Urban Zoning Is Convenient, It Has Negative Impacts On The Environment Essay

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.

Urban studies aims to develop an understanding the modern city metropolis. As Savage et al. have pointed out, the urban encompasses far more than just the physical city itself; understanding the city help us to understand many aspects of modern life (2003, pp.4). Many of its features, such as mass media and public transport systems have spread throughout society over the past century. Sociological studies of urban life began with the landmark publication of 'The City' in 1925 by sociologists Robert Park, Ernest Burgess and Louis Wirth from the University of Chicago, students of Georg Simmel who shared his belief that the urban environment changed man's

Paul Goldberger, an American architectural critic once quoted, “Urbanism works when it creates the journey as desirable as the destination.”

Urban sustainability is the idea that an urban area can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of this is to create the smallest possible environmental footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the urban area overall contribution to climate change minimal. Therefore allowing the next generations and future generations to have the required resources without compromising them. However sustainably needs to focus also on other issues such as crime and economic factors.

In “Walking and the Suburbanized Psyche,” the author, Rebecca Solnit, argues that the development of suburbanization has been the primary problem as to why our modern society continues to devalue the significance and impact of walking. Suburbanization hasn’t only changed the way we travel from one place to another, but it has also changed the way we communicate amongst each other and with ourselves. Walking is looked down upon and has been seen as a symbol of low status. This has led people to exterminate the use of walking in their daily lives. However, even if someone would like to walk to their destination they can’t due to the fact that places are shaping their roads to accommodate to the excess use of cars. I agree with Solnit that walking has a positive impact towards our bodies, our world, and our imagination.

The author Kenneth Jackson suggest that "suburbanization has been the most private but normal way for American life," and it is still one of the most influential diagrams when it comes to the styles of American rural areas. He also talks about how the car, government projects, prejudice, and various other monetary, political, and social conditions made it more idealistic to push for advancement outward which in return caused for the demolishing of urban communities one by one. Jackson starts off by talking about the contrasting lodging designs in America vs. the ones in Europe. He also makes mention of the revolutionary nature of the five spatial chacrteristics that were shared worldwide by every major city in the world in 1815. During this time the most economical and easiest way to get around was on foot and as a result the term “walking cities “was

Today we have a much greater understanding than any time before on what if affecting our health that has led to an alarming rate of chronic conditions, including heart disease, obesity, asthma, depression, and diabetes. These are directly linked to poor diet, lack of exercise, and land-use patterns, including access to transportation, urban design, and housing characteristics that can make an impact on people’s ability to participate in physical activity. The land-use pattern that has plagued the United States and Florida since the end of World War II has been suburban sprawl that has led to auto-dependence, air pollution, and a much higher risk of respiratory disease. However, we have the ability to combat these tragedies by shaping

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

The convenience of living in an urban or suburban neighborhood can be appealing to many people. Choosing between areas can sometimes be overwhelming for some individual. People are not only concerned about the safety of a community, but they are also concerned about the environment. Although some neighborhoods might look attractive, people should consider the expense that comes with it, and how commuting will affect them in the long run. Nevertheless, both neighborhoods have their specific advantages and disadvantages. When choosing between an urban or suburban neighborhood, it is important for people to research the community, the expense, and convenience

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

What Would a Non-Sexist City Be Like explores the development of metropolitan and urban areas within the United States. The urban and suburban communities, although diversified from one another, share a communal link as a result of industrialization. "The urban region, organized to separate homes and workplaces, must be seen as a whole" (Hatden 171). Through this statement, Hayden seeks to explain that the average commute within urbanized areas is 9 miles each way, as the United States, containing 13% of the worlds population, uses 41% of the world's passenger vehicles. Capitalism within the United States, especially in the period from the late 1890s to the early 1920s, helped to shape this commuter-style way of life for Americans.

Cities are characterized by the patterns of streets and squares that define their arrangement, a concept that undergoes frequent changes since the establishment of cities 10,000 years ago. There are multitude factors that influence such changes with system of government, values, population size, values, artistic sensibility, building methods, design techniques, paving techniques, military considerations, and transport technology being the main determinants. Medieval architectural designs emphasized on rigid grid forms, that contemporary writers of the history of urban planning and design, assume the presence of grids even in plans where they exist in approximate forms. Absence of grids is often perceived as lack of planning. Nevertheless, it is critical to note that the complex patters of streets in medieval cities were neither random nor chaotic.

The study addresses the development of a non-uniform body from Arundo Donax L. stalks’ environmental behaviour.

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,

The thesis consists of three independent chapters on environmental and urban economics. A central theme explored in this thesis is what determines the distribution of economic activities across space. My exploration in this direction begins with the roles of industrial pollution and transportation infrastructure in shaping the spatial distribution of skills, and extends to evaluate the spatial allocation efficiency of renewable energy projects. The first chapter,“The Long Shadow of Industrial Pollution: Environmental Amenities and the Distribution of Skills”, investigates the role of industrial pollution in determining the competitiveness of post-industrial cities, with a focus on their ability to attract skilled workers and shift to a