Structure of European Cities

American urban areas differ from those elsewhere in the world. These differences do not invalidate the three models of internal urban structure, but they do point out that social groups in other countries may not have the same reasons for selecting particular neighborhoods within their cities as do groups in U.S. cities.

CBDs in Europe

Europe’s CBDs have a different mix of land uses than those in North America. Differences stem from the medieval origins of many of Europe’s CBDs. European cities display a legacy of low-rise structures and narrow streets, in many cases built several-hundred years ago.

• Residences. More people live downtown in cities outside North America. The CBD of Paris covering around 20 square kilometers (8 square miles) has about 370,000 residents. A comparable area around the CBD of Detroit has around 25,000 residents.

• Consumer services. More people live in Europe’s CBDs in part because they are attracted to the concentration of consumer services, such as cultural activities and animated nightlife. And with more people living there, Europe’s CBDs in turn contain more day-to-day consumer services, such as groceries, bakeries, and butchers.

• Public services. The most prominent structures in Europe’s CBDs are often public and semipublic buildings, such as churches and former royal palaces, situated on the most important public squares. Parks in Europe’s CBDs were often first laid out as private gardens for aristocratic families and later were opened to the public.

• Business services. Europe’s CBDs contain professional and financial services. However, business services in Europe’s CBDs are less likely to be housed in skyscrapers than those in North America. Some European cities try to preserve their historic CBDs by limiting high-rise buildings.

Many service providers wish to be in the center of European cities, but constructing new buildings is difficult. The alternative is renovation of older buildings. However, renovation is more expensive and may not produce enough space to meet the demand. As a result, rents are much higher in the center of European cities than in U.S. cities of comparable size.

Concentric Zones in Europe

The urban structure within Paris can be used to illustrate similarities and differences in the distribution of people within U.S. and European cities. As in U.S. urban areas, the newer housing in the Paris region is in outer rings and the older housing is closer to the center (Figures 13-24 and 13-25). Unlike U.S. urban areas, though, much of the newer suburban housing is in high-rise apartments rather than single-family homes.

Concentric Zones in Paris

Older housing situated above shops in an inner-city Paris neighborhood immediately across the River Seine from the Louvre.

Inner Ring

The oldest housing is in the inner ring, in the area around the Louvre Museum, the former royal palace near the historic center of Paris.

Sectors in Europe

Similar to U.S. urban areas, higher income people cluster in a sector in the Paris region. Higher-income people are more likely to live in a southwest sector, whereas lower-income people are more likely to live in a northeast sector. The preference of Paris’s wealthy to cluster in a southwest sector was reinforced during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, when factories were built to the south, east, and north along the Seine and Marne River valleys.

Sectors in Paris

The southwest is the highest-income sector, and the northeast is the lowest-income sector.

Low-Income Sector in Paris

Rosny-sous-Bois is a suburb located in the northeastern low-income sector.

Multiple Nuclei in Europe

European urban areas, including Paris, have experienced a large increase in immigration from other regions of the world (see Chapter 3). In contrast to U.S. urban areas, most ethnic and racial groups of immigrants reside in the suburbs of Paris.

Multiple Nuclei in Paris

Paris Node: Immigrants

Many immigrants to the Paris area from Africa live in suburbs to the northeast and southeast.

Pause & Reflect 13.2.3

Are Paris’s famous tourist sites located predominantly in inner or outer rings? Why might this be the case?