North America and other regions.

✓ Cities in developing countries are further
influenced by colonial history.

T FIGURE13-25 INDEPENDENMT EXICOCITY ThePaseode la Reformai,n

476 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE suburban residential and business areas tied together by a
beltway or ring road (Figure 13-26). Peripheral areas lack.the
KEY ISSUE3
severe physical, social, and economic problems of inner-city
Why Are Urban Areas neighborhoods. But the peripheral model points to problems
of sprawl and segregation that characterize many suburbs.
Expanding?
Around the beltway are nodes of consumer and busi-
■ Suburban Expansion ness services called edgecities. Edge cities originated as sub-
■ Suburban Segregation urban residences for people who worked in the central
■ Urban Transportation city, and then shopping malls were built to be near the
residents. Now edge cities contain manufacturing centers
Learning Outcome 13.3.1 spread out over a single story for more efficient operations
State three definitions of urban settlements. and office parks where producer services cluster. Special-
ized nodes emerge in the edge cities-for example, a col-
lection of hotels and warehouses around an airport, a large
theme park, a distribution center near the junction of tb.e
beltway, and a major long-distance interstate highway.

In 1950, only 20 percent of Americans lived in suburbs DEFINING URBAN SETTLEMENTS

compared to 40 percent in cities and 40 percent in small Several definitions have been created to characterize cities

towns and rural areas. In 2000, after a half-century of rapid and their suburbs:
suburban growth, 50 percent of Americans lived in sub- • A city is a legal entity.
urbs compared to only 30 percent in cities and 20 percent • An urban area is a continuously built-up area.

in small towns and rural areas. • A metropolitan area is a functional area.

Suburban Expansion LEGAL DEFINITION OF CITY. The term city defines ar

Until recently in the United States, as cities grew, they ex- urban settlement that has been legally incorporated intc

panded by adding peripheral land. Now cities are surrounded an independent, self-governing unit (Figure 13-27). In th1
by a collection of suburban jurisdictions whose residents pre- United States, a city surrounded by suburbs is sometime

fer to remain legally independent of the large city. called a central city.
Virtually all countries have a local government systen

THE PERIPHERAL MODEL that recognizes cities as legal entities with fixed bounda1
ies. A city has locally elected officials, the ability to rais
North American urban areas follow what Chauncey Har- taxes, and responsibility for providing essential service:
ris (one of the creators of the multiple nuclei model) called The boundaries of the city define the geographic are
the peripheral model. According to the peripheral model, within which the local government has legal authority.
an urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large
Population has declined since 1950 by more than on1

half in the central cities of Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroi

'f FIGURE 13-26 PERIPHERALMODEL OF URBAN AREAS 'Thecentralcity Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, and by at least one-third i
is surroundedby a beltwayor ring road.Aroundthe beltwayaresuburbanresi- more than a dozen other cities. The number of tax-payir

dentialareasand nodes,or edgecities,whereconsumerandbusinessservices middle-class families and industries has invariably d

and manufacturingcluster(.AdaptedfromChauncyD.Harris",'TheNatureof Cit· clined by much higher percentages in these cities.

ies and UrbanGeographyin the LastHalf.Century."Reprintedwith permission

from UrbanGeographyv,ol. 18,no.1 (1997),p. 17.© V.H.Winston& Son,Inc., URBAN AREA. In the United States, the central city ar

360 SouthOceanBlvd.,PalmBeach,FL33480.Al\ rightsreserved.) the surrounding built-up suburbs are called an urban an

1.CentraCl ity S.Se,viceCenter

2.SuburbaRnesldenliAarl ea 7.AirporCt omplex

3.ShoppinMg aU 8. CombineEdmplovme&nt

4. IndustriaDlls\rict ShoppinCgenler

5.OfficePark

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 477

METROPOLITANSTATISTICALAREA. The area of influence

• of a city extends beyond legal boundaries and adjacent built-

-1 up jurisdictions. For example, commuters may travel a long
distance to work and shop in the city or built-up suburbs.
People in a wide area watch the city's television stations, read
the city's newspapers, and support the city's sports teams.
Therefore, we need another definition of urban settlement
to account for its more extensive zone of influence.
The U.S.Bureau of the Census has created a method of mea-
suring the functional area of a city, known as the metropoli-
tan statistical area (MSA).An MSAincludes the following:

• An urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000

• The county within which the city is located

10 20 MIH • Adjacent counties with a high population density and
a large percentage of residents working in the central
o 10 20uomeu-r.s( city's county (specifically, a county with a density of 25
persons per square mile and at least 50 percent working
in the central city's county)

A •WAcoSHuImHGvTON Studies of metropolitan areas in the United States are
usually based on information about MSAs. MSAsare widely
N used because many statistics are published for counties,
the basic MSA building block.
• Urbenclustsr
Metropolttasntatisticaalrea The Census Bureau had designated 366 MSAsas of 2012,
Mk:ropolitasntarislicaaJrea encompassing 84 percent of the U.S. population. Older stud-
ies may refer to SMSAs,or standard metropolitan statistical
- Corebasedstatisticaalrea a1eas, which the census used before 1983 to designate met-
ropolitan areas in a manner similar to MSAs.An MSAis not
, FIGURE13-27 DEFINITIONSOF STLOUIS TheCityof St.Louiscomprises a perfect tool for measuring the functional area of a city. One
nly6 percentof the landareaand 11 percentof the populationof the MSA. problem is that some MSAsinclude extensive land area that
is not urban. For example, Great Smoky Mountains National
\n urban area consists of a dense core of census tracts, Park is partly in the Knoxville, Tennessee, MSA;Sequoia Na-
lensely settled suburbs, and low-density land that links tional Park is in the Visalia-Porterville, California, MSA.
he dense suburbs with the core. The census recognizes MSAscomprise some 20 percent of total U.S. land area, com-
wo types of urban areas: pared to only 2 percent for urbanized areas. The urbanized
area typically occupies only 10 percent of an MSA land area
• An urbanized area is an urban area with at least 50,000 but contains nearly 90 percent of its population.
inhabitants.
The census has also designated smaller urban areas as
• An urban cluster is an urban area with between 2,500 micropolitan statistical areas (µSAs). A µSA includes an
and 50,000 inhabitants. urbanized area of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants,
the county in which it is found, and adjacent counties tied
The census identified 486 urbanized areas and 3,087 to the city. The United States had 5 76 micropolitan statisti-
urban clusters in the United States in 2010. Approximately cal areas as of 2012, for the most part found around south-
70 percent of the U.S. population lived in one of the 486 ern and western communities previously considered rural
urbanized areas, including about 30 percent in central cit- in character. About 10 percent of Americans live in mic-
ies and 40 percent in surrounding jurisdictions. Approx- ropolitan statistical areas. The 366 MSAs and 576 µSAs to-
imately 10 percent of the U.S. population lived in one gether are known as core based statistical areas (CBSAs).
of the 3,087 urban clusters. The census does not have a
precise definition of suburbs, but they can be considered Recognizing that many MSAs and µSAs have close ties,
roughly equivalent to the urban clusters and the urbanized the census had combined some of them into 128 com-
areas outside the central cities. bined statistical areas (CSAs) as of 2012. A CSAis defined
as two or more contiguous CBSAs tied together by com-
Working with urbanized areas is difficult because few muting patterns. The 125 CSAs plus the remaining 187
statistics are available about them. Most data in the United MSAs and 406 µSAs not combined into CSAs together are
States and other countries are collected for cities, counties, known as primary census statistical areas (PCSAs).
and other local government units, but urbanized areas do
not correspond to government boundaries. The term urban Pauseand Reflect13.3.1

areaalso has limited applicability because it does not ac- In what metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area do
you live? Google [your city and state] statistical area.
curately reflect the full influence that an urban settlement
has in contemporary society.

478 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

OVERLAPPING METROPOLITAN AREAS German Ruhr (including the cities of Dortmund, Dussel
dorf, and Essen), Randstad in the Netherlands (induct
Learning Outcome 13.3.2: ing the cipes of Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam)
Describe how metropolitan areas contain many local and Japan's Tokaido (including the cities of Tokyo anc
governments and overlap with each other.
Yokohama).
A county between two central cities may send a large Within Megalopolis, the downtown areas of individua
number of commuters to jobs in each. In the northeast-
ern United States, large metropolitan areas are so close to- cities such as Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia re
gether that they now form one continuous urban complex, tain distinctive identities, and the urban areas are visibl,
extending from north of Boston to south of Washington, separated from each other by open space used as parks
D.C. Geographer Jean Gottmann named this region Mega- military bases, and dairy or truck farms. But at the pe
lopo1is, a Greek word meaning "great city"; others have riphery of the urban areas, the boundaries overlap. Ono
called it the Boswash corridor (Figure 13-28). considered two separate areas, Washington and Baltimor,
were combined into a single MSA after the 1990 census
Other continuous urban complexes exist in the United Washingtonians visit the Inner Harbor in downtown BaJ
States-the southern Great Lakes between Chicago and timore, and Baltimoreans attend major-league hockey ani
Milwaukee on the west and Pittsburgh on the east, and basketball games in downtown Washington. Howeve1
southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana. Among combining them into one MSA did not do justice to th
important examples in other developed countries are the distinctive character of the two cities, so the Census Bu
reau again divided them into two separate MSAs after th
2000 census but grouped them into one combined statis
tical area.

◄ FIGURE13-28

.. MEGALOPOLIS
CANADA Also known as the Boswas
co
:;l(;J,.a.\,dt corridor,Megalopolisextenc
~~ - more than 700 kilomete

;;. ' (440 miles) from Bostonc

/V LakeOntario the northeastto Washingto
r D.C.o, nthe southwestM. eg;

lopolis contains one-loun

of the U.S.population on

percentof the country'stot

landarea.

ATLANTIC
OCEAN

A

N

25 ~- Metropolitasntatisticaalrea
• 25 ISOKil>"""• Micropolitasnlalisticaal rea

Ch,rpter 13: Urban Patterns 479

)CAL GOVERNMENT FRAGMENTATION those of Marion County, Indiana. Government func-
tions that were handled separately by the•city and the
1e fragmentation of local government in the United county now are combined into a joint operation in the
J.tes makes it difficult to solve regional problems of traf- same office building. In Florida, the city of Miami and
. management, solid-waste disposal, and the building surrounding Dade County have combined some ser-
affordable housing. According to the 2002 census, the vices, but the city boundaries have not been changed
1ited States had 87,525 local governments, including to match those of the county.
)34 counties, 19,429 cities, 16,504 townships, 13,506
hool districts, and 35,052 special-purpose districts, such • Federations. Examples of federations include Toronto
police and fire. The larger metropolitan areas have thou- and other large Canadian cities. Toronto's metropolitan
nds of local governments, with widely varying levels of government was created in 1953, through a federation
~alth (Figure 13-29). of 13 municipalities. A two-tier system of government
The large number of local government units has led existed until 1998, when the municipalities were amal-
calls for a metropolitan government that could coordi- gamated into a single government.
1te-if not replace-the numerous local governments in
, urban area. Most U.S. metropolitan areas have a coun- Pause and Reflect 13.3.2
t of government, which is a cooperative agency consist-
g of representatives of the various local governments in Canada has a method of delineating urban and
e region. The council of-~vernment may be empowered metFopolitan areas of various sizes. If the Canadian
do some overall planning for the area that local govern- side of Lake Ontario were colored in Figure 13-28,
ents cannot logically do. Strong metropolitan-wide gov- most of it would also be urban. What is the largest
nments have been established in a few places in North city and metropolitan area on the Canadian side of
nerica. Two kinds exist: Lake Ontario?

Consolidations of city and county gov• SAINT CLAIR
COUNTY
ernments. Examples of consolidations
of city and county governments include
Indianapolis and Miami. The boundaries
of Indianapolis were changed to match

i.. r:-~MACOMB

OAKLAND COUNTY r

COUNTY Waterford<Jt, t,

Twp,Ppntinc' pch9ster Shelby Macomb
Twp. Twp.

.~. e-r-

INGSTON West ,, [ '.J.T..roy St~rlin~c1iJto:l
Blo~1_11field Heightslwp.
,OUNTY,;,t,
'1Twp. _..,_.... Lr

liarmHIlinisgStoonut-h.f1J-e1ldR0o~y~al
Warren ·I,Sotr'eC.slair

'·

. Redford I
1./ LivoniaT:p Detroit,..•/,',

WesUand J_ .' ,;;,p
~Ann lCanion ·
rbor!. ~ f _Twp." 1Oearbo!n - Countyboundary
'°'Dea(bov, - Townshipboundary

,SHTENAW "-, \_:_ WAYNE I Heig s Village
~OUNTY ~COUNTYifaylor 1 1 City

rI lI Township

,.,stlacai gOliemfTlenntsamedon mJp

"'" at ~0.(J(JllQlhaMants

'7 y
MONROE
COUNTY ,~·~~o..n...r.oe

& FIGURE13-29 LOCALGOVERNMENTINS THEDETROITMETROPOLITAANREA Themapdoesnotinclude
numeroulsocalgovernmendtsirectlyacrosstheDetroitRiverin CanadaT.hecityof Detroitw, hichhasa largenumber
of vaca·natndabandonehdouses(top)issurroundedbywealthysuburbs(bottom).

