AP HUG - Unit 6

• A large city is stimulating and agitating, entertaining and frightening, welcoming and cold. A city has something for everyone, but a lot of those things are for people who are different from you. Urban geography helps to sort out the complexities of familiar and unfamiliar patterns in urban areas.
• Downtowns


  The place where much of the city's business and public services cluster
• Central city


  • Legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit known as a municipality
  • Has locally elected officials, the ability to raise taxes, and responsibility for providing essential services
  • Boundaries define the geographic area within which the local government has legal authority
• Urban area


  Consists of a central city and its surrounding built-up suburbs
• Urbanized area


  An urban area with at least 50,000 inhabitants
• Urban cluster


  An urban area with between 2,500 and 50,000 inhabitants
• Metropolitan statistical area (MSA)


  Includes an urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000, the county within which the city is located, and adjacent counties with a high population density and a large percentage of residents working in the central city's county
• Micropolitan statistical area (μSA)


  Includes an urbanized area of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, the county in which it is located, and adjacent counties tied to the city
• Core-based statistical area (CBSA)


  Any one MSA or μSA
• Combined statistical area (CSA)


  Two or more contiguous CBSAs tied together by commuting patterns
• Primary statistical area (PSA)


  A CSA, an MSA not included in a CSA, or a μSA not included in a CSA
• Central business district (CBD)


  The compact, most visually distinctive area of a city that contains a large percentage of the public, business, and consumer services
• CBD


  • Less than 1% of the urban land area
  • Easiest part of the city to reach from the rest of the region
  • Focal point of the region's transportation network
• Public services in CBD


  City hall, courts, county and state agencies, libraries, places of worship, social service agencies
• Business services in CBD


  Offices for advertising, banking, finance, journalism, law, etc. that depend on proximity to professional colleagues
• Consumer services in CBD


  Retailers with high ranges that attract customers from a wide area, retailers serving CBD workers
• Population has declined since 1950 by more than one-half in the central cities of Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis and by at least one-third in more than a dozen other U.S. central cities. In contrast, other definitions of urban settlements reflect increasing population.
• Retailers with high ranges have located in CBDs because they are visited by tourists. Local residents also patronize shops in the CBD as a leisure activity on evenings and weekends
• Retailers serving CBD workers


  Sell office supplies, computers, and clothing or offer shoe repair, rapid photocopying, dry cleaning, and so on
• Shops that appeal to nearby office workers are expanding in the CBD, in part because the number of downtown office workers has increased and in part because downtown offices require more services
• Patrons of downtown shops tend increasingly to be downtown employees who shop during the lunch hour
• Although the total volume of sales in downtown areas has been stable, the pattern of demand has changed. Large department stores have difficulty attracting their old customers, whereas smaller shops that cater to the special needs of the downtown labor force are expanding
• High rents and land shortage discourage two principal activities in the CBD—industrial and residential
• Modern factories require large parcels of land to spread operations among one-story buildings. Suitable land is generally available in suburbs
• Port activities have moved to more modern facilities downstream
• Services


  Activities that fulfil a human want or need and return money to those who provide it
• CBD waterfronts have become major tourist attractions in a number of North American cities, including Boston, Toronto, Baltimore, and San Francisco, as well as in European cities such as Barcelona and London
• Settlements


  Permanent collection of buildings where people reside, work, and obtain services
• Many people used to live in or near the CBD. In the twentieth century, most residents abandoned downtown living because of a combination of pull and push factors
• In developed countries, most people work in services, such as shops, offices, restaurants, universities, and hospitals
• In the twenty-first century, the population of many U.S. CBDs has increased. New apartment buildings and townhouses have been constructed, and abandoned warehouses and outdated office buildings have been converted into residential lofts
• Most people in developed countries obtain what they need from service providers
• Services are closely linked with settlements because services are located in settlements
• Downtown living is especially attractive to people without school-age children, either "empty nesters" whose children have left home or young professionals who have not yet had children
• A CBD's accessibility produces extreme competition for the limited available land. As a result, land values are very high in the CBD
• The CBD has a three-dimensional character, with more space used below and above ground level than elsewhere in the urban area
• Geography plays an especially important role in the provision of services because geographic principles determine the optimal location for a service
• Land uses commonly found elsewhere in the urban area are rare in the CBD
• Underground CBD


  Includes garages, loading docks, pipes for utilities, and subway trains
• Skyscrapers


  Provide a distinctive image and symbol for a city's CBD