Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
2, winds of 154 to 177 km/h; Category 3, winds of 178 to 209 km/h; Category 4,
winds of 210 to 249 km/h; Category 5, winds over 250 km/h.
Silicon Valley
: An area along US Highway 101 of about 85 km between San
Francisco and San Jose, California. Cradle of the computer and software industry in
the United States, this region has benefited from engineering spin-offs from major
companies, as well as cross-fertilization with the faculty and research facilities of
Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. The industrial boom
in the Silicon Valley owes much to the avalanche of military contracts that
originated in the Korean War. The creation of the Stanford Industrial Park by
President Truman and the leasing of public lands to electronics firms, including as
first tenants Hewlett and Packard and Lockheed, may be regarded as the founding
act of Silicon Valley. The predicted decline following the bursting of the dot-com
bubble in 2000 did not come to pass, and Silicon Valley remains an exceptional
concentration of industries focused on information and computer technologies and
increasingly focused on R&D.
Slum clearance
: Slum clearance amounted to a policy of urban renewal begun
after the Second World War and lasting until the 1980s. This controversial policy
used a form of “eminent domain” to enable cities to reclaim private lands for public
infrastructure projects. This facilitated the direct penetration of paved highways to
the city center, eliminating a number of brownfield sites and older neighborhoods,
many of which were blighted. Attempts to resist eviction policies were a
contributing factor to a number of race riots in the 1960s. These policies have been
accused of promoting urban sprawl.
Smart growth
: Recommendations of the Congress for a New Urbanism. See also
“transit oriented development” and “walkable neighborhood”.
Snow Belt
: Among the nation's top contenders for botched stereotypes for the
territorial United States, Snow Belt should figure prominently alongside Rust Belt
and Sun Belt. The term refers to the states of the Central, North Central, and
Northeastern United States where winters are snowy, supposedly a significant
contributory cause to the migration deficit observed in the second half of the 20th
century.
Snowbirds
: Retirees who use their RV's (recreational vehicles) and vans to
escape the snow to live in warmer southern climates such as Florida or Arizona. In
the summer they return north to escape the heat.
