Chapter 13, key 4 (use with skeletal notes)
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Suburbs face distinctive challenges due to their rapid growth in the 20th century. As more people moved to suburbs, urban areas expanded through annexation and the development of edge cities further from downtown cores. This led to issues like infrastructure costs, loss of agricultural land, traffic congestion, and socioeconomic segregation between inner cities and suburbs. Suburbanization also contributed to the decline of public transit systems and increased dependence on personal vehicles for transportation.
Chapter 13, key 4 (use with skeletal notes)
- 1. C H A P T E R 1 3 , K E Y I S S U E 4 Why Do Suburbs Face Distinctive Challenges?
- 2. I. Introduction A. In 1950, only 20 percent of Americans lived in suburbs, compared to 40 percent in cities and 40 percent in small towns and rural areas. B. In 2000, after a half-century of rapid growth, 50 percent of Americans lived in suburbs compared to only 30 percent in cities and 20 percent in small towns and rural areas.
- 3. II. Urban Expansion A. Annexation: 1. Annexation is the process of legally adding land area to a city. Normally, land can only be annexed if a majority of residents vote in favor of it. 2. Peripheral residents in the 19th century often desired annexation because the city offered better services, such as water supply, sewage disposal, trash pickup, paved streets, public transportation, and police and fire protection.
- 4. B. Defining Urban Settlements: 1. City: an urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self -governing unit. 2. The boundaries of the city define the geographic area within which the local government has legal authority. 3. Population in many US central cities (not just cities) has declined since 1950, as has industry. 4. Urbanized Area: a continuously built-up area— the central city and the surrounding suburbs.
- 5. 5. The density of urbanized areas exceeds 1,000 persons per square mile. About 70 percent of the US population lives in urbanized areas. 6. Metropolitan Area: a functional area of influence that a city exerts beyond its legal boundaries and adjacent built-up jurisdictions. 7. An MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) includes: a. An urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000 b. The county in which the city is located c. Adjacent counties with a high population density and a large percentage of residents working in the central city’s county.
- 6. 8. There are 366 MSAs in the US (as of 2009), which encompasses 84% of the US population. 9. One problem with MSAs is that they often include large areas that are not urban—like national parks. 10. We also have micropolitan statistical areas, urbanized areas of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants and the adjacent county tied to the city. 11. Together, MSAs and µSAs are known as core based statistical areas (CBSAs).
- 7. C. Local Government Fragmentation: 1. There are more than 1,400 local government in the New York area alone, and 20,000 throughout the United States. 2. This can lead to problems when emergency responders are called. 3. The large number of local government units has led to the development of councils of government. These are cooperative agencies with cooperation of the various local governments.
- 8. D. Overlapping metropolitan Areas: 1. When MSAs overlap—for instance a county between two central cities—we have what we call a megalopolis. The Boswash corridor is an example of this. 2. These “megalopolis” areas also exist in Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan. 3. Downtown areas of a megalopolis retain distinctive identities, but at the periphery the boundaries overlap.
- 9. III. The Peripheral Model: A. An urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by a large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road . (Chauncey Harris —creator of the multiple nuclei model)
- 10. B. Around the beltway are nodes of consumer and business services, called edge cities. 1. Edge cities originated as suburban residences for people who worked in the central city, then shopping malls were built to be near residents. 2. Now, edge cities contain manufacturing centers and office parks where producer services cluster. 3. Specialized nodes emerge in the edge cities —hotels and warehouses around an airport, hotels and restaurants around a large theme park, and a distribution center near the junction of beltways.
- 11. C. Density Gradient: 1. As you travel outward from the center of the city, you can watch the decline in the density at which people live. This is called the density gradient. 2. Two changes have affected the density gradient in recent years: a. Fewer people living in the center b. Fewer differences in density within urban areas. c. The result is to flatten the density gradient. (see pg. 428)
- 12. D. Cost of Suburban Sprawl: 1. Roads and utilities must be extended (funded by taxpayers and higher home prices) 2. Prime agricultural land may be lost through construction of isolated housing developments 3. Sprawl can affect the supply of local dairy products and vegetables. 4. Europe restricts sprawl and surrounds cities with greenbelts. 5. Here in the U.S. we are beginning to pass legislation and regulations to limit sprawl. This is called smart growth.
- 13. IV. Suburban Segregation: A. Before the 20th century, classes were likely to separated vertically. Now they are separated spatially. B. Housing in a given suburban community is usually built for people of a single social class. C. Land use zoning ordinances separate residents from commercial and industrial activities. D. Suburbanization of business: 1. As people moved to the suburbs, retail stores moved there also to serve the people.
- 14. 2. Downtown businesses have stagnated because suburban residents won’t make the long journey to shop there. 3. Malls in suburban areas have become centers for activity. E. Suburbanization of factories and offices: 1. Factories and warehouses have migrated to suburbia for more space, cheaper land and better truck access. 2. Offices that do not require face to face contact are moving to suburbs where rents are lower than in the CBD
- 15. V. Transportation and Suburbanization A. More than half of all trips are work related B. Shopping or other personal business, and social journeys, account for one-fourth each. C. Together, all these trips produce congestion in urban areas. D. Motor vehicle ownership is nearly universal among American households.
- 16. 1. Cars and trucks permitted large-scale development of suburbs at greater distances from the center. 2. Motor vehicle drivers have greater flexibility in their choice of residence. 3. The motor vehicle is an important user of land in the city (roads, parking lots, multilane freeways, elaborate interchanges). E. Forty percent of all trips made into or out of the CBD occur during four hours of the day —two in the morning and two in the afternoon. F. In larger cities, public transit is better suited than cars to moving large numbers of people.
- 17. 1. Public transit is cheaper, less polluting, and more energy efficient than the automobile. 2. In most cities of the world, extensive networks of bus, tram and subway lines have been maintained and funds for new construction provided in recent years 3. In the U.S., public transit is used primarily for rush-hour commuting by workers into and out of the CBD.
- 18. 4. New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington , Chicago and Philadelphia are large public transit users. 5. But in many US cities, public transit is minimal or nonexistent. 6. Bus ridership in the U.S. has declined, and commuter railroad service has also been drastically reduced. 7. The one exception to the downward trend in public transit in the U.S. is rapid transit (subways, streetcars—Trax, Front Runner).
- 19. VI. Summary A. Many people live in urban areas and never venture into inner-city neighborhoods or downtown. B. Conversely, inner-city residents may rarely venture out to suburbs. C. The spatial segregation of inner-city residents and suburbanites lies at the heart of the stark contrasts so immediately observed in any urban area.