3. Over the last century and a half, Las Vegas has developed from a tiny town in the desert into a multinational vacation destination. It has done this by focusing on becoming the epitome of entertainment tourism: simply giving people what they want to experience instead of trying to educate or enlighten tourists. The town of Las Vegas was founded in 1855 as a Mormon community. Because of the harsh climate where it was located, it was mostly abandoned relatively quickly, but new life was breathed into it in the early 1900s as a railroad stop between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. One key feature of Las Vegas is that the surrounding area is pretty much a wasteland, so the city has always been innately tied to outside interests coming in and …show more content…
There are many differences which distinguish college towns from other towns of similar size. According to the lecture, college towns are defined as having at least 1,000 students within their city limits, and students must make up at least 20% of the population. These towns are a distinctly American phenomenon, as nowhere else in the world has these sort of urban areas dominated by students (Europe has universities in large cities, Canada has them in provincial capitals, and Latin America has them in megacities). One difference in college towns is their youthfulness. They have a median age of 26 years, which is 10 years less than the national average; also rates of marriage in college towns are much lower due to the younger age. College towns also have a much higher education level than comparable cities; people are 2 times as likely to have a bachelor’s degree, 6 times as likely to have a PhD, and library circulation rates and number of bookstores are higher. College towns also have a higher number of white-collar jobs. There is very little heavy industry in these towns, with a lot of people employed in the service sector, and in some college towns as much as half the labor force can be employed by the university. College towns additionally are relatively affluent and more economically stable than other similar towns. The median family income is about $10,000 a year higher in college towns, and because of economic growth spurred by the university through stable state …show more content…
Megalopolis is a term used to refer to once-separate urban areas which have somewhat coalesced into one giant urban area where it’s hard or impossible to tell where one city ends and the next one starts (Gottmann 1957). This concept has become more and more relevant in recent years as the world trends towards more and more urbanization. 54% of the world’s population today lives in urban areas, and urban spaces provide many different functions for individuals, including places to live, centers of economic activity, a center for culture, and a place for monuments and memorials, among other functions. Urban areas tend to draw people and economic activity (it is easiest to locate new activities near existing ones), and so large cities have a natural tendency to grow even larger. In areas with a high concentration of cities, such as along the northeast coast of the United States, as cities expand, they run into each other, creating megalopolises (lecture). The trend of suburbanization is directly tied to this concept of megalopolis. As the middle class moves outward from the center of the cities (for larger houses, more land, etc.), the creation of suburbs drives the conglomeration of cities into megalopolises. While megalopolises are on the rise however, there do exist several problems with larger cities that might be compounded as they continue to grow larger and larger and closer and closer together. One of these problems is urban decay; as cities continue to expand outward
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.
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.
“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)
That is one unique thing you will notice about Vegas; the
Richard C. Nelson, the author, is a professor in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning and the Planning Degree program at the University of Arizona. He has made substantial contributions in real estate analysis and urban growth trends. Nelson also created the term ‘megapolitan’ which he predicts the United States will have over twenty by 2040. These megapolitans are the result of the reverse sprawl and creating major economic centers, which will make America globally competitive. Nelson’s background ties in to many of his ideas in the book, with the main points focusing on demographic changes, housing trends, more space for future jobs and the benefits of reshaping metropolitan America. Changing demographics support the notion that more people are choosing an urban lifestyle over sprawl, which means a higher preference of
The modern story of developed areas is a move from the inner city to the suburbs. This decentralization of metropolitan areas has left urban areas neglected. Such a transformation has had negative consequences, because it has inherently meant the abandonment of those left behind in urban centers. Furthermore, the issue is complicated by the fact that the distinction between those moving to the suburbs and those left behind has been defined largely by race. As Kain notes,
* Urban Professional^s recognition of the increased variability, robustness, and interest in both the urban area and their work. * Conservation Activist^s commendation of the lower consumption of resources, and reduced pressure on sensitive environment areas, suggestive of a reduction in urban sprawl. * The Development Industry^s equations of profit established through better and higher levels of land use. Essentially urban consolidation proposes an increase of either population or dwellings in an existing defined urban area (Roseth,1991). Furthermore, the suburban village seeks to establish this intensification within a more specific agenda, in which community is to be centred by public transport nodes, and housing choice is to be widened with increased diversity of housing type (Jackson,1998).
