Page 490 - Essencials of Sociology

Models of Urban Growth 463

FIGURE 14.14 How Cities Develop: Models of Urban Growth

Districts (for Parts A, B, C)
3
2 3 1. Central business district
2 1 2. Wholesale and light
4 3 manufacturing
3 4
1 3 1 3 7 5 3. Low-class residential
2 3 5 4. Medium-class residential
3 4 5. High-class residential
4 2 3 6 6. Heavy manufacturing
5 7. Outlying business district
10 9 8 8. Residential suburb
9. Industrial suburb
Concentric zones Sectors Multiple nuclei 10. Commuters’ zone
(A) (B) (C)

4
Districts (for Part D)
1. Central city
2 2 2. Suburban residential areas
5 3. Circumferential highway
2
3 1 1 2 3 4. Radial highway
4 5. Shopping mall
5 1 6 3 4 6. Industrial district
10 2 2 5 7. Office park
8. Service center
8 2
9 7 9. Airport complex
4 10. Combined employment
and shopping center
Peripheral model
(D)
Source: Cousins and Nagpaul 1970; Harris 1997.

The Concentric Zone Model

To explain how cities expand, sociologist Ernest Burgess (1925) proposed a concentric-
zone model. As shown in part A of Figure 14.14, Burgess noted that a city expands out-
ward from its center. Zone 1 is the central business district. Zone 2, which encircles the
downtown area, is in transition. It contains rooming houses and deteriorating housing,
which Burgess said breed poverty, disease, and vice. Zone 3 is the area to which thrifty
workers have moved in order to escape the zone in transition and yet maintain easy
access to their work. Zone 4 contains more expensive apartments, residential hotels,
single-family homes, and exclusive areas where the wealthy live. Commuters live in
Zone 5, which consists of suburbs or satellite cities that have grown up around trans-
portation routes.
Burgess said that no “city perfectly fits this ideal scheme.” Some cities have physical
obstructions such as a lake, river, or railroad that cause their expansion to depart from
the model. Burgess also noticed another deviation from the model, that businesses were
beginning to locate in outlying zones (see Zone 10). This was in 1925. Burgess didn’t
know it, but he was seeing the beginning of a major shift that led businesses away from
downtown areas to suburban shopping malls. Today, these malls account for most of the
country’s retail sales.
The Sector Model
Sociologist Homer Hoyt (1939, 1971) modified Burgess’ model of urban growth. As
shown in part B of Figure 14.14, he noted that a concentric zone can contain several