The Central Business District Core-Frame Concept and Some of Its Implications

Abstract

The definition of the central business district (CBD) has ranged from a broad, undifferentiated concept of downtown, which might include every thing colored red on a zoning map, to a tight retail core often referred to by appraisers and economists as the one hundred per cent district. Because of these varied popular meanings and usages, the problem of definition may never be completely resolved. Nevertheless, the central business district core-frame concept may contribute to a more sophisticated statement and understanding of the central portion of the city. This concept was developed to provide a spatial framework in which to study the relationships between emerging freeway systems and central busi ness districts.1 As this concept was developed with a specific research ob jective in mind, many important meanings and interpretations of the concept were never presented. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is threefold: ( 1) to present the basic outline of the CBD core-frame concept, (2) to interpret it within the context of movement patterns, and (3) to present some impli cations of this framework with reference to freeway development, urban re newal programs, and city planning. It has been widely demonstrated that land use patterns of cities are largely based on transportation considerations.2 Therefore, it seems appropriate that a concept based on movement patterns should be developed. As the CBD core-frame concept causes the researcher to view the city within the context of nodal regions rather than uniform regions it provides a beneficial approach to the complicated spatial structure of American central business districts. Although the uniform region is an aid to analysis in physical geography, its use for urban analysis is limited, and in some cases, even detrimental. It should be understood that the statements presented may not be valid for European cities, and certainly do not apply to cities located in the non western world. They do represent a composite statement of patterns found in United States cities, and specifically refer to urban agglomerations of metropolitan significance.