Urban Structure and Quality of Life Lecture Notes
Please note that there is an assignment on page 10 of this lecture which is due on
November 18. Also since there will be an exam on the next class meeting which will
include the information in this lecture, please e-mail me if you have any questions.
Urban Structure
1. Introduction
a. This section will look at several concepts of urban structure
b. These are theories of how urban areas evolve, they are not necessarily
how urban areas should evolve. Good and bad ways urban areas develop
will be discussed later in this course.
2. Von Thunen
We discussed him briefly during the lecture on Central Place Theory. His
theory dealt with intensity of farmland around a city, but was a forerunner of
the concept that the center of an area would have a higher intensity of land
use, and this intensity would decrease as the distance from the core (city)
increases in a series of rings.
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3. Rings in cities
a. Within cities and urban areas the same ring concept is exhibited
b. There will usually be higher land values in the center because of
1. Transportation advantages
2. Convenient interaction with other businesses
3. High flow of pedestrian traffic
4. Note that Cleveland has had a higher intensity of development at
its center, but also that that intensity has declined over the years.
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5. Today, this pattern is disrupted by suburban centers with
“blurbs” of intensity especially occurring at the intersection of
freeways.
4. Concentric Zone Model
a. This model is derived from Von Thunen and the idea of rings of intensity
around the center of an urban area.
b. It was developed by Burgess, and started with the Central Business
District (CBD) with the zones shown above. (There is a tendency for
government agencies to view this model as an ideal, but remember
Burgess was only describing how he thought cities develop, not how they
should develop).
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c. This model has several flaws
1. Industrial uses were put into zone 2 but will tend to cluster
together rather than spread out to circle the CBD.
2. It did not account for the impact of transportation facilities
which will draw businesses and industry
3. It did not account for physical features. Note the graphic on the
rings of Cleveland. These rings are only partial because part of
the city is adjacent to Lake Erie. Hills, rivers, oceans will do the
same thing and will disrupt the pattern of rings.
5. Sector Model—Homer Hoyt
a. This model is based upon the concept that certain land uses will remain in
the same basic area that they started, but expand in the direction that the
city is growing.
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b. The growth is usually in the direction of the higher income areas.
c. This model takes into account transportation lines, topography, or
clustering by similar land uses.
6. Multiple Nuclei Model—Harris and Ullman
a. This Model is based upon the theory that development in cities evolve
around several nodes such as
1. Government complexes
2. Universities (At one time there was nothing around San Diego
State—Same is true for Cal State San Marcos)
3. Major Intersections
4. Airports
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7. The reality is that no one city is totally reflected in these models, but all cities
have some aspects of each one.
Edge Cities
1. Edge cities are a product of the Freeway/Automobile and are suburbs that have
taken on the characteristics of center cities. They are often viewed as urban
sprawl.
2. Characteristics
a. Work center
b. Single destination for mixed use, jobs, shopping entertainment
c. Often not incorporated cities
1. May be no clearly defined boundaries
2. May not have a mayor or city council
d. Are often located far from the traditional downtown.
e. Usually located at the intersection of two major roads with shopping malls
as anchors.
3. Types of Edge Cities
a.
Uptowns—these are edge cities located on top of pre-automobile
settlements. Pasadena and the San Fernando Valley are good
examples. Both of these urban places began as street car urban places
and later developed into edge cities.
b.
Boomers—These are
1. Suburban cities of at least 100,000 population (Other than
Southern California, suburbs of this size are rare)
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2. Not the largest city in the area.
3. Have experienced high rates of growth.
c. Greenfields –These are master planned communities on former agricultural
land or land that is in a natural state. Irvine would be an example.
3. Disadvantages of Edge Cities
a. Look a lot like urban sprawl
b. Anchors tend to be privately owned and can exclude certain segments of
society.
c. If not incorporated, the centers of these cities are run by property owner
and businesses and are not elected.
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4. Advantage is that residents feel they generally have a high quality of life. The
next figure shows the result of a survey to edge city residents about their
satisfaction with their quality of life.
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Quality of Life
1. Definition—Package of external things which act together to determine the happiness
of an individual.
a. Different for different people
b. Different for people at different times of their life. (What you consider important
to your quality of life is likely different than what I consider to be important)
c. If may also involve the quality of life for future generations
d. Money
1. Quality of life is not based upon the amount of physical possessions
2. Although there is a certain amount of money needed for basic needs, it in itself
does not appear to be a guarantee of a high quality of life.
2. Why study—why is quality of life important to this class
a. Affects how and where you choose to live and at what time
b. Much of what you do is aimed in this direction
c. Why are you spending the time and money to take this class and attend this
university?
1. You probably believe by going through this now you will have a higher
quality of life when you complete your studies.
2. Studies done on this subject indicate you are right (and are likely to live
longer also)
3. If this quality of life is threatened people become very upset and it can also affect
property values
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4. As a result, much of what government does—if not everything they do is to protect
your quality of life. If they do not they may eventually face a rebellion, either at the
voting booth or in some cases through violence. (What was the major issue in the
presidential campaign—the economy, which far overshadowed Iraq and
Afghanistan—because the economy directly affects quality of life.)
5. Much of the government regulation that we will discuss in a later class meeting is
designed to provide for an overall higher quality of life.
6. What are the factors that make up quality of life?
ASSIGNMENT—by the next class meeting on November 18. Envision yourself not as a
student, but as having graduated and having a professional job. At this point you are
selecting a place to live where you are going to stay for a number of years and possibly
raise a family. The assignment is to either E-mail me or bring with you to that class
meeting the five most important factors you would be looking for in selecting a place
where you would like to live for an extended period of time and perhaps raise a family.
7. Places Rated Almanac
a. There have been several publications that have attempted to compare quality of
life of the 300 more or less metropolitan areas in the United States (and
sometimes Canada). However the most popular is the Places Rated Almanac.
b. There have been at least 4 editions of this work—1981, 1989, 1997, and 2000.
c. Different terminology has been used over the years, but the following factors have
appeared in one form or another in all 4 editions
1. Crime
2. Transportation
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3. Education
4. Recreation
5. The Arts
6. Cost of living
7. Climate
8. Jobs
9. Health Care
d. Deficiencies in the Places Rated Almanac
1. Factors are not weighted—all are given the same importance
2. Results have proven to be inconsistent
3. Some of the factors affect other factors and cannot be separated.(for instance
cost of living will be affected by a large number of jobs available in an area—
this will draw people to the area which causes the demand for housing to rise,
which causes cost of living to rise)
e.
Does have a lot of useful information
f.
Sample of results for 1981 and 2000 and notes
1. Note that for Climate in 1981 San Francisco was rated as the test climate,
while in 2000 it was rated 10th. Also note that all cities in both years were
in California.
2. Note that for Crime, all of the high ranking cities were in the rustbelt of the
eastern United States were there is very slow or no growth occurring.
3. Note that for Education, Pittsfield, MA dropped from third to 338 in
twenty years
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4. Note that for Recreation, Cleveland, OH ranked second on the list for both
years.
5. For Health Care the 5 largest metropolitan areas were ranked 1-5, but none
made the top 5 list in 2000. This is because in 2000, cities in Canada were
included, and four of the top 5 are Canadian Cities.
6. For jobs, Reno, NV ranked first in 1981, but dropped to 136 by 2000
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7. For Transportation, Athens GA ranked first in 1981, but by 2000 had dropped
to 250.
( The Places Rated Almanac is not a scholarly work but is designed to assist in finding
a city that will provide the highest quality of life for a particular individual. It has some
of the illogical results pointed out above, but is widely recognized in urban geography.)
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