Introduction
The first area we looked into was land use. Los Angeles, New York, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Topeka all have fairly similar land uses. All five settlements are relatively built up areas, with some cities drastically more so. This can be especially said for the coastal cities, Los Angeles and New York. They exist majorly as central information and business hubs. They are both technological business centres which draw in people from a range of places, both within America and overseas. Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Topeka are also similar but on a smaller scale, especially when looking at Topeka.
New york
New York City is one of the largest in all of America and one of the most influential in world economy alongside Tokyo and London. It is a centre for a wide range of sectors, with some of the largest being retailing, real estate, fashion, tourism, banking and finance. It is an extremely built up area, often times being referred to as a ‘concrete jungle’. One of its key characteristics is its sheer number of skyscrapers. The land use of just New York City on its own varies greatly when comparing its Boroughs – the five counties that make up New York City. The New York City Department of City Planning has divided its land use into eleven broad categories. These are:
· One and two family residences – low density residences. This is the largest use of land in New York City. They are found in all Boroughs excluding Manhattan. More precisely they are located in eastern Queens, southern Brooklyn, northwest and eastern Bronx and Staten Island.
· Multi-family walk-up residences – this refers to older tenement residential buildings or newer low-rise buildings with three or more dwelling units
· Multi-family elevator residences – large apartment buildings with five or more stories. These are commonly found in western Brooklyn, western Queens, south Bronx and Manhattan.
· Mixed residential and commercial – this category includes all apartment buildings that have stores or other services on the ground floor and office-residential buildings.
· Commercial uses – the commercial areas of New York City are relatively small but are used intensively. A large portion of jobs are in this sector, the most obvious being those in the office towers of Manhattan. There are also many local shopping corridors located throughout the city.
· Industrial/manufacturing – similar to commercial uses, warehouses and factories occupy only a small portion of the city’s land. They are mostly found on the western and northern shores of Brooklyn and State Island as well as South Bronx.
· Transportation/utility – these include trains, ferry terminals, airports, sewage treatment facilities and power plants. The city’s two airports occupy nearly half of the land allocated to this use.
· Public facilities and institutions – these are spread around the city, including schools, hospitals, police stations, etc.
· Open space and recreation – includes parks, cemeteries, beaches, stadiums, etc.
· Parking – includes private off-street lots and public spaces
· Vacant land – any land that does not fall under the categories of those listed above.
· One and two family residences – low density residences. This is the largest use of land in New York City. They are found in all Boroughs excluding Manhattan. More precisely they are located in eastern Queens, southern Brooklyn, northwest and eastern Bronx and Staten Island.
· Multi-family walk-up residences – this refers to older tenement residential buildings or newer low-rise buildings with three or more dwelling units
· Multi-family elevator residences – large apartment buildings with five or more stories. These are commonly found in western Brooklyn, western Queens, south Bronx and Manhattan.
· Mixed residential and commercial – this category includes all apartment buildings that have stores or other services on the ground floor and office-residential buildings.
· Commercial uses – the commercial areas of New York City are relatively small but are used intensively. A large portion of jobs are in this sector, the most obvious being those in the office towers of Manhattan. There are also many local shopping corridors located throughout the city.
· Industrial/manufacturing – similar to commercial uses, warehouses and factories occupy only a small portion of the city’s land. They are mostly found on the western and northern shores of Brooklyn and State Island as well as South Bronx.
· Transportation/utility – these include trains, ferry terminals, airports, sewage treatment facilities and power plants. The city’s two airports occupy nearly half of the land allocated to this use.
· Public facilities and institutions – these are spread around the city, including schools, hospitals, police stations, etc.
· Open space and recreation – includes parks, cemeteries, beaches, stadiums, etc.
· Parking – includes private off-street lots and public spaces
· Vacant land – any land that does not fall under the categories of those listed above.
pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is a yet another city that is fairly built up in its own regard. Historically an industrial city, Pittsburgh has since shifted its economy to be based on health care, technology, finance, education and tourism. Because of its past in the industry sector, a large part of the region is dominated by factories. However, it has gone through the process of urban renewal, with a lot of these buildings that had fallen into a state of decay being refurbished to suite new needs. Many large companies have done this in Pittsburgh. The largest land use in Pittsburgh is residential, taking up over half of the city’s area. This is followed by commercial and office uses, recreation, transportation and utility.
Indianapolis
Indianapolis’ largest sectors are social services, retail trade, manufacturing and health care. It generally has a higher amount of people working in the service sector than the manufacturing industry. The main land uses for Indianapolis are in order of land occupied: high and low density residency, industrial, commercial and transport. Surrounding areas are also used for agricultural purposes.
Topeka
In relation to the other four cities, Topeka is the smallest and least built up. It has an obvious lack of skyscrapers and a large city centre. The city is more sprawled out, with a large number of residential buildings surrounding the centre. The largest sectors of the city are social, educational and health services, employing about a quarter of the working population. Other large sectors include the retail trade and manufacturing, with a tenth of the working population in each of these areas. Some of the smaller industries include real estate, finance, transportation and utilities. The largest land uses in Topeka are residential, commercial and industrial.
Los angeles
Los Angeles is very similar to New York City in that it is a large business hub for entertainment, fashion, tourism, manufacturing and international trade. In 2010, the city was the third largest economic centre in the world. The largest industries of the city are telecommunications, transportation, law, media production and healthcare. The land uses of Los Angeles can be classified into the categories: low residential, medium residential, high residential, commercial, industrial, open space and public facilities. The Central City Community Plan has statistics on how much of the Central City each of the major categories occupy. Commercial land takes up approximately 38% of the city, with a large percentage of this use located in the Financial Core of the city. Industrial land use takes up around 40% of the land, and is primarily found in the South Market District, including produce, electronic and other wholesaling uses. Residential use only occupies 5% of the land, found mostly in the east of the city.
Conclusion
As the USA is a first world country that is very much developed, it can be expected that its cities would all have large industries. This is true for the five cities we have looked at. All of them have the basic fundamental industries and sectors as well as similar land use. Residence, transportation, commercial, industrial and utilities occupied the majority of land in the cities.