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cities and urban areas, and we are going to learn about the Hoyt Sector Model in this AP Human. Geography study guide. Nature of the City.
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Are you a city person? Whether you like it or not, you are probably like more than half of the population of the United States and live either in a city or close enough to quickly travel to one. Cities are growing much faster than rural areas, and it is important for you to learn about the dynamics of urban geography. There are several classic models used to understand and explain the internal structures of cities and urban areas, and we are going to learn about the Hoyt Sector Model in this AP Human Geography study guide.
Nature of the City
Cities are at the center of every advanced society and act as the hub of economic, social and political activities in that area. They have a variety shapes and functions, and their geography impacts the daily lives of those who live in the city and surrounding areas. All cities provide their residents a variety of services and functions: shopping, manufacturing, transportation, education, medical, and protective services.
Cities evolved over time, and if a city had favorable factors (agriculture, access to water, trade, defense), its population increased. This led to urbanization (rapid growth, and migration to large cities).
This increase in urban population resulted in rapid expansion of the city and greater urbanization of the society. After the conclusion of World War II, North America experienced rapid urbanization. There was a need for housing outside of the core urban areas due to growing population and demand. The result was the suburbanization of our society. Suburbanization is the movement of people from core urban areas to the outskirts.
Model of Urban Land Use
In the early 1900’s, researchers wanted to find out how cities worked. They developed a variety of urban land use models to help describe and explain different types of cities and the neighborhoods that made up the city. All of the models used to explain urban land use have at their center the central business district (CBD).
The CDB is found at the heart of every older city and is the area of skyscrapers, business headquarters, and banks. Spreading out from this intensive economic land use area is a fringe of wholesale and retail businesses, warehouses, transportation terminals and light industry. The residential area extends outward beyond this ring of activity. Several of these models try to depict the use of this urban area spatially.
It makes sense that students at the University of Chicago developed many of these land use models because Chicago was a city that saw rapid growth in the 18th century. One of these Chicagoan scholars was economist Homer Hoyt, who in 1939 developed the Hoyt Sector Model.
What is the Hoyt Sector Model?
Homer Hoyt wanted to provide an alternative to the concentric zone model as a way of explaining urban land use. Ernest Burgess developed the concentric zone model in the 1920s based on his studies of
Chicago. Burgess’s model suggested that cities have zones arranged in a series of concentric bands that expand outward from the CBD.
Hoyt argued that instead of concentric sets of neighborhoods, cities are primarily laid out in pie or wedge-shaped zones and corridors developed from the core of the city to the outskirts. In the Hoyt Sector Model, the CBD is still in the center, but expanding outward away from it along transportation lines are zones used for industry and residential developments. For example, the electric streetcar allowed low-income areas to extend from the CBD to the outer edge of the city.
Land use within each sector would remain the same because like attracts like. The high-class sector would stay high-class because it would be the most sought after area to live, so only the rich could afford to live there. The industrial sector would remain industrial as the area would have a common advantage of a railway line or river.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
What are the Sectors of the Hoyt Model?
The Central Business District
As with all classic models of urban land use, the Hoyt Sector Model has at its core the central business district (CBD). Every older city has one such district at its center; typically, it is the area with the high-rise buildings, banks, and large business headquarters. It is the commercial and business center of a city. In bigger cities, the CDB is often referred to as the “financial district.”
The Industrial Sector
According to this model, in regions of the city with significant industrial transportation routes (rail, barge, freight), industrial corridors will develop. The noise and pollution of these zones drive all but the poorest residents away from these areas. In these zones, almost everyone rents. In Chicago, several of these industrial corridors stretched outward from the CBD along railroad lines and the Illinois-Michigan industrial canal.