480 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE \

ANNEXATION that had a tradition of independent local government
before being swallowed up by urban growth. Others are
Learning Outcome 13.3.3 newly created communities whose residents wish to live
Understand historical and contemporary patterns of close to the large city but not be legally part of it.
suburban expansion.
Pause and Reflect 13.3.3
The process of legally adding land area to a city is annexa-
tion. Rules concerning annexation vary among states. Nor- The three largest cities in Ohio are Cincinnati,
mally, land can be annexed to a city only if a majority of res- Cleveland, and Columbus. In 1950, Cincinnati's
idents in the affected area vote in favor of the annexation. land area was 72 square miles, Cleveland's was
75 square miles. and Columbus's Was 40 square
Peripheral residents generally desired annexation in the miles. Which of the three cities has increased its land
nineteenth century because the city offered better services, area substantially since 1950? Refer to each city's
such as water supply, sewage disposal, trash pickup, paved Wikipedia site to find the current land areas. What
streets, public transportation, and police and fire protection. might account for the large increase?
Thus, as U.S.cities grew rapidly in the nineteenth century, the
legal boundaries frequently changed to accommodate newly DENSITY GRADIENT
developed areas. For example, the city of Chicago expanded
from 26 square kilometers (10 square miles) in 1837 to 492 As you travel outward from the center of a city, you can
square kilometers (190 square miles) in 1900 (Figure 13-30). watch the decline in the density at which people live
(Figure 13-31). Inner-city apartments or row houses may
Today, however, cities are less likely to annex peripheral pack as many as 250 dwellings on a hectare of land (100
land because the residents prefer to organize their own ser- dwellings per acre). Older suburb:, have larger row houses,
vices rather than pay city taxes for them. Originally, some semidetached houses, and individual houses on small lots,
of these peripheral jurisdictions were small, isolated towns at a density of about 10 houses per hectare (4 houses per
acre). A detached house typically sits on a lot of 0.25 to 0.5
Ci!ybiri'.Sm 1837 hectares (0.6 to l.Z acres) in new suburbs and a lot of 1 hect-
Anne.ledby are or greater (2.5 acres) on the fringe of the built-up area.

1870 -1930 This density change in an urban area ls called the den-
1890 - 1960 sity gradient. According to the density gradient, the num-
1900 -1990 ber of houses per unit of land diminishes as distance from
the center city increases. Two changes have affected the
Lake density gradient in recent years:

Michigan • Fewer people living in the center. The density gradient
thus has a gap in the center, Where few Jive.
...
• Fewer differences in density Within urban areas. The
number of people living on a hectare of land has de-
creased in the central residential areas through popu-
lation decline and abandonment of old housing. At
the same time, density has increased on the periphery
through construction of apartment and town-house
projects and diffusion of suburbs across a larger area.

These two changes flatten the density gradient and
reduce the extremes of density between inner and outer
areas traditionally found within cities.

THE COST OF SUBURBAN SPRAWL

A flattening of the density gradient for a metropolitan are,

means that its people and services are spread out over ,

0D.--l-5,-ll-i5,.1,..)5..0_,-,_ larger area. U.S. suburbs are characterized by sprawl, whicl
is the progressive spread of development o\'er the landscape

• FIGURE 13-30 ANNEXATIONINCHICAGO Duringthenineteenthcentury, When private developers select new housing sites, they see
the cityof Chicagogrewrapidlythroughannexationof peripheralland.Rela- cheap land that can easily be prepared for construction-
tivelylittlelandwasannexedduringthetwentiethcenturyt;hemajorannexation land often not contiguous to the existing built-uparea (Fi~

wasonthe northwesstide,forO'HareAirportT. heinsetshowsthatthe cityof ure 13-32). Sprawl is also fostered by the desireof many farr

ChicagocoversonlyasmallportionoftheChicagometropolitasntatisticaalrea. ilies to own large tracts of land.

.., Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 481

11'$0p0e,rsquartrnn11 ◄ FIGURE 13-31 DENSITY GRADIENT IN CLEVELAND In 1900,the populationwashighlyclusteredin andnear
the centralbusinessdistrict (CBD)B. y1930and 1960,the populationwasspreadingl,eavingthe originalcoreless
■ 15,000a11.d1bc¥t dense.By1990,the populationwasdistributedovera muchlargerarea,the variationin the densityamongdifferent
10,000-14,999 ringswasmuchless,andthe area'slowestdensitiesexistedin the ringsnearthe CBDT. hecurrentboundaryof the city
5,000-g.999 of Clevelandis shown.(FirsthreemapsadaptedfromAveryM.Guest,"PopulationSuburbanizatioinnAmericanMet-
ropolitanAreas,1940-1970," GeographicAalnalysis7 (1975):267-283, table4. Usedbype~missioonf the publisher.)
&.:lowS,ooo

k~
~r As long as demand prime agricultural land may be lost through construction of
v!) for single-family de- isolated housing developments. Tn the interim, other sites

tached houses remains lie fallow while speculators await the most profitable time

high, land on the fringe to build homes on them. In reality, sprawl has little impact

of urban areas will be on the total farmland in the United States, but it does re-

converted from open duce the ability of city dwellers to get to the country for rec-

space to residential land reation, and it can affect the supply of local dairy products

use. Land is not trans- and vegetables. Low-density suburbs also waste more energy,

formed immediately especially because motor vehicles are required for most trips.

from farms to housing The supply of land for the construction of new housing

developments. Instead, is more severely restricted in European urban areas than

developers buy farms in the United States. Officials attack sprawl by designat-

for future construction ing areas of mandatory open space. London, Birmingham,

of houses by individ- and several other British cities are surrounded by green-

ual builders. Develop- belts, or rings of open space. New housing is built either

ers frequently reject in older suburbs inside the greenbelts or in planned exten-

land adjacent to built- sions to small towns and new towns beyond the green-

up areas in favor of de- belts. However, restriction of the supply of land on the

tached isolated sites, urban periphery has driven up hou~e prices in Europe.

depending on the price Several U.S. states have taken strong steps in the past few

and physical attributes years to curb sprawl, reduce traffic congestion, and reverse

of the alternatives. The inner-city decline. The goal is to produce a pattern of com-

peripheries of U.S. cities pact and contiguous development and protect rural land for

therefore look like Swiss agriculture, recreation, and wildlife. Legislation and regula-

cheese, with pockets of tions to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland has

development and gaps been called smart growth. Oregon and Tennessee have de-

of open space. fined growth boundaries within which new development

Urban sprawl has some undesirable traits. Roads and must occur. Cities can annex only lands that have been in-

lities must be extended to connect isolated new develop- cluded in the urban growth areas. New Jersey, Rhode Island,

:nts to nearby built-up areas. The cost of these new roads and Washington were also early leaders in enacting strong

j utilities may be funded by taxes, or the developer may state-level smart-growth initiatives. Maryland's smart-growth

tall the services and pass on the cost to new residents law discourages the state from funding new highways and

·ough higher home prices. Sprawl also wastes land. Some other projects that would extend suburban sprawl and de-

stroy farmland. State money must be spent

IGURE 13-32 SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT PATTERNSIN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE to "fil1 in" already urbanized areas.

ITED STATES TheUnitedStateshas muchmoresprawlthan the UnitedKingdom.In the United

idom,newhousingis morelikelyto beconcentratedin newtownsor plannedextensionsof existing

,IItowns(right),whereasin the United.-5tategsr,owthoccursio discontinuousdevelopments.

UNITEDKINGDOM'\ ,.,m,

~

l.=~~~4-fl

Newdevelopments = Roads Farms

1950s 1970s • t990s -1950city ~ Railways ~
limtts
1---.-......,.-~10MilN
1960s • 1980s tOKl'il:Jmeters

,,m, -- - ----------------~

'

482 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE ...

Segregation in the Suburbs

Learning Outcome 13.3.4
Explain two ways in which suburbs are segregated.

Public opinion polls in the United States show people's .l FIGURE 13.33 HOUSING SEGREGATION: GATED COMMUNITY Dana
strong desire for suburban living. In most polls, more than Point, California,a Los Angelessuburb. has a gated communitycalled
90 percent of respondents prefer the suburbs to the inner
city. It is no surprise then that the suburban population lanternBay.
has grown much faster than the overall population in the
United States. spatial separation. They prevented the mixing of land
uses within the same district. In particular, single-family
Suburbs offer varied attractions-a detached single- houses, apartments, industry, and commerce were kept
apart because the location of one activity near another was
family dwelling rather than a row house or an apartment, considered unhealthy and inefficient.

private land surrounding the house, space to park cars, and The strongest criticism of U.S. residential suburbs is
a greater opportunity for home ownership. A suburban that low-income people and minorities are unable to live
in them because of the high cost of the housing and the
house provides sp.1ceand privacy, a daily retreat from the unfriendliness of established residents. Suburban commu-
nities discourage the entry of those with lower incomes
stress of urban living. Families with children are especially and minorities because of fear that property values will de-
attracted to suburbs, which offer more space for play and cline if the high-status composition of the neighborhood
protection from the high crime rates and heavy traffic that is altered. Legal devices, such as requiring each house to sit
characterize inner-city life. As incomes rose in the twenti- on a large lot and the prohibition of apartments, prevent
eth century, first in the United States and more recently in low-income families from living in many suburbs. Fences
other developed countries, more families were able to af- are built around some housing areas, and visitors must
ford to buy suburban homes. check in at a gate house to enter (Figure 13-33).

The modern residential suburb is segregated in two Pause and Reflect 13.3.4
ways: Are you able to walk from your home to consumer
services? What do you think explains the spatial
• Segregated social classes. Housing in a given suburban pattern of residential and commercial land uses in
community is usually built for people of a single social the area where you live?
class, with others excluded by virtue of the cost, size, or
location of the housing. Segregation by race and eth- SUBURBANIZATION OF BUSINESSES
nicity also persists in some suburbs (see Chapter 7).
Many nonresidential activities have moved to the suburbs
• Segregated land uses. Residents are separated from A number of factors account for this long-established an<
commercial and manufacturing activities that are con- continuing trend:
fined to compact, distinct areas. • Consumer services have moved to suburbs becaus,

RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION most of their customers live there.
• Business services and manufacturers have moved t•
The homogeneous suburb was a twentieth-century phe-
nomenon. Before then, activities and classes in a city were suburbs because land is cheaper and more plentif~
more likely to be separated vertically rather than horizon- there.
tally. ln a typical urban building, shops were on the street
level, with the shop owner or another well-to-do family A large node of business and consumer services in th
living on one or two floors above the shop. Poorer people suburbs of an urban area is known as an edge city. Edg
lived on the higher levels or in the basement, the least at- cities are planned around freeway exits and are designed t
tractive parts of the building. The basement was dark and be navigable only in motor vehicles.
damp, and before the elevator was invented, the higher
levels could be reached only by climbing many flights of
stairs. Wealthy families lived in houses with space avail-
able in the basement or attic to accommodate servants.

Once cities spread out over much larger areas, the old
pattern of vertical separation was replaced by territorial
segregation. Large sections of the city were developed with
houses of similar interior dimension, lot size, and cost, ap-
pealing to people with similar incomes and lifestyles. Zon-
ing ordinances, developed in Europe and North America
in the early decades of the twentieth century, encouraged

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 483

larisFa..s,10nPlace

O2 4MII~

0 'Z <l)('.:!IO(ntlorJ
3

N such as the interchange of two interstate highways. Some
shopping malls are elaborate multilevel structures exceed-
"IGURE13-34 SHOf>PINGMALLS NEARCOLUMBUS,OHIO Themalls ing 100,000 square meters (1 million square feet), with
oundthe city nearthe beltway.(right) EastonTownCenteris the largestmall more than 100 stores arranged along covered walkways,
and surrounded by an extensive parking area. The key to
,e Columbusarea. a successful large shopping mall is the inclusion of one or
more anchors, usually large department stores. Most con-
IBURBANIZATION OF CONSUMER SERVICES. Subur- sumers go to a mall to shop at an anchor and, while there,
n residential growth has fostered change in traditional patronize the smaller shops. ln smaller shopping centers,
ailing patterns (Figure 13-34). Historically, urban resi- the anchor is frequently a supermarket or discount store.
nts bought food and other daily necessities at small
ighborhood shops in the midst of housing areas and Malls have become centers for activities in suburban
opped in the CBD for other products. But since the areas that lack other types of community facilities. Retired
d of World War II, downtown sales have not increased, people go to malls for safe, vigorous walking exercise, or
1ereas suburban sales have risen at an annual rate of they sit on a bench to watch the passing scene. Teenagers
Jercent. Downtown sales have stagnated because subur- arrive after school to meet their friends. Concerts and ex-
n residents who live far from the CBD don't make the hibitions are frequently set up in malls.
ng journey there. At the same tlme, small corner shops
, not exist in the midst of newer residential suburbs. The SUBURBANIZATION OF BUSINESS SERVICES AND
w density of residential construction discourages people FACTORIES. Offices that do not require face-to-face
)ID walking to stores, and restrictive zoning practices of- contact are increasingly moving to suburbs, where
n exclude shops from residential areas. rents are lower than in the CBD. Executives can drive
Instead, retailing has been increasingly concentrated in on uncongested roads to their offices from their homes
anned suburban shopping malls of varying sizes. Corner in nearby suburbs and park their cars without charge.
ops have been replaced by supermarkets in small shop- For other employees, though, suburban office locations
ng centers. Larger malls contain department stores and can pose a hardship. Secretaries, custodians, and other
ecialty shops traditionally located only in the CBD. Gen- lower-status office workers may not have cars, and public
ous parking lots surround the stores. A shopping mall is transportation may not serve the site. Other office workers
1ilt by a developer, who buys the land, builds the struc- might miss the stimulation and animation of a central
res, and leases space to individual merchants. Typically, location, particularly at lunchtime.
merchant's rent is a percentage of sales revenue.
Shopping malls require as many as 40 hectares (100 Factories and warehouses have migrated to suburbia for
·res) of land and are frequently near key road junctions, more space, cheaper land, and better truck access. Mod-
ern factories and warehouses demand more land because
they spread their conveyor belts, forklift trucks, loading
docks, and machinery over a single level for efficient op-
eration. Suburban locations also facilitate truck shipments
by providing good access to main highways and no cen-
tral city traffic congestion, which is important because in-
dustries increasingly receive inputs and distribute prod-

ucts by truck.

