Understanding Urban Distribution: Models and Social Factors Shaping City Living Patterns

1. Ch. 13 Key Issue 2 Where Are People Distributed Within Urban Areas?

2. Models of Urban Structure • Not distributed randomly; cluster depending on social status • generalizations • Each model can be applied to determine why people live where they do in a city • Concentric zone • Sector • Multiple nuclei

3. Concentric Zone Model • E.W. Burgess • City grows in “rings” • CBD- non residential • Transition- industry/poorer housing • Working class homes- older homes • Better residences- newer homes, middle class • Commuters zone- suburbs for CBD workers

4. CZM • Invasion and Succession • New immigrants move to the oldest housing near the center of the city and pushed earlier groups outward (towards suburbs) • Cycle would repeat itself: poor immigrants to the center, wealthy can then move outwards

6. Sector Model • Homer Hoyt • City develops and expands out in sectors (wedges) • Certain areas are more attractive for activities • Industry along transportation lines

8. Multiple Nuclei Model • Harris and Ullman • City revolves around more than one center (node) • Activities either attract to or avoid certain nodes • University will attract different services than airport • Incompatible activities avoid clustering • High-class housing and industry

10. Applying the Models • Social area analysis • Using census data to map out what neighborhoods various types of people live • Combine the models to get the most accurate representation of why people live in certain areas of a city • People prefer to live near others with similar characteristics

11. Applying the Models • Concentric Zone (2 Families) • Same ethnicity and income • Home owner likely in outer ring • Renter likely in an inner ring

13. Darker rings outside represent the suburbs (homeowners) in the commuter’s zone

14. Applying the Models • Sector Model (2 families) • Both own homes • Higher income family will live in different sector than lower income family

16. Dark wedge extending from CBD represents high-income house holds

17. Applying the Models • Multiple Nuclei • Same racial or ethnic background likely to live near each other • Growth of automobile and suburbs creates “Urban realms”- independent regions tied to a “suburban downtown” • Daily activities of many people occur within a limited section of the larger city • Cities are made up of small "realms" which are self-sufficient urban areas with independent focal points (nodes).

20. Minorities occupying nodes- possibly in zones 3, 4 or 5 of the model

21. Applying the Models • Each model represents certain characteristics of a city better: • Homeowner vs renter (CZ) • Incomes (Sector) • Ethnicity (MN) • Combining them puts the entire picture together • We can now identify in which part of Dallas a 1) high income, 2) Asian-American 3) homeowner most likely lives

22. 1. High Income

23. 2. Non-Hispanic/African-American (Asian-American?)

24. 3. Homeowner

25. What about a: 1) home-owning 2) low-income 3) African American family?

29. Applying the Models Outside North America • America urban areas differ from others in the world • European cities • LDCs • Social groups (income, ethnicity) may not have same reasons for selecting a neighborhood within their cities • Such as: Likely to live with those of similar characteristics

30. Models in European Cities • Wealthy still live in inner rings, not jut suburbs • Sector model: wealthy extend out in a wedge from CBD • Live closer to palace (historically); or in restored older buildings (now) • Low income residents more likely on the outskirts of city • Historical vertical segregation in cities: wealthy on bottom floors, poor in basement or attic • Poor moved closer to factories with Industrial Revolution, away from wealthy

31. European Cities • Effects of low income displacement • Face longer commutes to cities from suburbs on public transportation • Inhabitants are displaced residents from the cities (persons of color, new immigrant from Africa and Asia) • Europe encourages high rise apartments in suburbs • Prevent suburban sprawl seen in US • Attract tourists to historic inner city

33. Models in LDCs • Poor in suburbs, wealth in inner city and extending wedge • Remnant of European colonial policies • Precolonial cities • Colonial cities • Postcolonial independence

34. Precolonial Cities • Mostly rural residents before colonization • Built around a religious core with some sort of marketplace (bazaar) • Wealthy and government surrounding bazaar; poor/immigrants on outskirts

35. Colonial Cities • Colonizers expanded existing cities to accommodate colonial activities (military, residences for Europeans) • Old towns may have been left to one side of city or demolished • Built following standardized plans • Spanish: Law of the Indies (1573) • Examples: • Mexico City (modified the old Aztec City) • Fes, Morocco (two distinct towns- before and after French colonization) • Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam (built on top of a totally destroyed Precolonial city)

37. Cities Since Independence • Migrating towards cities to find work • Squatter settlements • LDCs cannot handle population growth and high migration • Few services/bad infrastucture(schools, roads, sewers) • Griffin and Ford- Latin American City Model • Wealthy inhabit a sector (spine), service attractive to wealthy will cluster here • Transportation lines • Physical factors: high elevation, views, beaches