Colorado Case Study on Costilla vs. Boulder County

Trevor Jones
3/8/16
Per. 3

Colorado Case Study on Costilla vs. Boulder County 

During our Colorado Case Study Development project, we looked at a number of statistics in 7 different counties in Colorado to determine which county would need community service the most. From our research, we determined that Costilla county needs help for a few reasons. Through looking at the graphs we compared Costilla county and Boulder county, we can observe that costilla county is the county that is in need of the most help out of all the counties in colorado that we looked at. One of the four main reasons why we say this is they have one of the highest rates of unemployment. The rate of unemployment in costilla county is 5.6%, whereas in Boulder County the rate of unemployment is 2.6% which is lower than any of the other counties. Another reason for choosing Costilla county was due to their low median household income at $33,594. They had almost the lowest out of the counties that we looked at being only $1,000 ahead of Otero county. This puts them well below Boulder county whose median household income is at $90,197. Another contributor to why we chose to look at Costilla County was because of the large percentage of people in the county who are on food stamps; 19.5%. In Boulder county only 4.7% of the population is on food stamps. Costilla also has a very low Per Capita income at $20,592, and Boulder counties is at $37,947. In Costilla the poverty rate is also higher than Boulders. In Costilla the poverty rate is at 25.0% and Boulder’s at 14.6%. The High School graduation rate also differs greatly in the two counties. In Costilla, only 75.5% of high school students graduate while in Boulder, 91% percent of High School students graduate. Looking at these statistics, it is clearly seen how Boulder is doing so much better off than Costilla County.

      In the opinion of our group, we believe that there is no singular factor that is most important in determining the which county should be developed. We believe this because no single factor can tell the whole story. For example, one would not be able to determine if a county would need to be developed with just the factor of Per Capita income, because there is still a possibility of a large discrepancy in income between social classes. Therefore it is necessary to combine multiple looks at multiple statistics when determining something like this. In Costilla County, the majority of the population works in the primary sector, mostly in farming and agriculture. Primary sector workers make up the majority of the population.

     If we were to volunteer in Costilla County, we would most likely volunteer at the food pantry of Costilla County. We decided on this, because there is such a high percentage of people below the poverty line, and of people on food stamps. From these statistics we have determined that volunteering or donating to the food pantry would greatly impact the community of Costilla county.

ALL DATA IN THIS POWERPOINT IS PROVIDED BY THE 2014 U.S. CENSUS

Rostow’s Modernization Model

Rostow’s Modernization Model

Stage 1: Traditional Society

Characterized by economic structure dominated by agriculture.
-minimal productivity
-few exchange transaction
-economic change/technological improvements are not sufficient to sustain any growth in per capita output, which is low

Stage 2: Transition for Society (Pre-conditions for takeoff) 

Characterized by increased productivity in agriculture, and modern manufacturing begins to emerge. modern manufacturing remains low as it it the norm.

Preconditions for Take-off:
-Society engages in secular education
-establishes banks and currency
-emerging entrepreneurial class
-concept of manufacturing emerges, with only a few factories developing at first.

Stage 3: Take-off 

Growth becomes the norm and improvements in production lead to the emergence of leading sectors. Income rises across the board, and a new class of established entrepreneurs emerges.

Stage 4: The Drive to Maturity

-Modern technology is fully adopted in all economic activity
-new leading sectors emerge
-economy demonstrates technological and entrepreneurial skills to produce anything it chooses to,
-economy looks beyond the country's border for development.

Stage 5: High Mass Consumption

-leading sectors shift toward durable goods
-surge occurs in per capita income and increased allocation to social welfare programs.
-the masses can afford goods beyond food, clothing, and shelter.

Chapter 9 T&R on Urban Geography

Trevor Jones 

2/24/16

Per. 3

Sources: 

Human Geography: People, Places, and Culture: Chapter 9 - Urban Geography

Mapping the great housing divide in New York and San Francisco: http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/10/mapping-the-great-housing-divide-in-new-york-and-san-francisco/405022/?utm_source=nl__link2_101315 

America’s great fitness divide: http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/01/americas-great-fitness-divide/414558/?utm_source=nl__link3_011116 

PHOTOS: What snow tells us about creating better public spaces on E Passyunk Avenue: http://www.thisoldcity.com/advocacy/photos-what-snow-tells-us-about-creating-better-public-spaces-e-passyunk-avenue#.Vs0lAsdznFJ 

