Urbanization In New York City

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?

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

Midyear Essay Rewrite The expansion of trade led to the urbanization of Europe in the late Middle Ages through the development of towns, guilds, and the rise of education. Urbanization is the process by which cities form and expand. As trade expanded, a city's popularity could grow and more merchants would want to travel there to receive more business and customers.

All in all the industrial revolution had a positive effect on society, accomplishing things many do not realize and creating a turn of events that would put the USA as the world power. New farming methods meant better diets, which lead to lower death rates. Efficient and useful inventions, as well as machinery, made it easier for people to work, and made more job opportunities, as well as enjoyment in the workplace. More and easier ways of travel became commonplace, such as railroads. In addition, as cities began to grow, streetlights provided safety at night, and our economy grew greatly. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily negative consequences for society because it caused children to be used as workers and made school

Gentrification is a major reason for the increase in rent prices throughout New York City. Harlem rent prices have gone up over the past years because of new condominiums and businesses that are being built in neighborhoods. The displacement of residents leads to an increase of people becoming homeless in the city. According to the author, Ivan Pereira, “Harlem saw a 9.4 % average rent price increase during that same period from $2,191 last year to $ 2,397 in January” (Pereira 1). The change causes longtime residents to move out because of a variety of factors including unaffordability, pressure from property owners, diminishing or lack of stores that cater to them and many more. The more condominiums and business’s being built makes living

Urbanization of the United States in Late 1800s In the late 1800s, the United States experienced rapid urbanization, or growth, due to the massive amounts of immigrants from all over the world, who came over to America in search for work in the recent technological boom. Despite the hardships of the journey, they came, which strengthened the United States. With the massive amounts of immigrants, it led to many problems including lack of sanitation in large cities, transportation problems, housing predicaments, large fires which devastated thousands, crime, and lack of clean water in bulk for the public. To fix these problems, people such as Jane Addams started to find solutions to the multiple problems that came with urbanization, and some solutions by the government included the Social Gospel movement and the establishment of settlement houses.

Five Points was a Lower Manhattan neighbourhood named after its five-cornered intersection of Anthony, Orange, and Cross Streets. Five Points is notoriously known as New York City’s most slum neighbourhood. Immigrants, such as the Irish, the Italians, and the Chinese, lived in this neighbourhood. In the present, Five Points does not exist, and is now known as Chinatown. A religious view on the neighbourhood was: “the most notorious precinct of moral leprosy in the city,… a perfect hot-bed of physical and moral pestilence,… a hell-mouth of infamy and wow.” While, Charlie Dicken’s describes the neighbourhood as: “…loathsome, dropping, and decayed” Others asserted that Five Points was the slum neighbourhood, and no other city could rival

There has been a recent phenomenon throughout the United States of gentrification. As older parts of neighborhoods are occupied by new tenants with money, the neighborhood changes and loses its old character. Those who might have lived in those neighborhoods their entire lives are pushed out as rents begin to skyrocket and the surroundings begin to change. This has happened in many neighborhoods. One of the most well known is San Francisco, where technology companies have brought in new software engineers that have caused local rents to skyrocket and people to move out of the area. However, just as importantly has been the influx of new money to Brooklyn, where local neighborhood changes have forced people from their homes, traditional music to be replaced, and old businesses to go bankrupt.

What if I told you that the main reason, people are moving out of Washington, D.C is due to the lack of affordable housing. To be more specific, residents are moving out of D.C due to the Gentrification that is occurring throughout the city. Gentrification is a “term” that was invented in 1964 by a sociologist, named Ruth Glass. Glass “coined” the term, Gentrification when she was observing how some inner parts of London were being refined by those of higher social status when they began living there. Furthermore, she noticed that said parts of London became very expensive to live in, which in turn left those who belonged to the lower social status who lived there no choice but to move out and find somewhere else to live. Gentrification,

We live in a world controlled by an invisible yet very present force that shapes the way we live our daily lives. With industry as its host and technology as the blood being pumped into its heart, it is a force powerful enough to bend politics to fit its needs. Capitalism; a method of industry where production and distribution are privately or corporately owned, its operation grows through profits, exploitation of labor, and extinguishing competition. During the Industrial Revolution technology was on the global stage. Factories and machines are built in existing cities producing and distributing mass goods on a global scale. Over time this fast production of goods would replace the old agricultural economy to a modern urban economy. Today the revolution is praised for creating a global trade market while surging us into a world of technology.

Post World War Two brought upon not only the Baby Boom but urbanization of the African American community and the Great Black Migration. As the birth rate rapidly increased so did construction growth. However developers began pulling people to the outskirts of cities by creating affordable track homes. Along with the GI Bill this allowed people to afford homes and brought upon a surge in consumption. The growth in consumption and development pulled African Americans to Northern and Western cities in search of a better life. They were tired of the oppression and sought out better opportunities economically. As African Americans and the population moved from the country life to the city, the United States became highly urbanized.

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

One major problem found with industrialization is the development of political machines. A political machine is a group that controls politics for financial gain. One major political machine was located in New York City in the Tammany Hall building led by Boss Tweed. William L. Riordan wrote about George Washington Plunkitt who worked under Boss Tweed. He would use insider knowledge to make a profit. Plunkitt would find out the city was going to build a jail, so he would buy the land for the jail at a low rate then sell it to the city at a high rate. This would create a profit to give back to Boss Tweed. Plunkitt would also help families that had their houses burnt down to get them to agree to anything he said. This allows for the political

At the beginning of Chapter 20, it was discussed how 80% of Rio de Janeiro has become urbanized, yet the other 20% of citizens live in slums. This is similar to what is happening in Detroit and my family and I witnessed that first hand when we took a trip to Detroit a couple years back. While living in Downtown Detroit, I was never aware that most of the city’s area was covered in slums, until I travelled around the city. I was astonished to see street after street filled with slums and abandoned homes. In addition, I began to realize how the higher authorities in Detroit try to conceal this part of Detroit. These individuals only desire you to observe Downtown Detroit, filled with massive buildings and stadiums, even though majority of the

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.