Key Issue 4: Why Do Suburbs Face Distinctive Challenges?

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Key Issue 4 Why Do Suburbs Face Distinctive
Challenges?
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Suburbanization

• Suburbs Residential areas on the outskirts of a
  city or large town. Most modern suburbs are
  commuter towns with many single-family homes.
  Many suburbs have some degree of political
  autonomy and most have lower population density
  than inner city neighborhoods.
• Auto oriented society
• mass transit peaked in 1920s
• shortage of consumer goods during WWII
• declining friction of distance
• GI Bill
• Baby boom
• Pull forces (low crime, quiet, less crowded, less
  pollution and noise)

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What was the American dream in the 1950s?
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Changes in Cities in the U.S.

• U.S. population has been moving out of the city
  centers to the suburbs suburbanization and
  counter-urbanization

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Overview of Suburbanization
Year Percent Urban Percent Suburban Percent Rural
1950 40 20 40
2000 30 50 20
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Government Intervention

• G.I. Bill
• Provided numerous opportunities for veterans to
  transition to civilian life
• Subsidized tuition, fees, books, educational
  materials for veterans desiring college
• Provided low interest loans to veterans for the
  purchase of single family homes

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Veterans return from WWII
Housing Americans previously suffered from
financial constraints such as ten year mortgages
and 80 down payments Federal Housing Authority
allowed thirty year mortgages and approve
mortgages with only 10 down
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The Levitt Brothers

• Took advantage of new market for houses
• Purchased land once used to grow potatoes and
  constructed in Hempstead, Long Island the first
  of three Levittowns (later Pennsylvania and New
  Jersey)
• Applied Fordist approach and mass produced houses
  to reduce costs
• Later added baseball fields, shopping centers,
  schools, parks, and churches to neighborhoods

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The Peripheral Model

• The central city is surrounded by a ring road,
  around which are suburban areas and edge cities,
  shopping malls, office parks, industrial areas,
  and service complexes
• Suburbs (peripheral areas) lack inner-city
  problems, but have to deal with sprawl and
  segregation

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Cost of Suburban Sprawl

• Sprawl progressive spread of development over
  the landscape not contiguous
• Undesirable traits
• Wastes land
• Higher taxes and home prices
• Greenbelts rings of open space (London,
  Birmingham)

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Why Are Urban Areas Expanding?

• The Cost of Suburban Sprawl
• A flattening of the density gradient for a
  metropolitan area means that its people and
  services are spread out over a larger area.
• U.S. suburbs are characterized by sprawl, the
  progressive spread of development over the
  landscape.
• Suburban Segregation
• The modern residential suburb is segregated in
  two ways
• Social Class
• Similarly priced houses are typically built in
  close proximity to one another, thus attracting a
  specific range of income earners.

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HOUSING SEGREGATION GATED COMMUNITY Dana Point,
California, a Los Angeles suburb, has a gated
community called Lantern Bay.
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Why Are Urban Areas Expanding?

• Suburban Segregation
• The modern residential suburb is segregated in
  two ways contd.
• Land Uses
• Residents are separated from commercial and
  manufacturing activities that are confined to
  compact, distinct areas.
• Zoning ordinances enacted in the early 20th
  century have contributed most notably to the
  segregation of land uses associated with suburban
  areas.

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Why Are Urban Areas Expanding?

• Urban Transportation
• Public Transit
• Benefits
• In larger cities, public transit is better suited
  than motor vehicles to move large numbers of
  people, because each transit traveler takes up
  less space.
• More cost effective than privately operated
  vehicles
• Emits relatively less pollutants than privately
  operated vehicles
• More energy efficient than privately operated
  vehicles
• Limitations
• Most people in the U.S. overlook the benefits of
  public transit, because they place higher value
  on the privacy and flexibility of schedule
  offered by a car.
• Not offered in most U.S. cities

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BOSTON PUBLIC TRANSIT Bostons subway system,
known as the T, includes heavy rail (top) and
light rail (bottom).
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Europe versus U.S. Cities Sprawl
European cities, including this hypothetical U.K.
example, tend to restrict suburban development,
thereby concentrating new development in and
around existing concentrations. This leaves large
rings of open space, so-called greenbelts.
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Northampton, United Kingdom
There is usually a sharp boundary between an
urban area in the U.K., such as Northampton, and
the surrounding rural area.
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Density Gradient

• Density gradient change in density in an urban
  area the number of houses per unit of land
  diminishes as distance from the center city
  increases
• However in recent years
• Less people living in center city
• Less density difference within urban areas

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Cleveland, Ohio Density Gradient1900-1990

• The density gradient in Cleveland shows the
  expansion of dense population outward from the
  city center over time. In 1990, population
  dispersed over a wider area with less variation
  in density than before.

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Suburban Segregation

• Residents are separated from commercial and
  manufacturing activities that are confined to
  compact, distinct areas
• Housing in a given suburban community is usually
  built for people of a single social class
• Zoning ordinances a law that limits the
  permitted uses of land and maximum density of
  development in a community
• Encouraged spatial separation

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• Transportation and suburbanization
• Motor vehicles
• More than 95 percent of all trips are made by car
• Public transit
• Advantages of public transit
• Transit travelers take up less space
• Cheaper, less pollutant, and more energy
  efficient than an automobile
• Suited to rapidly transport large number of
  people to small area
• Public transit in the United States
• Used primarily for rush-hour community for
  workers into and out of CBD
• Small cities-minimal use
• Most Americans prefer to commute by automobile

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Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization

• Urban sprawl makes people more dependent on
  transportation (work, shopping)
• Motor vehicles had led to large scale development
  of suburbs more flexibility
• U.S. government has paid 90 of the cost of
  limited access high-speed interstate highways
• ¼ of land of city is roads and parking lots

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Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization

• Rush-hour commuting heaviest traffic because
  large numbers of people are reaching small areas
  of land at the same time
• Public transportation is cheaper, less polluting
  and more energy efficient

Average American loses 36 hours per year sitting
in traffic jams and wastes 55 gallons of gasoline
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Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization

• The public transportation heavily used is rapid
  transit (subways, streetcars)
• Subways have been modernized across the country
• Not everyone without a car has access to public
  transportation (especially if live in city, but
  have suburban job)

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Central London Traffic Sign
This sign near Marble Arch in London warns
motorists that they are about to enter the
Congestion Zone. A charge is levied for driving
a private vehicle into central London from 7 AM
to 630 PM.
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Tram Line in Brussels
A Line 92 tram on the Rue Royale in Brussels.
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Urban Realms Model

• Developed by Vance based on San Francisco Bay
  area and metropolis
• Describes spatial components of modern metropolis
• Includes independent suburban downtowns within
  the sphere of influence of the central city and
  CBD
• Depends on
• Overall size of metropolitan region
• Amount of economic activity in each urban realm
• Topography and major land features
• Accessibility of each realm

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Edge City
Includes a central business district, central
city, new downtown, and suburban downtown