Suburbanization of America & Growth of Cities, 1950s-1980s

Learning Objectives & Summary • Mass production of autos and highway subsidies, 1920s

• Interstate highways and roads for access to hinterlands, 1950s

• Current population patterns

• South to North migration of Blacks from rural areas in search of jobs in manufacturing; original catalyst for ghettos

• Reverse migration of 20th C. from north to south in search of employment, lower cost of living, and warmer climate

• Cities vs. metro areas

• Urban form and city geography

• Causes of suburbanization – Income tax deductions for home ownership

– School desegregation, 1960s

– Available suburban land in large parcels for mass and module production of homes and consumer goods

• Concepts of low density development suburban, auto dependency, longer travel times, and high gas consumption for long distance commuting.

• Renewed emphasis on transit to build high density for greater fuel efficiency.

Urbanization & City Growth follows transportation corridors and spills over into adjacent cities who provide support services for a primary industry or economic function.

US Interstate Highways were built after WW2 to link the country for national security and to expedite intercity travel.

Numbering System: West to East (vertical)

& South to North (horizontal) North/south routes end with ―5‖ and proceed from west to east while east/west routes end in ―0‖ and increase from south to north.

Texas

Interstates and

State Highways

Road construction in Texas is

based upon the hierarchical

governmental unit that pays

for it: federal, state, county,

city, and joint funding for

large common corridors.

Texas highways &

cities

County

farm

roads

US highways

Interstates

City of

Houston

Interstate 69 (NAFTA Superhighway)

links the Mexican border with the heartland and Canada.

Traffic projections on the Houston portions are expected to increase 150% by 2035.

Urbanization & City Growth

Present Population Patterns

Almost all of the Canadian population is located along its original settlement area, St. Lawrence River. All other Canadian cities are in close proximity to the US border (49th parallel.)

49th parallel

Composite Night View

from Satellite

Houston at Night

Reservoirs and detention ponds created as flood control prevention during the notorious intense rains.

Major Cities

Largest US Cities (metro areas)

Migration & Mobility: A Population in

Search of Employment

• Migration: Change of residence, intended to be permanent

• Immigration to North America, beginning in 1600s

• Migration decision:

– Push factors: Negative factors of present home

– Pull factors: Attractive features of proposed new home

• Ongoing migration, especially to Sunbelt

Migration beset the rural South prior to the Great Depression as millions without jobs (predominately rural Blacks) moved to northern cities to work in factories that spring up during

the technology that flourished in the 1920s.

"At the beginning of the 20th century, before the migration began, 90 percent of all African-Americans were living in the South. By the end of the Great Migration, nearly half of them were living outside the South in the great cities of the North and West.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of

America's Great Migration By Isabel Wilkerson

―IN the South, there were colored and white waiting rooms everywhere, from doctors offices to the bus stations. ... But there were actually colored windows at the post office in Pensacola, Fla. And there were white and colored telephone booths in Oklahoma. There were separate windows were white people and black people would go to get their license plates in Mississippi. It was illegal for black people and white people to play checkers together in Birmingham. And there were even black and white Bibles to swear to tell the truth on in many parts of the South."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129827444

Fleeing from racial injustice and poverty, southern blacks took their culture

north with them and transformed northern urban centers with their

churches, social institutions, and ways of life.

Between 1915 and 1970, more than 6 million African-Americans moved

out of the South to cities across the Northeast, Midwest and West. Cities

such as New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland saw their African-

American populations grow by about 40 percent, and the number of

African-Americans employed in industrial jobs nearly doubled.

In the 1920s, Harlem's African-

American population exploded —

with nearly 200,000 African

Americans inhabiting a

neighborhood where there had been

virtually no blacks 15 years earlier.

Above, a Harlem street in 1942.

• Decisions to move were individual personal decisions," she explains. "And in some ways, to me, that's one of the inspiring and powerful things about the Great Migration itself. There was no leader, there was no one person who set the date who said, 'On this date, people will leave the South.' They left on their own accord for as many reasons as there are people who left. They made a choice that they were not going to live under the system into which they were born anymore and in some ways, it was the first step that the nation's servant class ever took without asking."