-

484 THECULTURALLANDSCAPE

Urban Transportation miles) across the country. The use of motor vehicles is also
supported by policies that keep the price of fuel below the
Learning Outcome 13.3.5 level found in Europe.
Describe the impact of motor vehicles in urban areas.
The motor vehicle is an important user of land in the
People do not travel aimlessly; their trips have a precise city (Figure 13-35). An average city allocates about one-
point of origin, destination, and purpose. More than half fourth of its land to roads and parking lots. Multilane free-
of all trips are work related-commuting between work ways cut a 23-meter (75-foot) path through the heart of a
and home, business travel, or deliveries. Shopping or other city, and elaborate interchanges consume even more space.
personal business and social journeys each account for ap- Valuable land in the central city is devoted to parking cars
proximately one-fourth of all trips. Together, a.IIth~se trips and trucks, although expensive underground and multi-
produce congestion in urban areas. Conges~1on 1~ poses story parking structures can reduce the amount of ground-
costs on individuals and businesses by delaying arrival at level space needed. European and Japanese cities have been
destinations, and the high concentration of slowly mov- especially disrupted by attempts to insert new roads and
ing vehicles produces increased air pollution. parking areas in or near the medieval central areas.

Historically, the growth of suburbs was constrained by CONTROLLING VEHICLES. The future health of urban
poor transportation. People lived in crowded cities because
they had to be within walking distance of shops and places areas depends on relieving traffic congestion. Geographic
of employment. The invention of the railroad in the nine- tools, including the Global Positioning System (GPS} and
teenth century enabled people to Jive in suburbs and work electronic mapping, are playing central roles in the design
in the central city. Cities then built railroads at street level of intelligent transportation systems, either through
(called trolleys, streetcars, or trams) and underground (sub- increasing road capacity or through reducing demand.
ways} to accommodate commuters. Many so-called street-
car suburbs built in the nineteenth century still exist and The current generation of innovative techniques to
retain unique visual identities. They consist of houses and increase road capacity is aimed at providing drivers with
shops clustered near a station or former streetcar stop at a information so that they can make intelligent decisions
much higher density than is found in newer suburbs. about avoiding congestion. Information about traffic con-
gestion is transmitted through computers, handheld de-
MOTOR VEHICLES vices and vehicle monitors. Traffic hot spots are displayed
on e'iectronic maps and images, using information col-
The suburban explosion in the twentieth century relied lected through sensors in the roadbeds and cameras placed
on motor vehicles rather than railroads, especially in the at strategic locations. An individual wishing to know about
United States. Rail Jines restricted nineteenth-century sub-
urban development to narrow ribbons within walking dis- a particular route can program an electronic device to re-
tance of the stations. Cars and trucks permitted large-scale
development of suburbs at greater distances from the cen- ceive a congestion alert and to suggest alternatives. Radie
ter, in the gaps between the rail lines. Motor vehicle driv- stations in urban areas broadcast reports to advise motor•
ers have much greater flexibility in their choice of resi- ists of accidents or especially congested highways.
dence than was ever before possible.
Demand to use congested roads is being reduced in ,
Motor vehicle ownership is nearly number of ways:
universal among American house-
holds, with the exception of some • Congestion charges. In London, motorists must pa:
poor families, older individuals, and a congestion charge of up to £12 ($18) to drive intc
people living in the centers of large
cities such as New York. More than 95 T FIGURE13-35 URBANEXPRESSWAYSanFranciscol,ikemostother U
percent of all trips within U.S. cities are cities,hadmajorexpresswaycsonstructedinto the centerof the city.
made by car, compared to fewer than
5 percent by bus or rail. Outside the
big cities, public transportation ser-
vice is extremely rare or nonexistent.
The U.S. government has encouraged
the use of cars and trucks by paying 90
percent of the cost of limited-access,
high-speed interstate highways, which
stretch for 74,000 kilometers (46,000

Congestion
charging

8

Central
ZONE

.t. FIGURE13-37 DRIVERLESSCAR Googlehas developedtechnologyen-
ablingvehiclesto bedrivenby sensorse,lectronicmaps,andcameras.

l FIGURE13-36 LONDON CONGESTION CHARGE Thesign • Bans. Cars have been banned from portions of the cen-
,arnsmotoriststhilt theymustpi!ya chargeto driveinto Central tral areas of a number of European cities, including Co-
ondonat certaintimes. penhagen, Munich, Vienna, and Zurich.

the central area between 7 A.M. and 6 P.M. Monday Future intelligent transportation systems are likely to in-
through Friday (Figure 13-36). A similar system exists in crease capacity through hands-free driving (Figure 13-37). A
Stockholm, where the charge varies depending on the motorist will drive to a freeway entrance, where the vehicle
time of day. will be subjected to a thorough diagnostic (taking a half.
second) to ensure that it has enough fuel and is in good
Tolls. In Toronto and several California cities, motor- operating condition. A menu will offer a choice of predeter-
ists are charged higher tolls to drive on freeways during mined destinations, such as "home" or "office," or a desti-
congested times than at other times. A transponder at- nation can be programmed by hand.
tached to a vehicle records the time of day it is on the
highway. A monthly bill sent to the vehicle's owner re- Pause and Reflect 13.3.5
flects the differential tolls.
Which methods of easing congestion appear to you
Permits. In Singapore, to be permitted to drive down- to be most likely to be successful?
town during the busiest times of the day, a motorist
must buy a license and demonstrate ownership of a A release will send the vehicle accelerating automati-
parking space. The government limits the number of cally on the entrance ramp onto the freeway. Sensors in the
licenses and charges high tolls to drive downtown. Sev- bumpers and fenders, attached to radar or GPS, will alert
eral cities in China intend to require permits to drive in vehicle systems to accelerate, brake, or steer, as needed.
congested areas. With such a system, spacing between vehicles can be as lit-
tle as 2 meters. While a vehicle is automatically controlled,
the "driver" will be able to swivel the seat to a workstation
to make phone calls, check e-mail, or surf the Internet;
read; watch television; or nap. When the vehicle nears the
programmed freeway exit, a tone will warn that the driver
will have to take back control. The vehicle will halted on
the exit ramp until the driver firmly presses the brake to
release the "autodrive" system, much as cruise control is
currently disengaged.

485

486 THECULTURALLANDSCAPE

PUBLIC TRANSIT RAPID TRANSIT. The one exception to the dovmward
trend in public transit in the United States is rapid transit.
Learning Outcome 13.3.6 It is known to transportation planners as either fixed heavy
State the benefits and limitations of public rail (such as subways) or fixed light rail (such as streetcars).
transportation. Cities such as Boston and Chicago have attracted new
passengers through construction of new subway lines and
Because few people live within walking distance of their modernization of existing service (Figure 13-38). Chicago
place of employment, urban areas are characterized by ex- has been a pioneer in the construction of heavy-rail rapid
tensive commuting. The heaviest flow of commuters is transit lines in the median strips of expressways. Entirely
into the CBD in the morning and out of it in the evening. new subway systems have been built in recent years in U.S.
cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, San Francisco,
The intense concentration of people in the CBD dur- and Washington.
ing working hours strains transportation systems because
a large number of people must reach a small area of land The federal government has permitted Boston, New
at the same time in the morning and disperse at the same York,and other cities to use funds originally allocated for in-
time in the afternoon. As much as 40 percent of all trips terstate highways to modernize rapid transit service instead.
made into or out of a CBD occur during four hours of the New York's subway cars, once covered with graffiti spray-
day-two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Rush painted by gang members, have been cleaned so that pas-
hour, or peak hour, is the four consecutive 15-minute pe- sengers can ride in a more hospitable environment. As a re-
riods that have the heaviest traffic. sult of these improvements, subway ridership in the United
States increased from 2 billion in 1995 to 3.6 billion in 2011.
PUBLIC TRANSIT IN THE UNITED STATES. In the
United States, public transit is used primarily for rush-hour The trolley-now known by the more elegant term fixed
commuting by workers into and out of the CBD. One-half light-rail transit-was once relegated almost exclusively to
of trips to work are by public transit in New York; one- a tourist attraction in New Orleans and San Francisco but
third in Boston, San Francisco, and Washington; and one- is making a modest comeback in North America. New trol-
fourth in Chicago and Philadelphia. But in most other ley tines have been built or are under construction in Bal-
cities, public transit service is minimal or nonexistent. timore, Buffalo, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Portland

Despite the obvious advantages of public transporta- ::.l-
tion for commuting, only S percent of work trips are by ... FIGURE 13-38 BOSTON PUBLIC TRANSIT Boston's subway systerr
public transit in the United States. Overall, public transit
ridership in the United States declined from 23 billion per knownas"theT,"includehseavyrail(top) andlightrail (borrom).
year in the 1940s to 10 billion in 2011. The average Ameri-
can wastes 14 gallons of gasoline and loses 34 hours per
year sitting in traffic jams, according to the Urban Mobil-
ity Report prepared by the Texas Transportation Institute.
In the United States, the total cost of congestion is valued
at $101 billion per year. But most Americans still prefer to
commute by vehicle. Most people overlook these costs be-
cause they place higher value on the privacy and flexibility
of schedule offered by a car.

Early in the twentieth century, U.S. cities had 50,000
kilometers (30,000 miles) of street railways and trolleys
that carried 14 billion passengers a year, but only a few
hundred kilometers of track remain. The number of U.S.
and Canadian cities with trolley service declined from
approximately 50 in 1950 to 8 in the 1960s. General
Motors acquired many of the privately owned streetcar
companies and replaced the trolleys with buses that the
company made. Buses offer more flexible service than do
trolleys because they are not restricted to fixed tracks.
However, bus ridership in the United States declined
from a peak of 11 billion riders annually in the late l 940s
to 5 billion in 2011. Commuter railroad service, like trol-
leys and buses, has also been drastically reduced in most
U.S. cities.

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 487

egon), Sacramento, St. Louis, San Diego, and San Jose. Pause and Reflect 13.3.6
ership in all cities combined was a half-billion in 2011.
California, the state that most symbolizes the auto- What strategies are being used at your college or
bile-oriented American culture, is the leader in con- school district to reduce dependency on private
1ction of new fixed light-rail transit lines. San Diego motor vehicles?
• added more kilometers than any other city. One line
.t runs from the CBD south to the Mexican border has PUBLIC TRANSIT IN OTHER COUNTRIES. In dozens of
:n irreverently dubbed the "Tijuana trolley" because it major cities around the world, extensive networks of bus,
1eavilyused by residents of nearby Tijuana, Mexico. Los tram, and subway lines have been maintained, and funds
geles-the city perhaps most associated with the motor for new construction have been provided in recent years
1icle-has planned the most extensive new light-rail sys- (Figure 13-39). Smaller cities have shared the construction
:i. The city had a rail network exceeding 1,600 kilome- boom. In France, new subway lines have been built since
s (1,000 miles) as recently as the late 1940s, but the lines the 1970s in Lille, Lyon, and Marseille, and hundreds of
re abandoned when freeways were built to accommo- kilometers of entirely new tracks have been laid between
:e increasing automobile usage. Now Los Angeles wants the country's major cities to operate a high-speed train
entice motorists out of their cars and trucks with new
ht-rail lines, but construction is very expensive, and the known as the TGV (Trains a Grande Vitesse). Growth in
es serve only a tiny percentage of the region.
The minimal level of public transit service in most U.S. the suburbs has stimulated nonresidential construction,
ies means that low-income people may not be able to including suburban shops, industry, and offices.
LChplaces of employment. Low-income people tend to
e in inner-city neighborhoods, but the job opportuni- Despite modest recent successes, public transit in the
United States is caught in a vicious circle because fares
s, especially those requiring minimal training and skill do not cover operating costs. As patronage declines and
expenses rise, the fares are increased, which drives away
personal services, are in suburban areas not well served passengers and leads to service reduction and still higher
public transportation. Inner-city neighborhoods have fares. Public expenditures to subsidize construction and
~h unemployment rates at the same time that suburban operating costs have increased, but the United States does
ms have difficulty attracting workers. In some cities, not fully recognize that public transportation is a vital
vernments and employers subsidize vans to carry low- utility deserving of subsidy to the degree long assumed by
governments in other developed countries, as well as de-
:ome inner-city residents to suburban jobs. veloping countries .

A 0 0.5 1 llbllll~rt .........,.,.,.. Open Open Surtace
RolB~i:xlv-Jlnc,• before since line
N 1980 1980
• ..Ho-Jl»,,8ruifl'M.. Melro
Slt1p111blf9'o,.
...•~a«U Llnel -
.·.~IIW'ltiwcl Llne2-
"'•"•"''Jf Llnes~

.........ZWartt'.fl'tnt Llne6 -
Tram
Llne3-
llne4 ~
Une7~

Com1diio
Wlll~t:1111:i1d1e,:.ln'OUh:;l St.

