Urban PatternsKey 3 & Key 4

• Inner-city physical problems• Deterioration process• Urban renewal

• Inner-city social problems• Underclass• Culture of poverty

• Inner-city economic problems• Annexation

• Poor condition of housing• Most built before 1940• Process of Deterioration

• # of low-income families increase• Territory expands

• Middle-class families move away• Sell or rent their houses to low-income

• 19th Century Large houses• Subdivided into smaller dwellings for low-income• Maintenance of homes is important• Landlords stop maintaining buildings when rent is less

than cost• Ultimate result: deterioration & abandonment of

dwelling

• Schools & shops close• Low-income move further away from center

Year Inhabitants in Inner City Neighborhoods

1900 100,000

2000 10,000

• Illegal• Banks draw lines on map

• Determines areas where they refuse to loan money

• Makes it difficult for people to renovate homes

• Community Reinvestment Act• Requires US banks to loan money to inner-city neighborhoods

• North America & Europe• Demolish substandard inner-city housing• Cities acquire rundown homes from

owners• Build new roads utilities• Sold to developers or public agencies• National grants help fund urban renewal

• Reserved for low-income households• Pay 30% of income to rent• Government agencies responsible for

maintenance & repairs of buildings• US, public housing is 2% of dwellings• UK, 1/5 is public housing

• US & Europe• High rise public housing of 1950s & 190s now

unsatisfactory• Drug use & crime rates are high• Poor conditions• Many demolished in Baltimore, Chicago, & cities of W Europe

• Recent public housing projects • 2-3 story apartment buildings/row homes• Scatter housing rather than cluster in one area• US gov’t stopped funding of new construction, only fund

renovation• Increase of demand for public housing, funding has

decreased

• Alternative to demolition• Non-profit renovate to sell or rent them• Renovated housing in middle-class neighborhoods• Gentrification

• Middle-class families move into formerly deteriorated low-income neighborhoods

• Renovated housing• Large homes• Cheaper than suburbs• Attractive architectural details

The Back Bay area near downtown Boston has attracted many wealthy residents.

Fig. 13-17: Racial & ethnic change in Chicago, 1980-2000. Dots represent where race and ethnicity increased. White population increased in the inner city and North Side, while African American and Hispanic population increased in the outer city and inner suburbs.

• Permanent Underclass: trapped in cycle of economic & social problems• Unemployment• Alcoholism• Drug addiction• Illiteracy• Juvenile delinquency• crime

• Schools deteriorated, lack adequate police/fire protection, shops, hospitals, health-care facilities

• Lack technical skills for most jobs• Less than half complete high school• Gap between skills needed and skills

possessed is widening• Low-skilled jobs have moved to

suburbs• Lack of transportation

• Est 3 million homeless Americans• Cannot afford housing• No regular income• Family problems job loss• 1/3 released from

hospitals/institutions• ¼ are children

• Unwed mothers: birth 2/3 of inner-city babies

• 80% inner-city children live w/single parent

• Choice between staying home or working• Welfare

• “dead-beat dads”• Not paying child support

• Drug use increasing in inner cities• Crime to pay for drug use• Gangs control drug distribution• Drugs sold openly in inner-city• Suburbs: more discrete

Fig. 13-18a: Drug-related arrests have been concentrated in the low income inner-west side of the city.

• Neighborhoods often segregated by ethnicity• African Americans• Hispanics• Whites

• East/West or North/South sides of cities

• Correlates with voting patterns

Fig. 13-18b: In the 2005 mayoral election, votes for Rhine McLin, an African American incumbent, concentrated in the African American west side of the city.

• People require public services• Pay little in taxes• Growing gap between cost & availability

of services• City has 2 choices• Reduce services: libraries, trash, schools

• Encourage middle-class to move to suburbs

• Raise taxes• Drives out industry, less taxes collected

• Annexation: legally adding land area to city• Cities grow& took peripheral land• Residents vote on decision• Chicago from 10sq miles in 1837to 190sq

miles in 1900• Was desirable because city offered more

services• Today: suburban residents prefer to be part

of suburbs, close to city, but not legally part of it

Fig. 13-19: Chicago grew rapidly in the 19th century through annexation. In the 20th century the major annexation was for O’Hare Airport. The city of Chicago covers only a portion of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area (inset).

• The peripheral model• Density gradient• Cost of suburban sprawl• Suburban segregation

• Transportation and suburbanization• Motor vehicles• Public transportation

• Local government fragmentation• Metropolitan government• Growing smart

• Population decline by 30-50% in many cities• Baltimore• Cleveland• Pittsburgh• Boston• Cincinnati

• Suburbs continue to grow• 1950: 20% of pop in suburbs• 2000: 50% of pop in suburbs

• 90% of US & W Europe prefer to live in suburbs•Detached single-family homes•Private land•Parking•Privacy•Protection from crime

• Chauncey Harris (multiple nuclei model)• “Urban area consists of an inner city

surrounded by large suburban residential & business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road”

• Lack problems of inner-city neighborhoods• Edge Cities: around the beltway,

suburban residence• Transforming to include malls, manufacturing, office parks, hotels, theme parks

Fig. 13-20: The central city is surrounded by a ring road, around which are suburban areas and edge cities, shopping malls, office parks, industrial areas, and service complexes.

• As you travel outward from city, population density decreases

• Apartments row homes townhouses single detached

• The number of houses per unit of land diminishes as distances from center city increases

• Changes in Density Gradient• Less people living in cities• Population increasing in periphery

Fig. 13-21: The density gradient in Cleveland shows the expansion of dense population outward from the city center over time. In 1990, population dispersed over a wider area with less variation in density than before.

Fig. 13-21a: In 1900 population was highly clustered in and near the central business district.

Fig. 13-21b: By 1930, population had begun to spread outward, leaving the core less dense.

Fig. 13-21c: Outward movement had accelerated by 1960, leaving the original CBD core as the least densely populated area of the city.

Fig. 13-21d: By 1990. population was spread over a much larger area, there was less variation among rings, and the lowest densities were near the CBD.

• Progressive spread of development over the landscape

• Cheap land bought by developers to construct new homes

• Land is further from other developments

• Continued demand for single-family detached homes

• Land continues to be converted for residential use• Inefficient use of land: Swiss Cheese of US

• Developers buy farms• Builders by land• Homeowner pays for lot

• New roads need to be built• Waste of land• Wastes energy

• Long drives to work

• Europe restricts construction• Preserves “mandatory open space”• London has greenbelts: rings of

open space• New housing is restricted to inside or

outside of greenbelt• Restrictions drive up home prices

Fig. 13-22: New housing in the U.K. is likely to be in planned new towns, while in the U.S. growth occurs in discontinuous developments.

There is usually a sharp boundary between an urban area in the U.K., such as Northampton, and the surrounding rural area.

“Subway pushers” help push as many people as possible into subway cars during rush hour in Tokyo. Other passengers wait in orderly lines to board the next train.

Fig. 13-23: Brussels, Belgium illustrates the integration of heavy rail (Métro Lines 1 & 2) and light rail (trams) in European public transport.

A Line 92 tram on the Rue Royale in Brussels.

Fig. 13-24: A high-cost school district has either a high percentage of students eligible for free lunches or a rapidly changing enrollment. Districts in the suburbs have high costs but low spending.

This sign near Marble Arch in London warns motorists that they are about to enter the Congestion Zone. A charge is levied for driving a private vehicle into central London from 7 AM to 6:30 PM.