• When this migration began, you had a really small number of people who were living in the North and they were surviving as porters or domestics or preachers — some had risen to levels of professional jobs — but they were, in some ways, protected because they were so small. They did not pose any threat. There was a kind of alchemy or acceptance of that small minority of people in these cities. So when you had this great wave and flood of people coming in from the South, many of them untutored and unaware of the ways of the big cities, it was in some ways threatening to those who were already there because they feared the positions that they had worked so hard to achieve — that was tenuous at best in these big cities — and that's why there was a great deal of resistance."

Isabel Wilkerson studied journalism at Howard

University in Washington, D.C.

Growth in the West & South has redistributed the population from the North. This is

intensified by lob losses of the recession. Congressional membership must reflect

this change of ―1 Man; 1 Vote‖ through Apportionment of the districts of the country

between the states.

Reverse migration

occurs now as

industrial cities of

the north lose

population

because of

migration to the

warmer south,

which has a

stronger

employment base

in the 21st C.

2010 Congressional

Apportionment

25 Largest

US Cities (political

boundaries, not

metro areas).

This is the area defined

by the ―corporate limits‖

and under the political

jurisdiction of the mayor

and respective city

council.

Rank City State Population

1 New York New York 8,391,881

2 Los Angeles California 3,831,868

3 Chicago Illinois 2,851,268

4 Houston Texas 2,257,926

5 Phoenix Arizona 1,593,659

6 Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1,547,297

7 San Antonio Texas 1,373,668

8 San Diego California 1,306,300

9 Dallas Texas 1,299,542

10 San Jose California 964,695

11 Detroit Michigan 910,921

12 San Francisco California 815,358

13 Jacksonville Florida 813,518

14 Indianapolis Indiana 807,584

15 Austin Texas 786,386

16 Columbus Ohio 769,332

17 Fort Worth Texas 727,577

18 Charlotte North Carolina 709,441

19 Memphis Tennessee 676,640

20 Boston Massachusetts 645,169

21 Baltimore Maryland 637,418

22 El Paso Texas 620,456

23 Seattle Washington 616,627

24 Denver Colorado 610,345

25 Nashville Tennessee 605,473

City boundaries are the political area that is governed (and taxed) by the mayor and city council for city services (water, sewer, cultural facilities, libraries, etc).

Areas beyond this are either other cities (municipalities) or unincorporated parts of the County.

Houston Mayor

Annise Parker

Elevation

= height

above sea

level

City vs. Metro Area

City, county, metro

City of Houston

Harris County

Structure of the American Metropolis

• Central Business District (CBD) core of the urban area

– Older industrial cities of the northeast that are

losing population

– Suburban cities of the south and west that grew

after WWII and are auto dependent

• Social fragmentation

– Inner city

– Ghettos

• Suburbs – created and subsidized by Interstate Highways

– Edge cities – Office/Activity Centers growing in

competitive response congested and expensive

downtown property values.

Competitive Houston land values and travel

costs dictate that suburban employment centers are dispersed

across the region.

These polycentric employment locations

extend to suburbs precisely positioned

along major transportation arteries.

Concentric rings and radial freeways are the typical form of US suburban cities that grew after WW2 and determined by a dependence on autos.

Older cities have higher density and rely more on public transportation.

IDEAL FORM OF MULTICENTERED

URBAN REALMS MODEL

Suburban office

centers

1

Electric Streetcars,

commuter railroads

Arterial Highways

ADAM‘S MODEL (STAGES OF INTRA-URBAN MERO GROWTH)

Expressways &

Loop freeways 2 3

4

1880

1920

1940 1990s

Suburban

periphery (with affordable

housing, better

schools, and new

employment

centers) 2000s

The form of US cities is

built with a focus on

autos, linear roads, and

multiple employment

centers which creates

―rings & radial freeways.‖

Houston

metro area

25 Largest

US Metro Areas

(determined by county boundaries of the urban area to define an area that functions as

an economic unit, not a political one)

