Urbanization in America: Opportunities, Challenges, and Political Dynamics
The rapid urbanization in the Northeast and Midwest led to the growth of cities and the rise of skyscrapers, exemplified by the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, the first skyscraper constructed in 1885. However, urbanization also brought significant challenges, including inadequate housing, transportation, water supply, sanitation issues, rising crime rates, and fire hazards. Political machines emerged to navigate these challenges, with influential figures like George Plunkitt and William "Boss" Tweed dominating the political landscape. Understanding these dynamics is crucial in addressing urban issues today.
Urbanization in America: Opportunities, Challenges, and Political Dynamics
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Presentation Transcript
Section 6-2 Urbanization
Urban Opportunities • Urbanization- growth of cities, mostly in the regions of the Northeast and Midwest. • Americanization Movement- designed to assimilate people of wide-ranging cultures into the dominant culture.
Americans Migrate to the Cities • Skyscrapers- Tall steel framed buildings. The Home Insurance Building in Chicago was built in 1885 (ten stories). First Skyscraper in America. • Louis Sullivan- No one contributed more to the design of skyscrapers. (Chicago)
Urban Problems Six Major Urban Problems • Housing • Transportation • Water • Sanitation • Crime • Fire
Urban Problems • Housing: -row houses- single family dwellings that shared side walls with other similar houses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu9A7zUE_fU -Tenements- multi-family urban dwellings.
City Life • Poor families struggled to survive in crowded slums living in tenements. • Tenements were overcrowded, dirty and oftentimes had no windows, heat, or indoor bathrooms. Hine, Lewis W. NYC tenement 1910
Jacob Riis, 1889 “Lodgers in a Bayard Street Tenement, Five Cents a Spot"
Urban Problems • Transportation: -Mass Transit- Transportation systems designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes. -Streetcars-San Francisco (1873) -Subway-Boston (1897)
Urban Problem • Water: -As late as the 1860’s many cities had grossly inadequate piped water. -Disease- Typhoid Fever, Cholera -Filtration (1870’s) -Chlorination (1908)
Urban Problems • Sanitation: -Manure piled up on the streets -Sewage flowed through open gutters -Factories polluted the air and water -Scavengers- private contractors hired to sweep the streets. -Sewer lines and sanitation departments (By 1900)
Urban Problems Crime: -First full-time police force- NYC (1844) -To small to impact crime. Fire: -First paid fire department- Cincinnati (1853). -Automatic sprinkler (1874).
Machine Politics • Political Machine- an informal political group designed to gain and keep power in the cities. Came about partly because cities had grown much faster than their governments. • Party bosses- (City Boss) Those in charge of their respected political machine.
Machine Politics • Graft- getting money through dishonest or questionable means. • George Plunkitt- One of NYC’s most powerful party bosses; defended honest graft. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bnN9SZlLkg • William “Boss” Tweed- Leader of Tammany Hall, the NYC Democratic political machine. Very corrupt!
