| The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate if Tijuana and San Diego, two interrelated contiguous cities, separated by the Mexico-United States border, form two different cities rather than one transborder metropolitan unit. The main specific objective is to test if the aggregated structure and the spatial structure are different or similar between Tijuana and San Diego. If the results indicate that they are different, this would imply that both cities are not part of a single (transborder) urban system.; This topic is now an object of discussion in the academic and political milieu as well as the mass media. To define if we are facing two or one single urban unit has theoretical and policy implications.; The theoretical framework is an amalgam of urban geography, restructuring theory, urban economic theory of land use, central place theory applied to intra-urban space, and urban sociology on socio-spatial segregation.; The research strategy has two parts. The first one is a comparison, with aggregate data, of the economic and population structures of both cities. The second part is the central body of this dissertation; it consists of a comparison of the urban form and the form generating mechanisms between both cities, concentrating on two types of land use, residential and tertiary centers (commerce and services).; For Tijuana, population data come from the 1990 Population Census and business data from the 1993 Economic Census. For San Diego, population data come from the 1990 Population Census and business data from the 1992 Economic Census. Intra-urban data is at census tract or 5-digit ZIP Code geographical level, and economic data at 4-digit SIC break.; In this research, urban form is defined as the spatial distribution of both residents and economic activities. The mechanisms of generation of urban form are the relationships that local agents establish within the structure of a particular subsystem in the city.; The general conclusion is that Tijuana and San Diego are different in both form and in form-generating mechanism: both cities are not part of one systemic unit, and therefore they do not form a transborder metropolitan region. |
