The Perceived Nature Of Contemporary Urban Life Essay

For those only weakly committed to city living, particularly middle-class people who have serious difficulty with social diversity and who have clear housing alternatives, the "problem-free" suburbs become tempting. After an incident such as a car break-in or a bicycle theft, a "last straw" can make them leave. (249)

In the book The Great Inversion, author Alan Ehrenhalt reveals the changes that are happing in urban and suburban areas. Alan Ehrenhalt the former editor of Governing Magazine leads us to acknowledge that there is a shift in urban and suburban areas. This revelation comes as the poorer, diverse, city dwellers opt for the cookie cutter, shanty towns at the periphery of American cities known as the suburbs. In similar fashion the suburbanites, whom are socioeconomic advantaged, are looking to migrate into the concrete jungles, of America, to live an urban lifestyle. Also, there is a comparison drawn that recognizes the similarities of cities and their newer, more affluent,

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

In both The Fall of the House of Usher and The Yellow Wallpaper both of the main characters deteriorate into madness. The authors spend a heavy amount of time on characterization and setting, so much that the settings become reflections of the characters. By using suspense, an isolated setting, and the loss of a sense of family the authors show the effect it can have on individuals. In The Fall of the House of Usher the narrator describes the intense, Gothic scene of the house. This creates an atmosphere of gloom and sadness.

This is a picture of Downtown Hyattsville Arts District along the U.S. Route One corridor.This specific revitalized part of the Hyattsville Arts District is a very good example of urban renewal and is part of the Prince George's County Gateway Arts & Entertainment District. The district is just one district of many cultural districts recognized by the national organization, Americans for the Arts. According to Americans for the Arts: “Cultural districts are defined as well-recognized, labeled areas of a city in which a high concentration of cultural facilities and programs serve as the main anchor of attraction. They help strengthen local economies, create an enhanced sense of place, and deepen local cultural capacity”. In other words, these

Some people attracted to living a long time in their communities. As a youth, I’m scared to see one day our cities will be full of homeless people, armed robbers, jobless citizen etc. All this is in the name of gentrification. Gentrification is the way of renovating and improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small business. After the renovation, some people thought that the wealthy people will come and occupy the districts. So the low-income people decided to fight for their community. Nowadays, people who live in their communities for a longer period of time find an interest of staying

The cynical act of deceiving the less clever is, in fact, the gracious act of conveying a “truth” to the same latter group. This ideal is constantly formulated by a central government for the sole purpose of maintaining the classes at the status quo. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, an allegorical satirical novel, the subject of Orwell’s satire is the byproduct of a revolution with Communist roots symbolized by a rebellion on a farm by the inhabited creatures. Two pigs from the animals, Snowball and Napoleon, self-establish themselves over the rest of their animals due to their superior intelligence. Being symbols of actual leaders, Snowball being Leon Trotsky while Napoleon being Joseph Stalin, history tells the reader what will occur.

Urbanism was developed in the early 19th century. Within architecture discourse, the characteristic of urbanism is the interaction of town and city dwellers with the built environment. The concept was explained as the association of the social, civil and cultural with the environment.

From 1890 to 1920, cities in the United States experienced a rapid growth that was unprecedented in years previous. This growth was caused by a number of factors and resulted in both positive and negative consequences. Such factors included, industrialization, technological advances, migration and immigration. Although American cities greatly improved by the expeditious urbanization, these factors also developed numerous challenges including pollution, sanitation problems, a need for environmental reform, political corruption, overcrowding, high crime rates and segregation.

Many families and individuals find themselves at some point questioning the advantages of city living versus country living. It is nearly impossible to find a good answer to this question. What is good for one person might not be good for another. Some people enjoy the busy, hyper active metropolitan city where they can use all amenities and have unlimited opportunities for work and leisure. At the same time, other people feel the urge to be closer to Mother Nature, relaxation, beauty, and peace. They take pleasure in living in the calm and peaceful environment of the countryside and spending their free time fishing, hiking, picking berries in the woods, or playing in the creek. In my opinion, the nature

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,

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

The Urban Revolution, written by V. Gordon Childe, is an intricate article that attempts to figure out when, where, and why the phenomenon of cities began. The article also gives a slight description of what a creates a city, mostly from a historical setting. “Throughout the Pleistocene period, all known human societies were savage in the foregoing sense, and a few savage tribes have survived out of the way parts to the present day.”(Childe 1950). Before the development of cities, the domination of farm lands existed. The largest villages in prehistoric Europe, comprised of about “...52 small one-roomed dwellings, but 16 to 30 houses was a more normal figure.” (Childe 1950). Something I find interesting in the article is that due to the small demographic, everyone in the prehistoric cities or villages had to contribute to the hunting. This was because the social surplus was not big enough to feed idle mouths. Childe went on to say that a city has a hierarchy. He stated that a city makes investments in the sciences and written system. One thing that stood out to me is when

With an increase in urbanization, more people are moving to the industrial cities in pursuit of alternative lifestyle and jobs. Life in city and suburbs can be compared and contrasted with various aspects in mind since they share quite some details in as much as they are vastly different. Firstly, the transportation is more accessible in the city as compared to the suburb where there are no apt transport networks as compared to the city, among the transport mode in the city are subways, busses, trams and ferries. These provide easy, fast and cheap means of getting around in the city in as much as the streets are crowded. This is in contrast to the suburbs since owning a car is mandatory since such public transport systems are not available. When the costs of insurance, fuel expenses and time of commuting are added up then transport in suburbs is seen to be expensive when compared to that in the city. The easy transport in the city does not come all rosy since the city is also flooded with traffic jams due to congestion and this can render transport slow. This is contrast with suburb life where there is no traffic and hence with no congestion traveling in suburbs is more peaceful (Boulter, 2005).

Race, a group of people of common ancestry, distinguished from others by physical characteristics, such as hair type, colour of eyes and skin, stature, etc. It seems that race is to right in the middle of problems these days. Racism is a very big problem in everyday life, it shouldn’t be a problem at all, but unfortunately, people don’t see others how they really are. They assume just by looking at a color. Author Harper Lee of To Kill A Mockingbird, took real-life race problems and used them as inspiration. These connections are Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the famous Scottsboro trials.