Metro Areas MSAs 2009 Pop

1

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-

PA MSA 19,069,796

2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA MSA 12,874,797

3 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA 9,580,567

4 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA 6,447,615

5

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD

MSA 5,968,252

6 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA 5,867,489

7 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA 5,547,051

8

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

MSA 5,476,241

9 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA MSA 5,475,213

10 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH MSA 4,588,680

11 Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI MSA 4,403,437

12 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ MSA 4,364,094

13 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA MSA 4,317,853

14 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA 4,143,113

15 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA 3,407,848

16 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA 3,269,814

17 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA MSA 3,053,793

18 St. Louis, MO-IL MSA 2,828,990

19 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA 2,747,272

20 Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA 2,690,886

21 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO MSA 2,552,195

22 Pittsburgh, PA MSA 2,354,957

23 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA MSA 2,241,841

24 Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN MSA 2,171,896

25 Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA MSA 2,127,355

Metro Areas are multi-county and

reflect the interactions of the

entire local economy, rather than individual

cities.

For example, Sugar Land/Ft. Bend Co.; Woodlands/ Montgomery Co.; and Galveston are adjacent to Houston and share the same employers and public infrastructure such as airports, freeways, hospitals, etc.

Thus, they function as a single economic unit independent of municipal boundaries that determine tax structure.

Dramatic population losses in rural areas of West Texas and growth to city suburbs across the state requires redistricting of political boundaries to more fairly allocate financial resources.

US Metro & Micro Areas

In high density areas, metros areas are adjacent to

each other usually aligned transportation corridors.

Economic data are usually reported for metros areas because of the larger region over which people and employment are dispersed.

Decentralization leads to a more uniform pattern of population and employment across DFW and their suburban

cities located in adjacent counties.

The same economic forces are present along border areas as dual cities grow in different countries, but

observing similar economic principles.

Important Reasons and Cause/Effects for Suburbanization

• Dynamic economic growth after WW2 was fueled by consumer buying as young soldiers returned from war to marry and start their own households.

• Birth of ―Baby Boomers‖ (1946-1964) created massive consumer demand.

• IRS Internal Revenue Service deduction of mortgage interest made home ownership affordable to everyone.

• Interstate highways and freeways opened large tracts of cheap, vacant land on a city‘s periphery that allowed for construction of suburban tract housing (―cookie cutter‖ homes.) Highways provided the needed transportation linkages to inner cities for traditional jobs in CBD. (pull factor)

• Mandatory (court-ordered) school desegregation in 1954 hurled whites to suburbs to escape the inner city. (push factor)

• Later (1980s), financial deregulation encouraged suburban development of retail services and major employment centers to suburbs. 1970 was relocation of Shell Oil Co. from NYC to downtown Houston, launching massive relocation of corporate America employment to sunbelt cities from the northeast.

Interstate Highways are

critical for national

security linkages,

journey to work trips,

and recreational travel.

Highways were a federal

effort begun in the 1950s and

continue today. They had a

profound influence on cities,

acting as a catalyst to

decentralize, promote growth

of suburban areas, and

ethnically segregate

communities during the

1960s.

Interstate Highways

The greatest incentive for US home ownership was the

deduction of personal mortgage interest rates from internal

revenue taxes, coupled with the Interstate Highway Act 1956

that subsidized construction of freeways to the suburbs.

These Acts opened cheap agricultural lands on the periphery

for development of large scale tract homes at affordable prices,

thus launching a massive redistribution of the population to the

suburbs. This trend and these policies continue today, 70 years

later!!

Causes of US Suburbanization

1. Deduction of mortgage interest from IRS

taxes made home ownership affordable

to everyone

2. Interstate Highways and freeway

construction created access to peripheral

areas

3. Resentment to mandatory school

desegregation and escape from it

Although freeways were the initial catalyst for access to the suburbs, out migration was later exacerbated by the US Supreme Court decision that mandated public school desegregation in 1954 (Brown v. Topeka Board of Education).

Resentment in the 1960s by the white majority to mandatory desegregation was outrage, leading to a massive exodus from central Houston and every other American city to the suburbs.

