Chart of the Day: Rent vs. Distance from CBD Center

Here’s a fun chart from an 1980s Urban Geography intro textbook that I picked up in a free pile on the University of Minnesota campus today…

land-value-v-rent-shops-chart

 

This kind of relationship is referred to in “classic urban geography” as the “bid-rent curve,” about how land values decline from a theoretical peak intersection in the CBD. In Minneapolis, that intersection would be Nicollet Mall and 7th Street, right by the IDS Center.

Do you think this kind of analysis is still useful today?

Bill Lindeke

About Bill Lindeke

Pronouns: he/him

Bill Lindeke has writing blogging about sidewalks and cities since 2005, ever since he read Jane Jacobs. He is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota Geography Department, the Cityscape columnist at Minnpost, and has written multiple books on local urban history. He was born in Minneapolis, but has spent most of his time in St Paul. Check out Twitter @BillLindeke or on Facebook.