Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the government chose to preserve the unique colonial
riverfront architecture and develop around the colonial
neighborhood and across the Huangpu River. In South
America, cities are protecting historic plazas against mod-
ernization through regulations that limit high-rise devel-
opment to areas outside of the plazas. The city of Paris
protects the old city from development of high rises.
Instead, Paris concentrates skyscraper development in the
technology corridor called La Defense, which is located
along the axis of the Avenue Charles de Gaulle a little over
3 miles from the Arc de Triomphe.
Models of cities give us context for understanding the
history and geography of regions and major cities within
them. Studying the location and interplay of zones within
cities and the changing cultural lan
cities ready to compete with the central city for leading
urban economic activities such as telecommunications,
high-technology industries, and corporate headquarters.
In addition to expanding residential zones, the process
of suburbanization rapidly creates distinct urban regions
complete with industrial, commercial, and educational
components.
The overall importance of suburban life in the
United States is underscored by the results of the 2000
census, which indicated that no less than 50 percent of
the entire American population resided in the suburbs (up
from 37 percent in 1970); the remaining 50 percent were
divided between the central cities (30.3 percent) and non-
metropolitan or rural areas (19.7 percent). Of the popu-
lation living in metropolitan areas, 62.2 percent resided
in the suburbs, which in 2000 had 141 million residents.
Thus, the suburbs have become the essence of the modern
American city.
Just by using such terms as residential area and cen-
tral business district , people acknowledge the existence
of a regional structure within cities. When you refer to
downtown, or to the airport, or to the city zoo, you are
in fact referring to urban regions where certain functions
prevail (business activity, transportation, and recreation,
in the three just mentioned). All of these urban regions or
zones lie near or adjacent to each other and together make
up the city. But how are they arranged?
dscape of cities helps us
grasp the interplay between cities and globalization.
Functional Zones
Before examining the models of urban spaces, we must
defi ne some terms commonly used in referring to parts of
the city. The term zone is typically preceded by a descrip-
tor that conveys the purpose of that area of the city. The
models describe zones as areas with a relatively uniform
land use, for example, an industrial zone or a residential
zone. Most models defi ne the key economic zone of the
city (if there is such) as the central business district (CBD).
The American CBD typically has high land values, tall
buildings, busy traffi c, converging highways, and mass
transit systems.
The term central city describes the urban area that
is not suburban. In effect, central city refers to the older
city as opposed to the newer suburbs. A suburb is an out-
lying, functionally uniform part of an urban area, and is
often (but not always) adjacent to the central city. Most
suburbs are residential, but some have other land uses,
including schools, shopping malls, and offi ce parks.
Suburbanization is the process by which lands that
were previously outside of the urban environment become
urbanized, as people and businesses from the city move to
these spaces. The process of suburbanization holds special
interest for human geographers because it involves the
transformation of large areas of land from rural to urban
uses and affects large numbers of people who can afford
to move to larger and more expensive suburban homes.
The aesthetic of the suburb reveals the occupants' ideal-
ized living patterns because their layout can be planned in
response to choice and demand.
In Contemporary Suburban America (1981), urban
geographer P. O. Muller offered a thorough analysis of
suburbanization, describing how suburbia “evolved into
a self-suffi cient urban entity, containing its own major
economic and cultural activities, that is no longer an
appendage to the central city.” Muller found suburban
Modeling the North American City
Urban geographers have constructed a succession of
models that refl ect change and growth in the geographic
layout of North American cities. The fi rst model, the
concentric zone model (Fig. 9.22A), resulted from soc
i-
ologist Ernest Burgess's study of Chicago in the 1920s.
Burgess's model divides the city into fi ve concentric
zones, defi ned by their function. As the city grew, land
was converted in zones around the outside of the city,
and the concentric zone model emerged. At the center
is the CBD (1), itself subdivided into several subdistricts
(fi nancial, retail, theater).
The zone of transition (2) is characterized by resi-
dential deterioration and encroachment by business and
light manufacturing. Zone 3 is a ring of closely spaced
but adequate homes occupied by the blue-collar labor
force. Zone 4 consists of middle-class residences, and
Zone 5 is the suburban ring. Burgess described his model
as dynamic: as the city grew, inner zones encroached on
outer ones, so that CBD functions invaded Zone 2 and
the problems of Zone 2 affected the inner margins of
Zone 3.
In the late 1930s, Homer Hoyt published his sector
model (Fig. 9.22B), partly as an answer to the limitations
of the Burgess model. Hoyt focused on residential patterns,
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