Great American Cities

Paul Goldberger, an American architectural critic once quoted, “Urbanism works when it creates the journey as desirable as the destination.”

In American industrial cities, late 1800s, Poor neighborhood were not the best place to live. With poor living conditions, poor sanitation and crowded housing, many epidemics of infectious disease spread into the poor population and touched even the wealthy class. Cities such as New York were crowded and workers were living in tenements, which were often cramped, poorly lit and poorly aerated. Moreover, these tenements lacked of adequate plumbing, therefore waste was flooding in the public streets. Streets was crowded of waste and garbage. Population was poorly nourished and has a poor life hygiene like water pollution and poisoned food and milk. Accordingly, infectious disease was the common death reason. Big cities had known outbreaks of

Large amounts of people came from all over the world to the American cities during the colonial era. One of the main reasons why people migrated was because they were seeking religious freedom and better economic opportunity. In the American cities, there were more resources available to the people such as information that could be easily accessed, better paying jobs, high quality food supply, and transportation was provided and sometimes since the factories were located within the cities you didn’t require a car like you would in the rural areas. In the beginning of America’s industrial revolution, factories needed skilled workers. Most of the immigrants settled in New York, Chicago, and other places that contained their own people. Within these ethnic communities they tried to maintain their cultural customs from the country they were originally from. They could speak their own language, practice their religion, and continue traditions. Jews fled from Russia to prevent from getting prosecuted in their homeland. The British immigrants were the people who occupied these skills due to working in Britain in factories for such small amounts of pay. Europeans were having a hard time finding jobs at home, so they were not leaving Europe because they desired to, but because they had to in order to survive. Hundreds of people were suffering from hunger in their homeland and America was the way out of that distress. These immigrants had no skills, unfortunately, although they were

In the 2013 mayoral election in Detroit, MI, the citizens experienced in a close race {55%-45%} the victorious win of Michael E. Duggan over Benny N. Napoleon, to become the first white mayor to lead the city in four decades. The great city of Detroit has for long experienced much calamity that has permeated throughout every vein in Detroit, leading to the city’s its decrepit semblance. Mayor Michael E. Duggan has brought to the city an energy that has been much needed and deserved to those residents that dream of the return of the motor city they once knew.

In this great city of New Orleans, we have so many extravagant elements that distinguishes us from other cities. From Mardi Gras to the French Quarters to Canal St., they all play an important part in this city 's history. The different historical statues we have scattered about the city also cause major attractions and either people love or hate them. Lately, four specific statues have been getting a lot of attention around town from not only the citizens, but from our very own mayor, Mitch Landrieu. Two of the four statues are the Robert E. Lee Monument in the center of Lee Circle and the P.G.T Beauregard Statue on City Park Ave. The mayor feels the statues should be removed not only because of their confederate backgrounds, but because they don’t have anything to do with the history of New Orleans. So, let’s explore the background of these two, controversial statues, beginning with the Robert E. Lee Monument, and then going to the P.G.T Beauregard Statue, but before we discuss the statue let 's start with the man in the statue.

It's obvious that cities in the Colonial era were less advanced than the metropolitan cities most would be familiar with in modern times. However, cities today use many methods as the proto-industrial period. Before the American revolution, Towns and cities were controlled by powerful European countries like England, France, and Spain. Resources not used to sustain a colony were sent back to the homeland and added to the economy. Unlike modern times, American commercial and political leaders were unable to use property tax to acquire finances towards improving businesses and were forced to use other means. Port towns and cities traded amongst themselves yet at the same time were in constant competition with one another. This rivalry prevented

The great city of Washington D.C, founded in 1790, by great intellectuals, to control rest

Everyone knows Detroit has its fair share of issues. Including abandoned homes, snow removal unsightly lawns and vacant lots, crime, bad roads, old plumbing nonworking street lights and many other problems. It is time to come together Detroit was once a beautiful city and can be once more the architectural dream in the early 19th century. The craftsmanship has declined the hand carved wood trim, stained glass windows and many other antiquates that made Detroit the great motor city and one if the paramount cities in the world. A place that holds a lot of history, fine arts, good food and, riverfront views, also some of the most beautiful theaters in the United States. Although the great city of Detroit cannot be brought back overnight the communities can contribute to the restoration of the city by buying into their communities. Buying into a community would require homeowners and renters who wish to become potential homeowners to pay a monthly fee with a reduced amount toward the purchase of their home. The fee would cover some amenities such as lawn maintenance, snow removal, and working street lights, the removal of blight. Citizens would be allowed to participate in decisions concerning any new developments, or prospects coming into the community, such as creating community gardens similar to the one created by Dan Muth, co-coordinator of the Bangor Community Garden, who states “They create great learning environments for gardeners or people who haven’t done

