Answers to Thinking Geographically Questions

Answers to Thinking Geographically Questions

Figure 11.1 The architecture is even more flamboyant, with the tower (Pearl of the Pacific) and globe-shaped buildings. The buildings are all very sleek and modern, like new skyscrapers in North American cities.

Figure 11.2 Money was invested in suburbs rather than inner cities, including subsidies for mortgages so that people could buy homes, construction of freeways and expressways, and other infrastructure. It was therefore not invested in the inner city, which was allowed to decay.

Figure 11.3 Families are likely to be wealthier and more highly educated, and most probably have children, although relatively few of them.

Figure 11.4 Woodside today would have considerably more diversity of ethnic groups. Some of the immigrants are probably professionals. The mixed population may still consider themselves a neighborhood. Early Irish neighborhoods were more homogeneous, establishing their own churches and other organizations that defined the community.

Figure 11.5 A great deal of information is probably exchanged about sources of help with various needs, including food, shelter, and medical care. Friendship ties are also formed. Unfortunately, with the high rate of substance abuse among the homeless, such encampments are probably also sources of drugs or information about where drugs may be obtained.

Figure 11.6 Although many suburban areas have become quite exclusive and are home to affluent residents, historically prestigious downtown districts retain their advantageous locations near the most elite shopping, dining, and cultural activities that cities have to offer. Subsequently, many affluent residents choose to remain in these downtown areas rather than relocate to more private and secluded suburban locations.

Figure 11.7 Answers will vary.

Figure 11.8 In times when city residents depended on foot travel or public transportation, such housing was efficient use of land and provided easy access to transit lines, such as street cars.

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Figure 11.9 It is based on dead-end cul-de-sacs surrounded by looping streets that usually do not front on major arterial roads. While this pattern may reduce through traffic, it makes provision of services, especially emergency police and fire response, difficult. Some communities are now prohibiting cul-de-sacs for that reason.

Figure 11.10 Historic neighborhoods are more likely to be located near downtown; neighborhoods farther out would be newer. People interested in such preservation are likely to have a relatively high income (and perhaps no children) and want to live near downtown jobs and amenities.

Figure 11.11 Apart from a few architectural details (the style of windows, perhaps), it looks similar to projects in North American cities. Living in such converted buildings (“lofts”) is very chic in some circles.

Figure 11.12 All these cities are centers of high-tech industry. One of the largest groups of immigrants to the United States is workers in high-tech industries. Other jobs would also open up in such cities, based on the incomes of the high-tech workers.

Figure 11.13 Like traditional neighborhoods, this shopping center probably has stores that sell goods of interest to Vietnamese, such as foods and Vietnamese-language videos. It may also have a community center and places of worship. However, it is farther from the immigrants’ residences, which may be widely scattered.

Figure 11.14 These ethnic enclaves originate because people move long distances across national boundaries. They also maintain ties with their former homes, often sending back money (remittances).

Figure 11.15 Apart from the information given that this is built on fill, the streets are long, the yards and houses large, and each house backs onto open land, which would command a premium.

Figure 11.16 Apart from a variation in land use (e.g., a factory district), westerly winds may blow the warmer air eastward.

Figure 11.17 There is an effect, but it is slightly shifted from the land use, probably by winds from the southwest.

Figure 11.18 Answers will vary, but most towns have some kind of CBD and residential areas with a range of income levels.

Figure 11.19 The buildings are of an elegant architectural style and are probably basically solidly built. They are near cultural amenities and the lakefront, attractive locations for young professionals.

Figure 11.20 All are focused on a CBD (although because of the lake, Chicago includes only half a circle instead of a complete circle). Higher-income residential areas tend to be on the outskirts as in the concentric-zone model, but as with the sector model, there is a wedge of high-income housing along the lakefront north and south of the CBD. Low-income areas surround the CBD in reality and in both models.

Figure 11.21 It reflects both high- and low-income sectors that follow transportation routes. Along railroads would be industrial zones that would have working-class residential areas nearby.

Figure 11.22 The sector model revolves around a single CBD, with sectors showing arterial routes to and from that center. The multiple-nuclei model also shows industrial and warehousing districts and outlying suburban development.

Figure 11.23 The evidence of change is in the skyscrapers of varying dates; visual biases might focus on how the parks (Boston Common and the Public Garden) take up most of the picture. Manifestations of symbolic traditions are apparent in the statehouse (upper left corner of the park) and the historic area of the North End (barely visible in the upper left corner of the picture).

Figure 11.24 Among the uses in literature are Sinclair Lewis’s novel Main Street and numerous others that portray small-town life. Many paintings depict Main Streets, and 1950s situation comedies on television, such as the Andy Griffith Show and Leave It to Beaver, showed Main Street. It conveys nostalgia for small-town life with a close-knit community and families.

Figure 11.25 Not only do they share such facilities as tables, chairs, and waste disposal systems, but the agglomeration benefits all of them for marketing purposes.

Figure 11.26 Ultimately, zoning laws prohibit such structures, but that is based on the desire to keep buildings low and unobtrusive. Businesses also like to have as much as possible of their activity on one level.

Figure 11.27 There would have been no colored banners, no globe lights and other fancy light fixtures, and no tents. Signs would have been small.

Figure 11.28 Things Western, and especially American, are seen as reflecting wealth and high status in China.

Figure 11.29 Although it may have been designed to protect the workers and visitors against criminal attack, it certainly does not present a very welcoming appearance.

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