Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
a zone of single-story buildings with some traditional archi-
tecture; and the market zone tends to be open-air, informal,
yet still important. Sector development marks the encircl-
ing zone of ethnic and mixed neighborhoods (often char-
acterized by strong ethnic identities as people of ethnic kin
tend to cluster together). Since many African cities began
as mining towns, such operations still occur in conjunction
with this zone in some instances. Manufacturing companies,
originally founded near the labor force concentrated in this
zone still function here. Invariably, fast-growing African cit-
ies are encircled by vast shantytowns rapidly growing as a
result of virtually unchecked in-migration.
The Southeast Asian City
Some of the most populated cities in the world are in
Southeast Asia. The city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
is a complex of high-rise development, including the
1483-foot-tall Petronas Towers, which until recently was
the world's tallest building. The city of Jakarta, Indonesia,
called Jabotabek by the locals, is an enormous conurba-
tion of Bogor, Tangerang, and Bekasi.
In 1967, urban geographer T. G. McGee studied the
medium-sized cities of Southeast Asia and found that they
exhibit similar land-use patterns, creating a model referred
to as the
McGee model
(Fig. 9.27). The f
Figure 9.27
Model of the Large Southeast Asian City.
A model of land
use in the medium-sized Southeast Asian city includes sectors
and zones within each sector.
Adapted with permission from:
T. G.
McGee,
The Southeast Asian City
, London: Bell, 1967, p. 128.
ocal point of the
city is the old colonial port zone combined with the largely
commercial district that su
rrounds it. McGee found no
formal central business district; rather, he found the ele-
ments of the CBD present as separate clusters surround-
ing the old colonial port zone: the government zone; the
Western commercial zone (practically a CBD by itself); the
alien commercial zone, dominated by Chinese merchants
whose residences are attached to their places of business;
and the mixed land-use zone that contains miscellaneous
economic activities, including light industry. The other
nonresidential areas are the market-gardening zone at the
outskirts of the u
Employing the concepts defi ned in this section of the chap-
ter, draw a model of the city with which you are most famil-
iar. Label each section of the city accordingly. After read-
ing through the models described in this section, determine
which model best corresponds to the model you drew and
hypothesize as to why it is so.
rban area and, still farther from the city, a
recently built industrial park or “estate.”
The residential zones in McGee's model are similar
to those in the Griffi n-Ford model of the South American
city. Other similarities between the McGee and Griffi n-
Ford model are the hybrid structure of sectors and zones,
an elite residential sector that includes new suburbs, an
inner-city zone of middle-income housing, and peripheral
low-income squatter settlements. One main difference
is that the McGee model includes middle-income hous-
ing in a suburban zone, refl ecting the larger middle class
in these cities of the global semiperiphery and the small
middle class in South American cities.
Regardless of the region or city, we recognize that
models do not explain how or why cities are organized the
way they are. A model of a city shows us an end product,
whether planned or not and suggests the forces that cre-
ated that end product.
HOW DO PEOPLE SHAPE CITIES?
People and institutions make places, and the city
is no exception to this rule. The roles individual people,
governments, corporations, developers, fi nancial lend-
ers, and realtors play in shaping cities varies across the
world. Government planning agencies can directly affect
the layout of cities by restricting the kinds of development
allowed in certain regions or zones of cities.
Through
zoning
laws
, cities defi ne areas of the city
and designate the kinds of development allowed in each
