Urbanization in America
By: Austin Bradfield
What is Urbanization?
- Urbanization is a growth of cities. Urbanization in America started to develop rapidly in the early 1900s, because of the technological boom that occurred early in the century.
Benefits and Opportunities of Urbanization
With Urbanization in America cities were popping up around the country,more and more immigrants were coming to America. People had to settle in cities; because they were close to everything, and it also allowed for unskilled workers to work in the mills and factories.
Problems with Urbanization
Each one of these things contributed problems within Urban Cities.
- Transportation- While transportation was quicker and easier in the city, there was lot of up keep that sometimes would cause conflict with the main transportation in the city.
- Housing- With inner city housing there was a lot of cramped apartments, and with more and more people moving to the city different designs were put into place. For example row houses packed several family residents onto a single block. And if you wanted to live on the edge of the city, then transportation would be an issue.
- Water- Water was in high demand and with the population rising in cities water pipes were being put in to supply the people. Yet the water wasn't very sanitary and solutions had to be made, like filtration to keep the water supply safe to drink.
- Sanitation/ Crime- With more people came more crime and pollution. In cities around the United States thieves were thriving and with weak law enforcement people were being robbed of a lot of things. Not only were people being robbed. but they also lived in "shit". There was horse manure piled on the streets, and trash was littered, because there was no one cleaning up the streets properly.
- Fire-Since there was a limited water supply cities had a hard time battling raging fires that would break-out. And with most cities having Fire Departments by the early 1900's, it left cities battling fires between the 1870's-1880's.
Are these Issues still prevalent Today?
When looking at theses issues that are found in over populated cities, I would have to say that yes some of these issues are still present in modern day America. For instance there is way more pollution created, because there is so many people contributing to the waste build-up. And with crime there is always more crime where there are more people to steal from, like New York. And housing in inner cities will always be cramped, because there is to many people in a concentrated area.