Expanding and changing cities

1. Expanding and changing cities

2. Advantages of Cities • Urbanization = The increase in city size and population. • Most cities were in the Northeast, Pacific coast, and on waterways of the Midwest. • They were connected by railroad lines and became magnets for immigrants and rural Americans.

3. Advantages of Cities • Factory Jobs, new education opportunities, and a growing middle class. • Women = take in boarders, do piecework, become servants, and work in factories. • More entertainment, possibility to move to the middle class, and increase children’s education.

4. GROWTH OF URBANIZATION Cities grew rapidly • near raw materials • industrial areas • transportation routes. • Opportunities in the job market. Terrible Conditions • Poor sanitary and living conditions • Tenement apartments • Sweathouses

5. Immigrants Move to Cities for Opportunities • Some may have went to cities to join family others may not. • Different regions and industries may have a majority of their workers from one particular place. • Ex: Steel mill workers in Pennsylvania were mostly Polish. • New York factories = Jewish • Pacific Northwest fishing industry = Scandinavians

6. Migration from Country to Cities • Farm technology decreases need for laborers; people move to cities • Many African Americans in South lose their livelihood • 1890–1910, move to cities in North, West to escape racial violence • Find segregation, discrimination in North too • Competition for jobs between blacks, white immigrants causes tension • The move to factory work was hard on famers because they now had to face a boss’s restrictions and rules and be confined to a factory and not be outdoors.

8. Engineers Build Skyward • Skyscrapers = 10 story and taller buildings that had steel frames. • Provided office space for cities that had no more room left on the ground. • Elisha Otis = Developed safety elevator that would not fall if the lifting rope broke. • The American Institute of Architecture-1857 • Required education and licensing to become and architect. • Built schools, libraries, train stations, residents and office buildings.

11. Electricity Powers Urban Transit • Mass Transit = Public transportation systems that could carry large numbers of people inexpensively. • First commuter trains were dirty, slow, and unreliable. (Coal Powered) • Horse pulled trolleys were slow as well. • Electricity was clean, quiet, and efficient.

12. Electricity and Mass Transit • Electric street cars were reliable and could carry more people than horse carts. • Electric cable cars did have problems: • The cables used to run the cars could block fire trucks, and traffic congestion blocked them from running on schedule. • Boston = first subway system in 1897. NYC followed in 1904. • Growth of suburbs for those who could afford transit fares away from the city.

14. City Planners Control Growth • As cities grew architectural firms expanded to offer city planning services to make cities more functional and beautiful. • Cities were zoned for different uses. (residential, industrial and financial) • Parks, boulevards, buildings and electric street lights were a few of the new developments. • Frederick Law Olmstead = Designed Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, NYC’s Central Park, and similar parks in Detroit, Washington D.C., and California.

16. Housing Conditions • Tenements = Low cost multifamily housing designed to fit in as many families as possible. • Tenements were not clean, had little windows, poor ventilation, and were dangerous.

17. Living Conditions

18. Urban Living Conditions

22. Water and Sanitation Water • 1860s cities have inadequate or no piped water, indoor plumbing rare • Filtration introduced 1870s, chlorination in 1908 Sanitation • Streets: manure, open gutters, factory smoke, poor trash collection • Contractors hired to sweep streets, collect garbage, clean outhouses-------often do not do job properly • By 1900, cities develop sewer lines, create sanitation departments

24. Fire and Crime Crime • As population grows, thieves flourish • Early police forces too small to be effective Fire • Fire hazards: limited water, wood houses, candles, kerosene heaters • Most firefighters volunteers, not always available • 1900, most cities have full-time, professional fire departments • Fire sprinklers, non-flammable building materials make cities safer

25. 1871 Chicago fire killed nearly 300 people and left more than 100,000 homeless. Police officers in 1900s.