INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONS FOR THE FINAL EXAM

You all did very well in coming up with questions for the final exam, so you earned some bonus points and will have the benefit of knowing many questions going into it. Of course, there was a lot of material from which to make these questions. So, without further ado, here they are:

HANNAH: earn 20 points, plus one bonus point.

1. As I noted in my summary comments on Chapter 3, Fabric of Enterprise, Rae identifies 3 factors that would later help unravel this "fabric of enterprise." Identify any TWO of them. (2)

ANSWER: Any TWO of the following: (a) Retailing depends on export industries that feed the cycle of exchange, but as exports decline, the richness of retail circulation is curtailed. (b) Small, very decentralized retail operations are vulnerable to competition from larger operations that can achieve economies of scale and undercut prices, which is exactly what began to happen by the 1950s. (c)The richness of the fabric depended on a permissive treatment of mixed-use neighborhoods by government, but zoning ordinances across the country set out to homogenize land uses and drive a wedge between residential and commercial areas.

2. In my summary comments on Chapter 8 of "City:" Race, Place, and the Emergence of Spatial Hierarchy, what did I highlight were TWO of the three actions which reinforced municipal inequality? (2)

ANSWER: Any TWO of the following: (a) municipal zoning, (b) neighborhood security studies of the HOLC (Home Owners Loan Corp.), (c) initial phases of public housing.

3. In the video, "Taken For a Ride," Lewis Mumford poses what interesting question about transportation and cities, and how does he answer that question? (2)

ANSWER: Does the city exist for people or for cars? For cars.

4. In Chapter 3 of "The Geography of Nowhere," what did Lewis Mumford say about industrialism in the 19th century? (1)

ANSWER: that it produced the most degraded human environment the world had yet seen.


FRANCES: earns 20 points, plus one bonus point.

1. In terms of the emergence of cities and human civilization in general, what was the single most influential step in human history? (1)

ANSWER: the development of AGRICULTURE, which creates a surplus that allows craft, trade and the development of an intellectual life beyond survival needs; it facilitates the later stages of development -- i.e., villages and cities.

2. In "Heat Wave," what analogy does the author use (one used by Durkheim and other classic sociologists) to examine the events that unfolded in the city of Chicago? (1)

ANSWER: the organic or organismic analogy, as evidenced by his term, "social autopsy."

3. Identify ONE of the two theoretical principles Klinenberg brings out in "Heat Wave" that can be used to approach a broader inquiry into the life of the city. (1)

ANSWER: ONE of the following: (a) the first deriving from Marcel Mauss and Emile Durkheim, "is that extreme events such as the Chicago catastrophe are marked by 'an excessiveness which allows us better to perceive the facts than in those places where...they still remain small'scale and involuted.'" (b) The second, is that institutions have a tendency to reveal themselves (and not-so-obvious flaws in these systems) when they are stressed and under pressure -- in how they react or respond to such crises.

4. Define Rae's term "useful inefficiency," as used in "City." (2)

ANSWER: In essence, that urbanism was constructed out of several "useful inefficiencies," i.e., mom-and-pop groceries, smaller streets which played important roles in the community and civic fabric, despite being "inefficient" or outdated, in a sense, from a market or economic standpoint.


MIYA: earns 20 points, plus one bonus point.

1. Identify any TWO of the four major themes of the city that I introduced at the very beginning of the course. (2)

ANSWER: Any TWO of the following: (a) cities and urban life vary according to the time and place, (b) cities reflect and intensify a society and culture, (c) cities reflect the best/worst about the human condition, (d) cities offer the promise, but not always the reality, of a better life.

2. Define and contrast URBAN IMPLOSION and URBAN EXPLOSION. (2)

ANSWER: Urban implosion -- centripetal forces were dominant and people were drawn into the city. Cities are compact, densely populated, polluted due to industry -- characteristic of the 19th century. Urban explosion -- centrifugal forces draw people out of the cities into surrounding suburbs. Forces include auto/highway system -- characteristic of the 20th century.

