Intro to the City Studyguide 2
Ch.
Fable of George & Mabel:
- Innovative perception
- Comparative advantage
- Demand
- Production
- Employment
- Surplus
- Market
- Maintenance mode
- Growth Mode
Export base model
- Urban economies are not self-sufficient
- Performance of export sector determines fate of entire city economy
- “Demand driven” model
- “Basic multiplier”—ratio of total city income to earnings on exports
- “Location quotient”—ratio of local to export employment, compared to national average
- Simplification—ignores
- Transfer payments
- Flow of investment
- Supply-side limitations
- “import substitution”
- capacity to develop new export firms/industries
Competition
- Between cities—locational advantage
- Transportation
- Climate & amenities (“mailbox income”)
- Infrastructure (capital and “quality of life”)
- Characteristics of local labor force
- Education & skills
- Wage rate
- Entrepreneurialism
- Public safety
- Tax burden
- Agglomerative economies (more important for smaller firms) & localization economies
- Diseconomies of scale
- Urban Hierarchies
- “Competition frontiers”
- Hierarchy of city sizes
- Globalization of competition
- Causes
- Better communications & transportation
- Growing ease of international financial transactions
- Reduction in tariffs & trade barriers
- Effects
- Weakening of unions
- Polarization of wages based on skills
- Advantages of economic growth
- Tightens local labor market, pushing wages up and lowering unemployment
- Expands tax base, easing fiscal pressure on local & state government
Ch.
- History
- James
Oglethorpe,
- William
Penn,
- Early 19th Century—commercial areas & competitive position (“Boosterism”)
- Late 19th Century—housing, design of public spaces and public buildings, sanitation. Shape city development through capital investment.
- Chicago Plan of 1909, Daniel Burnham (“Make no small plans; they have no fire stir men’s blood.”)—first modern city plan
- 1926,
- Power of eminent domain permits government to take property with “just compensation”
- Zoning not an exercise of eminent domain, but of police power (provided it is used to protect public health, safety, welfare)
- 1929, Clarence Perry, “Neighborhood Unit” principle—arterial streets at edges, community center/school at focus, walking distance)
- Tools of Planning
- Capital investment
- Transportation (road capacity, mass transit, parking facilities)
- Water & sewer lines
- Public land acquisition (airport, industrial parks, other development magnets)
- Land Use controls
- Subdivision regulation (minimum street width, connection to street pattern, storm water runoff, provision of utilities)
- Zoning laws (type & intensity of development)—must specify how provision is enforced and how provisions may be appealed
- Site plan review (may include architectural and historic preservation considerations)
- Pros & Cons of Zoning
- Excessive separation of land uses
- “New Urbanism”—design for pedestrian
- mixture of land uses
- high density (1/4 mile radius)
- through-street pattern
- pedestrian circulation (narrow streets & traffic calming, sidewalks next to curb, curb-side parking & tree planting, garages at rear of lot)
- open spaces (porches to formal squares & greens)
- architectural unity
- Exclusionary zoning (limitation on multifamily housing, large minimum lot sizes)
- Infill designs:
- 1868-69, Melusina Fay Peirce, “Neighborhood strategy” (kitchenless houses with cooperative housekeeping center)
- 1984, Dolores Hayden, “Redesigning the American Dream” (reorganizing typical suburban block to increase density)
- Planning Process
- Planning
board (may influence action of pl
- Process
- Master plan (general vision)
- Zoning map & zoning ordinance
- Capital facilities plan
- Public participation/comment
- Adoption by council
- Periodic review
- Complications: pl
© 1996 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised