Introduction
Since the development of modern cities, geographers have broken down maps of cities into simple planning models to aid land use studies. However, as technology and transport underwent significant progress, many cities started to change their urban form and land use. Throughout this essay, I will be introducing and comparing the Concentric Zone model with the Multi Nuclei model with each other and their relevance to the modern and postmodern city.
Concentric Zone Model
One of the earliest urban development model that was created was the Concentric Zone model. It was based on the city of Chicago during the 1920’s, while it was a modern industrial city focused on manufactured goods and production. Most people at that time still depended on public transport as availability of private cars were not common. It is a model where zones are divided by concentric circles. (Bunyi, J. 2010)
Figure 1: Concentric Zone Model (SSC Leichhardt Geography Blog, 2011)
The zones are divided with the Central Business District (CBD) in the centre, where most businesses are as it has a developed transport system to accommodate commuters. As this area is highly accessible, many businesses and restaurants are built in the area. The factory zone sits outside the CBD, to take advantage of the nearby transport nodes, as well as the labour market next to it. The transitional zone houses most of the working class as it is close to the factories, reducing transportation cost. Living standards in this area are usually poor due to pollution and population. (Pacione, M. 2005)
The established residential zone was dominated by the working class who were able to move away from the previous zone. This region is reasonably near the CBD but distant enough...
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...the CBD being redeveloped into a mix-use district shows how concentric zone model cities can evolve into a Multi Nuclei model city. (East Perth Redevelopment Authority, 2007)
Conclusion
A concentric zone model city differ from a multi nuclei model city as they function differently economically and socially. The former is based on industrial cities, heavily relying on the production of manufactured goods and exports, where the wealthy can afford to stay as far away from the factories and CBD. The latter better explains a postmodern society where the economy is diversified and have multiple centres of growth, with more emphasis on services and consumption than manufacturing and production. Therefore, it has its high class residential areas close to CBD as redevelopment of industrial areas provide a desirable area with high standards of living and low commuting costs.
The government policy of decentralisation, which is having industries move away from the centre of the city, was having an extreme impact on the suburb’s population. This suburbanisation was caused due to congestion, obsolete plants, an ageing infrastructure, high cost of land and the limited scope for expansion. The railway goods yards were relocated to Chullora when Darling Harbour was redeveloped in the 1970’s and the wool stores moved to Yennora. As there was no longer enough employment for the working class society, the population of Pyrmont-Ultimo declined dramatically which resulted in a reduction in industry. A steady deterioration of services and amenities soon followed, with factories and warehouses becoming abandoned and decayed.
In the book The Great Inversion, author Alan Ehrenhalt reveals the changes that are happing in urban and suburban areas. Alan Ehrenhalt the former editor of Governing Magazine leads us to acknowledge that there is a shift in urban and suburban areas. This revelation comes as the poorer, diverse, city dwellers opt for the cookie cutter, shanty towns at the periphery of American cities known as the suburbs. In similar fashion the suburbanites, whom are socioeconomic advantaged, are looking to migrate into the concrete jungles, of America, to live an urban lifestyle. Also, there is a comparison drawn that recognizes the similarities of cities and their newer, more affluent, residents, and those cities of Europe a century ago and their residents. In essence this book is about the demographic shifts in Urban and Suburban areas and how these changes are occurring.
Herbert Gans piece on the mass production of suburban styled homes like Levittown with its homes on the outskirts of the city and mixed land uses closer within the core “ analyzes the suburbs and makes it evident that they are not a utopia” no matter the societal segregation they represent (Herbert Gans). These areas have their burdens resulting in physical and social isolation, no access to transportation, the start of gender roles, and inadequate decision making. In comparison, Pleasantville was a society of segregation due to the land constraints and urban planning of the society. Its visible that there is an increase in segregation between the suburban population and inner city. The higher class living in the suburbs would remain in that area unless it was for work.
According to Lehrer, U., & Wieditz, T. (2009), Toronto saw a massive population growth in a period of thirty years due to the extensive construction of high-rise condominium towers which led to the city being divided into three distinct cities: “city of the rich, the shrinking city of middle-income households, and the growing city of concentrated poverty.” According to the article the division is caused by the development of condominiums as the new form of gentrification which displaces the poor people and focuses to attract the higher-income people to the area.
Hiebert, D. (1995). The Social Geography of Toronto in 1931: A Study of Residential Differentiation and Social Structure. Journal of Historical Geography, 21(1), 55-74.