.,..,..,.•.f a~,#

AUINJl;f~; ~

5";\_lal_p .. ♦ •ACf~LI ◄ FIGURE13-39 BRUSSELSB,ELGIUM,

~ 1,/ld, METROAND TRAM Europeacnities
""16u suchas Brusselshaveinvestedsub·
~4 stantiallyin improvingpublictrans-
portation in recent years. Brussels
V1t·N11lcl~ittw1)'(NJ'I/I .,i;"fli 1'Ul10I Hal/ providesa goodexampleof a public
transporst ystemthatintegratesheavy
"':~ t!'o··..,,._,,.. rail (Metro) with light rail (trams).
Tramsinitially used Metro tunnels,
HtlRa<Aa-/ cl.~
butthe tunnelswerelargeenoughto
)E;6.1~:ty~M~er.clQ l r/ converto heavy-raillinesasfundsbe-
•oCeill
Er..-nt cameavailable.

Co,;

Bois ff~rrnam-Gtbc«IX
dot,
Cumbro Zooiinwou<I
for!t deSQ,Jlnos

~-- --~· - -------------------- .

,.

488 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC TRANSIT

Learning Outcome 13.3.7
Describe recent and possible future improvements in
vehicles.

In larger cities, public transit is better suited than motor A FIGURE 13·40 PLUG-IN HYBRID ChevroleVt oltcarsare beingrecharged
vehicles to moving large numbers of people because each outsidethe factoryin Detroiwt heretheyareassembled.
transit traveler takes up far less space. Public transporta-
tion is cheaper, less polluting, and more energy efficient would otherwise be wasted in coasting and braking is also
than privately operated motor vehicles. It also is particu- captured as electricity and stored until needed.
larly suited to rapidly bringing a large number of people
into a small area. A bus can accommodate 30 people in the ETHANOL. Ethanol is fuel made by distilling crops such
amount of space occupied by one car, whereas a double- as sugarcane, corn, and soybeans. Sugarcane is distilled
track rapid transit line can transport the same number of for fuel in Brazil, where most vehicles run on ethanol.
people as 16 lanes of urban freeway. In the United States, corn has been the principal crop
for ethanol, but this has proved controversial because
Motor vehicles have costs beyond their purchase and the amount of fossil fuels needed to grow and distill the
operation-including delays imposed on others, increased corn is comparable to-and possibly greater than-the
need for highway maintenance, construction of new high- amount saved in vehicle fuels. Furthermore, growing corn
ways, and pollution. One-third of the high-priced central for ethanol diverts com from the food chain, thereby
land is devoted to streets and parking lots, although multi- allegedly causing higher food prices in the United States
story and underground garages also are constructed. and globally. More promising is ethanol distilled from
cellulosic biomass, such as trees and grasses.
THE CAR OF THE FUTURE

Consumers in developed countries are reluctant to give up
their motor vehicles, and demand for vehicles is soaring in
developing countries. One of the greatest challenges to re-
ducing pollution and conserving nonrenewable resources
is reliance on petroleum as automotive fuel, so carmak-
ers are scrambling to bring alternative-fuel vehicles to the
market. The Department of Energy forecasts that around
one-half of all new vehicles sold in the United States in
2020 will be powered by an alternative to the conven-
tional gas engine. Alternative technologies include diesel,
biofuel, hybrid, electric, and hydrogen.

DIESEL. Diesel engines burn fuel more efficiently, with FULL ELECTRIC. A full electric vehicle has no gas engine.
greater compression, and at a higher temperature than When the battery is discharged, the vehicle will not rur
conventional gas engines. Most new vehicles in Europe are until the battery is recharged by plugging it into an outlet
diesel powered, where they are valued for zippy acceleration Motorists can make trips in a local area and recharge th◄
on crowded roads, as well as for high fuel efficiency. battery at night. Out-of-town trips are difficult becaus,
Diesels have made limited inroads in the United States, recharging opportunities are scarce. In large cities,
where they were identified with ponderous heavy trucks, number of downtown garages and shopping malls hav
poorly performing versions in the 1980s, and generation recharging stations, but few exist in rural areas.
of more pollutants. Biodiesel fuel mixes petroleum diesel
with biodiesel (typically S percent), which is produced PLUG-IN HYBRID. In a plug-In hybrid, the batter
from vegetable oils or recycled restaurant grease. supplies the power at all speeds. It can be recharged i
one of two ways: While the car is moving, the battery ca
HYBRID. Sales of hybrids increased rapidly during the first
decade of the twenty-first century, led by Toyota's success be recharged by a gas engine or, when it is parked, tt
with the hybrid Prius. A gasoline engine powers the vehicle
at high speeds, and at low speeds, when the gas engine is at car can be recharged by plugging into an electrical out!
its least efficient, an electric motor takes over. Energy that (Figure 13-40). The principal limitation of a full electr
vehicle has been the short range of the battery before
needs recharging. Using a gas engine to recharge tl
battery extends the range of the plug-in hybrid to that o
conventional gas engine.

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 489

'DROGEN FUEL CELL. Hydrogen forced through a CHECK-IN: KEY ISSUE3
M (polymer electrolyte membrane or proton exchange
~mbrane) combines with oxygen from the air, producing Why Are Urban Areas Expanding?

electric charge. The electricity can then be used to ✓ A city is an incorporated unit of government.
wer an electric motor. Fuel cells are now widely used in An urban area includes a city and surrounding
1allvehicles such as forklifts. Fuel cell vehicles are being built-up suburbs. A metropolitan area includes
ed in a handful of large East Coast and West Coast cities, an urban area and surrounding counties.
1ere hydrogen fueling stations have been constructed.

ause and Reflect 13.3. 7 ✓ In the northeastern United States, adjacent
metropolitan areas form a continuous urban
Vhich alternative-fuel vehicles appear most likely region called Megalopolis.
o be successfulat reducing dependency on fossil
uels? Which appear most successfulat improving air ✓ U.S. cities once expanded by annexing
•ollution? surrounding land, but annexation is now less
common; instead, cities are surrounded by
numerous independent suburban jurisdictions.

:GIONAL VARIATIONS IN ELECTRICITY. Electric- ✓ Sprawling suburbs surround U.S. cities;
>weredvehicles require recharging by being plugged into suburban sprawl consumes a lot of land and
;ource of electricity such as an outlet in the garage that requires investment in a lot of new roads and
timately comes from a power plant. Though fossil fuel utilities.
not being pumped directly into the tank of the electric-
>wered vehicle, fossil fuel is consumed to generate the ✓ Suburbs are segregated by social classand by
~ctricity at the power plant. In fact, the United States as land use activities.
Nhole generates around 40 percent of its electricity from
,al-burning power plants and around 25 percent from ✓ Suburban residents are dependent on motor
1tural gas. An electric vehicle does reduce consumption of vehicles to get to other places, whereas most
1increasingly scarce and expensive resource-petroleum. cities offer forms of public transit.
1t if the electricity is
·nerated by natural gas, Other
en plugging a vehicle 6.1%
to the electric grid may
,nserve petroleum at 1-!y7d.7<%oelec~ric Sourceof electriclty
.e expense of more rapid
!pletion of natural gas. If Nuclear 4C0.oJa%l • 75%andabovecoal
ectricity is generated by 19.3% 50%-74%coal
,al, a plug-in may cause 50%andabovenaturagl as
ore air pollution. Naturagl as
26.7% • 50%andabovenuclear
Electricity is gener- • 50%andabovehydroelectric
ed differently across the Sourceof electricityIn the
) U.S. states. In the Pa- tenmostpopulous tates Nosource50%orabove
fie Northwest, where hy-
:oelectric is the leading
iurce of electricity, re-
1arging electric vehicles
ill have much less im-
Kt on air quality than
ill be the case in the Mid-
est (Figure 13-41). States
iat depend on farm pro-
uction may benefit from
tcreased use of ethanol.

hus, the "greenest" alter-
ative varies by location.

.t. FIGURE13-41 ELECTRICITBYY U.S.STATEDependencoyn nonrenew-
ableandpollutingfossilfuelsto generateelectricityvarieswidelyamongstates.

- -~- - --------~-

'

490 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

filtering process, the owner may abandon the property be-
4~----------=--~K_EY_IS~S_U_E
/__ cause the rents that can be collected are less than the costs of
taxes and upkeep. Cities have codes that require owners to

maintain houses in good condition. But governments that

Why Do Cities Face aggressively go after landlords to repair deteriorated proper-
ties may in fact hasten abandonment because landlords will

Challenges? not spend money on repairs that they are unable to recoup
in rents. Thousands of vacant houses stand in the inner areas

■ Changing Urban Physical Geography of U.S. cities because the landlords have abandoned them.
Detroit, which declined from 1.8 million inhabitants

■ Changing Urban Social Geography in 1950 to 700,000 in 2010, is trying to figure out how to
■ Urban Economic Geography shut down and close off entire neighborhoods. The city
cannot afford to pay for street lights, garbage pickup, and

Challenges police protection for the entire 360 square kilometers (139
square miles). So it is encouraging the handful of people

Learning Outcome 13.4.1 still living in the most sparsely inhabited neighborhoods
to move to other ones.
Describe the processes of deterioration and
gentrification in cities. One hundred years ago, low-income inner-city neigh-
borhoods in the United States teemed with throngs of re-
Most of the land in urban settlements is devoted to housing, cent immigrants from Europe. Such neighborhoods that
where people live. Within U.S. urban areas, the most funda- housed perhaps l 00,000 a century ago contain fewer than
mental spatial distinction is between inner-city residential 5,000 inhabitants today. Schools and shops close because
neighborhoods that surround the CBD and suburban resi- they are no longer needed in inner-city neighborhoods
dential neighborhoods on the periphery. Inner cities in the with rapidly declining populations. Through the filtering
United States contain concentrations of low-income people process, many low-income families have moved to less de-
who face a variety of physical, social, and economic prob- teriorated houses farther from the center.
lems very different from those faced by suburban residents.
Pause and Reflect 13.4.1

Changing Urban Physical Between 50 and 100 square kilometers (20 and
Geography 40 square miles) of Detroit's 360 square kilometers
(139 square miles) are estimated to be vacant. For
The major physical problem faced by inner-city neighbor- what purpose might all that vacant land be used?
hoods is the poor condition of the housing, most of which
was built before 1940. Deteriorated housing can either be REDLINING. Some banks have engaged in redlining-
demolished and replaced with new housing, or it can be drawing lines on a map to identify areas in which they will
rehabilitated. refuse to loan money. Asa result of redlining, families who try
to fix up houses in the area have difficulty borrowing money.
THE PROCESS OF DETERIORATION Although redlining is illegaJ,enforcement of laws against it is
frequently difficult.The Community Reinvestment Actrequires
As the number of low-income residents increases in a city, U.S.banks to document by census tract where they make loans.
the territory these residents occupy expands. Neighborhoods A bank must demonstrate that inner-city neighborhoods
can shift from predominantly middle-class to low-income within its service area receive a fair share of its loans.
occupants within a few years. Middle-class families move
out of a neighborhood to newer housing farther from the PUBLIC HOUSING. During the mid-twentieth century,
center and sell or rent their houses to lower-income families. many substandard inner-city houses were demolished
and replaced with public housing. In the United States,
FILTERING. Large houses built by wealthy familles in the public housing is reserved for low-income households,
nineteenth century are subdivided by absentee landlords who must pay 30 percent of their income for rent. A
into smaller dwellings for low-income families. This process housing authority, established by the local government,
of subdivision of houses and occupancy by successive manages the buildings, and the federal government pays
waves of lower-income people is known as filtering. the cost of construction and the maintenance, repair
and management that are not covered by rent. In othe1
Like a car, clothing, or any other object, the better a

house is maintained, the longer it will last. Landlords stop countries, local governments or nonprofit organizatior

maintaining houses when the rent they collect becomes less such as charitable groups build and own much of th«

than the maintenance cost. In such a case, the building soon housing, aided by subsidies from the national government

deteriorates and grows unfit for occupancy. Not even the Most of the high-rise public-housing projects built i1

poorest families will rent the dwelling. At this point in the the United States and Europe during the mid-twentietl

Chapter 13: Urban Pattern~ 491

1.FIGURE 13-41 PUBLIC HOUSING Oneof the mostnotoriouspublichous• neighborhood where middle-class people live. In a few
ng projects,Pruitt-Igoein St. Louisw, as constructedduringthe 1950sand de- cases, inner-city neighborhoods never deteriorated be-
cause the community's social elite maintained them as
nolishedduringthe 1970s. enclaves of expensive property. In most cases, inner-city
neighborhoods have only recently been renovated by the
:entury are now considered unsatisfactory environments city and by private investors.
:or families with children. The elevators are frequently bro-
_<en,juveniles terrorize other people in the hallways, and Middle-class families are attracted to deteriorated inner-
jrug use and crime rates are high. Some observers claim city neighborhoods for several reasons:
chat the high-rise buildings were responsible for the prob-
lem because too many low-income families were concen- • The houses may be larger and more substantially con-
trated into a high-density environment. Because of poor structed yet less expensive than houses in the suburbs.
::onditions, high-rise public-housing projects have been de-
molished in many U.S. and European cities (Figure 13-42). • Houses may possessattractive architectural details, such as
ornate fireplaces,cornices, high ceilings, and wood trim.
The U.S. government has stopped funding construc-
tion of new public housing. A federal program known as • For people who work downtown, inner-city living elim-
Hope VTsupports renovation of older public housing, and inates the strain of commuting on crowded freeways or
the Housing Choice Voucher Program helps low-income public transit.
households pay their rent in private housing. With the
overall level of funding much lower, the supply of public • The neighborhoods are near theaters, bars, restaurants,
housing and other government-subsidized housing in the stadiums, and other cultural and recreational facilities.
United States diminished by approximately 1 million units
between 1980 and 2000. But during the same period, the • Single people and couples without children are not
number of households that needed low-rent dwellings in- concerned with the quality of inner-city schools.
creased by more than 2 million.
Because renovating an old inner-city house can be
In Britain, the supply of public housing, known as so- nearly as expensive as buying a new one in the suburbs, cit-
cial housing (formerly council estates), has also declined ies encourage the process by providing low-cost loans and
because the government has forced local authorities to sell tax breaks. Public expenditures for renovation have been
some of the dwe!Jings to the residents. The British also ex- criticized as subsidies for the middle class at the expense of
panded subsidies to nonprofit housing associations that people with lower incomes, who are forced to move out of
build housing for groups with special needs, including sin- the gentrified neighborhoods because the rents in the area
gle mothers, immigrants, disabled people, and elderly peo- suddenly become too high for them (Figure 13-43). Cities
ple, as well as the poor. try to reduce the hardship on poor families forced to move.
U.S. law requires that they be reimbursed both for mov-
ing expenses and for rent increases over a four-year period.
Western European countries have similar laws. Cities are
also renovating old houses specifically for lower-income
families through public housing or other programs. By
renting renovated houses, a city a.Iso helps to disperse low-
income families throughout the city instead of concentrat-
ing them in large inner-city public-housing projects.

