Family Midterm Exam Questions

Below are the midterm exam questions that I accepted. You'll note that I did edit the questions and answers to some extent.

GREEN FAMILY: (earns 3 points + 1 bonus point)

1. Give TWO examples of how Portland, Oregon has avoided the negative aspects of sprawl. (2pts)

ANSWER: Any two of the following:(a)State of Oregon imposed "growth boundaries" around cities, which helped to protect forests and farms and open space and forced cities like Portland to concentrate on their downtowns.
(b) Portland tore up a downtown freeway and converted the area to a park.
(c) limited downtown parking spaces.
(d) developed an integrated transit system of buses and light rail, and bikes.
(e) controlled "big box" stores from springing up by limiting their size and the number of parking spaces they could have.

2. Identify any ONE of the three defining characteristics of the city and the social consequences of this characteristic, which Wirth presents in his famous essay, "Urbanism as a Way of Life." (2pts)

ANSWER: Any one of the following: (a) large population -- diversity; more reliance on formal social control and secondary groups. (b) high population density -- more specialization; more anti-social behavior. (c)increased social heterogeneity -- depersonalization; personal relations based more on money.


YELLOW FAMILY: (earns 3 points)

1. Name and briefly describe TWO ways urban sprawl is damaging. (2pts)

ANSWER: Any TWO of the following: (a) Environmentally -- eats up land, natural resources; dependence on cars leads to pollution. (b) Economically -- sprawl development is heavily subsidized -- it costs more in terms of services than it contributes in terms of taxes. (c) City life & culture -- sprawl robs cities of businesses, people. Historical landmarks and buildings in the city suffer due to declining tax base, and lower classes are stuck in cities with minimal social sevices.


BLUE FAMILY: (earns 3 points)

1. Identify any TWO traits of urbanites that come through in Simmel's essay, "Metropolis and Mental Life." (2pts)

ANSWER: Any two of the following: (a) rational, (b) calculating, (c) time conscious, (d) blase attitude.


Remember these questions will be on the midterm exam. See you next Tuesday.