Cities in America Are Undergoing a Revival

First, mass motorization and increased road standards were results of inappropriate urban planning. Every two households in the US had one registered automobile on average in the mid 1930s, which is earlier than many European countries. According to this high rate of motorization, high road standards were developed by planners and engineers quickly, and cities adopted to this pattern easily. After the mortgage policies in the 1950s (1), the interstate systems destroyed urban neighborhoods and created divided urban systems by using wide big roads, so urban sprawl increased. Also, low vehicle taxes and gasoline prices reduced the cost of driving, and increased this car travel demand over time. Additionally, the government subsidized most of the gas taxes, tolls, and registration fees, and the result was the lack of public transportation in many US cities. Especially after World War II, privately owned transit systems increased ticket prices, cut services, and prompted people to own a private car. In 1970s, some of the US cities started to promote walking and cycling with appropriate amenities (1), but it was not enough to change people’s travel behaviors. Lastly, maybe most importantly, zoning laws do not allow mixed land-use planning which facilitates shorter trips between amenities in most of the US cities. Zoning laws, also requires a minimum number of parking lots per usage, rather than the maximum numbers of limited parking such as most European

Recent data has shown that the world’s total population is doubling; however, the world's urban population is tripling. In the early 1800s, only 2 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas (Urbanization; an environmental force to reckon with). This is a sharp contrast to what we have today. The promise of ample job opportunities, higher wages, and a better standard of living have been the main luring factors for attracting people into cities. Today about 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is estimated that by 2050 about 60-70 percent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas (Urbanization; an environmental force to reckon with). This growth trend of the urban populace is troubling since it has tremendous bad effects on our environment which in turn has bad effects on our health and well-being.

The period from the late 19th century to the early 20th century is important in the urban development history of Canadian and American. Urbanization is a historical process that contains urban development. Urbanization is a process of population concentration as well as a process that advanced production modes substitute backward modes. At the same time, it is also the process to adapt to the mode of production and to innovate lifestyle. Hence, urbanization is a dynamic process that many aspects of economics, society and culture comprehensively transform caused by the revolution of social productive forces.

Urbanization is a concept that is deeply rooted in the increase in a population within a region in response to the availability of unique opportunities. The opportunities may include the availability of employment chances in factories, investments opportunities in the urban areas, and the presence of sufficient housing and social infrastructure. It is apparent that urbanization began centuries ago in different regions of the world. However, the development of suburban areas has also been an interesting phenomenon over the centuries. Initially, people strived to live in the luxurious houses in major towns and cities. Nevertheless, there was a gradual shift in the desire to live in the cities when various negative impacts of overpopulation

Recently, urbanization has become the newest form of progress. However, it seems that urbanization has created some unforeseen problems. Bocquier suggests “economic uncertainties that prevail in most urban settings lead to a deterioration of living conditions…this deterioration particularly affects the urban poor” (pg. 1). As society began to change and progress at such a quick pace, many people have been left behind and have had to adapt to survive to their new environments.

The film titled City of God (2002) by directors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund highlights several issues concerning urban planning. In particular, the movie focuses on the social problems that develop with the emergence of highly-populated cosmopolitan cities like Rio de Janeiro. The entire film is shot in a favela, where gang-related activities are frequent. A critical analysis of the movie would reveal several other themes related to the planning of urban centers. Therefore, by using contents of the film, it would be possible to assess the trivial issues of solving planning problems in modern cities. Rio de Janeiro represents the many cities of developing and emerging economies that face serious planning and social problems as revealed in the film the City of God.

Once the majority of people living in cities and working in factories had the money to get out they did. With the freedom of the automobile and the majority of Americans having some sort of disposable income, the American dream of the single family home with the white picket fence was up for sale and flying off the shelves. Before the industrialization of America the cityscape was comprised of densely pack neighborhoods and cities that may not have had the most sanitary living conditions, though they may have been a bit healthier to live in in a different sense. The pre-industrialization city was very pedestrian oriented and designed to a human scale due to the personal vehicle not being a public entity yet. The idea of public markets, the local bakery and butcher where not the idea of a small town, just an average city. Everything was connected and within a reasonable distance from each other. Once the industrialization of America began to occur is when the drastic change within the planning of neighborhoods occurred, the personal or family car was established due to the increase of income from the labor boom. Once the idea sprawl was introduced to the consumer as a new way of life it spread like fire. There was no need to work where you live or even shop nearby. The freedom of the car meant that you could live, work, and get your groceries a few miles from you, no more walking or

