Unit VII: Cities and Urban Land Use

A process involving the clustering or concentrating of people or activities. The term often refers to manufacturing plants and businesses that benefit from close proximity because they share skilled-labor pools and technological and financial amenities.

Those products or services of an urban economy that are exported outside the city itself, earning income for the community.

A process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that black families will soon move into the neighborhood.

The downtown or nucleus of a city where retail stores, offices, and cultural activities are concentrated; building densities are usually quite high; and transportation systems converge.

The strength of an urban center in its capacity to attract produce and consumers to its facilities; a city's "reach" into the surrounding region

A theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther.

Model created by EW Burgess in 1923, which explains that a city grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings, like the growth rings on a tree.

Occurs when the market becomes saturated with a particular industry, creating too much competition and forcing some businesses to shut down.

According to Griffin and Ford, a relatively stable slum area that radiates from the central market to the outermost zone of peripheral squatter settlements. Consists of high-density shantytowns.

A term introduced by American journalist Joel Garreau in order to describe the shifting focus of urbanization in the United States away from the Central Business District toward new loci of economic activity at the urban fringe. These cities are characterized by extensive amounts of office and retail space, few residential areas and modern buildings. Located close to major highways.

A process of change in the use of a house, from single-family owner to abandonment.

Urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options.

The trend of middle- and upper-income Americans moving into city centers and rehabilitating much of the architecture but also replacing low-income populations, and changing the social character of certain neighborhoods.

A model that holds that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly related to the number of people in a location and inversely related to the distance people must travel to reach the service.

A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area.