Elo» oo A ‘The Internal Geography of Cities 413 FIGURE 10-25 Fez, Morocco. The Moroccan city of Fez is really two contrasting cities. A modern Western city lies on the plain to the southwest (left in this figure) of an old Islamic city, the Medina. The new city has straight formal avenues, a railroad station, university, and a modern hospital, The Medina contains old mosques and narrow constricted streets, and it is surrounded by city walls with great gates. forms continue to be stamped on the world’s cities today. Western architects, engineers, and urban plan- ners, or non-Western individuals educated in Western schools, continue to transform even the older traditional built environments. Individual cities, however, emerged at different times, for different reasons, and within different cultural contexts. Many great cities still boast historic cores that illustrate indigenous principles of urban planning, and they cannot all be squeezed into three or four simpli- fied models. Islamic urban form The non-Western culture with the oldest and most articulate urban planning tradition is the Islamic culture. Traditional Islamic cities illustrate the role of culture in urban fori. There are regional differences in cities across the Islamic realm, but most nevertheless show surprising similarity. These cities may seem chaotic to Westerners at first glance, especially to those of us accustomed to grid patterns, but they pre- sent an entirely rational structure. The structure devel- ops from the basic premises that religion is the most important consideration in life and that houses of wor- ship are the most important elements of urban design. The resulting design characteristics can be identified from Seville, Granada, and Cérdoba in Spain to Lahore in Pakistan, and elements of these principles can be found from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Davao in the Philippines. ‘The logic of traditional Islamic urban planning is announced in the Koran and has been codified by vari- ‘ous schools of Islamic law. Certain basic regulations govern individual rights and the pursuit of the virtuous life in a densely crowded urban environment. For ex- ample, Islamic urban planning recognizes the need to maintain personal privacy; it specifies responsibilities in maintaining urban systems on which other people rely, such as keeping thoroughfares. or wastewater channels clear; and it emphasizes the inner essence of things rather than their outward appearance. This last princi- ple applies as much to the decoration of houses as to purely spiritual issues. Take another look at Figure 10-25. At the heart of the traditional Islamic city stands the main mosque, the _jami, which is typically the city’s largest structure. Close to it are the main sugs, the street markets and enclosed shopping arcades. These arcades prefigured urban galleriesin Europe and enclosed shopping malls in North ‘America. Within the suqs, trades are diffused in relation to the mosque. The tradespeople who enjoy the highest prestige, such as booksellers and perfumers, are closest. Farthest away are those who perform the noxious and414 Chapter 10 Cities and Urbanization noisy trades, such as coppersmiths, blacksmiths, and cob- blers. The neutral tradespeople, such as clothiers and Jjewelers, act as buffers. Arr immense fortified kasbatis attached to the ram- parts, on which are located several towers or gates. The hasbat was the place of refuge for the governor or sover- ign. It had its own small mosques, baths, and shops, in addition to government buildings and barracks. Everywhere else the city is filled in with cellular courtyard houses tied together by winding lanes. Hous- ing is grouped into quarters, or neighborhoods, that are defined according to occupation, religious sect, or ethnic group. The widest streets usually radiate outward from the core to the gates in the city wall. Slightly nar- rower streets serve the major quarters and define their boundaries, and still narrower third-order streets are used primarily by people who live in the neighborhood (Figure 10-26). Narrow streets provide vital shade, keep down dust and winds, and use little building land. Interior courtyards of homes, often with trees and fountains, provide shade in hot climates, but, more im- portant, they provide an interior and private focus for sheltered from public gaze. Th ranean architecture. The outside of a house may be plain, but the interior and courtyard may display lavish wealth and decoration. The interior vividness parallels the Koranic emphasis on the richness of the inner self compared to a more modest outward appearance. In the United States, New Orleans is the city clos- est to exemplifying these values (Figure 10-27). In the old Spanish sections of the city (misleadingly called today the French Quarter), houses generally present plain fronts to the street, but many enclose beautiful FIGURE 10-26 Casablanca, Morocco. In many traditional Islamic citie-—as here, in Casablanca, Morocco— ‘occasional straight streets provide views of minarets. People are constantly reminded of the importance of religion, (Courtesy of Moroccan National Tourist Office) FIGURE 10-27 New Orleans's "French Quarter: Here, as in Islamic countries and Mediterranean architecture in general, houses are not placed in the centers of gardens; courtyard gardens are placed in the centers of houses, not impressing the neighbors and passersby but providing cool private retreats. (© Robert Holmes/CORBIS) private courtyards. When Anglo-Saxons began to move to the city after its annexation by the United States in 1803, the Anglo-Saxon rich preferred to build grand n a new part of town called the Garden District. In the French Quarter the courtyard gardens are inside the houses, but in the Garden