Urbanization is growing of cities due to expanded of industries, increased of immigration and population shifted from rural to urban to work in factories. Hirschman and Mogford stated that the decades surrounding 1900 were not only the age of industrialization in the United States, but were also the age of urbanization and immigration. Industrialization, immigration, and urbanization are correlated and interacted with each other. However, all these three have both advantage and disadvantage. Obviously, the three pros of urbanization are convenience, economic improvement, and cultural diversity. First at all, the example of convenience is when people in cities can easily access to health, education and social services due to more availability of facilities and public transportation. Second at all, the example of economic improvement is when there are more job opportunity, foreign exchange, and apartment, houses or codons filled with residents. Lastly, the example of cultural diversity is when

Global Warming is quickly becoming a growing issue for large urban cities in America. As we expand our urban areas with the growing population, cities use more energy for air conditioning, water, and lighting (). Although air conditioning is powered by electricity, many urban cities rely on the combustion of coal for energy (). Combustion of coal emits CO2 and deadly gases into the atmosphere which leads to Global Warming (). Buildings in urban areas use conventional roofs as their main aesthetics. Conventional roofs are generally comprised of tar and gravel. On hot summer days, conventional rooftops can be 27–50°C hotter than the surrounding air temperature. This happens because the albedo of tar and gravel is extremely low which allows for the sun’s energy to be absorbed instead of reflected (). The increased temperature leads to urban heat islands (). Increasing higher albedo surfaces on roofs will result in more reflection of solar energy away from the urban areas (). Rooftops covered in plants, also known as Green Roofs have grown popular tremendously in the last decade. These rooftops are covered in natural greenery like small trees, bushes, flowers, grass, etc. Green roofs are cost effective way to solve many problems with global warming in urban areas (). Environmentalists could use data from satellites and compare the number of green roofs and

The desire for a Utopian city is not a surprising aspiration. While in an ideal world cities could be plotted and planned out perfectly, the readings from this week explore why this is not productive to attempt in society, and also discuss the problems with city planning and government policies. While the readings do not necessarily complement each other entirely, they all appear to be speaking for the same message. The rigorous structure and planning, whether by city planners or government organizations, is toxic to urban life, as it has aided racial segregation, disrupted the natural flow and security of city dwellers, and created a “divided metropolis” (Sugrue).

New Urbanism began in the Unites States of America in the 1980s, and with time turned into a noteworthy impact on many components of land improvement, urban arranging and metropolitan land utilize procedures. It is characterized to be a development indorsing ecological well disposed propensities by producing easy-circulated neighborhoods incorporating an assortment of lodging and occupations. The development was impacted by urban plan hones considered mainstream until the ascent of the car before the Second World War. These advancement focalize into two primary ideas which are to construct a feeling of group and to enhance biological practices. New urbanism have confidence in the improvement

Part two of Death and Life explains several conditions for city diversity based on the observations of different American cities and discusses in depth the four factors that Jacobs believe are critical for the development of a city. The basis for generating diversity lies in these conditions, and cannot be secludedly achieved by planning and designing. This part lays out the foundation and is the basis for the rest of the book. It shows urban planning and many possible remedies for creating equal diversity, and studies why these are not applied and the effects of it not being so.

New Urbanism is an urban planning and design movement that began in the United States in the early 1980s. The different between the older form and “New Urbanists” is in many areas. People started to concerned with “human scale” neighborhood. And there are mixed-use neighborhoods and mixed-income neighborhoods’ idea came up. And the public transportation is expanded to go more places. More and more sidewalks and bike lanes show up in the city because the goal of the new urbanism are to reduce dependence on the car, and to create livable and walkable, neighborhoods with a densely packed array of housing, jobs and commercial sites. So those people who are believe the new urbanism is called “new urbanists”.

There are many challenges in urbanization when people live in cities and the population increases in hope of a better life for an individual’s family.

​Urban living has proved to be quite beneficial for more than one reason. Apart from having the convenience of access, is the benefits of diversity and health. Large cities create many opportunities both for citizens and tourists as well. The fast pace and large infrastructures create excitement and job for all who pass. Personally, even I prefer to live in a large city. I feel that this eliminates boredom which is concurrent in rural areas. In this essay, I aim to prove the benefits of city living, while examining some of the negative parts alike. By doing so, I can give a proper analysis of the reality of city living.