GEOG 340: Day 4
Chapter 3 (cont’d)
Housekeeping Items
 Social Sciences will host a pizza social next Tuesday in
Building 356, 2nd floor atrium, from noon to 2:00.
 Also: if you have any questions about the major assignment,
which we discussed in class and which is up on the web site,
let me know.
READINGS FROM HILLER BOOK (not a perfect match for the text; will have to exercise discretion)
2
Week
Chapter in text
Chapter & topic in Hiller
Name
2
3
3
4
Don
4
8
2; phases of Canadian urbanization
Parts of 5 &12; social ties & community;
urban political economy
12; urban political economy
5
9
miscellaneous
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
10
11
12
14
15
Time permitting, 5-7
15; policy in Quebec
17; planning for sustainability
Parts of 6 & 8; urban social interactions
Parts of 13 & 16; consumer culture and
brandscapes
Parts of 7, 10, & 11
14; homelessness
N/A
Amanda &
Don
Don
Zane or ?
Chrissy
The Evolution of the North
American Urban System
 The emergence of industrial city led to the
emergence of new classes – industrialists,
white collar managers, office workers, and
blue collar workers. All vied for housing and
those with the most disposable income won
out.
 Initially, the wealthiest were downtown and
the least advantaged on the periphery.
However, as conditions got nastier
downtown, the well-to-do and middle
classes migrated out to the suburbs.
3
The Evolution of the North
American Urban System
 A crucial factor in determining urban development
was the sanctity of private property, especially in the
U.S., as sanctioned by the Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments of the Constitution.
 In Canada, private property is also taken for
granted, but the Crown retains more residual rights
than in the U.S. Moreover, the right to own property
is not one that is listed in the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms.
 In Mexico, in the countryside the peasants and
indigenous people retained the ejido system
(individual land ownership for farming within an
overall communal system), but it has been under
assault for decades.
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The Evolution of the North
American Urban System
 As someone with a background in planning,
my perspective is that – from an urban
development point of view – this has its
downside. In places like Hong Kong,
governments owns the land and leases it
out, and all increases in property value go
back into the public purse.
 In North America, individual or corporate
property owners are enriched – often by
infrastructure improvements to which they
made no contribution. It also turns every
property owner into a potential speculator.
5
The Evolution of the North
American Urban System
 Many people in BC, including government
officials and CP Rail, bought up land in
advance of development and then ‘made a
killing’ when people started moving in en
masse.
 Because people were doing with their land
what they wanted, without thought to
ecological and social consequences,
eventually zoning laws were brought in to
try to regulate the chaos.
6
Changes in Transportation
 A huge factor in changing the layout of North American cities
were the changes in mode of transportation.
 Initially, North American cities were walking and horse and
buggy cities.
 Then, in 1829, the first horse car service started in New York
City and expanded from there. However, the cost
was beyond the reach of many
wage earners.
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Changes in Transportation
 The expansion of the railway system (see p. 56) had
a huge impact on the structure of cities in the U.S.
and Canada, particularly downtown.
 Railways needed flat land, often by waterways, with
room for stations, warehouses, locomotive shed,
and shunting yards. And they had the clout to get
what they wanted (and still have influence today –
CP!).
8
Changes in Transportation
 Land adjacent to the train stations became desirable
locations for hotels, shops, and restaurants. This is
still the case in Europe today where train stations
occupy central locations.
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Changes in Transportation
 The location of railway facilities in cities and towns
helped create Central Business Districts (CBDs).
 In North America, the CBD became the centre of
urban political, economic, social and cultural life –
the nuclei of cities, established by location of train
stations and consolidated by the confluence of
transit line (initially in the form of trams).
 CBDs consisted of specialized, high order retailers
(department stores and haberdasheries) that could
outbid others for the parcels. Nonetheless, much of
their business remained pedestrian-oriented.
 A positive feature of railways is that they brought in
fresh produce and other foodstuffs from further
afield, this raising the health status of urbanites.