T FIGURE 13-43 GENTRIFICATION New York'sSohoneighborhoodgentri•
fiedduringthe latetwentiethcentury.

GENTRIFICATION

An alternative to demolishing deteriorated inner-city
houses is to renovate them. Gentrification is the pro-
cess by which middle-class people move into deteriorated
inner-city neighborhoods and renovate the housing. Most
cities have at least one substantially renovated inner-city

--

492 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Changing Urban Social Pause and Reflect 13.4.2
Geograplly
How might the severe recession that started in 2008
Learning Outcome 13.4.2 have affected the number of homeless people? Why
Explain the problems of a permanent underclass and might the number have changed?
culture of poverty in cities.
CULTURE OF POVERTY
Beyond the pockets of gentrified neighborhoods, inner cit-
ies contain primarily people with low incomes who face a Inner-city residents are trapped as a permanent underclass
variety of social problems. Inner-city residents constitute because they live in a cultllre of poverty. Unwed moth-
a permanent underclass who live in a culture of poverty. ers give birth to three-fou1ths of the babies in U.S. inner-
city neighborhoods, and three-fourths of children in the
UNDERCLASS inner city live with only one parent. Because of inadequate
child-care services, single mothers may be forced to choose
Inner-city residents are frequently referred to as a perma- between working to generate income and staying at home
nent underclass because they are trapped in an unending to take care of the children.
cycle of economic and social problems. The underclass suf-
fers from relatively high rates of unemployment, alcohol- In pr.inciple, government officials would like to see
ism, drug addiction, illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, and more fathers Jiving with their wives and children, but they
crime. provide little incentive for them to do so. Only a small per-
centage of "deadbeat dads" are tracked down for failing to
The children of the underclass attend deteriorated provide required child-care support. If the husband moves
schools, and affordable housing is increasingly difficult to back home, his wife may lose welfare benefits, leaving the
find. Their neighborhoods lack adequate police and fire couple financially worse off together than apart.
protection, shops, hospitals, clinics, and other health-care
facilities. The future is especially bleak for the underclass Trapped in a hopeless environment, some inner-city
because they are increasingly unable to compete for jobs. residents turn to drugs. Although drug use is a problem
Inner-city residents lack the technical skills needed for in both the suburbs and rural areas, rates of use in re-
most jobs because fewer than half complete high school. cent years have increased most rapidly in the inner cities.
Despite the importance of education in obtaining employ- Some drug users obtain money through criminal activities.
ment, many in the underclass live in an atmosphere that Gangs form in inner-city neighborhoods to control lucra-
ignores good learning habits, such as regular school at- tive drug distribution. Violence erupts when two gangs
tendance and completion of homework. The gap between fight over the boundaries between their drug distribution
skills demanded by employers and the training possessed areas. Most of the murders in Houston in 2011 occurred
by inner-city residents is widening. In the past, people in low-income minority areas, and most victims, as well
with limited education could become factory workers or as those arrested for murder in Houston, were minorities
filing clerks, but today these jobs require skills in comput- (refer ahead to Figure 13-47).
ing and handling electronics. Meanwhile, inner-city resi-
dents do not even have-access to the remaining low-skilled Many neighborhoods in the United States are seg-
jobs, such as custodial and fast-food service jobs, because regated by ethnicity, as discussed in Chapter 7. African
these jobs are increasingly in the distant suburbs.
T FIGURE 13-44 HOMELESS Homelespseopleliveunderthe 1·75bridgethat
Some of the underclass are homeless, sleeping in spansthe OhioRiverinCincinnati.
doorways, on heated street grates, and in bus and sub-
way stations (Figure 13-44). The official U.S. government
count in 2011 was 636,000 homeless people on any given
night. The figure is much higher when it includes peo-
ple who are sleeping in a car or on a friend's sofa. Most
people are homeless because they cannot afford housing
and lack a regular source of income. Homelessness may
have been sparked by family problems, job loss, or men-
tal illness. Single men constitute two-fifths of the home-
less, and the remainder are women and children. Home-
lessness is an even more serious problem in developing
count(ies. Several hundred thousand people in Kolkata
(Calcutta), India, sleep, bathe, and eat on sidewalks and
traffic islands.

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 493

1ericans and Hispanics concentrate in one or two large the inner city are transformed into vibrant communities
1tinuous areas of the inner city, whereas whites live in for higher-income people, inner suburbs become home
JUrbs.Even small cities display strong social distinctions to lower-income people displaced from gentrifying urban
Long neighborhoods. A frequently noticed division is neighborhoods. Meanwhile, middle-class residents move
:ween the east and west sides of a city, or between the from inner suburbs to newer homes on the periphery.
rth and south sides, with one side attracting the higher- Thus, the inner suburbs are unable to generate revenue to
:ome residents and the other left to lower-status and mi- provide for the needs of a poorer population.
rity families. A family seeking a new residence usually
:isiders only a handful of districts, where the residents' In cities where gentrification is especially strong, eth-
:ial and financial characteristics match their own. Resi- nic patterns are being altered. In Chicago, for example,
ntial areas designed for wealthy families are developed the white population is increasing in inner-city neighbor-
scenic, attractive areas, possibly on a hillside or near a hoods and declining in the outer-city neighborhoods (Fig-
ter body, whereas flat, dull land closer to industry be- ure 13-46). Conversely, the population of Hispanics is de-
mes built up with cheaper housing. clining in the inner city and increasing in neighborhoods
farther from the center.

JBURBAN STRESS 1-----'----• f.iiles
4~1ometeu
some metropolitan areas, the inner-city social problems
scribed above are spreading to older suburbs immedi-
:ly adjacent to the city (Figure 13-45). As portions of

Lake
Michigan

Stressedschoodl istrictsIn Cincinnatimetropolitanarea PopulationIncrease
2000-2010
Lowspendingandhighcost Lowspendingandlowcost
• AfricanAmericans
Moderatespendingandhighcost Moderatespendingandlow cost Hispanics

Highspendingandhighcost • Highspendingandlowcost •whites
Morethanone
Noneof theabove

FIGURE 13-45 SUBURBAN STRESS Inthe CincinnaMtiSA, theschooldis- A FIGURE13-46 RACIACLHANGEIN CHICAGOInChicagoH, ispanicasre
ctsconsiderehdighstressaremostlyinthesuburbsA. high-cosstchooldistrict movingtowardthe suburbsw, hereaswhitesare movingbackintothe city,spe-
1seithera rapidlygrowingordecliningenrollmenotrelsea largepercentageof cificalltyhe NorthSidew, hereattractiveneighborhoodasreclustered.
Jdentseligiblefora freelunchprogrambecauseoflowincome.

-

494 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Urban Economic Geography residents. But spending public money to increase the
Challenges downtown tax base can take scarce funds away from
projects in inner-city neighborhoods, such as subsi-
Learning Outcome 13.4.3 dized housing and playgrounds.
Describe the difficulties that cities face in paying for
services, especially in a recession. During the mid-twentieth century, inner-city fiscal
problems were alleviated by increasing contributions from
The concentration of low-income residents in inner-city the federal government. The percentage of the budgets of
neighborhoods of central cities has produced financial the 50 largest U.S. cities supplied by the federal govern-
problems. The severe recession in recent years has aggra- ment increased from 1 percent in 1950 to 18 percent in
vated those problems. 1980. But the percentage shrank substantially afterward,
to 6 percent in 1990 and 2000. When adjusted for infla-
THE ERODING TAX BASE tion, federal aid to U.S. cities has declined by two-thirds
since the 1980s. To offset a portion of these lost federal
Low-income inner-city residents require public services, funds, some state governments have increased financial
but they can pay very little of the taxes necessary to sup- assistance to cities.
port those services. Central cities face a growing gap
between the cost of needed services in inner-city neighbor- THE IMPACT OF THE RECESSION
hoods and the availability of funds to pay for them. A city
has two choices for closing the gap between the cost of ser- The impact of the severe recession that began in 2008 llngers
vices and the funding available from taxes: for many cities. While some sectors of the economy recov-
ered relatively quickly, the financial condition of local gov-
• Reduce services. For example, a city can close libraries, ernments remains poor for many years following a sever£
eliminate bus routes, collect trash less frequently, and recession.
delay replacement of outdated school equipment.
Aside from the hardship imposed on individuals laid One of the principal causes of the severe recessior
off from work, cutbacks in public services also encour- that began in 2008 was a collapse in the housing market
age middle-class residents and industries to move from primarily in the inner city (Figure 13-47). To purchase i
the city. house, most people borrow money by taking out a mort
gage, which they repay in monthly installments ove
• Raisetax revenues. For example, a city can provide tax many years. In the years leading up to the recent reces
breaks for downtown offices, luxury hotels, restaurants, sion, financial institutions sharply increased the numbe
and shops. Even with generous subsidies, these busi- of loans to low-income inner-city households buying thei
nesses pay more taxes than the buildings demolished fi1st homes. Despite having poor credit histories, first-tim
to make way for them, and they provide minimum- home buyers were approved for mortgages without bacl
wage personal-service jobs for low-income inner-city ground checks. These were known as subprime mortgage

Financial institutions around the world were eag<
to invest in housing in the United States. InvcsUng i

• Murde(r2011)

A

N

Percento1salesthat 1:=a====;:=:::;

wereforeclosures
In 2011, byZIPcode

•50ormore

30-49 A

21.)-29 59 8 N
Below20

.___no=_d_a_ta_, -: s s,o~o,:Ke;2;8 I

A FIGURE13.47 FORECLOSURAENSD MURDERISN HOUSTON(left)Mostof the foreclosurewserein areas
with highpercentageosf minorities(.right)Mostof themurdersin Houstonoccurredin low-Incomme inorityareas,
andmostvictimsaswellasthosearrestedfor murderin HoustonwereminoritiesC. omparewith mapsof Houston's
socialareas(Figure1s3-12,13-13,and13-14).

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 495

◄ FIGURE 13-48 CENTRAL CITY
REVIVAL Chicago's Navy Pier com-

bines retail and leisure serviceson a

formercargodock.

1ousing was viewed as providing a higher rate of return • San Francisco has the Ferry Building, which is a gour-
it a lower risk than other investment options. Investors met food center where San Francisco Bay ferries dock.
·easoned that their Joans were safe: House prices had in-
:reased rapidly for many years, so even if a few home own- These downtown malls attract suburban shoppers as well
~rs defaulted on their mortgages, investors would still re- as out-of-town tourists because in addition to shops, they
:oup their investment. Inner-city residents were especially offer unique recreation and entertainment experiences.
targeted for subprime mortgages. As the concentric zone
model shows (see Figures 13-9 and 13-12), inner-city resi- Some CBDs have restored their food markets, with in-
dents are more likely to be renters and therefore represent dividual stalls operated by different merchants. They may
the best opportunity for financial Institutions to increase have a high range because they attract customers who
willingly travel far to find more exotic or higher-qual-
the number of home owners. ity products. At the same time, inner-city residents may
When people are unable to repay their loans, lenders use these markets for their weekly grocery shopping. The
challenges of buying food in some urban areas are dis-
can take over the property in what is called a foreclosure.In cussed in the Sustainability and Inequallty in Our Global
the first year of the recession, 10 percent of all Americans Village feature.
with mortgages were behind in their mortgage payments
or were already in foreclosure. Compounding the problem, Pause and Reflect 13.4.3
house prices have fallen in the United States and other de- Compare Houston's distributions of murders and
veloped countries since their peak in 2006. With falling foreclosures (Figure 13-47). In what ways are the
house prices, houses are worth less than in earlier years. two distributions similar and different?
ln many cases, the amount of the mortgage exceeded the
value of the house once prices had fallen (see Figure 9-61).

REVIVING CONSUMER SERVICES CHECK-IN: KEY ISSUE 4

IN THE CBD Why Do Cities Face Challenges?

Some retailing is thriving in CBDs if it is combined with ✓ Neighborhoods in many cities are suffering
leisure activities. People are willing to make a special trip from physical deterioration as a result of
to a specific destinati.on downtown for unusual shops in a filtering and redlining.
dramatic setting, perhaps a central atrium with a fountain
or a view of a harbor. Several North American CBDs have ✓ Cities have large numbers of underclass people
combined new retail services with leisure services: who live in a culture of poverty characterized
by high rates of unemployment, crime, and
• Boston has Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which is located substance abuse.
in renovated eighteenth-century buildings.
✓ Cities face economic difficulties that force a
• Baltimore has Harbor Place, which is built in the Inner choice between raising taxes and reducing
Harbor, adjacent to waterfront museums, tourist attrac- services to those in need.
tions, hotels, and cultural facilities.

