The Future Of Development : America 's Urban Future

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?

Even after reading Mark Binelli 's book Detroit City is the Place to Be, it is difficult to believe that the city he is writing about exists here in the United States. This is after all, an economically prosperous, first world country. What Binelli so vividly describes is a place that could very well exist in some third world country. A third world slum-like city that boasts of not only one, but two professional sports teams. It is intriguing to ponder the whys and how’s of Detroit 's condition and failure to thrive. Despite the best intentions by those tasked with reviving and restoring this city to an at least functional state (the best that could seemingly be hoped for), Detroit seems to continuously decline. Binelli takes the reader through the sequences of events and causes that moved Detroit from a nineteenth century economically prosperous city, to a present day ghost of what once was.

In the constantly changing economy of cities, the growth of city housing is oftentimes neglected. In “Cities Mobilize to Help Those Threatened by Gentrification” Timothy Williams recounts how gentrification has evolved over the years. Mentioning how cities have changed in order to appease the younger professionals, Williams shows how the city itself is in jeopardy due to the tax increases. Slowly loosing their faithful residents as well as historic culture cities face a big deal. Williams gives quotes from faithful residents, “…long time homeowners are victims of the success story”, (Williams 346). In “Cities Mobilize to Help Those Threatened by Gentrification”, Williams uses his credible quotes and modern statistics to generate the reader’s emotions, with desire to change how city officials go about gentrification in culturally infused cities.

It is no secret that homelessness is quickly becoming an epidemic in the United States, but the homeless population is not one secular demographic. For every person in the US living on the street, there is a unique story of how they got there; nonetheless, that is not to say that many of these stories are without some commonalities. Along with homelessness, there is another issue plaguing American cities, but this issue is much more covert, and exists under a guise of improvements like fancy apartments and trendy restaurants. Gentrification is defined as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste” (Erikson); but what that definition fails to mention is the discourse it has on the

The viewers were given an overview of the existing issues and shown some examples of projects aimed at solving these issues in various cities across America. One issue profiled was the change in ethnic composition of suburban residents which was discussed as visits to Muslim-American, Latino and Asian-American communities took place. Showing various aspects of these communities in real time and comparing them to the beliefs about these same communities which were clearly untrue or changed has made the case for why suburban developments as intended are not a sustainable plan going forward. That set the stage for the final message as the need to revise the vision for new development and redevelopment with an emphasis on defining a sustainable vision which is both economically viable and incorporates the changes witnessed since the developments were built. Then the film showcased some regional best management practices that have addressed and solved a few of the developmental and infrastructure problems back in 2008, and also profiled Long Island as the first modern suburban

Source D examines gentrification from a satirical perspective. Most gentrification supporters believe property owners of a neighborhood to be, as Source D describes, “clueless.” While it may seem that gentrification revitalizes a neighborhood, it actually damages the unique culture of a neighborhood. It is important to respect the traditions of an area rather than cite “renovation” and “business endeavors” as a just motive for destroying the culture of a neighborhood. The political cartoon in Source F depicts the culture change Brooklyn experienced after gentrification. Spike Lee, the man speaking in the comic, grew up in Brooklyn and has supported the culture there for many years. Meanwhile, Brooklyn, like many other neighborhoods including Harlem and other urban areas, has lost its original culture as a result of gentrification. When renovating a city, retaining the culture and traditions must be a

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.

Gentrification is the process of turning a working class neighborhood into a middle or upper class neighborhood by renovating old buildings then selling them to more affluent buyers. This has been pushing minorities, mainly African Americans, out of their homes and into less fortunate neighborhoods that they can afford. This happens all over the country but has been more common in the last 16 years, as cities population percentages grow the percentage of minorities seem to decrease. Housing in cities have dramatically increased for some reason other than there not being enough room for everyone moving into cities or are they trying to push certain people out such as african americans?

Since the earliest days of our history, cities have served as the center for economic activity, social diversity, and religious inquiry. As renowned sociologist Joel Kotkin would say, cities are sacred, safe, and busy. When we look at the modern city, we see these concepts in action. Today, cities are defined by mass populations surrounding and creating major centers of commerce and economic activity. This density creates a diverse social climate in which fosters creativity and conversation, which can often times feed into the religious historical significance of cities. This density brings along with it a whole host of issues and various challenges that must be faced by the community in which they involve. One such issue is the idea of socio- economical inequality that comes as a result of dense populations sharing the same resources within a certain area. Within any community there are limited resources, and one such resource within a city is that of land and property availability. Gentrification, or the process in which developers purchase cheap properties to turn them over into more expensive and desirable assets, is a common practice in modern cities in the effort to reclaim some of this precious resource. In looking at the city of Chicago in the United States as well as the city of Lisbon in Portugal, I will

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.

Currently, policymakers are mostly concerned with the economic impacts a policy will have. While economic factors are important when evaluating and analyzing policies, there needs to be more of an emphasis on the social impacts policies have, especially when it comes to community development policies. Although it is not the only issue with currently popular community development policies, gentrification is one of the most problematic and enlightening conflicts of our time. The core issue with gentrification is it does not benefit the people who are most marginalized in the city. One can argue it improves neighborhoods by bringing business development, improving housing, and increasing median incomes, but these benefits do nothing to help the

Additionally, current studies suggest that rapid urbanization and economic recession are variables required for the violent conflicts to happen (xxx, 54). This largely relates to the impacts of structural adjustment policies promoted by international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank on poor nations (xxx, 55). Global economic recession, incapable economic and administrative organizations, and financial and fiscal bungle at the national level all contribute their part (xxx, 56). Unending economic problems prompt rising grievances in the population and among marginalized groups. Extended economic crisis squeezes tax revenues, and consequently debilitates all state establishments including the legal, the administration,

It is said that you should once live in a big city as it’s an experience of a lifetime. Urban spaces have so many things to offer: great restaurants, concerts and festivals, and malls and museums. Surely, you have heard of stories about people especially teenagers who want to escape the dull lives of suburbia and make their ways to a big city. Urban life and urban space have been glamorized by films, televisions, and music: Sex And The City (2008), Gossip Girl (2007-2012), Empire State of Mind, etc. However, some filmmakers step out of the glitz and the glamor and reveal the dark side of urban spaces. Roger and Me (1989), Wall Street, and A Civil Action (1998) exhibit the truth of corporate capitalism that creates indifference towards inequality in the urban landscape.

Automobile is one of the most important transportation thing that is now governing the transportation all through the world and it's use is rising over the time. The North Americans seem to be dependent on automobile, but the new implementation of urban planning methods and new transportation systems is going to take on automobile use in coming years and some reasons are as following.

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