6 big european cities with plans to go car free: http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/10/6-european-cities-with-plans-to-go-car-free/411439/?utm_source=nl__link1_102015 

The power of public housing: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/public-housing-success/406561/ 

The Megacity Tokyo- http://globalsherpa.org/japan/tokyo-japan/ 

Portland, Oregon Gentrification: http://www.governing.com/gov-data/gentrification-in-cities-governing-report.html#portland

In the early 80’s and 90’s, the city Portland, Oregon wanted to gentrify their run down community in order to reconstruct their city as a new urban center, but the surplus population of lower-class african americans were halting the gentrification process, so as more young professionals and intellectuals moved into the city, african american families moved out due to the increase in living costs. The city then faced significant pressures in maintaining housing affordability, however the city is today one of the hottest cities for young professionals, as well as an urban center for tourists from all around. 

Chapter 9 Crossword Puzzle: http://edtools.mankindforward.com/crosswords/689631/generate

Possible terms from readings: 

Housing Divide (1): the difference in housing affordability seen throughout one city

Inversion (1): trading of places within major metropolitan areas

American Fitness Index (2): an index that rates metros on individual health indicators 

Sneckdown (3): combination of “snow” and “neckdown”- another name for curb expansion- that uses snow formation on the street to reveal the space cars don’t use

Pedestrianization (4): The restriction of access to a street to pedestrians only

Housing Act (5): program created in 1937 which sought to create jobs and build housing

Housing Choice Voucher (5): A program crated in 1974 to provide subsidies for poor families to move into market rate-apartments 

Central business district: The downtown heart of a central city, the _________ is marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings.

Synekism: A concept in urban studies coined by Edward Soja. It refers to the dynamic formation of the polis state - the union of several small urban settlements under the rule of a "capital" city. …

Urban: Buildup of the central city and the suburban realm.

City: Conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as centers of politics, culture, and economics.

Agricultural village: A relatively small, egalitarian village, where most of the population was involved in agriculture. Starting over 10,000 years ago, people began to cluster in agricultural villages as they stayed in one place to tend their crops.

Agricultural surplus: One of two components, together with social stratification, that enable the formation of cities; agricultural production in excess of that which the producer needs for his or her own sustenance and that of his or her family and which is then sold for consumption by others

Social stratification: One of two components, together with agricultural surplus, which enables the formation of cities; the differentiation of society into classes based on wealth, power, production, and prestige

Leadership Class: Group of decision-makers and organizers in early cities who controlled the resources, and often the lives, of others

First urban revolution: The innovation of the city. Ex. (Hearths) Mesoamerica, Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley and Huang He River Valley.

Secondary hearth: An early adopter of a cultural practice or trait that becomes a central locale from which the practice or trait further diffuses

Acropolis: Greek city's highest point on which the most impressive structures, usually religious, were built. Ex. Parthenon, Athens, Greece

Agora: Greece's open city a squares, were public events and commercial activity took place. Ex. Former agora of Athens, Greece seen below the Acropolis

Site: City's absolute location. Chosen for defensive, trade and religious importance. Ex. Location of Rome

Situation: City's relative location, and place in it's region and world. Ex. Situation of coastal cities proved advantageous with the introduction of oceanic trade

Urban morphology: The layout, structure and physical form of a city

Forum: Rome's marriage of the Greek Acropolis and Agora; focal point of Roman public life. Ex. Rome's Forum, featuring the Colosseum

Trade area: City's adjacent region where its influence is dominat. Ex. People from smaller and or rural areas touring large malls in the suburbs

Rank-size rule: Population of cities in a model urban hierarchy are inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy. 

Primate city: Disproportionally large cities. Ex. London, Paris

Central places theory: A model to predict how and where central places in the urban hierarchy would be functionally and spatially distributed. Ex. Hexagonal Hinterlands

Sun Belt phenomenon: The movement of millions of Americans from Northern and Northeastern states to Souther and Southwestern states. Ex. Texas and CA have seen an influx in population and business location to their respective regions

Functional zonation: The division of a city into specific regions (zones) for certain purposes (functions). Ex. Residential, industrial and transportation zones.

Zone: Area of a city with a relatively uniform land use (e.g. an industrial zonation, or a residential zone).