3. In my summary comments on Chapter 2 of "City," what comment did I make about Rae's noting the inaccurate growth assumptions for New Haven circa 1910? (2)

ANSWER: "To make more accurate predictions...we must understand these larger technological/economic/ecological factors which have proven to be the real keys to urbanization, not necessarily political decisions of local officials."

4. Describe GM's "motorization campaign," as presented in the video, "Taken For A Ride." (2)

ANSWER: This involved replacing sttreet cars with diesel buses and eventually cars. National City Lines Bus Co., which was financed by GM, bought up trolley systems all across the country and made these trolley systems more expensive, less accessible, and less attractive, which eventually led to their dismantlement.
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That's it. See you Friday morning in Main 122, as my email note indicated.

Abbreviated Notes: The Geography of Nowhere

Below are some abbreviated notes on Chapters 7, 8, & 9 in "The Geography of Nowhere." So, after your presentations tomorrow we'll pick up with Chapter 10 in the book, and should be able to finish it by the end of next week.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE EVIL EMPIRE

A. The "evil empire" being the automobile-suburb. Kunstler focuses on the considerable social, ecological, and aesthetic shortcomings of this evil empire.

1. Although suburbs are generally regarded as better places to rear children, Kunstler highlights the impediments to children moving about safely in the modern suburb. Roads are often too wide, giving rise to higher traffic speeds, and many suburban streets lack sidewalks which are very expensive for homeowners with large lots. And in shopping areas with huge parking lots, larger arterial roads almost never have sidewalks, which makes it difficult for children, the elderly, even adults to negociate on foot.

2. He talks about the extreme separation of uses and vast distances between things as another significant contributor to our over-reliance on the auotmobile. This grew out of the first zoning ordinances which sought to separate residential from commercial from noisy, smelly factories. It once may have served a valid purpose, but not so much anymore, and today it is taken to extremes -- separating high-income areas from low-income areas.

3. Kunstler says the least understood, and most difficult to measure, consequence of this is the loss of a SENSE OF PLACE (i.e., "the geography of nowhere").

a.) Notes the general impoverishment of public building.

b.) He challenges the claim made by some that the mall is an adequate substitute for the traditional Main Street (see, pp. 119-120).

c.) Criticizes the typical strip development on major highways coming into a city as gaudy and ugly.

d.) He notes the failure of academics who should have been more critical and foresighted with respect to this destructive pattern of suburban development.

B. He closes the chapter by highlighting some urban areas that have managed to maintain neighborhoods and roads that are more human scale and aesthetically pleasing, such as Charleston, SC. And from an economic standpoint, he notes how such areas have maintained their real estate value as well, if not better, than the artificial, isolated subdivisions of McMansions.

C. Finally, the "geography of nowhere" theme is captured well in the last paragraph of the chapter, p. 131.


CHAPTER EIGHT: HOW TO MESS UP A TOWN

A. Kunstler uses his hometown of Saratoga Springs, NY as a case study of how to mess up a town. It could just as easily be Spartanburg, SC or any small or medium-sized town in America.

1. Especially telling is the development of a commercial strip on the way into town -- South Broadway (think West Main or Asheville Highway in Spartanburg).

2. A good, insightful, observation: "The unwillingness to think about the public realm of the street in any other terms besides traffic (or commercial exploitation, I would add), shows how little value Americans confer on the public realm in general." (p. 138)

3. Also notes that after WWII there was little interest in fixing up the old. We wanted new things. And since gas was plentiful and cheap, why not build with the car in mind.


CHAPTER NINE: A PLACE CALLED HOME

A. Kunstler provides a critical history of architectural styles of houses, which culminates in the mass-produced home of the post-WWII period. "These housing 'products' represent a triumph of mass merchandising over regional building traditions, of salesmanship over civilization." (p. 166) -- and he goes on to make some further critical observations on this same page.

B. Again, the final paragraph of this chapter (p. 173) captures well this "geography of nowhere" theme as it relates to housing in particular.
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Again, that brings us up to Chapter Ten. DON'T FORGET, YOUR CITY PAPERS ARE DUE TOMORROW (THURS. 12/2) AND AFTER YOUR PRESENTATIONS WE WILL GET BACK TO "THE GEOGRAPHY OF NOWHERE."