Actual implementation of desegregation in the South was

delayed for 16 years after the Brown case with numerous

‗stall‘ tactics, to avoid the practice. Thus, it was not until 1970

that desegregation was actually enacted in Houston, and

immediately after massive numbers of Anglo population

moved out of the central city (white flight) to the Woodlands,

Sugar Land, Pearland, etc. This trend continues today.

Even today, the

central city of

Milwaukee has

the only Black

population

(37.3%)

compared to

other cities.

All other suburban

cities have 0%-8%

Blacks, so they are

therefore

exclusively White.

Hundreds of separate suburban cities developed on the periphery of most American cities (DFW) specifically to accommodate whites fleeing from inner city integration.

Large vacant acres of land on city peripheries were

developed into speculative, tract homes at affordable

prices (subsidized with federal income tax credits). Access was easy

via freeways and futuristic auto design of the ‘50s.

Construction of the Gulf Freeway began in 1948.

Construction of new transportation infrastructure always

brings excitement, improved safety, and hopefully relief

from congestion!!

Opening of the Gulf Freeway in 1952 insured that access, mobility, and low

density could be perpetuated indefinitely.

1950s was a time of the idealistic American family, broadcast on TV sitcoms that were suddenly available to the burgeoning WHITE middle class. For most of the country, there was no minority population, and they certainly were not publicly portrayed.

The ―station wagon‖ was the precursor to today‘s SUV and was perfect family

vehicle. My family owned a pink Rambler !

Sexual images (even though women were not allowed

in the workplace) emerged as a marketing tool to sell the sleek new cars of the futuristic era which dominated all aspects of life.

Drive-in restaurants and carhops on roller skates captivated the attention and social life for young Americans who still lived at home, but had much treasured mobility.

Energy costs were artificially low and subsidized by the federal government.

The 36-floor Gulf Building opened in downtown Houston in 1929. It was the tallest west of the Mississippi (prior to the growth of Los Angeles in 1930s. Gulf was bought by Chevron in 1984.

1959 brought construction of

Loop 610 & I-45

Pinemont Northline

(looking north)

Affordable ―cookie cutter‖

homes were built en mass

in the suburbs, accessible

via freeways. This and

annexation are shown in

more detail in the Ppt.

Houston Demographics.

Southwest Freeway right-of-way acquisition

and clearance during the 1950s.

Construction right-of-way for the Stemmons Freeway in Dallas through a neighborhood, 1959. Freeways were specifically routed through minority neighborhoods because the land was cheaper and resistance was minimal. Neighborhoods were severed by freeways and important internal socio-eco networks were destroyed, leaving inner city areas dysfunctional.

Richmond, VA 1958

―cookie cutter‖ homes

Acquisition for freeway lands resulted in demolition of thousands of acres of urban land, leaving gauges and scars

across the city landscape.

Acquisition of land to build freeways was facilitated through the

concept of eminent domain, i.e. taking of private land/property for

the public good. Although market values must be paid to the owner,

the there is no provision for the property owner not to sell .

In order to keep costs low, land was acquired through minority

neighborhoods where land was cheaper. This policy virtually

destroyed minority families and communities, leaving them

economically and socially dysfunctional.

New freeways soon ripped through the heart of

every American city in the 1960s, leaving miles of

decimated inner city lands.

This policy allowed millions of richer Whites to

flee the inner city to relocate to new, clean and

modern suburbs; leaving disenfranchised

minorities behind. It was not until the Civil Rights

Act of 1964 (signed by President LBJ) that they

could begin to ‗catch up‘ with any semblance of

equal opportunity for employment or social

equality.

Despite protests nationwide; architects, planners, and government officials felt they had the authority and ―the vision‖ for what was best for the people and America. Arrogant architects and city planners thought they had the perfect solutions to ―city problems‖, when in reality they only exacerbated the situation. Gradually such arrogance has given way to a more democratic process, whereby citizens can be heard and included in the planning process.

People who were displaced by the freeways were relocated to high rise towers that later proved to be disastrous because families and children do not thrive in such dense environs. Efforts to ―clean up‖ viable neighborhoods ultimately destroyed the unique, human and regional character that makes cities distinctive.

