Comparative Urbanism : An Organization Of Government

Importance of the Cities in the Early Colonies - While not large compared to today's standards trading centers for farmers of their regions and markets for international trade; leaders were the wealthy stratification was seen; minor tradesman workers and indigents worked in poor conditions; centers of industry like ironworks and distilleries along with areas for schools and shops; had crime vice pollution epidemics traffic elaborate government poor support fire departments constables and dependent on market; breeding ground for new ideas

city was built on a strict plan causing it to be divided into two parts: an upper

Norwich Connecticut is known as “The Rose of New England”. The city of Norwich, Connecticut was founded in 1659 when settlers from Old Saybrook, Connecticut purchased the land from the local Native American Mohegan Tribe. The area first supported farms and businesses. In the 19th century Norwich came to be known as a manufacturing city because of its many large mills. In 1694 residents built a public landing for easier trade at the head of the Thames River. Norwich manufactured textiles, armaments and specialty items. Norwich is located on three rivers: the Yantic, Shetucket and the Thames. Norwich is 28.06 square miles and primarily urban (97%) and

Looking back in the past century in the history of the United States, the nation has experienced a tremendous amount of urban growth with the creation of numerous large mecca cities, interconnected highways and a boom with the ever-changing technology that becomes more available to society. While technology has simplified and helped our nation tremendously, this is just one aspect of the issue of urban sprawl in big cities across America.

The city that I chose to use for Planning in my Hometown was Houston, my actual hometown that I have a lot of love for. Houston is located in south east Texas about an hour and a half north of the Gulf of Mexico. Houston is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States and its population in 2016 was 2,239,558 which that keeps Houston in its spot as the fourth largest city in the United States. There are 25 city departments in Houston covering all different topics that effect our city. In Houston we do a Planning and Development department which is in charge of our planning-related issues. There are other departments that may have a little control over planning such as our Neighborhood department, Parks and Recreation department, ect,

Each settlers improvements on Boston created a more elaborate city. In 1630, John Winthrop found that the water from the Shawput peninsula in Charlestown was rising, limiting the lots Boston could use. To prevent the water from expanding and allow for a future South End with streets and buildings, a sea wall was created (164, Common Ground). Some immigrants made physical advancements, others changed the cultural aspect of the city. In the late 1800’s, Jews arrived in South End. They expanded into this community and started to build within these streets. South End was a home for a diverse amount of cultures, but due to the rehabilitation of more than three thousand structures, many families had to relocate. Homes were being demolished by Logues plan, “The Concept”, and then created into more expensive buildings, which many of the families currently living in this area could not afford. Due to this, the number of diverse cultured families of Jews, blacks, Puerto Ricans, the poor, elderly, and homeless decreased in South End as their needs were ignored (231, Building a New Boston). People on the streets of South End did not need the help of Logue and the BRA to reconstruct the city. For many years they were very successful on accommodating to the area presented before them, but with the plan to beautify

Stratford Upon Avon is the birthplace and resting place for William Shakespeare. The town was created in 1196. That makes Stratford Upon Avon over 800 years old. It was founded by the Saxons when they invaded what is now warwickshire. In 1196 King Richard allowed the town to host weekly markets. Allowing them to hold markets brought a lot of visitors in the town. People realized how nice of a town it was. The town also got money through that and were able to expand the town and build more buildings for people to move into. (Local Histories, 2016)

As political machines were becoming more popular and were becoming more powerful throughout many cities, there had to be someone who was operating and ensuring the political machines never broke down. At the top of the pyramid was the political boss, as he had some big responsibilities to fulfill. He offered many city jobs to people who were unemployed, gave out business licenses, influenced court decisions within the city, and conduct several societal reforms. These including the building of city parks, sewer systems, and funding schools and orphanages. Political bosses and their role would become very important because they not only solved the problems urbanization brought, but civilization would have collapsed without their support and actions

In personal opinion, city planners can address the needs of all classes of people living within in it by implementing services and goods that offer the quality they aspire to surround themselves with. For example, something that benefits all persons is the sanitation system a city provides. Dumping wastes into the streets and lacking clean water are inevitable pathways to disease. Transportation is another factor. Roads that are uneven and prone to muddying make getting from one destination to another a struggling hassle. After those basic needs are taken care of, city planners can focus on implementing sites that focus on culture, grandeur, and leisure. This would include buildings such as museums, concert halls, or theaters.

Many downtowns first emerged as a distinctive place due to elite residents with homes in the area, which served as meeting places for important business transactions. By the late 19th century downtowns had typically been laid out with designated business blocks (Ford 2003). The growth of the business block as an economic center and booming downtown forced out any competition that were not appropriate with “high rents, social pressure and architectural change” (Ford 2003, pp 45). This was the origin of the spatial structure and land use patterns that are associated with contemporary downtowns. The origin of the town structure is most commonly affiliated with European cities as models of spatial layout. Specialty business and retail districts that characterized American downtowns and what we now image a good downtown to be are directly linked to it European counterpart. The key characteristic that defer from the European model was the tendency for American cities to be street-oriented rather then place-oriented. This contributed to the more linear structure of the city, business pursued locations on the “main street” rather then near major plazas or religious buildings (Robertson 1997).

Metropolitan areas exhibit an amazing diversity of features, economic structures, amounts of infrastructure, historic roots, patterns of development, and degrees of conventional planning. Yet, lots of the problems that they deal with are strikingly acquainted. For example, as metropolitan areas grow, they grow to be increasingly diverse.

New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning,

The garden city movement, a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard, had a significant influence on urban planning. The theory of urban planning has envolved over the past hundred years, some have attempted to emulate theories from the garden city movement, while others have been revised based on Howard’s original ideas. The Garden City concept spawned many ideas of urban planning. Among these ideas, the Garden Suburb, Satellite City, the New Towns Movement and the New Urbanism are all significant theories in the history of urban planning and had their influence to this day. The integration of town and country, the separation of conflicting land uses and modes of travel, and the ideas of growth management are all elements of the Garden City concept that have made made their ways into plans of most major Western cities.

Architecture deals with the design stage of structures and uses a blend of scientific knowledge and creativity to develop structures of all shapes and sizes. Building and town planning follows suit. Building courses teach candidates how to follow the design through to completion, while town planning looks at the possible effects that might become apparent from the implementation of the design of a new development or building. All three areas are linked, although they are separate disciplines they tend to work together in the work towards completing a project.

First of all, to start building a city an urban pattern has to be established, this will make the city look much more organized and well thought. A pattern can be chosen from a whole list of working patterns for a city. Establishing a grid is a common way of equally distributing the city. However, we want to keep in mind, that important buildings, such as businesses, and government buildings must be accessible to the public, but separated from the rest of the city. We have great examples of grids such as New York City, in New York, United States, or Mississauga City, in Toronto ,Canada. Although, when building from scratch it is not possible to leave aside what has already been built, a city indeed has to adapt to what is already existing, as well as to the new global economy, social and political trends, and new issues that arise in the new era, this also changes the structure and tradition of building and forming urban patterns. Using the existing patterns, combined with new ones, both patterns can collide and make new forms in city blocks. Results vary from city to city, but the essence is the same in all of them; old and new patterns coming together to create unplanned shapes, a new form of Urbanism, based on new and old patterns, aiming to satisfy the needs of the modern world. A great example is New York