The rapid growth of cities

URBANIZATION

Urbanization Collaborative Lecture• Our goal for today is to help each other understand the problems that came along

with urbanization.• You will be in six groups. Each group will be responsible for one of the following

topics. Sign up for your group on the whiteboard when you get to class, then sit with your group.

– Housing– Transportation– Water– Sanitation– Crime– Fire

• You will have 30 minutes to work with your group to produce 1-2 PowerPoint slides that:

– Explain the problem– Define the key terms– Explain solutions and how well they worked– Represent these problems visually

• After 30 minutes, email me your slides (mw15bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us) and I will put them together into one presentation.

Urbanization in the US

• The technological boom of the 19th century led to growing industrialism in the US—this contributed to rapid urbanization– Available factory jobs required many unskilled

laborers• Concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest• Most immigrants coming to the US settled in

cities– Convenient to jobs– Cheap living accommodations

10 Largest Cities in the US—1900

New YorkChicago

Philadelphia

St. Louis

Boston

Baltimore

Cleveland

San Francisco

CincinnatiPittsburg

Americanization Movement

• A movement to assimilate people of diverse backgrounds into the dominant culture– Make them “Americans”

• Social campaign sponsored by the government and concerned citizens– Implemented in schools and voluntary associations

• Taught immigrants English, history, government, cooking, etiquette

• Immigrants did not always want to abandon their culture– Live in ethnic communities—often overcrowded

neighborhoods

Other Trends—Country to City

• In addition to immigrants moving to cities, many former rural families moved to urban centers– Fewer farm jobs with mechanization

Other Trends—Country to City

• African Americans migrate North– About 200,000 African

Americans move North between 1890-1910

– Former farmers– Escape racial violence, race-

based limitations– Economic limitations– Most go to Chicago and Detroit

• Often result in racial tensions

Housing

• The population of the cities were rapidly growing and housing options became slim.

• There were two housing options which included living in a house in the outskirts of town, and the other was living in the city with multiple families in a cramped house.

• After families left the city immigrants would take over single family houses with two to three families.

Housing Cont.

• Jacob Riis pointed out, that the multifamily urban dwellings, called tenements, were overcrowded and unsanitary.

• The insanitariness' of the facilities became too much so congress passed a law requiring a minimum sanitation requirement for the houses.

Transportation

Mass Transit

• Mass Transit: Transportation Systems designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes within a single city.

• Streetcars introduced in San Francisco in 1873• Electric Subways introduced in Boston in 1897• Linked city neighborhoods to each other and

to suburbs

Mass Transit Systems

Cable Cars in San Francisco in 1900

Map of Chicago’s Mass Transit in 1904

Problems

• Many people wanted to use the public transportation

• Repairing old transit systems while simultaneously building new transit systems to expand with the growing population of cities was difficult

Solutions• Transit systems moved from a private enterprise

to a public enterprise• Cities could spend more money to improve public

transit and build new lines• Subways were made underground with the

additional money that cities could provide for public transportation

• Solutions worked well as many new transportation systems were made, and the old ones were repaired to continue to be used in service.

Subway Systems

WATER

Ryan, Burns, Amir, Tommy, Nathan

Modern Filtration

Sanitation∞ Problems of Sanitation

∞ City water was disgusting, due to the factories dumping waste.

∞ Horse feces were on the city walk ways.∞ No trash collectors.∞ Factories spewed smoke∞ Cities population grew, which made it

harder to keep the city clean.∞ Sewage overflowed.∞ Garbage was dumped into the streets

with no regard for cleanliness

∞ Solutions∞ Scavengers were hired to sweep garbage

out of the streets.∞ 1900s many cities developed a service

lines and created sanitation committees ∞ Filtration system was developed to

improve water.

Sanitation Pictures

Issues w/ Water during Urbanization

• Major cities built public water works in the 1840’s, and even by the 1860’s some cities had severely inadequate water supply, or maybe none at all. In most cities, indoor plumbing was non-existent. People had to collect water in buckets from faucets in the street, and then heat it for bathing. Lack of filtration of water led to spreading disease. Filtering water began in the 1870’s, and then chlorination in 1908. However even in the early 19th century many city-folk did not have safe drinking water.

Crime!

By: Laurino Scafone, Grant Griffin, Chase Iacofano, Kevin Boyd.

The Problem

• In larger cities crime was a larger problem than in smaller cities.

• This was a problem because of the massive amount of poverty and the population.

• As the population in cities increased, pickpockets and thieves flourished.

Solutions; How They Worked

• Although New York City organized the first full-time, salaried police force in 1884, it and most other city law enforcement units were too small to have much of an impact on crime.

Fire-Problem Limited water supply to put out fires City housing was mostly made out of wood

and flammable materials Fires spread very quickly Factories (Triangle Shirtwaist Fire) had oily

machines that could easily catch on fire and had limited exits

Most people used candles and kerosene heaters which easily caught on fire

Fire-Solutions

• First fire departments were established• Volunteers no longer needed• Automatic fire sprinkler to put out the fires• Wood houses were rebuilt with bricks or steel

Social Welfare Reformers

• Targeted urban-poor—mainly immigrants• Social Gospel Movement—early reform movement

– Salvation through service to the poor

• Settlement houses—community centers– Run by middle-class, college-educated, women– Provided education

• Classes in English, health, painting, etc

– Visiting nurses– Aid for widows, deserted women, injured women

Jane Addams—one of the most influential reformers.Jane Addams and Ellen Starr established Hull House, a famous settlement house in Chicago

Social Welfare Reformers