Individual Activity: Making Up Questions for the Final Exam

Going all the way back to the beginning of the semester, I want each of you to come up with SIX short-answer questions and answers on anything we've covered over the course of the semester, including our last book, "The Geography of Nowhere" (see outline below of the material we've covered). Please submit your questions and answers to me in writing (or via email, but NOT on this blog) NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, DEC. 10TH BY NOON. I will, then, consider your submissions and try to accept at least THREE questions from each of you. For each additional question I accept, you will earn a bonus point for this exercise and have the benefit of knowing more of the questions on the final exxam. I will post the questions and answers I accepted by MONDAY, DEC. 13TH, which is the first day of final exam week. This exercise is worth 20 activity points (which is more than I usually give for such an exercise because you have only had one other activity for 5 points and in the course outline I stipulated that you would have a chance to earn 25 activity points, not counting extra credit points).

OUTLINE OF MATERIAL COVERED:
(1) Opening couple of lectures on 4 major themes on the city and an overview of the origin, development, and significance of the city in human history.
(2) Comments on two classic essays in urban sociology: "Metropolis and Mental Life," by Georg Simmel and "Urbanism as a Way of Life," by Louis Wirth (comments on Wirth's essay, including critical analysis, posted on the blog).
(3) Summary Comments on the book, "City" (Preface thru Chap. 12) -- all posted on the blog.
(4) Lecture/commentary on the book, "Heat Wave."
(5) Notes on video presentation, "Understanding Urban Sprawl," -- posted on the blog.
(6) Notes on video presentation, "Taken for a Ride," -- posted on the blog.
(7) Lecture/commentary on book, "The Geography of Nowhere."
(8) Notes on relevance of final video presentation, "The End of Suburbia," (Tues. 12/7) for argument in "The Geography of Nowhere."
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Notes on "Taken for a Ride"

You are introduced early on to Bradford Snell who has been working on a history of GM for over 16 years (and if he is still working on that project, it would be 26 years). He wrote the original article "American Ground Transport" (50pp), which detailed the role of GM and several other corporations in buying up and then dismantling electric trolleys in cities across the country.

He noted that in 1922 only 1 in 10 Americans owned a car. Alfred P. Sloan of GM recognized the obvious -- that there was a huge potential market for cars. But that meant you needed roads and access to them, and you'd have to get rid of the street cars. So, GM launched a motorization campaign, which at first involved replacing street cars with diesel buses, and eventually cars. National City Lines Bus Co. (which was financed by GM) bought up these electric trolley systems across the U.S. and started to cut back service and did not maintain tracks and cars, raised fares, made them less attractive. Eventually, they were simply dismantled. And remember that GM, among some other major corporations, was convicted in federal court in the late 1940s of criminal conspiracy in buying up and dismantling these trolley systems. GM was fined a neglible $5,000.

1. Despite some of these moves, people overwhelmingly supported trolleys -- in L.A. 88% wanted rail service retained and improved. But that was not enough.

Perhaps what clinched the deal for the car was building sprawling suburbs which could only be served by private automobiles

That scene of burning street cars is a graphic illustration of the forces of creative destruction.

Note the occasional propaganda film clips, such as "Diesel and Dollars," and that nice school teacher talking about building more roads for the sake of the children (which in my humble opinion is enough to make you gag because of the adverse consequences of those roads and cars for the health and well-being of those children).

Charles Wilson, who had been GM CEO, was the Secretary of Defense in 1953, and was a moving force behind the Eisenhower Adm.'s decision to build the Interstate Highway system. DuPont family was also behind it. This was the largest public works project in American history.

"Trouble in Paradise" Shows scenes of growing traffic congestion. Roads that did not work such as I-93 thru Boston (which has been put underground at a cost of some $12 billion!!). Mayor Alioto of San Francisco opposing a downtown expressway.

1. Early 1970s hearings in Congress over how to divide up the highway trust funds. Senator clearly voicing interest of the auto companies. But Alioto says, at one point, that: "What was good for GM was not good for American cities."

2. Lewis Mumford poses an intersting question about transportation and cities -- does the city exist for people or cars? By the 1960s the answer was clear -- for cars.

