Urban Life

1
Chapter 15

• Urban Life

2
Colonial Villages 1565-1800

• The period of 1565-1800 was one of tiny villages
• Small in size with no more than a few hundred
  residents at first
• Walking villages-mostly pedestrian traffic
• People knew one another
• These early settlements grew slowly

3
Westward Expansion 1800-1860

• Westward migration
• Followed new transportation routes
• National Road
• By 1860 about 20 of the population was living in
  cities

4
The Industrial Metropolis 1860-1950

• Civil war and industrial and urban expansion
• Industrial metropolis
• Cities grew in population
• Expanded outwards around the development of new
  urban forms of transportation

5
The Industrial Metropolis 1860-1950

• Immigration and Anti-Urban Bias
• Cities were synonymous with immigrants
• Ethnic prejudice and the anti-urban bias
• Cities were synonymous with social problems
• Early part of the twentieth century urban living
  was very difficult

6
Postindustrial Cities and Suburbs 1950-Present

• Post WW II and migration to the suburbs
• Suburbs-urban areas beyond the political
  boundaries of cities
• Postindustrial developments-information
  technology made possible the economic development
  of the suburbs
• Decentralizing population from the central cities

7
Fiscal Problems

• Movement of populations and industry from the
  central city led to some fiscal problems in the
  1970s
• Corporate mergers and downsizing and loss of jobs
  in the city
• Poor were left behind along with an increase in
  demand for city services

8
Fiscal Problems

• The postindustrial Revival
• Postindustrial economic growth and the
  revitalization of cities
• Immigrants and population growth

9
Urban Sprawl

• Cities and outward expansion
• Government policies
• Interstate highways
• Low cost housing
• The emergence of the megalopolis-urban region
  containing a number of cities and their
  surrounding suburbs

10
Urban Sprawl

• Urban sprawl-rapid,unplanned, and low-density
  development at the edge of urban areas
• Urban sprawl
• The numbness of urban sameness
• Consumption of land
• Auto-gridlock and pollution

11
Urban Sprawl

• Edge Cities business centers located some
  distance from the old downtowns
• Mostly commercial developments
• Most major cities contain several edge cities
• Urban decentralization has increased the plight
  of the poor
• Loss of city jobs to edge cities

12
Poverty

• Migration of city jobs to the suburbs and
  elsewhere and the concentration of poverty in
  cities
• Disadvantaged minorities
• Lack of economic opportunities

13
Housing Problem

• The Horror of the Tenements
• Immigrants and tenement housing in the early part
  of the twentieth century
• Poorly constructed
• Crowded living conditions
• The 1930s and the New Deal saw improvement in
  housing

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Housing Problem

• Inner-City Decline
• Post WW II and the migration of city dwellers to
  the suburbs
• Decline of the city
• Govt., passed the Urban Housing Act of 1949
• Urban Renewal an attempt to revitalize urban
  areas
• Urban renewal and the regeneration of slums

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Housing Problem

• Public Housing
• Urban renewal and the emergence of public housing
• Public Housing-typically high density apartment
  buildings, constructed with government funds to
  house poor people

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Housing Problem

• Public Housing
• Concerns and Criticisms of public housing
• Liberals saw it as a band aid approach to the
  housing problem
• Conservatives objected to government getting into
  the housing business and interfering with
  free-enterprise
• Poor objected to the cultural stigma associated

17
Housing Problem

• Oscar Newmans study
• High-rise buildings and higher crime rates
• Most crimes occurred in public parts of the
  buildings
• Reason
• -High-rise living breeds anonymity

18
Racial Segregation

• Race, poverty and residential segregation
• Hypersegregation-entire districts of a city
  racially segregated
• Minority/poor urbanites are
• -Spatially isolated
• -Socially isolated

19
Homelessness

• Approximately 500,000 people are homeless on any
  given day
• Largely an urban problem
• Poverty puts people at risk of becoming homeless
• Family conflict and becoming homeless
• Decline in affordable rental/housing units

20
Homelessness

• Solution to homelessness
• Supportive housing-program that combines
  low-income housing with on-site social services
• Build more low-income units

21
Snowbelt and Sunbelt Cities

• Population transfer from snowbelt cities to the
  sunbelt
• Change in political influence and power from
  snowbelt to sunbelt

22
Cities in Poor Countries

• About 75 of the population of rich nations live
  in cities
• About 25 of the population in poor countries
  live in cities
• Urban population is increasing globally
• -Rural to urban migration and the emergence of
  shantytowns

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Structural-Functional Analysis A Theory of
Urbanism

• Ferdinand Tonnies Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• Gemeinschaft-type of social organization by which
  people are closely bound by kinship and tradition
• -Rural villages
• Gesellschaft-type of social organization by which
  people interact on the basis of self interest
• -urban communities

24
Structural-Functional Analysis A Theory of
Urbanism

• Emile Durkheim Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
• Mechanical solidarity-social bonds based on
  common feelings and shared moral values
• -Rural villages
• Organic solidarity-social bonds based on
  specialization and mutual interdependence
• -Urban communities

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Structural-Functional Analysis A Theory of
Urbanism

• Louis Wirth Urbanism as a Way of Life
• Urban life shaped by large dense, and socially
  diverse populations
• Increase in secondary ties and encounters

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Symbolic- Interaction Analysis Experiencing the
City

• George Simmel Urban Stimulation and Selectivity
• Urbanites and a blasé attitude
• Blasé attitude of survival do to over stimulation
• Leo Srole Mental Health in the Metropolis
• Studied urban life and mental health

27
Social-Conflict Analysis Cities and Inequality

• Urban Political Economy
• Economic and political structure of the of the
  society shape the city
• David Harveys study of Baltimore

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Conservatives The Market and Morality

• Market economy should shape the city
• Conservatives support creating
• -Enterprise zones- inner city where government
  tries to attract new business with the promise of
  tax relief

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Liberals Government Reform

• Problems of cities stem from social inequality
• Liberals favor government intervention into
  solving the problems

30
Radicals The Need for Fundamental Change

• Problems of the city are function of
  inequality,class, race, and gender
• Solutions to the problems of the city would
  require a major overhaul of society and the
  economic and political order