Origins of Urbanization
What does "physical permanence" mean in the context of cities?
Built environment, ex: Canada's Parliament buildings
Who invented the water frame (which lead to the first factories)?
Richard Arkwright
What is informal transit? Include an example we discussed in class.
When local government does not fill gaps in transit service.
Early days of Uber and Lyft were informal businesses
Passenger-carrying vehicles without a formal license
Authorities often turn a blind eye because they know that low-income people who cannot afford car/bike still need transit, and it is authorities’ fault for not providing alternative methods
Often allows for low-income people without access to education/formal skills to work as taxi drivers & etc
Informal transit in Maputo, Mozambique; New York City, U.S.A.
What is a mortgage?
A specific kind of loan used to pay for a house. It is a loan that has collateral, in this case, if one fails to pay back their loan, their house will be taken from them.
Collateral is something of value which is agreed in advance that the lender may take away from you if you fail to pay back the loan.
What are nomadic vs sedentary lifestyles?
Nomadic: societies who do not make permanent settlements
Sedentary: societies where people build and inhabit permanent settlements
What kind of jobs does a "service economy" create?
Retail
Health
Education
Govt
Leisure/entertainment
Tech and creativity
What are the two ways in which information is conveyed at intersections in urban roads?
Formal & informal
What was "redlining," when did it happen, and who was most affected by it?
Redlining was a racist policy where governments wouldn’t give loans to people who lived in neighborhoods that they deemed as unable (or “unreliable”) to repay loans/mortgages. Predominantly Black and immigrant neighbourhoods were targeted by it.
What are 2 modes of city emergence? What are they?
Independant → Population ingenuity
People hear about something cool, so they start doing it too
Through diffusion → Imitation or colonization
Ex: a ruler sends people over to to claim land (with force if needed)
Why was Manchester, UK so successful as an early industrialized city? (3 pts)
An example: Manchester, UK
Attracted wealth, highly commercial even before the industrial revolution
Well-connected infrastructure
Centrally located in England, nearby to Liverpool ports, extending reach to the entire empire
Already has a labour force as well as merchants experienced in the textile industry
What is a ‘modal share’ (also called a ‘modal split’)? Include at least one way of accounting for modal shares in your explanation.
Modal share or modal split: how common or rare a given transit mode is in a given location compared to all other modes
By percentage of people (i.e. census, how people get to work)
Percentage of total trips (i.e. carried out by average every day)
Percentage distance (of average daily trips)
In the early 2000’s banks started using maps to identify low-income neighbourhoods. They did not redline, but instead they engaged in predatory lending.
Finding people who cannot afford a mortgage, but convincing them to take one out anyways.
Subprime mortgage: for people who have bad credit ratings who cannot qualify for a prime loan. Characterized by a high rate of interest with many associated fees.
Name all 6 characteristics of the city
Large population
High density of population
Physical permanence (built environment)
Urban governance
Division of labour (specialized labour force)
Links to other cities (part of urban networks)
Heterogeneity
What was the putting-out system, and what was its role in the start of the Industrial revolution?
The “putting-out” system
Instead of a factory, work is contracted out to families to work from home
Raw cotton would be delivered to these families, then the families would weave it into string/thread. Human powered!
People would move to the city to work, thus leading to urban density.
What causes road congestion? Include 2 strategies which can be used to decrease congestion.
Defined by: trips per car & typical trip length
NOT by the amount of cars on the road.
Supply-oriented
Transport demand Management (TDM)
Promoting alternative transport (other than automobiles)
Define and explain the differences between: non-market housing, market housing, and quasi-market housing.
Non-market
Based on need, rather than ability to pay
Includes non-profit run, government run, and cooperative-run housing projects.
Housing which is decided by the willingness/ability to pay by its residents. Affected by financial status, optimism, mortgage prices, availability of alternatives from the buyer
Rent is based on what the market will bear, to the very maximum of what people will pay.
Quasi-market housing
Built in the private sector with some support from the cooperative/government.
What is a food surplus and how did it lead to the creation of early cities?
1. Advent of agriculture means people can farm in one place
2. Food surplus is when there's more food than what is needed for survival
3. This means there can be more people to work on other activities, ex: irrigation, work specialization
4. Leads to a division of labour
5. Examples where food surplus helped make cities: Uruk, Catalhoyuk
What were the effect of de-industrialization on North American cities? (Define de-industrialization and list 4 effects).
De-industrialization: the removal/disappearance of industrial activity (i.e. factories) from within the city
Congestion
Suppliers and sellers couldn’t effectively reach factories with all the congestion on streets
Outsourcing to other countries, Japan, Korea, etc.
Many elites wanted factories out of the centre of the city because they took up “valuable central city real estate that they could use better” i.e luxury condos, office buildings
Urban blight, shrinking cities, workforce leaving
What is meant by 'induced demand?' What are 2 examples of how it can inform city planning.
Building more spaces for cars to make people want to drive cars more
Increased roads, more people may move to that area so they can still drive. However, that growth will demand more use, and then more and more people will use it. And then it becomes congested again.
Examples from slides:
More parking, urban ring roads, downtown-suburb expressways, other car-oriented infrastructure
How did the mass-mortgage system lead to suburbanization? (Define, and include at least 3 points.)
Once governments had created mortgage markets (run by banks) in the 40’s/50’s, more (mostly white) people could afford to move out of the city centre, lessening demand for core neighbourhoods and excluding large percentages of Black and immigrant households.
Mass mortgages meant that large numbers of privileged demographics of individuals could be given loans to buy houses. Many houses were needed quickly, and land outside of city centres was easily available, resulting in sprawling suburbs.