At the beginning of our national history, we were dominantly rural and small village. The big city is a product of the later 19th century and the 20th century. People are drawn into cities for economic and cultural reasons. Settlement patterns and social structure are influenced by several factors including housing, transportation, and the decision to live in a community composed of a particular subset of the population. In the city, much more than in the country, one is affected by events in one's neighborhood. The intensity of land use rises as the city size increases.

One of the classic models of urban land use is the central thesis introduced in 1925 by Burgess. He envisioned urban areas in terms of a model with concentric zones of different types of land use. The central business district is at the center of the city and is the focal point of commercial, civic and social life. Transportation routes converge on the central business district, which is therefore the most accessible urban area. The second zone is a transition area characterized by blighted residential communities into which commercial and industrial uses have penetrated. This area has the lowest residential quality and is usually inhabited by immigrant groups and people who are disadvantaged and powerless. Beyond this area are two or three mainly residential zones, with the quality of residential areas increasing with distance from the center of the city. According to Burgess, in order of increasing distance from the central business district the outer zones are: multiple-occupancy working class housing, single-family housing, and finally a peripheral zone with both suburban communities and satellite towns.

Burgess' model is a simple representation of urban land use patterns, i.e., an idealized model of land use and urban sociospatial structure. There are many exceptions to and variations on this theme, and there is no particular city that actually and precisely fits this pattern. Nevertheless, it is useful because it links urban areas with some conception of process and land use change, both in terms of the internal structure of cities and the conversion of rural land into urban use.

In 19th-century America, cities developed rapidly and without much regulation. Slums grew up in many large eastern and midwestern cities. It wasn't until Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s that guidelines for housing standards were set forth on a national level. The concept of urban renewal was formulated in the Housing Act of 1954, and federal aid for housing was expanded when the Department of Housing and Urban Development was created in 1965. Government resources are limited, and generally have not undertaken large-scale housing programs. Most housing in America is built by entrepreneurs.

Urban land acquires its value and utility by virtue of its location or site. Cities may perform many economic functions in production, transportation, trade, public services, etc.; however, it is always its site qualities which give urban land its value.

The American city experience shows that people with the means generally tend to move toward the suburbs, where property values tend to be higher and residents commute to their work. Farther away from inner city zones, the demand for public transportation diminishes. Most of the pressure on traffic facilities is caused by the highest income groups, who frequently work near the center of the city and live a great distance away. Families living in the inner zones tend to have relatively few cars, partly because they are poorer, and partly because it is difficult to park them at night, even on the streets.

The spread of cities outward into suburban communities has been a growth trend. The character of the streets or highways, which allow rapid travel from suburb to the city center, has often been an influential factor leading to suburban growth. Los Angeles is a vivid example of suburban growth. One particular instance is the construction of the Santa Monica Freeway in the early 60s; another is the Santa Ana Freeway connecting Orange County to Los Angeles. Commute times from these areas have been cut in half. In their determination to buy a nice home they can afford, homeowners are commuting farther to their work place. The commute concept has changed from the idea of distance to the idea of time; that is, the time spent in transit from home to work. One commuter could drive for an hour in the city in bumper-to-bumper traffic and cover perhaps 20 to 30 miles, while another commuter could drive for an hour where the traffic flows unobstructed and cover 65 miles.

As suburban sprawl has continued, regional business and industrial centers have been built. In addition markets, shopping centers, schools, public services, restaurants, and recreational facilities have been built to provide services for the needs of suburban communities.