180 likes | 215 Views
Key Issue 1: Why Do Services Cluster Downtown?. How would you define a ‘service’?. Services:. Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it
E N D
Key Issue 1: Why Do Services Cluster Downtown? • How would you define a ‘service’?
Services: Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it • Services are located in settlements (Permanent collection of buildings where people reside, work, and obtain services) • Location of services is important for profitability • Affluent regions tend to offer more services (and different types)- Can you think of examples?
Services & your family… • List the services that your parents or family provide for you on a given day: Now how much would these same services cost you if you had to pay for them?
Potential services in my day: • Gas for car • Education from my professor • Use of the highway to get to work • Reading of a textbook someone printed • Coffee at Starbucks • Phone alarm to wake up • Cable TV • Cell phone • Taking daughter to the doctor • Take-out food • Going to the bathroom • Putting out garbage • Taking a shower How many of these services would be available to you if you lived in an LDC?
Where Did Services Originate? • 3 types of services: • Consumer services: provided to individuals (44% of all U.S. jobs) • Business services (facilitate other businesses): 3 types - financial, professional, and transportation & information services (24% of all U.S. jobs) • Public services: provide security and protection for citizens and businesses (17% of U.S. jobs) • In the United States, all employment growth has occurred in the services sector
Employment Change in the United States by Sector: All growth since 1970 has been in the tertiary sector. Employment in primary & secondary has not changed
For what kind of services would you be willing to travel farther? • What kind of services would you not travel very far for? • Why?
Range & Threshold: Threshold: Minimum market (# of people) needed to bring a firm or city selling goods and services into existence and to keep it in business Factors affecting a fall in the threshold population are A decrease in population Change in tastes Introduction of substitutes Range: The average maximum distance people are willing to travel to purchase goods and services
Key Issue 1: Why Do Services Cluster Downtown? • CBD land uses: • Retail services in the CBD: • Retailers with a high threshold • Retailers with a high range • Retailers serving downtown workers • Business services in the CBD
Competition for land in the CBD: • High land costs: • Some of the most expensive real estate in the world (e.g. -Tokyo) - little available • Intensive land use • Underground networks below cities (multistory parking garages, loading docks, utility lines for phones, water, etc, and subways. • Skyscrapers • “Vertical geography”, more economically feasible. Each city has unique downtown skyline. First built in Chicago in 1880’s
“Vertical Geography” • The nature of an activity influences which floor it occupies in a skyscraper: • Retailers (street level) • Professional offices (middle levels) • Apartments (lower noise, panoramic views)
Activities excluded from the CBD: • Lack of industry in the CBD • Modern factories require large, one-story parcels of land - suitable land typically in suburbs • Lack of residents in the CBD • Push and pull factors involved - pulled to suburbs by larger homes with private yards/schools, pushed from CBD’s by high rents and negatives of city life (crime, poverty, congestion) • CBDs outside North America • Less dominated by commercial considerations - churches royal palaces, and parks • More people live downtown
European City Patterns: Complex street patterns - prior to automobile, weird angles Plazas and Squares - from Greek, Roman, Medieval Low skylines - many built before elevators, others required cathedral or monument to be highest structure Lively downtowns - center of social life, not just office work Neighborhood stability - Europeans moved less frequently than we do. Scars of War - many wars , many cities originally defensive Symbolism - gothic cathedrals, palaces, and castles Municipal Socialism - many residents live in buildings that are owned by city government. Some of these are massive housing projects, others small scale apartment buildings.