Life In Urban America

Through a multitude of significant changes physically, conceptually, economically, and more, the societal reformation of cities in the Progressive Era had set themselves as the foundations of American civilization. The juxtaposition between the rich and poor statuses in these urban areas show the drastic separation within developing cities. Through this division caused a wide variety of living conditions, the majority of which held the overcrowded sections of cities where the population mostly stayed while the higher end communities had more luxurious lives. Through this success of entrepreneurship and economic growth from all aspects in cities, the entire landscape, both physically through innovative architecture and the perspectives outside rural and suburban areas had on them, had transformed for the better in these areas.

For a majority of Earth’s history, its populous has been free to roam and live off of the land, maintaining a balance between the habitat and its inhabitants. However, as technology develops the earth is placed at an even bigger disequilibrium. In the places where massive sequoias reigned, high-rise apartments now stand. Just as water rushed through rivers, cars drive down streets. The populants of Earth continue to innovate, industrialize,and urbanize, but at what cost?

Recent events that have highlighted racial tension in the United States have had even a larger number of opinions that vary regarding why the nation continues to struggle with such a challenging issue. In our text Chapter 6 titled “The City/Suburban Divide” (Judd & Swanstrom, 2015, p. 136) identifies a subject that very well may contribute to the tension. A reference to the “urban crisis” describes a landscape that is littered with “high levels of segregation, inequality and poverty, along with racial and ethnic tensions.” (Judd, et al., p. 165) Many scholars argue that the crisis was a result of the demographic changes the nation experienced following World War II as advancements in technology and infrastructure aided White Mobility. The term “White Flight” has been used to describe a massive relocation early in the twentieth century when the White Middle-Class population left the cities for suburban areas following the great migration.

People in the city generally have much different ways of living and worldviews than people in the country. Adherence to rural customs may begin to slacken, groups of acquaintances and

It has attracted many who are looking for work and a factor of a new exciting way of living. For young men from the rural areas the big cities seemed to offer unlimited job, the ability to enjoy new modern technology such as electricity, transportation, and the telephone. A popular magazine of the era pointed out “The towns are being recruited by those too poor to be able to live in the country as well as by those too rich to be willing to live there”.

As rural workers – the female, the poor, the disenfranchised – made their way to cities like New York and Boston en bloc in search of work and one of the earliest versions of the “American Dream”, the divide between country and urban life was never more apparent. When cities saw an increase in quality of life and opportunity, rural jealousy

For example people felt that traditions weren't there rural way of life. High birth rates were changing and education improved. The health care and education attracted people to move with a friendly society unemployment benefit, universal health care, homeless shelters, and sometimes subsidized services such as public transport. Younger people increased getting an education and getting a job. Labour groups also played an important role in the society. The government changed political patronage to improve better presentation for urban

This led to disease from contaminated drinking water. Crime and corruption ran rampant in these urban areas, whether it was political machines influencing elections or the absence of a police presence because of how large the population was. Pollution from the factories made the air smog ridden and generally unhealthy. Now with all these negatives it was clear some reform needed to be made, there already was a widening gap between rural and urban society. Urban society was beginning to be more progressive and ok with change, they were more secular and multicultural and had a more modern view on the role of women, more of whom worked in cities than in the country. While these progressive views would soon begin to spread rural society at this time was still very traditional with fundamentalist views on religion, combined with growing sentiments of nativism due to the feeling immigrants were stealing their jobs. Movements began in cities to get churches more involved in social issues some churches struggled to adapt and refrained from reforming. Liberal protestants wanted moral reforms and a less literal interpretation of the

In Chapter 2 of the text “Slavery, Emancipation, and Class formation in colonial and Early National New York” explores the centrality of slave labor and race to the development of class relations in colonial and early national New York City. In the 1600’s slave labor was noted as the central point to New York’s colonial economy and to the survival of European culture. The North colonial economy relied more heavily on slavery for free laborer than Manhattan. As a result of the slave era African American males and females became to central force and the foundation of New Yorkers ‘slave economy. Between 1600 and 1738 the slave population

The cities are over crowded with some tenement buildings housing several generations of families. The cities garbage is piling up in the streets due to insufficient ways of removing it. The pollution and smog from the factories causes the sky to turn black and these conditions wreak havoc on public health. Congestion gives a society the urge to act on the impulse to pursuit crime and immorality. Advocates such as NAME believes that congestion complicates the social problem, and that excessive urbanization is a deadly disease, that “killed the Roman Empire.” NAME argues that the very fabric of America is at stake, citing Thomas Jefferson’s 1787 agrarian writings of picturing the country as a utopia of small farmers. Jefferson foresaw the danger and corruption for America with the development of large cities.

In the communities I grew up in, there were frequent changing circumstances that actually left my family not really as part of the community. From dingy, cheap and tiny places for rent, there has been significant points brought to the attention of the reader in this book that could attribute to the failure and success of neighborhoods. In Suburban Nation, the opening pages give a lot of insight on the issues that can come from these big and fancy, new housing developments.

The last time the Cleveland Indians won the World Series? 1948. The last time the Chicago Cubs won The World Series? 1908. This year one of those teams will be crowned the champions of baseball and its city will have a reason to celebrate. Earlier this summer, Cleveland captured the cities first championship in 52 years and since then the city of Cleveland has been reborn. Sport’s have the ability to inspire, teach, and provide hope. In fact this September Cleveland lost its title of “America’s Most Miserable City” and 76% of Clevelanders would recommend others to move to their city. Biggest reason for the change? The city's first major championship since 1964.

"From the first day that the United States won its independance, thoughtful Americans have attempted to define the new national identity" that decolonization invited. Becoming an independant political nation forced citizens to suddenly devise a "community and character" (Finkelman, 63) worthy of this newborn America. It was believed that, once free from Birtish fetters, a unique American character would emerge automatically. But this was not so, and it was left up to the artits, politictians, scientists, businessmen and women, and every other citizen to contrive the American identity. Those who were most accomplished at scrutinizing the American identity and what it was, were the many authors and writers of the 19th century.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were full of evolving social and economic ideas. These views of the social structure of urban society came about through the development of ideas taken from the past revolutions. As the Industrial Revolution progressed through out the world, so did the gap between the class structures. The development of a capitalist society was a very favorable goal for the upper class. By using advanced methods of production introduced by the Industrial Revolution, they were able to earn a substantial surplus by ruling the middle class. Thus, maintaining their present class of life, while the middle class was exploited and degraded. At this time in history, social

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.