Chapter 4: Megalopolis
Why did ships stop at megalopolis?
1) Business to be transacted 2) Growth of shipbuilding 3) Goods purchased for local consumption 4) Some goods found in few other places
What are some characteristics of the urban environment?
1) Commercial Hinge role shared among different different cities 2) Urban forms and functions give it unity 3) High population densities 4) Population density differences within megalopolis
What are the soil conditions like?
1) Good soils from baltimore to philly 2) Poor soils from NY to Boston
What are the biggest changing patterns of megalopolis?
1) Great areal expansion of each major metropolitan area 2) Changes on the land 3) Changes in population composition 4) Changes in population redistribution
What are the problems of megalopolis?
1) High population density leads to overcrowding of residential areas 2) Spatially intense economic activity (Pollution effects) 3) Accessibility and Density -Severe problems for land movement- -Relocation of jobs -Decline in transit ridership
What are some situational advantages of megalopolis?
1) Location to other places 2) Close proximity to Europe 3) Accessible to trading ships 4) Most direct sea route between Europe adn South American Colonies
What contributed to the excellant harbors of megalopolis?
1) Low sea levels 2) Earth's water held frozen in massive ice sheets 3) Unfreezing drowned lower river valleys to form estuaries 4) Navigability of lower hudson river
Characteristics of edge city
1) More than 5 million square feet of office space 2) Over 650,000 square feet of retail space 3) Population size has large daily fluctuations 4) Place is known as single end destination (place has it all) 5) not anything like a "city" 30 years ago
What physical features exist?
1) Peninsula's 2) Islands 3) Bays and River Estuaries
Rapid growth occured which two cities in Megalopolis?
1) Philidelphia 2) Baltimore Good agricultural region
3 other cities asides from megalopolis have excellant natural harbors, what are they?
1) San Francisco 2) Seattle 3) Mobile
Boston was known for what?
1) Shallow soils 2) Support of fishing and shipbuilding industries 3) Hardwood and pine forests 4) Fishing Banks
What are some components of the urban landscape of megalopolis?
1) Spatial Interaction 2) Movement of information and ideas 3) Movement of electricity, fresh water supply, sewage, and garbage disposal 4) Network of utility lines buried beneath pavement of 2nd Avenue in NYC 5) Intensity of intraurban interaction reflects diversity of activities and density
What results from the four large cities growing close to one another?
1) Urban economic activities cluster 2) None of 4 ports can wholly absorb flow of goods destined to any of neighbors and competitors
These ports account for how much export trade?
1/6 th
Megalopolis contains what percent of the country's population?
17%
What percent of megalopolis is farmland?
20.7%-Massachusetts, Connecticut, RI, NJ, Delaware, and Maryland
How many metropolitan areas?
5
How many ports are there?
6
Break-In Bulk Points
A transfer point on a transport route where the type of carrier changes and where large-volume shipments are reduced in size.
Fall Line Cities
Area where rivers flow off the Piedmont and form rapids and small waterfalls.
New York
Better agriculture than Boston but worse than Philly or Baltimore Good farming land lies in Long Island
What comprises megalopolis?
Boston New York Philadelphia Baltimore Washington DC
CBD
Central Business District
Boston
City of technology, education, and medicine
Functional Complexity
Clustering and scattering activities Light manufacturing Industrial Zones Nature of land use Public Services Accessibility
Urbaness
Dense patterns of streets and buildings
Concentric Zone Model
Described cities in terms of concentric zones of declining land-use intensity
Why is NY the most important city?
Financial, Cultural, Fashion, and Printing influences
Fall Line
Found along a line tracing physiographic boundary Hindrance to water navigation but a source of water power
What are some economic qualities?
High per capita income White Collar and professional occupations Transportation and communication activities
What is the impact of Long Island?
Increased length of NY's coastline Provided land needed to accomodate urban growth
Urban Sprawl
Inner suburban residents relocate further out toward metropolitan area
Why was the growth of shipbuilding in the region significant?
It led to exploitation of nearby forest resources
Moraine Deposits
Large amounts of oil, stone, and other debris scraped up by expanding glaciers
Spatial Interaction
Movement that occurs between places
Excurbia
Moving even farther away than the suburbs
Edge Cities
Moving out of central cities to suburbs
Accessibility Resources
Naturally occurring physical features of a place that facilitate movement into or out of that place
Where are the smaller harbors?
New Haven (CO) Groton (CO) New Bedord (MA) Portsmouth (NH)
Gentrification
Process of real property investment
What two factors contributed to NY's population size?
Site and Situation Advantages
What makes Megalopolis a commercial hinge?
Tremendous volume of goods transferrred across hinge
The coastline makes water transportation cheap, true or false?
True
Metropolitan Coalesence
Urbanism has spread out so far from these cities that they have begun to merge with one another
Piedmont
Very old and hard rocks Erosion resistant Formation of rapids and small waterfalls
Spatial Complementarity
When two or more places are deficient in items that can be obtained at the other places
Repercussions of urban sprawl
Addition urban sprawl as inner suburban residents relocate farther out
Great Circle Route
Straight Line between Caribbean Sea and British Isles