"Back to the Future" -- some efforts to restore light rail systems have been successful (such as Baltimore, Portland, Oregon). But the big bucks are still behind the automobile and raod system, as in the Intelligent Highway Vehicle System (or IHVS) -- futuristic computer operated roadways.

(A final note about what happened to those bus systems -- many went bankrupt and are now managed by cities, often at a loss and inadequately.)
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That's it. Please incorporate these comments in your notes. If I ask anything on the final exam about this video, it will come from these posted comments. Next Tuesday I'll be talking about The Geography of Nowhere, hopefully get through Chapter 8. AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT ESSAY II, WHICH IS DUE THEN.

Notes on "Understanding Urban Sprawl"

The opening interviews with young couples moving to suburban Toronto captures well the dreams and aspirations of many people. No doubt such desires have been a big factor fueling the suburban housing boom of the latter half of the 20th century.

BUT IT IS A DREAM BUILT UPON AN ILLUSION

Sprawling suburbs cost a lot more than just the price of the homes, however high they may be these days. Billions are spent in public subsidies for infrastructure development -- roads, water, sewers, etc. The market is a bit "squiffy" in that it does not reflect the actual costs. That Toronto economist suggested $700 million to $1 billion a year could be saved if housing did not expand outward in the typical sprawling fashion. The savings would be in infrastructure costs.

Surburban sprawl's pressure on rich farmland in the Central Valley of California.

L.A. county, which is now the "ultimate suburban wasteland" of asphalt and concrete used to be a highly productive agricultural area. Now cities like Fresno and Modesto are growing and eating up arable land where over 200 different crops are grown, some of the richest soil anywhere in the world. Perhaps the federal government should do more to protect its multi-billion dollar investment in irrigation which basically created that highly productive farmland.

In reality, cars drive sprawl. Car especially suited to low-density sprawl. Of course, the government builds and maintains roads which is a huge subsidy favoring this mode of transportation. One economist estimated govt. subsidizes the car to the tune of $2,700 per vehicle. It is hard for government to keep up with the number of cars the auto makers can sell. In Vancouver, 84 cars a day are sold, 30,000 a year, yet over the last decade only a few more kilometers of roads have been built. Increasing traffic congestion is the obvious result.

Sprawl in Mexico City is different -- people flooding into the city tend to reside in shantytowns on the outskirts. Tremendous stress on natural systems, such as water. Have to use 10% of the entire country's electrical output to bring water into the city! And yet they continue to exhaust the acquifer that lies underneath and the city continues to sink.

Portland, Oregon is a kind of poster child for a city which has resisted these trends (but not entirely, of course). The state of Oregon decided in the early 1970s to impose "growth boundaries" (or greenbelts) around cities, which did not stop growth but re-directed it back into the downtown area. City official noted criticism of some of their efforts in transportation as a "crazy socialist conspiracy to get people out of their cars", but as he went on to note, no one talks about the "crazy (capitalist) conspiracy to get them into cars" (which we will be focusing on next Tuesday). Portland is different basically because they have spent 25 years working on this. And I would say, clearly, most other cities have not devoted such time and effort to this issue.
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That's it. Remember, next week Tuesday (11/16) we'll be seeing a video on the conspiracy to take over and dismantle the trolley systems throughout the country (a la Judge Doom). WE'll meet in Main 122 again. Please read through at least Chapter 6 in the Geography of Nowhere.

CHAPTER 12: A CITY AFTER URBANISM - SUMMARY COMMENTS

So, for all of mayor Lee's efforts, New Haven had obviously not become the slumless city it aspired to become. Just the opposite, slums continued and crime got much worse.

How to respond to this failure? (1) Obviously, politics had not worked, so (2) a market approach took hold, the ultimate market solution to the end of urbanism being the suburban exodus, an exit strategy which obviously further weakened the central city. (And I would add here, that suburbs really did not attempt to re-create "urbanism" -- it was more of a privatized solution.)

Rae comes back to Joe and Hope Perfetto's story. Their move to the suburbs in 1950, although they continued to operate their business in New Haven until they retired. Notes how the FHA, tax advantages helped democratize the suburbs, open them up to people like the Perfettos. Their mortgage was $7,000 and monthly payment a mere $52.50.