District the houses sit in the middle of their gardens. This difference is one of cultural preference. homes CITIES AND SUBURBS IN THE UNITED STATES The dominant feature of the metropolitan form in the United States has been the explosive growth of cities across the countryside. Growing cities have spilled over their legal boundaries into areas called suburbs. Some suburbs are entirely residential, but others offer ser- vices for the surrounding residential population. In some cases, the suburbs are older cities that have been engulfed by the growth of a larger neighbor, but others are newly incorporated settlements, What defines an area as a suburb is its economic and social integration with a larger population nucleus nearby. Town and village are inexact terms that generally designate settle- ments smaller than cities, but the settlements may be incorporated. Many of the developments described in the fol lowing discussion are now occurring elsewhere around the world, but they occurred first in the United States— Iargely because of the nation’s prospei The Growth of Suburbs Early suburbs Most large U.S. cities included man- ufacturing districts by the late nineteenth century. These were noisy and dirty, and they often attracted aworking class, largely made up of immigrants, whom many long-established residents found to be unpleas- antly “different.” These biases pushed those who could afford it to move to the suburbs. ‘At the same time, a cultural preference for rural or small-town life pulled many people out of the city. Many Americans fell in love with the idea of “the coun- ty,” and they favored a return to nature, to the land, or to open spaces—even if only a suburban yard. There- fore, when the railroads made older rural communities within commuting distance of the city, many people who had the time and the money necessary to commute to work from a home outside the city began to do so. In other cases, the wealthy built new towns (Figure 10-28). “Streetcar suburbs” sprang up when streetcar trans- portation was devised. Some of these planned suburbs eventually became completely built up, merged into other settlements, and lost their identities. The automobile ultimately opened the nation’s landscape to suburban growth. For those who disliked urban life, the suburb was the solution. “We shall solve the city problem,” wrote Henry Ford in 1922, “by leaving the city.” FIGURE 10-28 Riverside, Illinois, The designers of New York City’s Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, planned this real estate subdivision 14 kilometers (9 miles) from the center of Chicago in 1869. The plan in- cluded two straight business streets paralleling the railway into the city, but all residential streets were curved to slow traffic (before cars!). Open spaces contribute to the sense of breadth and calm enjoyed by “the more fortunate classes" for whom Riverside was designed. In 1992 Riverside residents refused federal financial assistance for traffic control because federal regulations would have required traffic intersections to be reengineered to 90° angles. (Courtesy of the National Park Cities and Suburbs in the United States Government policies and suburban gi The dispersion of housing to suburbs was slowed Great Depression in the 1930s and by World Wa the early 1940s. Following the war, however, g ment policies established a new balance of pus pull forces that encouraged the moveme investment, residents, and jobs out of the centra into the suburbs. ‘The Federal Housing Administration (FHA anteed loans, so down payments shrank to less th percent of the house price. Suddenly thousands ilies could afford new houses. FHA benefits di however, apply equally everywhere or to everyon' FHA favored the construction of new single- houses in the suburbs over the rehabilitation of houses or apartment buildings in the central Also, the FHA opposed what it termed inharm ‘racial or nationality groups. In some places the pre of one non-White family on a block was enough the entire block off from FHA loans. Thus, govert policy helped segregate the suburbs. ‘The government also granted tax and finan« ccentives to homeowners, including the deductibi ‘doth mortgage interest payments and of local pr taxes ftom gross taxable income. These two be alone often made buying a new house cheape1 renting. In addition, the government protected | owners from capital gains taxation—that is, taxes ¢ increase in the value of the house. By fiscal 2007, t loss to the U.S. Treasury of these three benefits t ‘well over $100 billion per year. These subsidies to owners far exceed government spending on housing. Furthermore, until 1980 the governm lowed savingsand-loan institutions to pay higher est on savers’ money than commercial banks, b money in savings and loans was directed into he The Veterans Administration Housing Prc begun in 1944 and called Homes for Heroes, pt billions of additional federal dollars into housin grams. By 1947 the Levitt Company was complet new single-family homes in Levittown, formerly < Island potato field, each day, and similar develor were springing up on the outskirts of every maje city (Figure 10-29). Nationwide housing starts ju from 114,000 in 1944 to 1,696,000 by 1950. The suburbs brought home ownership to creasing share of U.S. families. The percentage housing that was owner-occupied rose from 44 p in 1940 to 62 percent in 1960 and 69 percent ir signaling middle-class status for a rising share population. Expanding home ownership has inc the number of citizens who have profited fro many homeowner subsidies, so it also has reduc political possibility of rescinding them. Some s argue that the tax concessions were never nec Canada, Australia, and other countries achieves parable levels of homeownership without offerin