Yuk Lee

An Allometric Analysis of the US Urban System: 1960 – 80

In this paper the relationship between urban population size and land area of urbanized areas of the USA in 1960, 1970, and 1980 is analyzed by means of the allometric growth law. The US urban system of each of the above time periods is disaggregated into seven population-size classes and nine geographic regions. A total of fifty-one equations are estimated. Although the statistical results of the allometric equations classified according to population are not satisfactory, the equations classified according to region are superior. Among the major findings for the US urban system are: the existence of the dynamic similarity model, the existence of negative allometry, the lack of support for the hypothesized relationship between the allometric coefficients and the changes in the population density profiles, and that continental USA is divided into regions of ‘negative allometric’ or ‘toward isometric’ and ‘stable’ or ‘unstable’ growth patterns.

Ethnic Minority Small Business: A Comparative Analysis of Restaurants in Denver.

Significant ethnic minority business growth has occurred in the United States in the post-World War II period. The self-employment pattern of ethnic minority business, particularly the success of Asian-immigrant small business, is currently explained by two different hypotheses: the social resources explanation and the class resources explanation. While the former approach attributes the large number of small business enterprises and their success to the existence of such social resources as rotating credit associations, a protected market, and a labor source within Asian American communities, the latter argues that success instead is caused by greater investment of human and financial capital by these immigrants. The present study compares the self-employment pattern of the restaurant industry operated by African Americans and immigrant Chinese in Denver. Contrasts and similarities in ownership characteristics, start-up capital, location, soical networks, and economic significance prompted this study to ...

A nearest-neighbor spatial-association measure for the analysis of firm interdependence

Retail locational factors and strategies have been a focus of research among geographers, location analysts, marketing analysts, and regional scientists. Well known in the literature are the cumulative-attraction and interceptor-retail-location strategies. To analyze these strategies or forces of firm interdependence, one approach taken has been to describe the spatial pattern of the firms by certain probability models and the nearest-neighbor statistics. However, when studying the spatial association between retail firms from two different chains or between two different types of firms, the familiar Clark and Evans nearest-neighbor statistic no longer applies. What is needed is a method that is capable of measuring the spatial association between two distributions of points. More specifically, the method should determine whether the spatial association between two groups of points is one of aggregation, independence, or avoidance, as a result of the location strategy employed. The nearest-neighbor method developed in this paper for such a task is a modification of that of Clark and Evans. The probability distribution, the mean, and the variance of the nearest-neighbor statistic are derived, and several empirical analyses of the retail-location strategies among convenience-food stores are provided.

A comparative location analysis of a retail activity: The gasoline service station

This study focuses on the competitive processes and locational patterns of a convenience retail activity within two urban areas exhibiting distinct differences in operational characteristics. Impacts of various economic, demographic, and political environmental factors on the distribution of gasoline service stations in urbanized Hong Kong and metropolitan Denver are examined. Measurement of distributional patterns (utilizing nearest-neighbor and spatial association statistics) and socioeconomic/demographic influences (employing regression analysis) reveal remarkable similarities between the two areas. Investigation of several site-related characteristics (zoning and intersection orientation) suggests that they may be significant agglomerative influences accounting both for the consistent location patterns as well as the weak explanatory power of demand variables.

A locational analysis of convenience food stores in metropolitan Denver

The study examines the spatial arrangement of convenience food stores in the Denver metropolitan area. It deviates from the traditional approach in that not only the overall locational pattern of the stores was examined, but it also identified stores of different chains, and hypotheses were formulated to investigate various locational strategies as manifested in the spatial pattern the stores assumed. Site economics, a location factor rarely treated empirically, was also closely studied. Among the findings worthy of note are first, income and household density provide unexpectedly low statistical explanation of the spatial pattern of the stores; and second, stores of a given chain tend to locate closer to each other than to stores of a competing chain.

Evolution of Urban Spatial Cognition: Patterns of Change in Guangzhou, China

This paper includes an analysis of the evolution of urban spatial cognition over time among a sample of Chinese students attending Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China. Changes in the features of sketch maps, based on classifications developed by Lynch, Appleyard, as well as Golledge, are examined. The slow evolution of urban cognition and the tendency to construct maps of the same style and structure over time are noted. Explanations for the absence of changes hypothesized by various investigators are offered.

Impacts of Changing Racial Composition Upon Commercial Land Use Succession and Commercial Structure A Comparative Neighborhood Analysis

This empirical study focuses on the relationships between changes in neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and alterations in the number as well as the mix of com mercial enterprises. Three Denver neighborhoods that differed in population growth rates, income changes, and shifts in racial composition over the 1960-1970 study period are selected for comparative analysis. Significant differences in commercial mobility patterns and commercial structural change between neighborhoods are identified. The research results suggest that change in racial composition is a major force affecting neighborhood commercial structural change while income shifts appear to play a less significant role.

An analysis of spatial mobility of urban activities in downtown Denver

A much neglected area of inquiry in geography is the analysis of spatial processes. It seems necessary, therefore, to initiate more effort in this area by examining and modifying existing means of investigation, or suggesting new ones. Using downtown Denver as the study area, an investigation of the spatial pattern of five urban activities from 1947 to 1971, by applying a modification of an existing means of research, shows a general temporal trend that suggests the working of the spatial process of urban equifinality. It is necessary, however, to extend the investigation of the area to several more future time periods, or to conduct a comparison between this area with several other urban areas before a firmer conclusion can be derived.

Centripetal and Centrifugal Movement: Shopping Centres in Denver, USA, and Brisbane, Australia

In support of the call for international comparative analysis of commercial structure due to globalisation of commercial services, this study investigates the locational dynamics of shopping centres in Denver, USA, and Brisbane, Australia. The analysis is led by two dimensions: the centripetal and centrifugal forces for commercial activity movement and the newer-bigger-farther away hypothesis for shopping centre development. The analysis reveals several interesting similarities and dissimilarities in the shopping centre locational dynamics in Denver and Brisbane. Among the major dissimilarities is Brisbane’s ability to keep many of its central-city shopping centres from suburbanising and Denver’s inability to do so. Reasons for this dissimilarity include different shopping centre development policy and property ownership patterns in the two cities.

Residential Preferences in China

This study is an analysis of residential preferences of a sample of students at six Chinese universities. Respondents indicated the importance of site conditions in their residential preferences. Associations between conditions and choices were measured by regression and factor analyses. Implications for migration policies and regional development are discussed. (EXCERPT)