I Am From Lima, Ohio

My grandparents have owned a lake cottage in Piedmont, Ohio since before I was born. Ever since I was baby I have traveled the one and a half hour drive to our cottage. As I grew older, I took in the scenery and the little towns along the way. One sleepy little farm town in particular we drive through, seventeen minutes away from the lake, is called Cadiz; also known as the town that hosts the Hopedale Mining Coal Company. Yet, I never even knew until eighteen years later that a coal mining operation is stationed there.

faster for less money than before. This, in turn, allowed for wider market areas in

Second, the development of new public transit systems, was important in shaping the design of our cities and the growth of our cities by enabling people to move further away from the inner city. Early on, large cities didn’t really have public transportation. Their main source of transportation were horse drawn wagons and walking. In conclusion, most people lived near on in the downtown area, where most of the working establishments were located. Because of this, it made big cites crowed and congested. With the breakthrough of the “el”, electric streetcars, and subways, around 1867, cities began expand more. Those who were fortunate enough to move out of the dirty cities and into better neighborhoods surrounded outside the city, did so. The new transit systems in most cities allowed people to escape the chaos of urban life and provided potential for growth of our cities.

1. The American city was changed drastically in the first half of the 20th century with the beginnings of the industrial revolution and the ongoing flow of foreigners into an already crowded United States.

nation's great cities and as oil refining rose so did the popularity of the automobile. With these

Gradually, the oil glut began to affect ordinary Texans. Soon after Spindletop, the availability of an ocean of cheap oil encouraged its use as fuel for transportation and manufacturing. After railroads converted from coal to oil, steamships followed, led by those operating in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. As automobiles became more common, roads began to be paved across the state. Mechanization of farm work increased quickly, enabling farmers to produce more food with fewer people. Manufacturing plants developed in the formerly agricultural state, using cheap oil as fuel. Texas' population scales, heavily weighted toward the rural before Spindletop, started to balance, and by 1940, the population was almost even: 55 percent rural and 45 percent urban. World War II tipped the scales, however, when wartime jobs at manufacturing plants in the cities lured large numbers of people from farms and small towns. Most never returned. This displacement of farming families was exacerbated by the absorption of many family farms into large corporate operations. Increasing numbers of migrants from other states and foreign countries also settled principally in urban centers. By 1980, the state was four-fifths urban. The political economy of resource-rich states faces an inherent tension between the role of the state and the private sector over control of

In the 1800s, the first Steel Mills were built in Youngstown, Ohio and it’s economy flourished their Steel Mills produced the majority of steel used in World War I, their economy picked up once again during World War II. This created many jobs. On September 19, 1977, “Black Friday,” was started. It was the beginning of the end for Youngstown, Ohio’s stable economy. On September 19, 1977 Youngstown starting losing the steel industry jobs, this lasted until the mid 1980s. Youngstown, Ohio became apart of the ,”Rust Belt,” along with Pittsburg. The,” Rust Belt is a chain of cities in northeastern and Midwestern US, that are known for their declining industries. According to Professor Harris, Youngstown, “Ohio will NEVER Recover. Youngstown, Ohio

For the start of immigration in the mid 19th century, Cleveland has become a city full of cultural diversity and outside influence. In some cities at this time, people were forced to give up their traditions and culture, and assimilate into the already established culture of the city. In Cleveland, this allowed for a diverse workforce and unique neighborhoods. When the industrial revolution began, there was a spark in Cleveland's population and value, as a central city, between Minnesota and western Pennsylvania, Cleveland became the major hub for steel manufacturing. Companies, population and popularity of Cleveland grew exponentially while John D. Rockefeller grew his standard oil and railroad business. But then something unexpected happened, the great depression hit the United States hard, but it hit the city of Cleveland even

For many years cities like Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland to name a few, have been slowly losing population and the end of the decrease still hasn’t been determined yet. The city of Cleveland has been hit with multiple downturns; declining steel mill, massive ford plant shutdowns, increased crime rate, and the inner city school district quality. Coming into this world, we are always striving towards the “American Dream” and for the people in the city; this idea is starting to fade away because of the lack of opportunity for them to succeed. The city council of Cleveland needs to rebuild the industry and fund better schooling in order to prevent thousands of people from leaving.

Another large problem was our transportation, which originally was a network of buses. Now, we use a hyperloop system, where tracks are both elevated and underground–similar to the High Line in New York City. At each individual train stop, there are public plazas with businesses. Encouraging social cohesion within a community by improving and adding public spaces builds on local economies. That’s actually one of the problems that we

In the mid 1800’s, Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood began growing and eventually grew into a fully developed thriving business district during the 1900’s. The country’s first oil refinery was chartered in East Liberty in 1868, and this company served as a model for other oil companies for years to come. With an increase in industry and business, East Liberty soon became the third largest business district in Pennsylvania. Despite this growth, The Great Depression unsurprisingly hit East Liberty, along with the rest of the country. Many of the thriving

Ohio's geographic location has proven to be an asset for saving advancement and expansion. Because Ohio links the Northeast to the Midwest, much cargo and concern traffic depart through its borders along its well-developed highways. Ohio has the nationality's 10th largest highway network, and is within a one-day drive of 50% of North America's population and 70% of North America's manufacturing

Some people believe that Detroit is comparable to a blank canvas. A place where an opportunity is lurking right around the corner. They imagine it as a deserted place, in which a businessman can create anything they dream of. However, the harsh reality is, Detroit is not a blank canvas. It has been splattered with an era of prominence, scribbled on with the invention of the automobile, and engraved with a history of racism and corruption. Although much of Detroit’s glory has been stripped away, there are still people who exist in the city’s remnants. Actual people, with actual families, actual homes, and actual lives. When outsiders talk about the city’s revival, they are often forgetting about these people, or the actual citizens of

In this chapter, the author highlights the failing economy of Northeast Ohio. After the decline of the steel industry, the region lost tens of thousand of jobs and thousands of citizens moved out as a result. Although the region saw a slight boost in their economic growth, they were comparably slow to many other metropolitan areas in the country.

The dependency on mining during the 19th and 20th centuries crippled the Upper Peninsula’s economy, causing a diaspora of migrants looking for work to head to lower Michigan, or other states. Mines began to close as ore prices heavily decreased, where Northern Michigan’s economy crumbled, towns became deserted, and the wealth the peninsula had once seen dwindled. Despite this, the Upper Peninsula’s economy has been on the rebound, as “Over the last forty years, average income per resident… has risen 71 percent, almost as fast as the national growth rate and much faster than the growth rate across Michigan. In addition the total income received by all residents together grew 65 percent in inflation adjusted terms. Jobs expanded by a third” (1). The economic sustenance from mining would only incur further economic degradation by pushing the reliance of mining onto a community still struggling from when it was taken away. Mining is still profitable for the region, and would conclude with a starting point for the Northern Michigan economies to gain income to plan greater economic outputs, where “The Eagle Mine… will pump $4 billion into Marquette County over its eight-year lifespan and employ about 300 while generating economic activity that will create 1,200 additional jobs” (2). The lifespan of a mine gives the region a timeframe of when they will expect to be forced to search for different fiscal opportunities, or give them a window of how long they have to find new generators of income to subsidize their current economic fallings. Mining reserves would be able to prolong the life of the mine, furthering the amount of time the region has to structure their economies on other sustainable means, as “unlike most goods and services, copper is an exhaustible resource” concluding that there “are therefore limits to cumulative copper production”