• Chicago has Navy Pier, a former cargo dock, which was
converted to shops and attractions (Figure 13-48).

• New York has the South Street Seaport, which integrates
the old fish market with retailing and recreational

activities.

496 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

SLJmmary

1KEY ISSUE

Why Do Services Cluster Downtown? THINKING GEOGRAPHICALL1Y3.1: Compare the CBDs of Toronto
and Detroit, What might account for tbe differences?
Services, especially public and business services, cluster in the
CBD; some consumer services, especially leisure, are in the CBD. GOOGLEEARTH13.1: The tallest structure in the CBD of Ghent
Belgium, _isSaint Bavo Cathedral, built in the sixteenth century.
LEARNINGOUTCOME13.1.1: Describe the three types 0£ se1vices Fly to Samt Bavo Cathedral, Bisdomplein 1-3, Ghent, Belgium,
drag to enter street view, exit street view, turn on 3D, exit street
found in a CBD. view, and zoom out so that the entire cathedral and its surround-
• The CBD contains a large percentage of iin urban aTea's pub- ings can be seen. What other buildings are highlighted in 3D in
lic, business, and consumer services·. tbe CBD of Ghent?
• Offices cluster in the CBD to take advantage of its accessibility.

• Retail services, as well as manufacturers and residents, are less
likely than in the past to be in the CBD.

LEARNINGOUTCOME13.1.2: Explain the three-dimensional na-
ture of a CBD.

• A CBD is characterized by an extensive underground city of
services and utilities, as well as high-rise buildings.

• Outside North America, CBDs may have moTe con.sumer ser-
vices and fewer high-rise offices.

Key Terms Concentric zone model (p. 466) A model of the internal structure of cit-
ies in whkh social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.
Annexation (p. 480) Legally adding land area to a city in the United Core based statistical area (CBSA) (p. 477) ln the United States, the
States. combination of all metropolitan statistical areas and mlcropolitan sta•
Census tract (p. 468) An area delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census tistical areas.
for which statistics are publishedi in urban areas, census tracts corre- Council of government (p, 479) A cooperative agency consisting of rep-
spond roughly to neighborhoods. resentatives of local governments in a metropolitan area in the United
Central business district (CBD) (p. 461) The area of a city where retail
and office acti'l'itiesare clustered. States.
City (p.476) An urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into Density gradient (p. 480) The change in density in an urban area from
an independent, sel(-governing unlt. the center ro the periphery.
Combined statistical area (CSA) (p. 477) In the United States, two or Edgecity (p. 482) Alarge node of office ancl retail activities on the edge
more contiguous core-based statistical areas tied together by commut- of an mban area.
ing patterns.

Chapter 13: Urban Patterns 497

EY ISSUE 2

/here Are People Distributed Within Urban Areas? • In other countries, wealthier people li:ve in different sectors
than poorer people, and outer rings have newer housing.
uee models help to explain 1Yheredifferent groups of people
,e within urban areas. • In cities outsi<iie North America, lower-income people are
more likely to 1ive in outer rings.
·ARNING OUTCOME 13.2.1: De-scribe th,e concentric zone, s.ec-
r, and multiple nuclei models. LEARNING OUTCOME 13.2.4: Describe how the three models ex-
• According to the concentric zone model, a city grows out- plain patterns in cities in developing countries.

ward in dngs. LEARNINGOUTCOME13.2.5: Describe the history of development
of cities in developing countries.
• According to the sector model., a city grows along transporta-
tion corridors. • Many cities in developing countries were shaped by colonial
powers.
• Accordingto the multiple nuc::lemi odel, a city growsaround
• Since gaining their independence, developing countries have
several nodes. se·en cities grow rapidly.

:ARNING OUTCOME13.2.2: Analyze how the three models help THINKING GEOGRAPHICALLY13.2: Officials of rapidly growing
, explain where people live in an urban area. cities in developing countries discourage the building of houses
• According to the concentric zone m.odel, hous!ng is newer in that do not meet international standards tor sanitation and con-
struction methods. Also discouraged are privately owned trans-
outer rings than in inner rings. portation services because the vehicles generally lack decent tires,
brakes, and other safety features. Yet the residents prefer substan-
• According to the sector model, wealthier people live in differ- dard housing to no housing, and they prefer unsafe transporta-
ent corridors than do poorer people. tion to no transportation. What would be the advantages and
problems for a city if health and s.afety standards for housing,
• According to the multiple nuclei model, different ethnic transportation, and other services were relaxed?
groups cluster around various nodes.
GOOGLEEARTH13.2: Sectors, nodes, and rings
:ARNING OUTCOME 13.2.3: Describe how the three models ex- can be seen in a Google Earth image of Chi-
lain patterns in European cities. cago. North is to the right in the image. The
large white structure along the lakefront is
McCormick Place convention center. ls this an
example of a sector, node, or ring? The series of
large buildings along the river to the top left and
top right are factories and warehouses. Are these
examples of sectors, nodes, or rings? The struc-
tures to the far left and far right of the image are
houses, whereas the buildings closer to the CBD
are apartment towers. Are these examples of sec-
tors, nodes, or rings?

ilterh1g (p. 490) A process of change in th~ use nf a house, from ~ingle- Multiple nuclei model (p. 467) A model oHhe internal structure of cities
:imilyowner occupancy to abandonment. in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of
ood desert (p. 464) An area in a developed country where healthy food activities.
; dlffiCllll lo obtain.

,entdficalion (p.491) A processof converting an urban neighborhood
coma predominantly low-income, renter-occupiedarea to a predomi-
tantly middle-class, owner-occupied area.

ireenbelt (p. 481) Aring of land maintained as pMks, agricultLlfe,or
1thertypes of open space to limit the spr,iwlof an urban area.

1fegalopolis(p. 478) Acontinuous urban comple;,,i.n the norlhea~lem
Jnited States.

498 THE CULTURALLANDSCAPE

KEY ISSUE3 LEARNING OUTCOME 13.3.6: State benefits and limitations of

Why Are Urban Areas Expanding? pu•bl-iPcutbrHancsptroarntsaitti,on.such as subways and buses, are more suited
than private cars to move large numbers of people into and
Urban gwwth has been p,i:imari1y focused on suburbs that

surround older cities. out of the CBD.
LEARNING OUTCOME 13.3. 1: State three definitions of urban • New investme,nt in public transit has occurred in a number

se•ttleAmceintyts. ls a legally m1sorporated entity that encomp,asses the of U.S. cities, though less extensj:vely than in other countries.
older portion Qf the urban area.
LEARNING OUTCOME B.3.7: Describe re.cent an.d possil:ll~ future
• An urban area includes tbe Gi.tyand built-up suburbs.
• A metropolitan area includes the city, built-up suburbs, and improv~ents in vaerhei·cmleso.te fuel effiderit and 1ess polluting are
• Vebicles that

likely to become more widely available ln the future.

counties tbat are tied to the city. THINKING GEOGRAPHICALLY 13.3: Draw a sketch oJ your com-
LEARNING OUTCOME 13.3.2: Describe how metropolitan areas munity or neighbm:hood. ln accordance with Kevin Lynch's T11e
contain many local governments and over1ap with each other. Image of the City, place five types of information on the map:
districts (homogeneous areas), edges (boundaries that separate
• In some regions, adjacent metropolitan areas overlap with districts), paths (lines of communication), nodes (central points
each, creating large contiguous urban complexes. of interaction), and landmarks (prominent objects on the land-
scape). How clear an Image does your community have for you?
• The United States has nearly 90,000 local governments, mak-
GOOGLE EARTH 13.3: Public transit in Brussels. A #7 tram enters
ing it difficult to address urban p,oblems. a tunnel near Diamant station. Is this an example of1ight rail or
LEARNINGOUTCOME13.3.3: I dentify historical and contempo-
heavy rail?
rary patterns of suburban expansion.
• ln the past, cities expanded their land area to encompass
outlying areas, but now they are surrounded by independent

suburban jurisdictions.
• Suburban sprawl has been documented to be

costly.
LEARNING OUTCOME 13.3.4: E.xplain two ways in

which suburbs are segregated.
• Suburbs are segregated according to social

class and land uses.
LEARNINGOUTCOME13.3.5: Describe the impact
of motor vehicles in urban areas.

• Motor vehicles take up a lot of space in cities,
including streets, freeways, and parking areas.

• Some cities control the number of vehicles
that can enter the center of the city.

Peripheral inodel (p. 476) A model of North American urban areas con- Sector rnodel (p. 467) A model of the internal structure of cities in whi<
siSting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and social groups are anar)ged around a series of sectors, ot wedges, radia
ing out from the central buSiness district.
busines, areas tied together by a beltway or ring road. Smart growth (p. 481) Legislation and regulations to limit suburbaT
Primary census statistical area (PCSA} lP• -!77) {n the United States, all
of the combined statistical areas phis all of the remaining metropoli· sprawl and preserve farmland.
Social area analysis (p. 468) Statistical analysls used coidentify wh•
tan statistical areas and micropo\itan statistical areas. people of similar living standards, ethnic background, and lifestyle
Public housing (p. 490) Housing owned by the government: in the
United States, it is rented to residents with low incomes, and the rents clivewithin an urban. area.

are set at 30 percent of the families' inwmes. Sprawl (p. 480) Development of new housing sites at relatively low
Redlining (p. 490) A process by which banks draw lines on a map and sity and at locations that art not contiguous to the ex_istingbui\t-UJ
refuse to lend money to purchase or lmprove property within the
aSrqeuaa. tter settlement (p. 472) An area within a city in a less develol
country in which people illegally establish residence, on land thc1

bRouusnhdahroiuesr. (p. 486)The f.ourconsecuctve IS-minute periods in the morn- not own or rent and erect homemade structures

ing and evening with the heaviest volume, of traffic.

Chapter 13: UrbalSlPatterns 499

EV ISSUE4

hy Do Cities Face Challenges? LEARNINGOUTCOME13.4.3: Describe the difficu1ties that cities
face in paying for services, especially in a recession.
ties face physical, soda!, and economic difficulties, but some
provements have also occurred. • Cities are faced with the i;hoi,ceof reducing serVice5or raising
taxes to pay for needed services.
4.RNINGOUTCOME13.4.1: Describe the piocesses of deteriora-
,n and gentrification in cities. • The severe recession that started in 2008 continues to hurt
the economic condition of cities.
The older housing in the inner city can deteriorate through
processes bf filtering and redlining. • Some cities have seen a revival of retail services downtown.

Massive public housing projects were once constructed f0r THINKING GEOGRAPHICALLY13.4: Jane Jacobs w,rote in Death
poor people, but many of them have been demolished. and Life of GreatAmericanCitiesthat an attractive mban environ-
ment is one that is animated with an intermingling C:>af variety
Somecitieshaveexperiencedgentrification,in which higher- of people and activities, such as fouhd in many New Yo.rkCity
r,eighborhoods. What are the attractions and drawbacks to living
income people move in and renovate previously deteriorated in such environments?
neighbo,rhoods.
GOOGLEEARTH13.4: CHy meets country in the United Kingdom.
ARNING OUTCOME13.4.2: Explain the prnbJems of a perma- Harlow, a New Town built primarily during the 1950s and 1960s,
nt underclass and culture of poverty in cities. shows the sharp boundary between a high-density residential
suburb and the countryside. How does this landscape differ from
[nner cities have concentrations of very poor pe.ople, consid-
ered 'to belong to an underclass, some of whom are homeless. the outer edge of a typical ti.S.suburb?

A culture of poverty traps some poor peo·pte in the inner cities.

nderclass (p. 492) A group in societyprevented from parlicipating in MasteringGeography™
e material benefits of a more developeo societybecause of a variety
social ano economic cha-racterlstics. Looking for additional review and test prep materials?
Visit the Study Area in MasteringGeography™ to
rban area (p. 477) A dense core of census tracts, densely settled sub- enhance your geographic literacy, spatial reasoning
bs, and low-densityland that links the dense suburbs with the core. skills, and understanding of this chapter's content by

rban cluster(p. 477) In the UnitedStates,an urban areawtth between accessing a variety of resources, including MapMaster'M
500 and 50,000 inhabitants. interactive maps, videos, RSS feeds, flashcards, web
rbanized area (p.477) In the United~tales,an urban areawith at le;15t links, self-study quizzes, and an eText version of
The Cultural Landscape.
l1000 inhabitants.
www.masteringgeography.com
ming ordinance (p. 465)A lawthat !unitsthe permitted usesof land
1dmaximum density of development in a community.