Cities are generators of economic life and source of changes in the world. Thereby, Jane Jacobs in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities puts into relief the role of cities on the social and economic levels, while denouncing the disastrous consequences of urban renewal programs. To that extent, in chapters 2 and 3, she discusses "The Uses of Sidewalks”, arguing that over all people need safety and trust in their city. Therefore, first she claims the necessity of keeping streets and sidewalks safe because they are the “vital organs” of cities (29). Secondly, she argues that the functioning of cities should be organized in order to foster human interaction in which “casual public

She had a medal, numerous published books, spoke at graduations, left behind a legacy, and was even a legacy. Her most famous piece of work was “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”. This book was her most influential book and is said to be the most famous book of city planning in the 20th century. The book is a critique of the urban planning policy of the time period. This planning policy was the reason for the decline in many neighborhoods in big cities throughout the entire country. As well as the reason for so many destroyed and isolated communities, particularly those of lower economic means. Jane in her book was voicing a un popular opinion and proposed a new idea. In the book Jane focused in her ideas to abolish zoning laws and to restore free markets. Jane used her home of Greenwich Village as an example of a thriving urban community that was based on the ideals of a mixture of all people, buildings, and uses. This book challenged many architect of the time as well as the entire modern development mindset that was to be used in urban planning throughout the country. Another well known Jane wrote is “The Economy of Cities”. In this book Jane incorporated her love for economics as well as her love for design and architecture. She argued that drastic economic growth comes from cities that are producing their own goods. By replacing imports Jane believes that the infrastructure, skills of workers, and production speed would increase and become beneficial to all other aspects of the major cities. Therefore with the major cities being more stable the surrounding neighborhoods would be more stable as well. Jacobs other big controversial move was when she argues that cities are more important than agriculture. Jane argues that the trade done in cities is more cost effective and beneficial than the land competition than that of the agriculture on the outskirts of the cities. Soon after Jane

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.

In Jane Jacobs’s acclaimed The Life and Death of Great American Cities, she intricately articulates urban blight and the ills of metropolitan society by addressing several binaries throughout the course of the text. One of the more culturally significant binaries that Jacobs relies on in her narrative is the effectively paradoxical relationship between diversity and homogeneity in urban environments at the time. In particular, beginning in Chapter 12 throughout Chapter 13, Jacobs is concerned greatly with debunking widely held misconceptions about urban diversity.

Imagine a city where no green space can be found. Where concrete and steel buildings rise up and block the sun. Where streets are chaotic and gridlocked and citizens are stuffed in cramped, dirty and unsanitary apartments. This was the world of 19th-century cities where human health and happiness were disregarded for economic gain. These horrid conditions shaped the lives and ideas of three very influential men: Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. They took their own experiences and redesigned the sprawling metropolis to improve the lives of the residents. Each man created urban utopias that included green spaces, farms, and parks to improve air quality and the livelihoods of the people. Despite theses similar views, each design differed from the others. Howard, Le Corbusier, and Wright all completely reimagined the urban city in differing ways based on scale, distribution of land and technology. Their design concepts have been adapted across the globe and implemented into modern urban planning everywhere.

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,

Designing a city from scratch is a remarkable thought experiment but ultimately fails at implementation because we always approach it from the perspective of “how can we create a new city that solves problems of existing cities.” It’s less a process driven by design and more by critique. Urban living has paved its way into modern society, yet the vision for a city has changed over time. Large settlements need planning to grow; yet differences in minds is what leads to the modifications of a city, in return makes a city so unique. Alterations in opinions are what thrives urban life, still these differences are what skews the view of how others see a city compared to myself. They say the eye of the beholder deems beauty; this could explain