Urban Peripheries as Organizers of what Remains of the Center: Examining the Evidence from Los Angeles and Chicago1

Abstract

A key precept of the L.A. School of urbanism is that "urban peripheries organize what remains of the center" (Dear, 2005, p. 248). This precept implies that "edge cities" are now more dominant than downtowns. To test this notion, a comparison is made of the recent job distribution trends among employment centers in metropolitan Los Angeles and Chicago. The results suggest that the expansion of job centers in and around Los Angeles conforms to traditional theories of urban spatial structure. There are both similarities and differences between Los Angeles and Chicago with respect to their spatial distribution of jobs. The principal similarity is that approximately two-thirds of jobs in both regions for 1990 and 2000 were concentrated in employment centers that were consistently defined across both places. The principal difference is that Los Angeles is far more polycentric than Chicago; nonetheless, downtown Los Angeles remains the largest job center within its metropolitan area followed by Irvine, which is a close second. In both metropolitan areas, the central-city CBD reaches very far outward for workers, and both downtowns have functional relationships with an adjacent high-amenity zone. The latter evidence does not support the claim that urban peripheries organize what remains of the center.