Cities and Suburbs

Introduction

Most Americans live and work in large metropolitan areas. Increasingly, the geographical issues we face—where to live, where to look for work, where to locate our businesses, where to build hospitals and schools—require an understanding of the differences from place to place within the metropolis.

Often, we use simplistic models to organize our thoughts about metropolitan geography. One popular model divides the metropolitan area into two zones – an older "inner city" located at the center surrounded by the "suburbs." Many people may still believe that jobs, poor people and racial minorities are characteristics of the inner city, while wealthier, white residential neighborhoods are characteristics of the suburbs. That may have been true in the 1950’s, but today the reality is more complex. There are many different types of suburbs, and many of the social and economic traits once thought to belong only to the inner city have migrated out to the suburbs.

The purpose of this activity is to help you gain an understanding of the urban geographic patterns found within the broad metropolitan region made up of Los Angeles, Orange and neighboring counties. You will explore the metropolis using a Geographic Information Systems database containing information for more than 2,200 census tracts. Along the way you will look at the social geography of race, ethnicity, income and age and the economic geography of employment.

Learning Objectives

This activity is designed to help you learn the following:

Setup

In your browser, open the mapping program URL: http://geogserver1.fullerton.edu/webmaps/urbanjava_2/urban.html
If the map fails to appear, try the alternate site http://geography.fullerton.edu/webmaps/urbanjava_1/urban.html
When the map appears, resize the browser window to make the scroll bars disappear. Note: your browser must be Java-enabled for the program to work properly.

Basic Orientation

Before continuing, take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the study area.

Note the basic features: the coastline, the county boundaries and the freeways. Locate the downtown Los Angeles central business district (LA CBD). This is the oldest part of the metropolis; growth has moved outward away from this center toward the suburbs. Note the locations of the major valleys. Also note Fullerton in Orange County southeast from downtown, along with other cities and suburbs you may have heard of or visited.

When you are ready to continue, reset the map:

 City-Suburb Differences in Income

The prevailing view of American metropolitan areas is that the suburbs generally have higher incomes than the city. Part of the explanation was that households with higher incomes were attracted to the newer, larger, single-family homes of suburbia, homes that lower-income urban residents could not afford. Let’s see if that holds true for Southern California. First, map the lower income areas:

    1. Where is the largest concentration of lower-income areas located?

    a. Inner city surrounding the Los Angeles CBD

    b. Suburbs located at the periphery of the metropolitan area

Next, map the higher income areas:

    2. Where are most higher-income areas located?

    a. Inner city surrounding the Los Angeles CBD

    b. Suburbs located at the periphery of the metropolitan area

Now map all three income groups—low, middle and high:

    3. Are there any low income areas in the suburbs?

    a. Yes

b. No

Note especially the income of areas in the suburbs of San Bernardino County.

 City-Suburb Differences in Race

The prevailing view of American metropolitan areas is that racial minorities are concentrated in the inner city and largely absent from the suburbs. This is usually explained in terms of racial segregation patterns that effectively concentrate racial minorities in a few areas and exclude them from the large majority of neighborhoods. Let’s look at the Southern California pattern using the census designation of Black – Not Hispanic.

    4. Are areas with a high percentage of black residents tightly clustered in only a few geographic locations or are they widely scattered at many different locations?

    a. Widely scattered at many different locations

    b. Tightly clustered in a few geographic locations

    5. What is the percentage of black residents in most areas of the map?

    a. Low

b. Medium

c. High

    6. Which of the following statements is supported by the map pattern?

    a. Black residential areas are highly segregated from the rest of the population

    b. Black residential areas are mostly integrated with the rest of the population

 Ethnic Residential Patterns

In the traditional way of viewing the metropolitan area, communities dominated by various ethnic groups were characteristic of the inner city. In part, this reflected patterns of involuntary segregation similar to those encountered by blacks. But it also reflected a form of voluntary segregation that linked newly arriving immigrants to established immigrant communities. To gain a broad view of ethnic residential patterns in Southern California, let’s look at the large, diverse Latino population using the census designation of Hispanic – All Races.

