Cities Expand and Change

1. Cities Expand and Change Chapter 5 section 2

2. America Urbanized • In the late 1800s America went through a period of rapid Urbanization • The number of people living in cities and working in cities increased. • WHY? • Cities offered an advantage over rural living • More jobs • Didn’t need a lot of money to start out there • More jobs for women • Cities offered more options for saving money and improving lifestyle • More opportunity to educate kids • Transportation and entertainment

3. Who moved… Everyone! • Immigrants increased population in cities • Some had populations with over 40 percent immigrant population • Usually formed groups or moved with family • Polish in Philadelphia • New York – Eastern European Jewish • Irish in the north east • Scandinavians in the pacific north west • Chinese in San Francisco • Farmers migrated to the Cities • Difficulty on farms forced some to take jobs in factories to provide • Cities were often exciting to farmers as well • African Americans also moved from the farms in the south to cities in the north

4. Technology • Technology played a major role in changing city life • Electricity • Steel allowed for skyscrapers • Otis Elevator – Invented by Elisha Otis • Wouldn’t fall when pull line broke • Skyscrapers also opened the door for architects, specific training for buildings that needed to support more loads • Mass Transit • Electric street cars – started in Richmond Virginia • Previous coal powered cars were not good for the city • 1897 Boston puts in a subway, New York follows in 1904

5. The birth of the Suburb • Mass transit allowed people to live outside the city and commute in • Wealthy who didn’t want the noise and dirt moved outside the city and built housing in the cleaner perimeter of the city • Suburb • Rode mass transit to the city to work shop or be entertained • The poor remained in the city • Often suffering low pay and poor living conditions.

6. Urban problems • Housing condition • Tenement • Low cost family housing, designed to squeeze as many families in as possible. • Multiple families live in one house or one room • Tenement owners lived in the suburbs • Built cheap housing for desperate people who had no choice • Few windows and low sanitation • Unhealthy and dangerous

7. Urban problems • Water and Sanitation • Streets in early cities were unpaved, littered, and sewage and dead horses often filled the streets and back alleyways • Most buildings didn’t have indoor plumbing • Only new ones • Tenement toilets overflowed. • Led to disease and sick living conditions • Improving sanitation • In the 1880s cities started improving sanitation, sewers and public health officials worked to improve sanitation • Take water from reservoirs and keep it separate from sewage • Improve water filtration

8. Urban Problems • Fire • Most housing complexes used open flame and fireplaces • Fires were common in dirty cities • 1871 Chicago was destroyed by fire killing between 200 to 300 people and leaving 100,000 homeless • Crime • Most people traveled to and from work in the dark and violence was on the rise • Guns were CHEAP! • Police forces were established to help with crime • Conflict • Urban groups and gangs were common • Young boys joined neighborhood gangs.

9. Improving City life • City planning • The ideal city • Chicago Columbian Exhibition in 1893 • The White City included boulevards, parks and buildings with electric streetlights • Zoning laws • Designating parts of a city for certain functions • Business, industry, housing, parks • Parks • City parks helped with urban growth problems • Parks protected rivers in Philadelphia from pollution • Frederick Law Olmsted • Parks for Philly, Detroit, DC, Palo Alto, Chicago, and Central Park in NY