Vocab 1
Automobile cities
Cities whose size and shape are dictated by and almost require individual automobile ownership
Primate City + analogy
A city that is much larger than any other city in the country and that dominates the country’s economic, political, and cultural life; gorilla eating bananas
Greenbelt
A zone of grassy, forested, or agricultural land separating urban areas
Smart Growth
A concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment that developed in the suburbs, outside of a city’s traditional downtown or central business district
What is a redlining?
The practice of identifying high-risk neighborhoods on a city map and refusing to lend money to people who want to buy property in those neighborhoods.
Blockbusting
A practice in which realtors persuade white homeowners in a neighborhood to sell their homes by convincing them that the neighborhood is declining due to black families moving in
Built Enviornment
The human-made space in which people live, work, and engage in leisure activities on a daily basis
Edge City
A concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment that developed in the suburbs, outside of a city’s traditional downtown or central business district
Exurb
A semirural district located beyond the suburbs that is often inhabited by well-to-do families
Situation
The relative location of a place in reference to its surrounding features, or its regional position with reference to other places
Rank Size Rule
The population of a settlement is inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy; Ex: 2nd largest city is 1/2 as big as 1st largest
Farmland Protection Policy Act
U.S. law that grants municipalities oversight over federally funded development projects on farmland
Infill Development
The building of new retail, business, or residential spaces on vacant or underused parcels in already developed areas
Gravity Model
The idea that the closer two places are, the more they will influence each other
Squatter Settlement
An area of degraded, seemingly temporary, inadequate, and often illegal housing
Hoyt Sector Model
A model of a city’s internal organization, developed by Homer Hoyt, that focuses on transportation and communication as the drivers of the city’s layout
White Flight
The mass movement of white people from the city to the suburbs
Slow-Growth City
A city that changes its zoning laws to decrease the rate at which the city spreads horizontally, with the goal of avoiding the negative effects of sprawl
Brownfield
A property whose use or development may be complicated by the potential presence of hazardous substances or pollutants
Urban Heiarchy
Concentric Zone Model
A model of a city’s internal organization developed by E. W. Burgess that shows rings of factory production and different residential zones radiating outward from a central business district
Multiple Nuclei Model
A model of a city’s internal organization, developed by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman, showing residential districts organized around several nodes (nuclei) rather than one central business district
Galactic City/ Peripheral Model
A model of a city’s internal organization in which the central business district remains central, but multiple shopping areas, office parks, and industrial districts are scattered throughout the surrounding suburbs and linked by metropolitan expressway systems
De facto segregation
Racial segregation that is not supported by law but is still apparent
Zoning that attempts to keep low-to-moderate income people out of a neighborhood