Seen here are the 33 rectangular buildings that made up Pruitt and Igoe Public Housing

complex in St. Louis. Shortly after its completion, living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe began a

qualitative decline; by the late 1960s, the extreme poverty, crime, and segregation brought

the complex a great deal of infamy as it was covered extensively by the international press.

The complex was designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who later designed the

World Trade Center towers in NYC.

Quickly these massive, impersonal complexes became social disasters and later as their failure

was accepted, they have been destroyed and rebuilt.

Architects understood the engineering aspects to build such highrise complexes, but failed to recognize the socio-economic necessities to make these ‗mini cities‘ viable, including: retail grocery stores, pharmacy, washateria, recreation, landscaping, daycare, parking, access to bus stops, and employment centers.

In 1972 — 16 years after the construction

of Pruitt-Igoe — the first of the complex's

33 buildings was demolished by the

federal government. The other 32

buildings were destroyed over the next

four years.

Explanations for the failure of Pruitt–Igoe are

complex. Typically, it is presented as a complete

architectural failure; other critics bring in social

factors like economic decline of St. Louis, white flight

into suburbs, lack of tenants who were employed, and

politicized local opposition to government housing

projects also played a role in the project's decline.

Pruitt–Igoe has become a frequently used textbook

case in architecture, sociology and politics, "a truism

of the environment and behavior literature", to the

point where the story of Pruitt–Igoe evolves as a self-

sustaining myth shrouded in misconceptions.

The unintended consequence of

freeways has been “urban sprawl”,

which substituted houses, malls,

and parking lots (that immediately

increased flood potential because of the paving

with non-permeable urban surfaces) for

valuable peripheral farm land.

These more remote suburban neighborhoods also created

a dependence on the private car and demand for individual

mobility, thereby consuming massive amounts of non-

renewal fossil fuels. Such policy consumes

disproportionately large amounts of energy, which is

unsustainable and currently reaching a threshold of

disaster (as gasoline again approaches $4./gal) and as other

countries strive for economic prosperity which also

demands fossil fuels.

Urban / suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept,

which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to

low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of

uses (e.g. stores and residential), and various design features that encourage

car dependency. As a result, many urban planners, government officials, and

social scientists contend that sprawl has a number of disadvantages, including:

* High car dependence

* Inadequate facilities, e.g.: cultural, emergency, health

* Low public support for sprawl

* High per-person infrastructure costs

* Inefficient street layouts

* Inflated costs for public transportation

* Lost time and productivity for commuting

* High levels of racial and socioeconomic segregation

* Low diversity of housing and business types

* High rates of obesity due to less walking and biking

* Less space for conservation and parks

* High per-capita use of energy, land, and water

* Perceived low aesthetic value

Suburban cities consume disproportionately

large amounts of gasoline because of their

larger size and low density.

Lower density cities like Houston

consume extremely more petroleum

resources because their travel

distances are longer due to sprawl and

dispersed land uses. These

characteristics reflect differing values

and gas prices by country and

continent.

Transport related energy

consumption and urban density

Same chart as

previous, with

additional city

details

Construction of the METRO

2008 North Corridor Rail

Line will be the most

significant economic

development opportunity for

the Northline area since its

original development in

1959.

Northline is one

of the first

―suburban‖ mall

centers made

accessible by

construction of

the freeway.

Linkage to UH~D will facilitate connections to the

existing Red Line AND 5 other rail lines under

construction simultaneously.

METRO Rail: System Plan

Astroworld

After housing had been anchored in the suburbs, employment centers followed to capitalize on cheaper land and to diversify land use activities. The oil crisis in mid1970s dictated a need to reduce travel lengths and trip times be clustering employment with housing.

These polycentric employment locations extend to suburbs precisely positioned along major transportation arteries for access from anywhere within the region.

Houston

Chronicle front page,

February, 2011

2010 Metro

and Regional

Population

These same trends

continue today as

pressures force population

to exurban areas (green)

even beyond suburban

locations.