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Unit 5 Social Change
This view of Dallas was taken from the rooftop pool area of an old garment factory converted into luxury apartments.
gentrification
the development of low- income areas by middle-class homebuyers, landlords, and professional developers
edge city
a suburban unit specializing in a particular economic activity
“Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf.
Lewis Mumford U.S. novelist
the city. Some parts of inner cities are being re- stored through gentrification—the development of low-income areas by middle-class home buy- ers, landlords, and professional developers. Finally, there is a fairly significant movement of whites back to the central city. This movement is particularly evident among baby boomers who are remaining single or establishing childless or two-income families. Because these people are not as heavily involved in child rearing, they pre- fer central-city living more than the previous gen- eration did (Palen, 1997). The importance of these countertrends for easing the central-city dilemma remains to be seen. They certainly have not been sufficiently important to stop the emergence of edge cities.
What are edge cities? As stated, increas- ing numbers of businesses and jobs have fol- lowed people to the suburbs. In fact, “suburban
downtowns” are changing the face of urban America. An edge city is a smaller, more focused, version of an urban downtown. It is a suburban unit that specializes in a particular economic activity (Garreau, 1991). Employment in one edge city may focus on computer technology; employ- ment in another, on financial services or health care. A specialized edge city, of course, will have many other types of economic activities as well, such as industrial tracts, office parks, distribution and warehousing clusters, and home offices of national corporations. Edge cities are actually little cities in themselves with a full range of services, including schools, retail sales, restau- rants, malls, recreational complexes, medical facilities, and hotels and motels.
Edge cities do not have legal and physical boundaries separating them from the larger urban area in which they are located. This has not prevented names from being attached to several of them. Tyson’s Corner is located in northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., Los Colinas is close to the Dallas- Fort Worth airport, and King of Prussia is northwest of Philadelphia. Some edge cities bear the names of highways, such as Route 128 outside of Boston.
Section 3 Assessment
1. Give a brief definition of urbanization.
2. What are two conditions necessary for the development of modern cities? 3. Where are preindustrial cities located today?
4. What term do sociologists use to describe mass migration to the
suburbs?
Critical Thinking
5. AnalyzingInformation Doyouthinkpreindustrialcitiescan continue to exist? Why or why not?
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