1. Chapter 14
Urban Life

2. Colonial Villages:
The period of was one of tiny villages
Small in size with no more than a few hundred residents at first
5% of the population lived in cities in 1776
Largest city was Philadelphia with 42,000 people
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4. Westward Expansion: 1800-1860 Westward migration
Followed new transportation routes
National Road
By 1860 about 20% of the population was living in cities
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5. 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
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6. The Industrial Metropolis: 1860-1950
Social Problems in Cities
Cities were synonymous with immigrants
Ethnic prejudice and the anti-urban bias
Cities were synonymous with social problems
Early part of the 20th century urban living was very difficult
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7. Postindustrial Cities and Suburbs: 1950-Present
Post WWII and migration to the suburbs
Suburbs - urban areas beyond the political boundaries of cities
Post-industrial developments –
Information technology made possible the economic development of the suburbs
Decentralizing population from central city
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8. Fiscal Problems
Movement of populations and industry from the central city
Led to some fiscal problems in the 1970s
Corporate mergers, downsizing, and loss of jobs in the city
Poor were left behind along with an increase in demand for city services
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9. Fiscal Problems The Post-industrial Revival
Post-industrial economic growth and the revitalization of cities
Immigrants and population growth
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10. 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
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11. Urban Sprawl
Rapid, unplanned, and low-density development at the edge of urban areas
The numbness of urban sameness
Consumption of land
Auto-gridlock and pollution
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12. Urban Sprawl
Edge Cities – business centers located some distance from the old downtowns
Mostly commercial developments
Most major cities contain one or more edge cities
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13. Poverty
Migration of city jobs to the suburbs & elsewhere & concentration of city poverty
Disadvantaged minorities
Lack of economic opportunities
2010 Poverty Rates
19.7% for central cities; 11.8% for suburbs; 16.5% for rural areas
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14. Housing Problem Tenement Housing
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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15. Housing Problem Urban Renewal Govt. passed Urban Housing Act of 1949
Urban Renewal an attempt to revitalize urban areas
In practice, became an “urban cleansing”
Pushing out poor people without housing alternatives
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16. 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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17. Housing Problem Concerns and criticisms of public housing
Liberals saw it as a bandage approach to the housing problem
Conservatives objected to government getting into the housing business
Poor objected to the cultural stigma associated
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18. Housing Problem Oscar Newman’s study
High-rise buildings and higher crime rates
Most crimes occurred in public parts of the buildings
Reason
High-rise living breeds anonymity
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19. Racial Segregation
Hyper-segregation – entire districts of a city racially segregated
Minority/poor urbanites are:
Spatially isolated
Socially isolated
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20. Homelessness
2010 – 650,000 people living in shelters, on the street, or in transitional housing
Largely an urban problem
30 percent of homeless people reported having no source of income
And an additional 40 percent reported income of less than $1,000 per month
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21. Homelessness Supportive housing –
Program that combines low-income housing with on-site social services
Costly, but may save money in the long run as social services cost less than prison
Attitudes toward homeless have softened due to tough economic times/foreclosures
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23. Snowbelt and Sunbelt Cities
Population transfer from snowbelt cities to the sunbelt
Sunbelt cities have expanded their city limits to maintain their tax base
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25. Cities in Poor Countries
About 75% of the population of rich nations live in cities
About one third 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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28. 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
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29. Structural-Functional Analysis: A Theory of Urbanism
Gesellschaft –
Type of social organization by which people interact on the basis of self interest
Urban communities
Emile Durkheim: Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
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30. Structural-Functional Analysis: A Theory of Urbanism
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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31. 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
Urbanites identify people not for who they are, but for what they do
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32. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Experiencing the City
George Simmel: Urban Stimulation and Selectivity
Urbanites and a blasé attitude
Blasé attitude of survival due to over-stimulation
Leo Srole: Mental Health in the Metropolis
Studied urban life and mental health
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33. Social-Conflict Analysis: Cities and Inequality
Urban Political Economy
Economic and political structure of the society shape the city
David Harvey’s study of Baltimore
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34. 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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35. Conservatives: The Market and Morality
Expansion of welfare state caused long term rise in public assistance & violence
Strength of the city lies partly in economics
And mostly on the moral character of the people
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36. Liberals: Government Reform
Problems of cities stem from social inequality
Liberals favor government intervention into solving the problems
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37. Radicals: The Need for Basic Change
Solutions to the problems of the city would require a major overhaul of society
And the economic and political order
Solutions will never be found under the present system
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