In terms of CULTURAL SUPPORT for escaping the city, Rae notes that historically, before industrialization, people in the city had green space, gardens. But industrialization, with its noise, pollution, demand for cheap housing for workers (tenements) pretty much wiped this out.

"The Perfettos' suburban home, built after many decades of centered urbanism, can be understood in part as an attempt to recapture these same features from the collective memory, with all their "healthfulness" and openness." (p. 399)

Robert Fishman gives a nice description of the characteristic traits of suburbia. See, top p. 400.

Suburban development seems to wed what was good for humanity with greed -- a marriage that sold like hotcakes in mid-20th century America. Bottom pp. 400-401 identifies all the private interests that backed this suburban venture, even enlisting the support of government. This should give us pause, that something so wildly popular would, as we will see especially in "The Geography of Nowhere," be so destructive in the long run energy-wise, envirnomentally, even socially.

Rae talks about class divisions among suburbs and between the suburbs collectively and New Haven. New Haven being left behind in many repects with concentrated black poverty. (See, bottom p. 405)

Politics After Urbanism: Decline of the G.O.P., many Republicans moving to the suburbs. Dominance of the Democrats. But as the Democrats take over, New Haven diminishes in terms of population, political clout, etc. Have the MARGINALIZATION of city politics. Pluralist government becomes limited in what it can do. But Rae does not agree with the Domhoff thesis that the well-to-do take over, a conspiracy of who rules. Dahl (Rae's mentor on politics) concludes that currently New Haven politics can be characterized more as a "street-fighting pluralism," pitting neighborhoods against each other.

The old urbanism and the forces which created it are largely gone. Is there "another urbanism?" we can build in its place?

Rae suggests there are steps that can be taken to encourage the "soft" side of urbanism, mainly steps concerned citizens themselves can take to re-build social capital, restore civility, etc. (See, pp. 422-426 for specifics)
(As beneficial and "warm and fuzzy" as these recommendations sound, I was disappointed in this as his main proposals to deal with the decline of urbanism. None of these recommendations seems anywhere near adequate to deal with the problems of New Haven highlighted in Chapter 11, especially crime, unemployment, etc. I can't help but think that New Haven and most other cities are still largely at the mercy of the capitalist forces of "creative destruction.")

Finally, Rae deals with the emergence of Yale University as the major player in New Haven, perhaps New Haven's salvation. Yet there are problems in terms of Yale's proposals for expansion and city government dragging its feet, and one can also argue that Yale is a somewhat detached institution, not rooted in New Haven as it once was.

So, that leaves us with this big question: what can be done to restore cities such as New Haven "after urbanism?"
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That's it. Remember that I certainly may make up some final exam questions based on these summary comments on all the Chapters of "City." See you next week.

Chapter 11: The End of Urbanism - Summary Comments

Below are my summary comments on Chapter 11. The previous blog post contains a description of what I want you to do for extra credit, if you attend the talk by former Austin,TX mayor Will Wynn tomorrow (Thurs. 10/28) at 11AM in Leonard Aud.

CHAPTER 11: THE END OF URBANISM

Rae opens by describing the precipitous drop in manufacturing in New Haven -- the closing of factories and even more rapid decline in factory employment.

1. The Lee administration thought the new Interstate highways (I-95 & I-91) intersecting in the center of New Haven would encourage manufacturers to locate there. Instead, "...the highways decentralized everything they touched."

2. There was a 60% decline in factory jobs during the Lee redevelopment era.

3. Two larger historical trends contributed to this as well: (a) competition from the Sunbelt. Sunbelt cities having the advantages of lower taxes, lower energy costs, lower labor costs, etc. Not to mention global competition. (b) regional competition opened up by interstate highways: more land to build on, lower taxes, fewer security concerns (crime), etc.

All told: "The impact was immense -- fewer good jobs, especially fewer good working class jobs, fewer opportunities for high school graduates without academic pretentions, fewer households in the city, fewer taxable properties, fewer dollars flowing from wage earners to neighborhood merchants, decreasing leverage for city government in regulating central-place land use." (p. 363)

Then, the strike at the Winchester plant added insult to injury. See top, p. 367. Cites catastrophic job loss over 40+ years (1954-1997) - 90%!

