- Some essays were genuinely hard to read while others had been
typed. Presentation matters sometimes.
- Few Quiz #3 essays showed evidence of relying on textbook,
PowerPoints, class discussion or Internet search.
- If the term ‘Internet’ is currently proper, then why do (web)
addresses start with ‘www’?
- for the final exam preparation, consider reviewing the latest
vocabulary and the “Criteria Sets for Evaluating Geography” - - both
available at www.smartmap.us
- Also, reference the three PP presentations (including this one)
News for mid-April (NPR)
U.S. Pledge to “Non-Lethal” Assistance
- Health services, not weapons
- Capitalism – the root of all ‘good’?
- Mixed societies – promoting initiative, with
restraints
- Theft and other crime, as forms of initiative?
- **Defining what is ‘legal’, ethical, or moral
- Legal – by law, ordinance, statute
- Moral – personal behavior
- Ethical – applying morals to community
standards, as group ‘norms’
**Source http://www.wisegeek.org
Based on these definitions, is ‘shadow’ lending
legal, ethical or moral?
More NPR News for April, 2013
Radio story on commemorating the 70th anniversary of
the destruction of Warsaw (part of the ‘shatter zone’ but
not the Balkans).
Allegedly, more people died from German bombing of
Warsaw in 1939-44 than in all bombings in Iraq in 20032009 <NPR, April 21, 2014>.
Why would that comparison be drawn?
<Religion, ethnicity, mode of ‘bombing’, recency. Why
not Biafra, Uganda, Balkan ‘cleansing’, Darfur?>
Human Geography 1400
Chapter 12 and Summary
-
-
-
-
Chinese urban development patterns are beginning to
look like ‘western suburbia’ in style, names and in
creating ‘urban sprawl*.’ (p423)
The classic western suburban development pattern is
to maximize land use efficiency (by density) at urban
nodes, with ‘distance decay’ density decline away from
central places that are often called “central business
districts”.
More recently, in the United States, a generation of
‘flight to suburbia’ has given way to resurgent ‘reurbanization’ of major urban centers and ‘downtowns’
(sometimes called “gentrification.”
In the ‘West’ the first wave of urbanization led to postwar suburban development based on the automobile
and national support for highway development.
*See definitions for ‘sprawl.’
Source: www.google.com
More Favela
(notice the swimming pools on balconies – how did the Venezuelan
elections turn out? What was Chavez’ mission?)
More NPR News (fits the class textbook)
April 19, 2013
Globalization produces a larger ‘pie’, but less fairly distributed. Western
‘mixed’ economies re-distribute income ostensibly for fairness, but also as a
support to production, such as bus tokens, re-employment training, health
care, etc.
Trade, specialization and information services support a growing middle
class in the developing world, but these same qualities make it easier for
poor people to see what they do not have.
In a real way, globalization raises expectations and disappointments along
with hope.
The textbook says that urban splintering is especially prominent in core
countries, but I disagree – the United States has a well-developed social
service system and public education and strongly mixed economy, helping to
alleviate some of the disparities. LDCs typically show more stark contrast
between rich and poor. There are no genuine favelas in the United States –
they would not pass building code, health code, zoning code, etc.
Splintering, continued
Even as globalization brings homogeneity to
products, services and processes, it helps illustrate
and emphasize human differences in ethnicity,
demographics, religion and politics.
Major world cities also show growing cleavages,
particularly across ethnic and geographic lines,
bringing proximity to disparities.
Burgeoning world population further emphasizes
differences by assigning most births to the ‘have not’
category.
Chinese Traffic Jam
Replicating the aging American dream?
Soviets Copied Captured B-29
Bombers
American Land Use Planning
(p433)
-
The United States pioneered the use of ‘zoning’ and other land use
planning standards that tended to separate noxious industrial activities
from residential.
-
The result, however, contributed to high cost of urban development and
reliance on the automobile. Only recently has land use planning in the
United States attempted to re-integrate where people live with where
they work.
-
The conversion of the U.S. work force from heavy industrial “smoke stack”
jobs to service and technology functions may eventually help re-integrate
residential and employment activities.
-
Telecommuting is a means of allowing people to work at home, rather
than commute, but has not yet caught on the United States. Instead, cars
have become offices for multi-tasking, meals, sleeping, entertainment.
-
By comparison, in most of the world, residential and business life was
never separated, providing cost savings by comparison to the United
States, where community by automobile is still ubiquitous (and
expensive).
Land Use Zoning for Pierre, South Dakota
Islamic Cities
In contrast to western, automobile-oriented cities
(mostly the United States):
“The fundamentals of the layout and design of the
traditional Islamic city are so closely attached to Islamic cultural
values that they are to be found in the Qur’an, the holy book of
Islam.”
“Focus is on privacy and virtue, communal well-being and
the inner essence of things rather than outward appearance.”
(textbook, p436)
Are both of these assertions consistent with differences between
the West and Islam? In suburbia, garages ‘front’ the street and
fences ‘make good neighbors.’ Besides, people are often not
home, but in their cars.