Central city: Non-suburban, older and more central urban areas. Ex. Downtown Chicago

Suburb: An outlying, functionally uniform part of an urban area. Ex. Arlington Heights (Chicago)

Suburbanization: Process of urbanizing new land (often around an urban environment). Ex. The urbanization of areas surrounding Chicago

Concentric zone model: Burgess's urban model of Chicago in the twenties. CBD is the center, with rings surrounding it from the Transition zone to the Commuter's zone. Ex. 1920s Chicago

Edge city: Suburb downtowns that have grown independent of the central city. Ex. Irvine, CA (outside of L.A.)

Megacities: Cities with 10 million or more residents

Griffin-Ford model: Model of the Latin American city, with a contrast between wealthy residents and disamenity sector. Ex. Rio do Jenero

Shantytowns: Unplanned developments of crude dwellings and scrap-built shelters. Ex. Largest of Asia in Karachi, Pakistan

Disamentiy sector: The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not even connected to regular city services and are controlled by gangs or drug lords.

This is a map of North West Asia. The reason that i decided to color this map is because it contains Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is the world original, and largest meagacity relative to population, with a total population of 32.5 million people, and number three as the most global city (after New York City and London). This city has 13 million people in the “proper city” and has one of the highest living costs for car and house ownerships in the city. The city continues to grow based on its status as a major global power and will continue to function as Japan’s capital of business and politics and main culinary center.

City Structure Models

Modeled by Ernest Burgess in the 1920's

Modeled by Homer Hoyt in the 1930's 

Modeled by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1940's

Modeled by T. G. McGee in 1967

Modeled by Ernst Griffin and Larry Ford in 1996

Modeled by E. H. Fouberg, A. B. Murphy, and H. J. de Blij

Research Blog Post #4: The Bridge at the Edge of the World - James Gustav Speth - Pages 776-986 - Chapter 3: The Limits of Today’s Environmentalism

Today’s environmentalism is an even balance of environmental statements and environmental regulations of good subsidies enacted by congress to balance bad ones. Despite environmentalist’s actions to promote environmentalism, they are often not funded well enough to cope with the magnitude of the problems that they are trying to deal with, giving them the tendency to deal with effects rather than underlying causes by addressing the environmental ills rather than what caused them. However, the blame cannot be held exclusively by the environmentalists, larger countries governments are also at fault, due to their inability to deal with the problems or even give organizations created to deal with the issues, proper funding. As we worry about short term solutions to environmental problems, other Environmental issues are growing increasingly complex, as well as a problem regarding regulatory slippage in environmental protection agencies, which can lead to quick fixes that often do not solve the problem. Working with the current capitalistic system to carry out environmental action will not succeed, instead the system itself must change. 

Research Blog Post #3: The Bridge at the Edge of the World - James Gustav Speth - Pages 559-776 - Chapter 2: Modern Capitalism: Out of Control

Our global economy has undergone a substantial amount of growth throughout the course of the 20th century, with the global spread of capitalism nationalism around the world, the economy is growing at a rate faster than ever. However, the way modern capitalism is functioning, it seems impossible to improve environmental conditions while maintaining the same pace of growth we see today. In fact, the course of economic growth can be summed up as "the sacrifice of the environment to economic growth”. Modern capitalism functions on the intake of profit and in output of goods. Corporations that fall short on output will fall behind and go out of business, which leads to externality by corporations in order to succeed. These externalities produce harmful subsidies towards the environment that are unavoidable with our current state of capitalism. This same process has corrupted our nations government causing them to cut corners as well, leaving our economic system flawed with no way to back out. In short, capitalism as we know is incapable of sustaining the environment, producing a harmful path with no end in sight without a powerful intervention by authority. There have been multiple theoretical theories to solve this crisis, most involving a drastic change in political and economic power, which nobody is ready to commit to.

Research Blog Post #2: The Bridge at the Edge of the World - James Gustav Speth - Pages 260-559 - Chapter 1-Looking into the Abyss

As we look into the abyss that out species had dug for ourselves, we must confront the truth of our current poor environmental trends and conditions and realize that the road to sustainability was the road not taken. Today, we face local and global environmental challenges, local consisting of low threat challenges that can be solved, and global consisting of high threat problems that we seem to be stuck in. The eight most threatening global environmental challenges consist of climate disruption, losing the forests, losing the land, losing freshwater, losing marine fisheries, toxic pollutants,losing biodiversity, and over-fertilizing with nitrogen. Of this list, climate change is currently the most threatening and most difficult to solve, however there are many solutions to these problems that have been devise over the years, the only problem is no action ever occurs to progress these solutions, dwindling away time that we already lost decades ago.