···-

CAREERS IN GEOGRAPHY

W here do you see yourself working in 5 or 10 years and real estate, corporate transportation and logistics depart-
after graduation? You could be a retail geographer, ments, criminology, archaeology, resource management,
analyzing customer behavior for a major department store. and infrastructure management, to name just a few.
You could conduct research on land cover, vegetation struc.
ture, and snow cover in Alaska. You could be a social sci- Teaching
ence analyst, evaluating redistricting plans to ensure that
they do not disenfranchise voters. Or you could lead a tearn More than 100 universities in the United States and Canada
of experts at one of the world's largest retailers in specific offer doctorate or master's degrees in geography. A career as
dimensions of sustainable business practices. a geography teacher is promisi'.1g because schools through-
out North America are expanding theLr geography curricu-
What do all these careers have in common? In each case, lum. Educators increasingly recognize geography's role in
enterprising individuals have found creative ways to apply the teaching students about global diversity (Figure AF-2). AP
core concepts and skills of geography. An increasing number Human Geography is the fastest-growing AP discipline in
of students recognize that geographic education is practical as U.S. high schools.
well as stimulating. Employment opportunities are expanct.
ing for students trained in geography, especially in geospatial Some university geography departments have empha-
technologies, teaching, government service, and business. sized outstanding teaching, whereas others are concerned
primarily with scholarship and research. The Association
Geospatial Technologies of American Geographers includes several dozen specialty
groups, organized arou~ct research themes, ~ncluding agri-
In the past 20 years, the field of geospatial technologies has cultural, industrial, medical, and tra nsportat10n geography.
been making rapid advances, thanks to developments in
computer software, computer science, and geographic infor- Government Service
mation systems (GIS), including remote-sensing technolo-
gies.Today jobs that make use of geospatial technologies and Geographers contribute their knowledge of the location
GIS can be found in such private and public sector areas as of activities, the patterns underlying the distribution of
environmental consulting, software development, air navi- various activities, and the interpretation of data from
gation services, spatial database management for mapping maps and satellite imagery to local, state, and national
companies (Figure A-1), location analysis for retail businesses
governments. Employment opportunities wiU1
.l FIGUREAF-1 GOOGLEEARTHA GoogleEarthimageof Parisisdisplayed cities, states, provinces, and other units of local
ona wall-sizedmonitorin Google'Bs erlin,Germanyo,ffice. government are typically found in departments
of planning, transportation, parks and recreation,
economic development, housing, zoning, or other
similarly titled government agencies. Geographers
may be hired to conduct studies of local economic,
social, and physical patterns; to prepare informa-
tion through maps and reports; and to help plan
the community's future.

Many federal government agencies also employ
geographers:

• The Department of Agriculture hires geogra-
phers for the Forest Service and Natural Re-
sources Conservation Service to enhance envi-
ronmental quality.

• The Department of Commerce hires geogra-
phers for the Bureau of the Census to study
changing population trends and for the Eco-
nomic Development Administration to pro-
mote rural development.

• The Department of Defense hires geographers
for the Defense Intelligence Agency and the

AFTERWORD AF-2

National Geospatial-lntelligence Agency to ana- ,\~ ·'
lyze satellite imagery.
'\'\ -~L.'. ,.
The Department of Energy hires geographers for -~ ( \
the Office of Environmental Policy and Assis- 'I;\,\
tance to administer environmental protection
programs. \ \~\\\\\\

The Department of Housing and Urban De- \
velopment hires geographers to help revitalize
American cities. '\

The Department of Interior hires geographers ''\'
for the U.S. Geological Survey to study land use
and create topographic maps and for the Office \t
of Environmental Policy and Compliance to ad-
minister environmental protection programs.

The Department of State hires geographers for
foreign service.

The Department of Transportation hires geogra-
phers to plan new transportation projects.

iusiness ._ FIGURE AF-2 GEOGRAPHAICWARENESSA future geographerreflectson
a U.S.electoralmapat anAmericanPresidentiaEl xperienceexhibit,during
,n increasing number of American geographers are finding the ramp-upto the 2012Presidentiael lection.
Jbs with private companies. The list of possibilities is long,
,ut here are some common examples: twenty-first century. Geography's future was thought to
be grim because the diffusion of electronic communica-
Developers hire geographers to find the best locations tions, such as the Internet and srnartphones, would make
for new shopping centers. it easier for human activities to be conducted remotely. If
Real estate firms hire geographers to assess the value of any piece of information could be accessed from any place
properties. in the world (at least where the Internet works), why live,
Supermarket chains, department stores, and other re- shop, work, or establish a business in a crowded city or a
tailers hire geographers to determine the potential mar- harsh climate?
ket for new stores,
To some extent this forecast has come to pass. Many
Banks hire geographers to assess the probability that a of you obtained this book electronically instead of buying
loan applicant has planned a successful development. it in a bookstore. The United States has one-fourth fewer
bookstores now than in the 1990s, and the number is de-
Distributors and wholesalers hire geographers to find clining by 2 percent per year.
ways to minimize transportation costs.
Bookstores aside, into the second decade of the new mil-
Transnational corporations hire geographers to pre- lennium geography has actually become more, not less im-
dict the behavior of consumers and officlals in other portant in people's lives and the conduct of business. Here
countries. are several ways that location matters to business more now
• Manufacturers hire geographers to identify new sources than in the past, because of-not despite-the diffusion of
of raw materials and markets. electronic devices:
, Utility companies hire geographers to determine future
demand at different locations for gas, electricity, and 1. Srnartphones and other electronic devices match specific
other services. demand to supply in a particular locality (Figure AF-3).
For more information on careers in geography, contact For example:
:he Association of American Geographers at www.aag.org, • Restaurant apps match hungry people to empty seats
)r the National Council for Geographic Education at www in a locality's restaurants.
ncge.org. • Real estate apps let people find housing for sale or for
rent in a locality.
The Future: Geography Still • Social apps let people know where their friends in a
particular locality are hanging out that night.
Matters • Transportation apps match a locality's empty taxis or
carpools with available seats to people trying to get
The arrival of the year 2000 sparked many forecasts of to specific locations.
what life would be like in the new millennium. Many These sorts qf apps generate data on people 1s preferences
prophesied that geography would be irrelevant in the
in space, which in turn helps even more location-based

AF-3 THE CULTURALLANDSCAPE

.A.FIGUREAF-3 TIMESSQUAREN,EWYORKA mappingapplicationonan 3. The people who make all of these new location.
iPhonedisplaysthe locationsof Broadwaytheaterslocatedin thevicinity. based apps are themselves highly clustered in a
handful of places in the world, especially Sili-
business get started and grow. No wonder that geography con Valley.
apps, in the form of maps (including navigation) and travel • Ideas-both brilliant and far-fetched-are still
(including transportation), rank as two of the five most fre- easier to communicate face-to-facethan across
quently used services on smartphones. long distances.
• Living and working in places like Silicon Val-
2. Electronic devices are essential to the smooth move- ley, despite high expenses and choking traf.
ment of people and goods. For example: fie jams, put people next to other like-
• Tum-by-tum information can prevent you from get- minded innovators in the electronic-based
ting lost or steer you back if you did get lost. geography of the twenty-first century.
• Traffic jams on overcrowded roads can be avoided or This final section has focused on business ap-
minimized.
• Vehicles in the future will be driverless, so you can plications. But let's not forget the role of electronic
spend driving time working, learning stuff, or social devices on the changing geography of cultural
networking. diversity.
Images from Google Earth and others that you see
• What if you searched for an available restaurant
throughout this book will get more detailed and accurate. table in a foreign language? Would you find the
Mapping is expanding into indoor space such as shopping same places?
malls, or three dimensions, such as Figure AF-1.
• What if you conducted an Internet search in a
foreign country? Would you find the same
information?

As more electronic-based geography diffuses through
our daily lives and commerce, we are thinking in a differ•
ent way. It's called geobrowsing. For example,

• Instead of looking for restaurants in the Yellow Pages
we find places to eat that are mapped on our device.

• Instead of turning on a radio to hear traffic informatior
we look at the red and green traffic flow patterns on a
electronic map.

• Instead of waiting for a TV weather report, we look ,
storm patterns on our device's map.

So, as the twenty-first century unfolds, geography's pt
spectives on global changes and cultural diversity, togeth
with the power of geospatial technologies to analyze a,
display data, will play an increasingly important role
daily life, learning, work, leisure, and the challenges of ci
zenship. We are all becoming participants in the world
geography. Welcome!

\ppendix

Map Scale and Projections

'hillip C. Muercke

Unaided, our human senses provide Baltimore .Essex
a limited view of our surroundings.
To overcome those limitations, hu- Columbfa. 0 E1UcoCttlty Dundalk•
1ankind has developed powerful vehicles
f thought and communication, such as MARYLAND ..'l, ~
mguage, mathematics, and graphics. Each
f those tools is based on elaborate rules; .,,\.
ach has an information bias, and each may
istort its message, often in subtle ways. • Olney Severn. • GlenBurnie
:onsequently, to use those aids effectively, .Rockville
,e must understand their rules, biases, and Laurel• I
istortions. The same is true for the special
)rm of graphics we call maps: we must • Wheaton • Lake·shore (
naster the logic behind the mapping pro-
ess before we can use maps effectively. Bethesda_ Silver Greenben SevernaPark• )
.spring
A fundamental issue in cartography, 0 \
he science and art of making maps, is the
·ast difference between the size and ge- • CollegePark "ll"'~
•metry of what is being mapped-the real Bowie•
vorld, we will call it-and that of the map Annapolis,._ ~
tself. Scale and projection are the basic QJ
·artographic concepts that help us under-
tand that difference and its effects. VIRGINIA •sultland t ~ ,.
Alexandria•
Q;~ N SMdY,S"'J;•

..j

j;
Upper•

Mar(bor,)

Map Scale Wordstatement Graphicscale Represen!allveTraction
"Oneinchequalstenmiles." 633\ 00 1:633,soo
)ur senses are dwarfed by the immensity -~-"--r---' 5 to Mi!t:1
10 X"~OOltlltt

>four planet; we can sense directly only • FIGUREA-1 Commonexpressionsof mapscale.

>ur local surroundings. Thus, we cannot possibly look at

mr whole state or country at one time, even though we
nay be able to see the entire street where we live. Cartog- With the scale of a map, for instance, we can compute the

·aphy helps us expand what we can see at one time by let- actual size of its features (length, area, and volume). Such
·ing us view the scene from some distant vantage point. The calculations are helped by three expressions of a map scale: a

{reater the imaginary distance between that position and word statement, a graphic scale,and a representative fraction.

:he object of our observation, the larger the area the map A word statement of a map scale compares X units on

:an cover, but the smaller the features will appear on the the map to Y units on the earth, often abbreviated "X

nap. That reduction is defined by the mapscale,the ratio of unit to Y units." For example, the expression "l inch to
:he distance on the map to the distance on the earth. Map 10 miles" means that 1 inch on the map represents 10

1sersneed to know about map scale for two reasons: so that miles on the earth (Figure A-1). Because the map is always

:hey can convert measurements on a map into meaning- smaller than the area that has been mapped, the ground

:ul real-world measures and so that they can know how ab- unit is always the larger number. Both units are expressed

;tract the cartographic representation is. in meaningful terms, such as inches or centimeters and

miles or kilometers. Word statements are not intended for

REAL-WORLD MEASURES. A map can provide a useful precise calculations but give the map user a rough idea of

mbstitute for the real world for many analytical purposes. size and distance.

A-1

,,;.

r i:iV • 1'I 1,If: ., I ,, I I ·, '1 ~ I ~ ; ' I . ! ~ I 1; : ·1 Ii: ..I, II I ; r • ' 1l .
ll I I11 J I/ .1 l: I I I I I I I I t ·1 . .• I
~· I l I I .. • II •
t 'I

I'

A-2 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

A graphic scale, such as a bar graph, is concrete and t-C SmallScare ]
therefore overcomes the need to visualize inches and 1:1,000,000
miles that is associated with a word statement of scale (see I
Figure A-1). A graphic scale permits direct visual compari-
son of feature sizes and the distances between features. No Medium Scale
ruler is required; any measuring aid will do. It needs only
be compared with the scaled bar; if the length of 1 tooth- I
pick is equal to 2 miles on the ground and the map dis-
tance equals the length of 4 toothpicks, then the ground 1:100,000
distance is 4 times 2, or 8 miles. Graphic scales are espe-
cially convenient in this age of copying machines, when !
we are more likely to be working with a copy than with the
original map. If a map is reduced or enlarged as it is copied, Large Scale
the graphic scale will change in proportion to the change
in the size of the map and thus will remain accurate. .._FIGURE A-2 Thescalegradientcanbe dividedintothreebroadcategories.

The third form of a map scale is the representativefrac- .._FIGURE A-3 Relationshipbsetweensurfaceson theroundearthanda flatmap.
tion (RF). An RFdefines the ratio between the distance on
the map and the distance on the earth in fractional terms, standards of accuracy. Thus they are useful for a wide range
such as 1/633,600 (also written 1:633,600). The numerator of applications that require detailed and accurate maps,
of the fraction always refers to the distance on the map, including zoning, navigation, and construction.
and the denominator always refers to the distance on the
earth. No units of measurement are given, but both num- At the other extreme are maps with scale ratios of
bers must be expressed in the same units. Because map dis- less than 1:1,000,000, such as maps of the world that are
tances are extremely small relative to the size of the earth, found in atlases. Those are small-scale maps. Because they
it makes sense to use small units, such as inches or centi- cover large areas, the symbols on them must be highly ab-
meters. Thus the RF1:633,600 might be read as "1 inch on stract. They are therefore best suited to general reference
the map to 633,600 inches on the earth." or planning, when detail is not important. Medium- or
intermediate-scale maps have scales between 1:100,000
Herein lies a problem with the RF. Meaningful map- and 1:1,000,000. They are good for regional reference and
distance units imply a denominator so large that it is im- planning purposes.
possible to visualize. Thus, in practice, reading the map
scale involves an additional step of converting the denom- Another important aspect of map scale is to give us some
inator to a meaningful ground measure, such as miles or notion of geometric accuracy; the greater the expanse of
kilometers. The unwieldy 633,600 becomes the more man- the real world shown on a map, the less accurate the ge-
ageable 10 miles when divided by the number of inches in ometry of that map is. Figure A-3 shows why. If a curve is
a mile (63,360). represented by straight line segments, short segments (X)
are more similar to the curve than are long segments (Y).
On the plus side, the RFis good for calculations. In par- Similarly, if a plane is placed in contact with a sphere, the
ticular, the ground distance between points can be easily difference between the two surfaces is slight where they
determined from a map with an RF.One simply multiplies touch (A) but grows rapidly with increasing distance from
the distance between the points on the map by the denomi- the point of contact (B). In view of the large diameter anc
nator of the RF.Thus a distance of 5 inches on a map with
an RFof 1/126, 720 would signify a ground distance of 5 X
126,720, which equals 633,600. Because all units are inches
and there are 63,360 inches in a mile, the ground distance is
633,600/ 63,360, or 10 miles. Computation of area is equally
straightforward with an RF. Computer manipulation and
analysis of maps is based on the RFform of map scale.

