Polycentricity

The term 'polycentricity' is widely abused to suggest a uniform repeating tessellation, which ignores the hierarchy of centers. People accept the hierarchy of C-store, strip mall, mall, but get uncomfortable with the fact that the hierarchy also implies the emergence of a regional uber-mall. Likewise, downtowns get uncomfortable that the fact that any sufficiently large downtown will see the emergence of regional office sub-centers. Place hierarchy is an emergent property of the trade-offs between transportation costs and rents.