Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The cost of land or rent is cheaper in the suburbs than downtown.
Proximity to people with high disposable income stimulates business, and more people fit
that description in the suburbs than in the central city.
Malls are more convenient to get to by auto than is downtown. Specifically, getting to a
suburban mall is likely to involve less traffic, fewer lights, and lots of free parking.
Shoppers (especially suburbanites) tend to prefer mall shopping because of the juxtaposi-
tion of different kinds of shops, their comparative cleanliness and perceived safety, and their
enclosed climatically controlled environment.
Office parks
An
office park
is a cluster of multi-story office buildings (glass facades are particularly popular) that
typically occupy more than enough acreage at or near a major suburban intersection. Trees and oth-
er landscaping (hence, park) complement the architecture. The suburban location often constitutes a
preferable commute for employees who might otherwise have to drive downtown. Similarly — and
just like shopping malls — the locations facilitate accessibility by existing near potential middle- and
upper-income clients, who are more likely to reside in the outer city than the inner city, and who
prefer the former setting to the latter as a place to take their business.
Edge cities
Comparatively small
edge cities
sometimes appear on the outer fringe (or edge) of large cities. Some-
times this is simply the result of merging together due to urban growth. More often, however, edge
cities are newly incorporated areas that arise in response to the needs of suburbanites for a wide range
of goods and services, and their preference to obtain them in car-friendly places that are closer to
home than the old CBD.
Jurisdictional spillover
Urban sprawl often results in a contiguous urban area that exceeds the original city limits and spills
over into the territory of other cities, counties, or even states. As a result, hundreds or even thousands
of people may earn a paycheck in one jurisdiction, but pay taxes and spend their disposable income
(thereby encouraging job-creation) in another jurisdiction. This is cool as long as it all “evens out,”
but it seldom does. The jurisdiction that “loses” is the one with the highest number of workers who
live somewhere else, and typically that is the central city.
