The Emergence Of 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.

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the United States experienced a large increase in political, economic, and social reforms. During this time, there had been an increase in urbanization, and industrial factories within the larger cities throughout the United States, particularly in the northeastern cities. With the addition of the industries and factories too populated also came a growing number of immigrants, and seekers of wealth and employment. As a result, the population increase would result in major issues which would overshadow the economic gains that came from industrialization. In addition, the rise of industrialization also brought about major issues within the populations of the city. After seeing

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 had very little and inadequate transportation. Their main source of transportation were horse drawn wagons and walking. As a result, most people lived or took housing near downtown, which was where most of the working establishments were located. This made the big cities very congested. However with the breakthrough of the “el”, electric streetcars, and subways, around 1867, cities began to open up more. Those who were fortunate enough to move out of the slums and into better surrounding neighborhoods, did so. The more affluent of the white-collar classes moved into the suburban areas. In contrast, many of the very wealthy continued to live in city mansions. The new transit systems in most cities allowed people to escape the chaos of urban life and provided potential for growth of our cities.

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

Urbanization in America was driven by the massive unskilled immigrants who wanted jobs and an opportunity to start their new life in a country known to most as “The land of opportunity”. Urbanization have made many changes to America. The cities have become a place to look for opportunities and a popular place to migrate for work either for the people from the rural area or immigrants from outside the county. Which will then lead to political issues and finally the restriction of immigration itself. The process of Urbanization started in the late 1800’s triggered by the Industrial Revolution and Industrialization. Several factors played in the process one of which is the Gilded Age who had a crucial importance in relation to the shift from

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

The nation’s cities was the first target for the Progressive reform with the high rapid growth throughout the urban

¬¬Portland, Oregon, a city known for its abundance of unique neighborhoods, lively downtown and natural beauty, experienced major transformations during the past fifty years due to an influx of population growth that led the city to go from a modest 370,000 people to over 500,000 people today. Portland was forced to make some key urban planning decisions to accommodate its growing population, which ultimately forced expansion of its network of public transportation systems. The city’s actions toward suburban growth created the organized and prosperous Portland of today.

The industrialization that occurred in the northern United States during the mid-to- late 1800's drastically changed the face of the working class and the urban landscape. "These years were some in which science and invention progressed rapidly and created a base for growth in all phases of the economy – transportation, communication, agriculture, mining, and manufacturing" (Axinn & Stern, 2005, p. 84). During the war there was an increase in the output of war goods and an increase in prices of food and clothing which encouraged industrialization. Since the demand for labor increased, there was influx of both immigrants from other countries and migrants from rural to urban areas. Industrialization, in conjunction with territorial expansion

Many people moved away from the city to live in the clean, safe suburbs. Therefore, the use of automobiles for transportation was promoted because the suburbs were further away from the city. This lead to the vast expansion of the national highway system. This new highway system was accessible to the suburbs and the city because it connected the suburbs with the city and made transportation faster. The national highway system also made it easier for those living in the suburbs to commute to work in the city (“Suburban Homes”).

The significance of the suburbs for the development of the United States was crucial in the 1950s. In the 1950s the US was the strongest nation because it was able to thrive in its economy and military powers. Because of the thrive of economy people were able to buy cars and houses outside of the city. Since they had transportation outside of the city. People moved to the outskirts of the city because they had a lot of babies. After world war two was over a lot of Americans had children because of they were happy to find peace and believed that it would last. This era Americans had more employments and the wages were

However, in the Industrial Revolution, the rapid urban growth caused more trouble. For instance, the rapid growth worsened long-standing over-crowding and unhealthy living conditions and posed frightening challenges for society (Mckay et al., 2012). In other words, the lower classes that immigrated from the farm lands didn’t live a better life. The urbanization was a too rapid movement for the government to react/ response to the challenges and needs for the society.

Time of incredible urban communities, populace blast more than half lived in urban zones by 1920. Particular urban society made by ascent of enormous urban communities Heterogeneous populace in urban communities. The possibility of Occupations, riches, fervor had urged numerous to move into the enormous urban communities. New social issues had risen. Destitution, political debasement, personal satisfaction issues. Likewise the expanding predominance of

In “Suburbanization: USA” Robert Fishman describes the rise of suburbs in the United States, providing foundational historical information and explaining the ways in which American cultural norms contributed to urban decentralization. Growing up in the suburbs, I primarily thought of Chicago as a cultural center: fancy shops, nice restaurants, and museums. I never viewed it as a residential area. To think that suburbia largely did not exist 100 years ago, as Fishman explains, is astounding to me. My entire life has been spent in suburbs, and I know few people who hail from major cities.

In the late nineteenth century, the city was both a symbol of hope and uncertainty. The frontier was at an end, which meant many did not have the option of leaving the city in order to begin a new life as settlers in the West. Instead, the city became the new frontier with many flocking to the urban center with the hope of achieving wealth and success. However, like the Goodenoughs and the Marches, country-born people did not quite understand the environment of the city, and they believed that they would be able to live somewhat similarly to their country life. Cities were overrun with crime, overcrowding, and deception, and instead of working to solve these issues, many either ignored or became part of the problem.