10
Hastings and Granville, Vancouver, 1921
11
Changes in Transportation
 In some ways, railways fragmented and divided cities,
creating barriers to movement, and oddly-shaped
parcels of land.
 There also came to be a “wrong side” and a “right
side” of the tracks, with all its socio-economic
implications.
 Trains also began to be used for commuting purposes,
thus enabling the middle and upper classes to live
near exurban stations and to commute into work and
for shopping. Only the well-off could afford the fare.
12
Train overpass created as a result of
protests by the ‘militant mothers
of Raymur.’
13
14
Changes in Transportation
 Lots in the suburbs had to be relatively small because
people walked to the stations.
 Similarly, in the case of “streetcar suburbs,” people
usually lived within a 5-minute walk of a major through
street with a streetcar, later bus. On the weekends,
people were encouraged to take ‘outings.’
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Changes in Transportation
 In some cases, the streetcar line was developed first and
the neighbourhood developed afterwards, as was the case
with Kitsilano in Vancouver.
 Meanwhile, CBDs retained their role as the magnet for
shopping and commuting to work. They typically featured
major department stores, now largely a thing of the past
with the development of big box stores and malls.
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The Organization of Industry
(1875-1920)
 This period saw a huge expansion of the rail
network (and a standardized gauge) with major
impacts on the hierarchical relationship of cities.
 With the development of new resources and
resource regions, and new industries, the number
of urban places in the U.S. more than doubled
between 1887 and 1920.
 Also, the U.S. in this time period saw the arrival of
12 million immigrants until a quota system was put
in place in 1921.
 A distinct manufacturing belt emerged in the U.S.
and in Canada (see p. 63). What is this area
largely called today?
17
The Organization of Industry
(1875-1920)
 Over time, cities began
to grow into each other
(“megalopolis”).
 Housing remained
desperate for the
working classes as poor
and working people
congregated in the
centre of cities and
more affluent people
migrated out.
18
The Organization of Industry
(1875-1920)
 At the same time, technological innovation made
possible skyscrapers with steel girders and
curtain walls and elevators; water and sewer
mains, gas lighting (and later electricity), phone
and telegraph, and the aforementioned electric
streetcars also emerged.
 Big-picture thinkers (Baron Haussmann) were
engaged, at least in Europe, to rethink the layout
of cities like Paris, with the creation of new
boulevards, new monuments, and the destruction
of much of the old workers’ quarters (see p. 66).
19
The Influence of Haussmann
on Paris
20
The Organization of Industry
(1875-1920)
 Zoning emerged – initially in the 1880s – as a
way of restricting and discriminating against
Chinese laundries.
 Nuisance statutes also arose to limit brothels,
pool halls, dance halls, stables, slaughterhouses –
especially near ‘fine’ establishments and in
‘better’ neighbourhoods.
 This led to restrictions on private property rights
when these were perceived to be in the public
interest and such interventions by municipalities
were validated in a Supreme Court decision in
1926. Similar decisions followed in Canada.
21
The Organization of Industry
(1875-1920)
 In addition to zoning, one saw the emergence of
compact shopping districts with like businesses
tending to cluster together, something one still
sees today.
 There were also warehouse districts, like
Yaletown, now re-colonized by yuppies working in
the knowledge sectors of the economy.
 City halls and other symbols of civic pride
emerged.
 In general, one can say that urban land,
increasingly valuable, has seen an ongoing
process of what the book describes as zones of
assimilation and zones of discard.
22
23
The Organization of Industry
(1875-1920)
 A sorting process occurred with businesses (and
residential areas) locating according to what rent
could afford to be paid, with the most desirable
sites occupied by the wealthier businesses (see
pp. 73-74).
We will do the rest
of Chapter 3, and
start in on Chapter
4 next time.
24
The Evolution of the Canadian
Urban System
 Will cover some of this next week.
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