GUIDES TO GENERALIZATION.Scales also help map users
visualize the nature of the symbolic relation between the
map and the real world. It isconvenient here to think of maps
as falling into three broad scale categories (Figure A-2). (Do
not be confused by the use of the words large ANDsmall in
this context; just remember that the larger the denominator,
the smaller the scale ratio and the larger the area that is
shown on the map.) Scaleratios greater than 1:100,000, such
as the 1:24,000 scale of U.S. Geological Survey topographic

quadrangles, are large-scalemaps. Although those maps can
cover only a local area, they can be drawn to rather rigid

Appendix: Map Scale and Projections A-3

;light local curvature of the earth, distances will be well rep- desired flat map. All spatial properties on the globe are true
resented on large-scale maps (those with small denomina- to those on the earth. Second, the globe is flattened. Since
tors) but will be increasingly poorly represented at smaller that cannot be done without distortion, it is accomplished
,cales. This close relationship between map scale and map in such a way that the resulting map exhibits certain desir-
~eometry brings us to the topic of map projections. able spatial properties.

Map Projections PERSPECTIVE MODELS. Early map projections were
sometimes created with the aid of perspective methods,
fhe spherical surface of the earth is shown on flat maps by but that has changed. In the modern electronic age, pro-
means of map projections. The process of "flattening" the jections are normally developed by strictly mathematical
earth is essentially a problem in geometry that has captured means and are plotted out or displayed on computer-
the attention of the best mathematical minds for centuries. driven graphics devices. The concept of perspective is still
Yet no one has ever found a perfect solution; there is no useful in visualizing what map projections do, however.
known way to avoid spatial distortion of one kind or an- Thus projection methods are often illustrated by using
strategically located light sources to cast shadows on a
other. Many map projections have been devised, but only a projection surface from a latitude/longitude net inscribed
on a transparent globe.
few have become standard. Because a single flat map cannot
preserve all aspects of the earth's surface geometry, a map- The success of the perspective approach depends on
maker must be careful to match the projection with the task finding a projection surface that is flat or that can be flat-
at hand. To map something that involves distance, for ex- tened without distortion. The cone, cylinder, and plane
ample, a projection should be used in which distance is not possess those attributes and serve as models for three gen-
distorted. In addition, a map user should be able to recognize eral classes of map projections: conic, cylindrical, and pla-
which aspects of a map's geometry are accurate and which nar (or azimuthal). Figure A-5 shows those three classes, as
are distortions caused by a particular projection process. For- well as a fourth, a false cylindrical class with an oval shape.
tunately, that objective is not too difficult to achieve. Although the oval class is not of perspective origin, it ap-
pears to combine properties of the cylindrical and planar
It is helpful to think of the creation of a projection as classes (Figure A-6).
a twostep process (Figure A-4). First, the immense earth is
reduced to a small globe with a scale equal to that of the The relationship between the projection surface and the
model at the point or line of contact is critical because dis-
iReduce tortion of spatial properties on the projection is symmetri-
cal about, and increases with distance from, that point or
line. That condition is illustrated for the cylindrical and
planar classes of projections in Figure A-7. If the point or
line of contact is changed to some other position on the
globe, the distortion pattern will be recentered on the new
position but will retain the same symmetrical form. Thus
centering a projection on the area of interest on the earth's
surface can minimize the effects of projection distortion.
And recognizing the general projection shape, associating
it with a perspective model, and recalling the characteristic
distortion pattern will provide the information necessary
to compensate for projection distortion.

PRESERVED PROPERTIES.For a map projection to
truthfully depict the geometry of the earth's surface, it

i Flatten

Conic Cylindrical Planar Oval

• FIGUREA-4 Thetwo-stepprocesosf creatinga projection. A FIGUREA-5 Generacllasseosf mapprojection.s

. JttI . ·---------------- ----- ---- --------- .,.

A-4 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE geometry of the familiar plane is very different from that
Cylindrical of a sphere; yet when we refer to a flap map, we are in fact
making reference to the spherical earth that was mapped.
Planar A shape-preserving projection, for example, is truthful to
local shapes-such as the rightangle crossing of latitude
Oval and longitude lines-but does not preserve shapes at con-
tinental or global levels. A distance-preserving projection
4. FIGUREA-6 Thevisualpropen:ieosf cylindricaal ndplanarl)f'ojections can preserve that property from one point on the map in
combinedin ovalproJections. all directions or from a number of points in several di-
rections, but distance cannot be preserved in the general
Cylindrical sense that area can be preserved. Direction can also be gen-
erally preserved from a single point or in several directions
Planar from a number of points but not from all points simulta-
neously. Thus a shape-, distance-, or direction-preserving
projection is truthful to those properties only in part.

Partial truths are not the only consequence of transform-
ing a sphere into a flat surface. Some projections exploit that
transformation by expressing traits that are of considerable
value for specific applications. One of those is the famous
shape-preserving .\ilercntoprrojection(Figure A-8).That cylin-
drical projection was derived mathematically in the 1500s
so that a compass bearing (called rhumb lines) between any
two points on the earth would plot as straight lines on the
map. That trait Jet navigators plan, plot, and follow courses
between origin and destination, but it was achieved at the
expense of extreme areal distortion toward the margins of
the projection (see Antarctica in Figure A-8). Although the
Mercator projection is admirably suited for its intended pur-
pose, Its widespread but inappropriate use for nonnaviga-
tional purposes has drawn a great deal of criticism.

The gnomonicprojectionis also useful for navigation. It
is a planar projection with the valuable characteristic of
showing the shortest (or great circle) route between any
two points on the earth as straight lines. Long-distance
navigators first plot the great circle course between origin

• FIGUREA-7 Characteristipcatternsof distortionfortwoprojectionclasses.
Hered, arkershadingimpliesgreaterdistortion.

would have to preserve the spatial attributes of distance, 4. FIGUREA-8 TheusefulMercatorprojections, howingextremearea
direction,area,shape,and proximity.That task can be readily
accomplished on a globe, but it is not possible on a flat distortioninthe higherlatitudes.
map. To preserve area, for example, a mapmaker must
stretch or shear shapes; thus area and shape cannot be
preserved on the same map. To depict both direction and
distance from a point, area must be distorted. Similarly, to
preserve area as well as direction from a point, distance has
to be distorted. Because the earth's surface is continuous in

all directions from every point, discontinuities that violate
proximity relationships must occur on all map projections.
The trick is to place those discontinuities where they will
have the least impact on the spatial relationships in which

the map user is interested.
We must be careful when we use spatial terms, be-

cause the properties they refer to can be confusing. The

Appendix: Map Scaleand Projections A-5

(A)Gnomonic

.t. FIGUREA-11 Thedistortionpatternof theinterruptedGeode'shomolosine
projection,whichmimicsthat of cylindricapl rojections.

(B) Mercator so severely that it should not be used for any purpose other
than navigation or communications.

PROJECTIONS USED IN TEXTBOOKS. Although a map

projection cannot be free of distortion, it can represent

one or several spatial properties of the earth's surface accu-

rately if other properties are sacrificed. the two projections

• FIGUREA-9 A gnomonicprojection(A)anda Mercatorprojection(B),both used for world maps throughout this textbook illustrate
that point well. Goode's homolosine projection, shown in
f valueto long-distancenavigators. Figure A-10, belongs to the oval category and shows area

.nd destination on a gnomonic projection (Figure A-9, accurately, although it gives the impression that the earth's
op). Next they transfer the straight line to a Mercator pro- surface has been torn, peeled, and flattened. The interrup-
ection, where it normally appears as a curve (Figure A-9, tions in Figure A-10 have been placed in the major oceans,
>ottom). Finally, using straight-line segments, they con- giving continuity to the land masses. Ocean areas could
truct an approximation of that course on the Mercator be featured instead by placing the interruptions in the
nojection. Navigating the shortest course between origin continents. Obviously, that type of interrupted projection
md destination then involves following the straight seg- severely distorts proximity relationships. Consequently,
nents of the course and making directional corrections be- in different locations the properties of distance, direc-
ween segments. Like the Mercator projection, the special- tion, and shape are also distorted to varying degrees. The
zed gnomonic projection distorts other spatial properties distortion pattern mimics that of cylindrical projections,

with the equatorial zone the

most faithfully represented

(Figure A-11).

An alternative to special-

property projections such as

the equal-area Goode's ho-

molosine is the compromise

projection. In that case no

special property is achieved

at the expense of others, and

distortion is rather evenly dis-

tributed among the various

properties, instead of being fo.

cused on one or several prop-

erties. The Robinson projection,

which is also used in this text-

book, falls into that category

(Figure A-12). Its oval projec-

tion has a global feel, some-

what like that of Goode's ho-

molosine. But the Robinson

projection shows the North

Pole and the South Pole as

lines that are slightly more

than half the length of the

equator, thus exaggerating

distances and areas near the

poles. Areas look larger than

.t. FIGUREA-10 An interruptedGoode'shomolosinea,nequal-areaprojection. they really are in the high

---- - -- -- -·- ---- --------~-~-

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PACIFIC OCEAN ATLAN.TIC
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NEW PACIFIC OCEAN \_
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~ANGUILU (U.K,)

JAMAICA ST.KITTS & NE;,S ~-· ;::::,..ANTIGUA
,,ONTSERAAT (U.K.)/ - &,B/YIBUDA
Cartbbean Sea
GUADELOUPE(Fraooo)/, _.....DOMINICA

MARTINIQUE (Ftance}----\

' ST. VINCENT& THE GRENADINES'-. t--"ST, LUCIA

ARUBAIN•th.)-.. /CURAS,AO (Noth.) ' e'i.RBADOS

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AU.$TRALIA

A-6 THECULTURALLANDSCAPE

► FIGUREA-12 Thecompromise
Robinsonprojection,which avoidsthe
interruptionsof Goode'shomolosinebut
preservesno specialproperties.
(Courtesyof ACSM'J

latitudes (near the poles) and smaller than they really are a more detailed view of Earth's physical and human sys-
in the low latitudes (near the equator). In addition, not all tems than has ever before been possible. To manage these
latitude and longitude lines intersect at right angles, as they data, geographers have developed a powerful tool-
do on the earth, so we know that the Robinson projection geographic information systems (GIS), which enable
does not preserve direction or shape either. However, it has users to manipulate and display spatial data in map form.
fewer interruptions than the Goode's homolosine does, so it GIS maps contribute to problem solving in diverse fields
preserves proximity betteL Overall, the Robinson projection such as science and engineering, industry, health care,
does a good job of representing spatial relationships, espe- retail sales, urban planning, environmental protection,
cially in the low to middle latitudes and along the central law enforcement, and many others.
meridian.
The power of GIS lies in its ability to map different
GIS and Geospatial data sets-called data layers-against each other, reveal-
Technologies ing relationships that might otherwise be difficult to de-
tect. Figure A-13 shows examples of environmental data
Today, user-friendly mapping software enables anyone with organized as GIS data layers.
a computer to produce maps at a range of scales using a va-
riety of projections. But a challenge remains to geographers GIS can help answer almost any question involving
and other users of spatial information: how to organize and spatial or locational analysis. In one application of GIS,
present in map form the vast amounts of spatial data that The city of Baltimore, Maryland, wanted to determine
are now available. the best location for an emergency shelter for home-
less people. Among many other factors considered, one
From data gathered by orbiting satellites or GPS devices to main criterion for the shelter was that it be accessible
statistical data linked to spatial coordinates, these data provide from other facilities providing services to the homeless

As shown in the map in Figure A-14, the site selected wa:

in a densely populated part of the city and at the cente.

of a 1.5-mile-radius circle containing more than 60 per

cent of the city's providers of homeless services.

Appendix: Map Scale and Projections A-7

East Baltimo,. * ..Proposesdhelter
Midway
• Baltimore
Remotelysensed Ho'melesAsgency
image
Zoning - Neighborhood
boundaf'/
Floodplains
Wetlands Neighbortlood
populationdensity
Landcover
Soils 0.0-7.5

Surveycontrol 7.6-17
Compositeoverlay
18-27

• FIGUREA-13 Within a GIS,environmentadl ataattachedto a common
terrestrialreferencesystem,suchaslatitude/longitudec, anbestackedin
layersfor spatialcomparisonandanalysis.

• FIGUREA-14 ThisGISmapshowsthat Baltimore'sproposedhomeless
shelterwould be neara clusterof serviceprovidersT. hemap'sdatalayers
include:neighborhoodbordersp, opulationdensity(byneighborhood)a, nd
locationsof homelessagencies.

-

ingGeography provides:
MasteringGeography include:

Cultural Landsca pe.. An In'--troduction to H
I 8138688752