Gateway Cities

Gateway cities are spaces through which people, goods, and trade pass. As such, they are nodes in a larger urban network or system and function as transition points or starting points for movement (of goods and people) to other parts of a region or country, as well as the globe. Although the term gateway cities was originally used in the United States to refer to pioneer towns, the contemporary literature is generally divided between discussions of gateway cities as points of entry into the United States for immigrants and travelers and of gateway cities as points of entry for commercial activities. With increased speed and intensity of globalization since the 1960s, there has been an acceleration of global flows of people and goods, leading to more attention on gateway cities in the literature. In addition, increasing urban competition, urban entrepreneurialism, and place-marketing has led to many cities advertising themselves as “gateways” to economic opportunity and as serving gateway functions.

Gateway city also is a concept that should be understood in relation to central place theory in geography. Central places are settlements that provide goods and services to a surrounding area. The term central is important, as it references a settlement that interacts with a range of people and activities in all directions, and thus does not function as an entry into an area or primarily as a long-distance transportation link. Gateway cities, on the other hand, are located at the edges of (or hinges between) hinterlands, regions, manufacturing processes, markets, and (long-distance) transportation networks. As “gates,” “doors,” or “windows” to other spaces and resources, gateway cities provide access to areas that may extend for many miles in one direction or may fan out from the city like spokes on a wheel, as noted by A. F. Burghardt in 1971.

In addition to geographic differences, there are differences in the functions of central places and gateways. Central places produce goods and services that are provided to surrounding areas. Gateways, in contrast, are associated with the functions of transportation, distribution, and access to other areas and resources (for example, through personal networks and communication systems), making urban spaces like warehouse districts important parts of the cities' form, as noted by Leonard Eaton in 1989. Gateways are generally not associated with manufacturing, production, or a concentration of command centers. Terms often used to describe them are financial gateways, transportation gateways, network gateways, trade gateways, and immigration gateways. While gateway traditionally has described the city on the physical edge of some connection or region (for example, a rail network, waterway, or manufacturing district), the term has also been used to describe a place with connections that are not physically contingent. Such places include gateways to national economies or gateways to networks and services that access national economies, as well as producer services that offer access to international trade and global connections. Shanghai and Hong Kong are examples of cities that are “gateways” to China. New York and London are said to be “gateways” to the global economy.

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