Urban Design
In further contrast, Salt Lake City
streets are wide and rectilinear,
compared to the developing world
(and Islamic cities) with narrow,
twisting streets that maximize shade.
SLC Main Street is sheltered, but most
of central city is loud and exposed.
Such designs also reflects the long
history of development and redevelopment, mostly using animals
and hand tools rather than heavy
machinery powered by fossil fuel.
Dualism as “formal” and “informal economies
“Dualism” is the juxtaposition of informal* and formal* sectors of the
economy in close proximity: high rise buildings adjacent to slums and
shantytowns. (textbook, p438)
The informal economy contributes substantially to overall economy vitality
and makes economical use of otherwise idle resources.
Informal economies help many regions maintain world competitiveness.
Garbage picking and other recycling helps return consumer and industrial
materials to re-use.
*Informal = not taxed, monitored, licensed or part of GNP. Formal economy is
measured and regulated (mixed economy is regulated) (Source: textbook and
Wikipedia)
Urban “Dualism”
World “shock cities” display deplorable living conditions
that are increasingly common in the developing world:
Mexico City
Lagos
Mumbai
Dhaka
Jakarta
Karachi
Manila
Sao Paulo
Even as developing world embraces western social technology, the informal
economy is burgeoning. Social tech = rule of law, codes, health standards,
administrative and business practices, compliances.
The U.S. Informal Economy
In the United States, can it be argued that illegal
immigrant labor helps ensure economic
competitiveness in world markets by providing a
large fraction of the domestic economy (and exports)
at costs and prices that are essentially subsidized by
under-paid labor?
However, the extent to which illegal economic
activity is underground may include unpaid taxes,
criminal activity, and social welfare obligations that
constitute a burden on society in general.
Fiscal Problems
(p427)
- In the United States, only the Federal government can legally
run a persistent fiscal deficit.*
- States and local governments have come to rely on revenue
sharing, contributing to deficits at all levels. Expectations are
very high.
- Urban decay and deteriorated infrastructure add greatly to
city fiscal pressures at a time when re-urbanization is
occurring.
- As such, the United States increasingly shares the dilemmas of
the developing world: cities present human opportunity, but
often poor conditions and a widening gap between rich and
poor (declining middle class).
- Fiscal ‘sequestration’ is having an effect.
**Is there an ‘ethical’ obligation to future generations as per
fiscal and environmental debts?
Camden
New Jersey
Could Camden be
‘recolonized’ as an
indigenous native
population?
Camden as a type of ‘third world’?
Defined formally as ‘non-aligned’
but in this case informally defined
as ‘less developed’ or povertystricken.
Camden, New Jersey, with a population of 70,390, is per capita
the poorest city in the nation. It is also the most dangerous. The
city's real unemployment—hard to estimate, since many
residents have been severed from the formal economy for
generations—is probably 30–40 percent. The median household
income is $24,600. There is a 70 percent high school dropout
rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the
state's proficiency exams in math. The city is planning $28 million
in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25
percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half
the police force. The proposed slashing of the public library
budget by almost two-thirds has left the viability of the library
system in doubt.
Source: www.thenation.com, April 2013
Re-urbanization and Segregation
Even as older cities participate in world-wide
urbanization, neighborhoods often remain ‘de facto’
segregated by race and income, even if ‘de jure’
conditions (law) prohibits discrimination.
In the United States, the fringes of
fast-growing cities, mostly in the
Southwest, such as Las Vegas &
Miami, were particularly hard-hit by
the recent ‘mortgage foreclosure
crisis’.(p431-32)
The informal processes
of ‘red-lining’ and
‘block-busting’ are
countervailing
influences.(p430)
Source: Google.com images
Unlike many, if not most world cities,
most American cities are dominated by
the automobile that allows
‘suburban flight’
(both daily and long-term),
resulting in uninteresting downtowns
and lack of vibrant
“24-7” life.
People with cars can maintain defacto
segregation by retreating to enclaves.
Paris, France (source: Frommers.com/slideshow
Cities of Hope, Cities of Despair
- In Mexico, more than 90 percent of wastewater
treatment plants are nonfunctional.
- In cities like Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and
Santiago, some 50-60 million cubic meters of mostly
untreated sewage is discharged every day into nearby
bodies of water.
- Sao Paulo has over 1,600 miles of open sewers.
- In Bangkok, less than 5 percent of the population is
connected to a sewer system.
- <In most of> Latin America, only about 2 percent of
collected sewage receives any treatment.
- China is estimated to have 16 of the 20 worst cities for
air quality in the world.
Cities of Hope, Cities of Despair
The largest of the world’s polycentric metropolises have
become “100-mile cities.” Is the Sandy cluster creating
a bi-polar Salt Lake County?
Fragmentation of land-use planning may be increasing
even as urban development becomes more
sophisticated and technology-based.
However, regional authorities seem to be working
successfully across jurisdictions. For example, in the
Los Angeles ‘basin’ (Inland Empire) there are more than
1,100 political jurisdictions.