Las Vegas also it is familiar as “Sin City,” is one of the most famous tourist place in the world. It is an incredible place in the middle of dessert, it is a city established from nothing to something great. Vegas has developed in tourism and population as well to become beyond universal. Las Vegas has ranked the fastest-growing state, according to the Las Vegas review journal, “Nevada ranked as the nation’s two fastest-growing states over the past year, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates for 2016 released Tuesday.” Las Vegas is known as a gambling city, nightclubs and casinos. Gambling plays a big role in many Nevadans Lifestyles. This is such a problem that should be considered. In this essay I will discuss about how gambling has a big effect on Nevadans lifestyle, plus how to avoid being addictive to gambling. In Las Vegas there are stereotypes of gambling, such as Lottery, slot machines, cards, and many others. But in this essay I will only discuss on slot machines.
After World War II, the United States of America became a much wealthier nation. As America gained wealth and the populations in urban cities and transportation technology increased, many Americans spread out, away from the urban cities, to fulfill the common dream of having a piece of land to call their own. The landscape constructed became known as the suburbs, exclusive residential areas within commuting distance of a city. The popularity and success of the suburban landscape caused suburbs to sprawl across the United States, from the east coast to the west coast and along the borders between Canada and Mexico. By the 1990s, many suburbs surrounding major urban cities developed into being more than merely exclusive residential areas. The new kind of area developed out of suburbia, the post-suburban environment, has the characteristics of the suburbs and the characteristics of the central city, or what postmodern political geographer and urban planner, Edward Soja calls, ‘the city turned inside out' (Foster 1). The post-suburban environment, is “a fundamentally decentralized spatial arrangement in which a variety of commercial, recreational, shopping, arts, residential, and religious activities are conducted in different places and are linked primarily by private automobile transportation” (Kling 1). The multifaceted aspects of the post-suburban environment make it an attractive and dynamic space with opportunities of employment. Topanga Canyon, near Los Angeles, California, is such an example of a suburb space that's developed into a dynamic post-suburban space. Since the post-suburban space of Topanga Canyon is dynamic and filled with employment opportunities, it's attractive to Mexican immigrants who wish to have a better l...
Finally, this paper will explore the “end product” that exists today through the works of the various authors outlined in this course and explain how Los Angeles has survived many decades of evolution, breaking new grounds and serving as the catalyst for an urban metropolis.
Introduction One of the mainly electrifying essentials of contemporary times is the urbanisation of the globe. For sociological reasons, a city is a relatively great, crowded and lasting community of diverse individuals. In metropolitan areas, urban sociology is the sociological research of life, human interaction and their role in the growth of society. Modern urban sociology is created from the work of sociologists such as Max Weber and Georg Simmel who put forward the economic, social and intellectual development of urbanisation and its consequences. The aim of this essay is to explain what life is like in the ‘big metropolis’, both objectively and subjectively.
By attending college, students guarantees themselves a better job that the average Joe. Because the world is changing rapidly, and many jobs rely on new technology, more jobs require education beyond high school. With a college education, an individual will have more jobs from which to choose. In addition to obtaining a better job, people who go to college usually earn more money than those who do not. College furnishes you with proper credentials and documents to land high-level jobs. Figures from an A&E television program on ‘The Working Class’ show that in 2004 the average earnings were $23,895 for a high school graduate and $41,478 for individuals with a bachelor’s degree. Getting a college education is simply a stepping stone in ensuring yourself with a good start in life. Some may agree that college students are open minded and knows exactly how to expre...
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).
First of all, overpopulation drastically affects the land. Possibly the most prominent example of the depreciating health and amount of land is the need for developments. Due to the exploding population in the United States, about 1.2 million acres of land every year is being converted to subdivisions, malls, workplaces, roads, parking lots, resorts, and many other developments (“Overpopulation,” Internet). That is a substantial amount of land being overturned to satisfy human desires. To put it in better perspective, between 1982 and 1997, the land mass lost to development is equal to the size of Maine and New Hampshire combined, which is approximately 25 million acres (“Overpopulation,” Internet). While soil is being ruptured for human preference, the number of cities has remarkably modified. In 1975, Mexico City, Tokyo, and New York City were the only cities considered as megacities (“Special,” Internet). In today’s world, that number is considerably small. Now, there are 21 megacities in the world. A megacity is when the population of that city becomes greater than 10 million people (“Special,” Internet). Therefore, the 21 megacities that are currently in the world holds more than 21...
There are three kinds of development in megacities we would like to explore in this paper, they are sustainable development, economic development and human development. Those kinds of development face many problems in megacities. In 1950 there were only New York and Tokyo as megacities and now in this 21 century the number of megacities are increasing.In 2013 noted there are 28 megacities (New Geography, 2013). Industrialization in developing countries is the main reason why the poor peasant in rural area moved to the cities in the name of better job and higher wages. This urbanization will change the population proportion which is decreasing the rural population and on the other side, increasing the population of urban areas. This continuing movement will inevitably create big and even bigger community in the city and in the end a megacity will be formed. This big number of population influences development of megacities.