“Could suburbs prosper independently of central cities? Probably. But would they prosper even more if they were a part of a better-integrated metropolis? The answer is almost certainly yes.” (p. 66)
With the influx of people to urban centers came the increasingly obvious problem of city layouts. The crowded streets which were, in some cases, the same paths as had been "naturally selected" by wandering cows in the past were barely passing for the streets of a quarter million commuters. In 1853, Napoleon III named Georges Haussmann "prefect of the Seine," and put him in charge of redeveloping Paris' woefully inadequate infrastructure (Kagan, The Western Heritage Vol. II, pp. 564-565). This was the first and biggest example of city planning to fulfill industrial needs that existed in Western Europe. Paris' narrow alleys and apparently random placement of intersections were transformed into wide streets and curving turnabouts that freed up congestion and aided in public transportation for the scientists and workers of the time. Man was no longer dependent on the natural layout of cities; form was beginning to follow function. Suburbs, for example, were springing up around major cities. This housing arrangem...
These poor living conditions led to other problems, for example, social problems, such as Crime, drugs, alcohol, unemployment, racism, prostitution and a decrease in the amount of people. There were high levels of disease and illnesses because of the overcrowding, an... ... middle of paper ... ... educed from 90 000 to 9 000, meaning that there was much less of a problem with overcrowding. Derelict land (Brownfield sites) was used to build flats, cinemas complexes (e.g. The Quay) and industry.
The Transitional Zone is consider to be the least desirable area to live in. It is the ignored city where one can find deteriorating housings, factories, immigrants group, drugs and prostitution. The Working Class Zone is generally populated by educators, and business men. The Residential Zone is usually inhabited by well educated, middle class families. The Commuter Zone is inhabited by people that can afford to buy small houses and are able to transport themselves to the inner city.
The following regions represent the series of zones from the core to the outside rings; Central Business District, Transitional, Working Class, Residential, and Commuter Zone. Zone II was the most significant region out of all them, and that’s because the transitional zone deals with various unique movements. For example, Nicole Rafter and Michelle Brown claim, “In these transitional neighborhoods, various cultural or ethnic groups would move in and then, over time, move out into more affluent areas of the city and its periphery. Meanwhile, another wave of immigrants would move into the transitional zone and begin these processes anew” (Rafter & Brown;2011, Pg. 70). Consequently, Zone II may be characterized as “temporary housing.” As we can imagine, people from different cultures, background, race and ethnicities bring their social norms into a neighborhood. We can acknowledge how and why crime
However, the Burgess model remains utilizable as a concept explicating concentric urban development, as a way to introduce the involution of urban land use and to explicate urban magnification in American cities in the early-mid 20th century.
Again, this section will give a working definition of the “urban question’. To fully compare the political economy and ecological perspectives a description of the “urban question” allows the reader to better understand the divergent schools of thought. For Social Science scholars, from a variety of disciplines, the “urban question” asks how space and the urban or city are related (The City Reader, 2009). The perspective that guides the ecological and the social spatial-dialect schools of thought asks the “urban question” in separate distinct terminology. Respected scholars from the ecological mode of thinking, like Burgess, Wirth and others view society and space from the rationale that geographical scope determines society (The City Reader, 2009). The “urban question” that results from the ecological paradigm sees the relationship between the city (space) as influencing the behaviors of individuals or society in the city. On the other hand...
It was planned on a concentric pattern with open spaces, public parks and six radial boulevards (type of large road running through a city) extending from centre. It will combine the town and country to
In Ernest W. Burgess’s “The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project,” (1925), the author delves deep into the processes that go into the construction of a modern city or urban environment. Burgess lists its following qualities: skyscrapers, the department store, the newspaper, shopping malls, etc. (p. 154). Burgess also includes social work as being part of a modern urban environment. This is supported by his construction model based on concentric circles that divided Chicago into five zones. The first was called a center loop meant for a business district. Secondly, there was an area for business and light manufacture. Third, there was a “zone for working men’s homes” (p. 156). The fourth is the residential area of high-class apartment buildings. The fifth is where suburban houses are located.
Sociologist … explained that open pattern of suburb is because of seeking environment free noise, dirt and overcrowding that are in the centre of cities. He gave examples of these cities as St. John’s wood, Richmond, Hampstead in London. Chestnut Hill and Germantown in Philadelphia. He added that suburban are only for the rich and high class. This plays into the hands of the critical perspectives that, “Cities are not so much the product of a quasi-natural “ecological” unfolding of social differentiation and succession, but of a dynamic of capital investment and disinvestment. City space is acted on primarily as a commodity that is bought and sold for profit, “(Little & McGivern, 2013, p.616).