    7. Which of the following statements is supported by the map pattern?

    a. Hispanic residential areas are highly segregated from the rest of the population

    b. Hispanic residential areas are mostly integrated with the rest of the population

    8. Which of the following statements best describes the distribution of Hispanic residents on the map?

    a. Only a few areas have Medium or High percentage of Hispanic residents

    b. Many areas have a Medium or High percentage of Hispanic residents

    c. The areas with Medium or High percentage of Hispanic residents are equally distributed across the metropolitan area

    9. Based on the various maps of black and Hispanic residential concentrations, which of the following statements do you think is true?

    a. The segregation level of black residents is greater than the segregation level of Hispanic residents

    b. The segregation level of Hispanic residents is greater than the segregation level of black residents

 Race, Ethnicity and Income

We’ve seen that both blacks and Hispanics occupy highly segregated communities in the inner city. But whereas blacks are almost absent in the suburbs, there are numerous examples of suburbs with high concentrations of Hispanics. Furthermore, most suburban communities contain at least moderate percentages of Hispanics. Perhaps by combining the geography of income with the geography of ethnicity and race we’ll learn more about these different patterns.

The areas shaded in orange show the location of tracts with a high percentage of Hispanics. Now let’s narrow our search to identify areas that have both a high percentage of Hispanics and low income.

The area in red combines high percentages of Hispanics with low income; the area in orange also has high percentages of Hispanics but has middle (or high) income.

    10. Where are most of the low-income high-percent-Hispanic areas?

    a. In the inner city, close to the LA CBD

b. In the distant suburbs

    11. Which of the following statements is true:

    a. All low-income high-percent-Hispanic communities are located in the inner city

    b. Some low-income high-percent-Hispanic communities are located in the suburbs

    c. All low-income high-percent-Hispanic communities are located in the suburbs

We can conclude that areas with high percentages of Hispanics in the inner city are usually low income. Areas with high percentages of Hispanics in the suburbs may also be low income, but just as often they are areas with middle or higher incomes.

Now run a similar selection for areas with high percentages of blacks:

    12. Where are most of the low-income high-percent-black areas?

    a. In the inner city, close to the LA CBD

b. In the distant suburbs

The differences between the residential patterns of blacks and Hispanics become even clearer when we look at the broad areas of the metropolis occupied by the middle-class.

    13. What income category characterizes most of the areas where Hispanics represent a medium percentage of the population?

    a. Low income

b. Middle income

c. High income

Now repeat the analysis for the black population.

Unlike the Hispanic population, there are very few areas with medium percentages of blacks and middle-income. This raises the question: where is the Black middle class? You probably already know the answer, but let’s confirm it.

    14. Where are middle-income/high-percent-black areas located?

    a. Immediately adjacent to inner-city lower-income predominantly-black areas

    b. In the distant suburbs

Segregation of middle-class blacks remains very strong. The same cannot be said about middle-class Hispanics.

 Where Are the Children?

So far, we’ve looked at income, race and ethnicity. Another important social characteristic is age. Is there a geography of age across the metropolis? Let’s look the distribution of young children in the metropolis.

In the classic view, we expected to find lots of children in the inner-city ethnic neighborhoods and in the family-oriented suburbs. Over time we know that children grow up and leave home. We would expect this to produce a pattern where some areas have young families and lots of children while other areas have older adults and fewer children.

Note that some inner city areas south of downtown Los Angeles have high percentages of young children. But if you look closely, you’ll see that not all inner city neighborhoods have high percentages of young children. In fact, the abundance of young children is mainly linked to ethnic communities with recent immigration.

Next look at the suburbs:

    15. Which statement best describes the location of suburban areas where there are lots of children?

    a. Intermediate suburban locations halfway between the LA CBD and the outer edge of the metropolitan area

    b. Peripheral suburban locations around the edge of the metropolis far from the LA CBD

If you look closely you’ll see that large areas of the inner suburbs do not have an abundance of children, while large areas of the outer suburbs do. This reflects a division between what we call "mature" suburbs where the children have grown and left home and "younger" suburbs with lots of young families.

Where Are Children Living in Poverty?

Based on what you’ve already learned, where would you expect to find a concentration of children living in poverty? Let’s see if you are right.

