THE MODELS
SCALE & PATTERN
CAUSE & EFFECT
COMPARE
TRAP ANSWERS
100
Burgess's model of Chicago arranges the city as a CBD surrounded by these.
What are concentric rings (zones)? MC TIP — Order outward: CBD, zone of transition, working-class housing, better residences, commuter zone. It assumes growth outward from one center.
100
At the global scale world cities dominate; at the national scale a country may show this instead of rank-size.
What is a primate city? MC TIP — Primacy is a NATIONAL-scale pattern. Naming the scale explicitly is what earns the point.
100
The Industrial Revolution caused this change in where people lived, and it is the origin point of modern urbanization.
What is mass rural-to-urban migration to factory cities? MC TIP — Chain it: mechanized agriculture pushed labor off farms, factories pulled it into cities. Both halves.
100
One assumes growth outward in rings from one center; the other assumes growth in wedges along transport lines.
What are the Burgess concentric zone and Hoyt sector models? MC TIP — Both are early-20th-century Chicago models. Both assume a single dominant CBD.
100
The trap: a stem calls any large city a world city. What actually defines one?
What is influence over the global economy — corporate headquarters, financial markets, and producer services — not raw population? MC TIP — Population size and global influence are different rankings. Several megacities are not world cities.
200
Hoyt's model modifies Burgess by arranging land use in these, following transportation routes outward.
What are sectors (wedges)? MC TIP — Hoyt's key insight: high-rent housing extends outward in ONE wedge along a desirable corridor, not in a ring.
200
The spatial pattern bid-rent theory predicts for building height and population density moving outward from the CBD.
What is a steep decline — the density gradient? MC TIP — Flattening of the density gradient over time is the measurable signature of suburbanization and sprawl.
200
The automobile and federal highway investment caused this postwar spatial process in the United States.
What is suburbanization (and sprawl)? MC TIP — Add the enabling policies: FHA loans, the Interstate Highway Act, and cheap land at the edge. Technology plus policy.
200
One predicts city SIZE and SPACING across a region; the other predicts land use INSIDE a single city.
What are Christaller's central place theory and the Burgess model? MC TIP — Christaller works at the regional scale. Burgess, Hoyt, and Harris-Ullman work at the city scale. Match the model to the scale.
200
The trap: an answer says gentrification improves the neighborhood for its residents. Why is that incomplete?
What is that the original residents are frequently displaced by rising rents, so the beneficiaries are largely newcomers? MC TIP — AP credits the trade-off. Single-sided answers about gentrification are distractors.
300
Harris and Ullman's model rejects a single center in favor of these.
What are multiple nuclei? MC TIP — Incompatible land uses repel each other; similar uses cluster. It is the model that best predicts edge cities.
300
A city's average income is high, but a census tract map shows this — name the pattern and what it demonstrates.
What is spatial segregation of wealth, demonstrating that scale of analysis changes the conclusion? MC TIP — Census tract is the standard Unit 6 unit of analysis. Citywide averages hide it.
300
Deindustrialization causes this sequence in a former manufacturing city.
What is job loss, population decline, a shrinking tax base, and urban decay? MC TIP — Detroit and the Rust Belt. The same process produced the brownfields that redevelopment now targets.
300
One places the poorest residents nearest the center; the other places them farthest out.
What are the Burgess model and the Latin American city model? MC TIP — That inversion is the single most tested comparison in Unit 6. Peripheral squatter settlements versus an inner-city zone of transition.
300
The trap: a country with one enormous capital and small secondary cities is called rank-size. Name the correct term.
What is a primate city distribution? MC TIP — Rank-size means the second city is about half the first. If the gap is far larger, it is primacy.
400
Christaller's model explains city size and spacing using threshold, range, and these interlocking shapes.
What are hexagons? MC TIP — Hexagons tile without gaps or overlap. Big cities are far apart with large hinterlands; small towns are close together with small ones.
400
In the Southeast Asian city model of McGee, the focal point is not a CBD but this.
What is the old colonial port zone? MC TIP — McGee's model reflects colonial trade geography. The port, not a commercial core, organizes the city.
400
Gentrification causes this effect the CED names as its principal cost.
What is displacement of long-time, lower-income residents? MC TIP — Benefits: reinvestment, tax revenue, reduced vacancy. AP wants the trade-off stated, not a verdict.
400
One is a minimum number of customers; the other is a maximum travel distance.
What are threshold and range? MC TIP — High-order goods need a big threshold and have a long range, so they are few and far apart. Low-order goods are everywhere.
400
The trap: an option says the Burgess model accurately describes cities today. What is the problem?
What is that it assumes one dominant CBD and no automobile, so it cannot explain edge cities or polycentric metros? MC TIP — Models are tested on their ASSUMPTIONS. Name the assumption reality violates.
500
The Latin American city model built by Griffin and Ford places elite housing along this feature running out from the CBD.
What is the spine (commercial spine)? MC TIP — Then rings of decreasing quality outward, with the zone of peripheral squatter settlements farthest out — the inverse of the U.S. pattern.
500
The African city model is distinctive for having this many CBDs.
What are three — the colonial CBD, the traditional CBD, and the market zone? MC TIP — Surrounded by ethnic neighborhoods and informal satellite townships. The three-CBD detail is the identifier.
500
Rapid urbanization outpacing infrastructure investment in the periphery causes this outcome.
What is the growth of informal squatter settlements without water, sanitation, or secure tenure? MC TIP — Push factor: rural poverty and mechanized agriculture. Pull factor: perceived urban opportunity. Both drive it.
500
One protects rural land with a hard legal edge; the other spreads low-density development across it.
What are a greenbelt (urban growth boundary) and urban sprawl? MC TIP — The greenbelt's known side effect is rising housing costs inside the boundary — a favorite counterargument.
500
The trap: a stem describes rising downtown property values and students answer urban sprawl. Name the correct concept.
What is bid-rent theory (competition for central accessibility)? MC TIP — Sprawl is about the EDGE. Bid-rent is about the gradient from the center. Read where the question is pointing.