    16. Where are you most likely to find larger numbers of children living in poverty?

    a. Inner city areas near the LA CBD and a few distant suburban locations

    b. Intermediate suburban locations halfway between the LA CBD and the outer edge of the metropolitan area

    c. Many peripheral suburban locations around the edge of the metropolis far from the LA CBD

 Where Are the Jobs?

It goes almost without saying that poverty is a complex problem with many causes and no obvious solutions. It can’t be denied, however, that access to employment is one important key to escaping poverty. In the traditional view, jobs were believed to be concentrated in the city while the suburbs remained predominantly residential. Inner city neighborhoods were close to employment centers. Suburbs were farther away but suburban residents could afford to commute to jobs in the city.

Let’s see if this is still true.

    17. Which of the "suburban" counties has significant areas with high employment density?

    a. San Bernardino

b. Riverside

c. Orange

Over time, the inner-city has tended to lose jobs while some but not all suburbs have gained jobs.

Communities

In the final part of the activity, you will see how the social and economic characteristics of individual communities reflect their location within the broader metropolis. Let’s start with an example of a bedroom suburb.

18. Which of the following patterns best describes the Bedroom Suburb, Fontana?

 

Pct. Hispanic

Pct. Children

Income Index

Empl. Density

a.

Low

Children Med/High

Med/High

Some High

b.

Mostly Med

Children High

Low/Med

Low

c.

Low

Low/Med

Med/High

Low

d.

Low

Mostly Low

High

Low

e.

Mostly High

Med/High

Low/Medium

Some High

19. Which of the following patterns best describes the Ethnic Suburb, Santa Ana?

 

Pct. Hispanic

Pct. Children

Income Index

Empl. Density

a.

Low

Children Med/High

Med/High

Some High

b.

Mostly Med

Children High

Low/Med

Low

c.

Low

Low/Med

Med/High

Low

d.

Low

Mostly Low

High

Low

e.

Mostly High

Med/High

Low/Medium

Some High

20. Which of the following patterns best describes the Edge City, Irvine?

 

Pct. Hispanic

Pct. Children

Income Index

Empl. Density

a.

Low

Children Med/High

Med/High

Some High

b.

Mostly Med

Children High

Low/Med

Low

c.

Low

Low/Med

Med/High

Low

d.

Low

Mostly Low

High

Low

e.

Mostly High

Med/High

Low/Medium

Some High

21. Which of the following patterns best describes the Mature Suburb, Fullerton?

 

Pct. Hispanic

Pct. Children

Income Index

Empl. Density

a.

Low

Children Med/High

Med/High

Some High

b.

Mostly Med

Children High

Low/Med

Low

c.

Low

Low/Med

Med/High

Low

d.

Low

Mostly Low

High

Low

e.

Mostly High

Med/High

Low/Medium

Some High

22. Which of the following patterns best describes the Wealthy Amenity Suburbs of Palos Verdes?

 

Pct. Hispanic

Pct. Children

Income Index

Empl. Density

a.

Low

Children Med/High

Med/High

Some High

b.

Mostly Med

Children High

Low/Med

Low

c.

Low

Low/Med

Med/High

Low

d.

Low

Mostly Low

High

Low

e.

Mostly High

Med/High

Low/Medium

Some High

23. Which of the following patterns best describes the Inner City Ethnic community of East Los Angeles?

 

Pct. Hispanic

Pct. Black

Pct. Children

Income Index

a.

Low

High

Med/High

Low

b.

Medium

Medium

Med/High

Low

c.

High

Low

High

Low

24. Which of the following patterns best describes the Inner City Racial Crenshaw district of Los Angeles?

 

Pct. Hispanic

Pct. Black

Pct. Children

Income Index

a.

Low

High

Med/High

Low

b.

Med/Low

High

Medium

Low/Medium

c.

High

Low

Med/Low

Medium

Review Questions

Try to answer the following review questions without using the computer or looking back to your answers. If you cannot remember, then look back to get the answer. Do not respond on the Scantron form.

Exit the GIS Program

When you are finished:

Be sure to put you name on the completed Scantron form and hand it in to the lab instructor. Keep the activity questions.