The "fabric of enterprise" was torn to pieces. Neighborhood grocery store decline (although Rae also notes that larger stores were more efficient, cheaper).

Notes that Lee's redevelopment policies did contribute to this decline -- many stores closed due to urban renewal. But, again, larger forces at play contributed more to this. Seems like a long, irresistible trend, helped along by zoning regulations which separated commercial and residential space.

"What eventually emerged, and prevails today, was utterly different from the fabric of enterprise described in Chapter 3."

Rae observes the "dispersion of the grand list," p. 373f -- that is, the grand list of taxable property which gets dispersed to suburban areas. Table 11.3, p. 374, tells this dramatic story in dollars.

Another aspect of the end of urbanism is the decline of voluntary organizations. And here again we clearly see larger forces at work such as the rise of television and the growth of technology which catered to individuals more than the general public, as that long passage from Robert Putnam ("Bowling Alone") brings out. pp. 377-8.

You have the "professionalization of civic fauna" -- that is organizations that used to involve city residents, now being managed by professional staff. And those professionals had less connection with the communities they served.

Mainstream, institutionalized religions decline, such as the Catholics, and are replaced by smaller, storefront churches. They become dominant influences in many working-class, ghetto neighborhoods.

Public housing declines as these areas become areas of concentrated poverty and crime. They tie poor people to an inner city that offers few amenities and opportunities. New Haven makes the top ten list in pecentage of city residents living below the poverty line. (see p. 385)

Perhaps most telling of the end of urbanism is the tremendous increase in crime, especially violent crime -- see graph p. 387 and Table 11-4 at bottom. In this context, Rae reminds us of one of the benefits of a vibrant urbanism -- effectiveness at controlling crime which no police department can accomplish on its own. "A major part of what I mean by urbanism is the effectiveness of these extragovernmental mechanisms for the most fundamental task of governance -- preventing criminal aggression in the city's streets and homes. These informal mechanisms had become ineffective, at great cost to the livability of the city." (p. 389)

Rae introduces an interesting term in the last section, "useful ineffciency" -- that urbanism had a massive collection of useful inefficiencies, from mom-and-pop grocery stores to smaller streets, etc. which served important purposes even if they were inefficient from the point of view of the market. He also stresses that those pushing technological change, market efficiency are not villains.

But this raises a big question in my mind: SHOULD WE NECESSARILY ASPIRE TO MARKET EFFICIENCY AT THE EXPENSE OF URBANISM?
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That's all for now. I'll post summary comments for Chapter 12 by the end of the week. And remember, we are going to get into "Heat Wave" on Thursday (11/28) and be meeting in our old place, Main 122.

Extra Credit Opportunity

Next Thursday, Oct. 28th at 11AM in Leonard Aud. the former mayor of Austin, TX is going to be speaking on sustainability and cities. By attending this talk and writing up a one-page response you can earn 5 points extra credit. In your response I'd like you to focus on the speaker's main message in his talk and any point he may make that has relevance for what we've talked about in class so far. Given the fact that in our book, "City," the author focused on some of the mayors in New Haven's history, you should be able to relate something this former mayor has to say to the experience of these New Haven mayors.

Please post your response as a comment on this blog post no later than one week following this talk (or Thurs., Nov. 4th) to earn the 5 points extra credit.

Summary Comments: Chapter 10

SUMMARY COMMENTS: CHAPTER 10: EXTRAORDINARY POLITICS: DICK LEE, URBAN RENEWAL, AND THE END OF URBANISM

Dick Lee takes office in Jan. '54, and he knows he is good at politics (in some ways like Frank Rice was good as mayor -- cultivating personal relationships, etc.). But there was an important difference -- Lee knew the city had big problems that would require leadership, and "extraordinary" politics to address. But Lee was unaware of some aspects of the city that would undermine his efforts to improve it. On the top of p. 313, Rae notes that Lee was great at GOVERNMENT but failed in terms of GOVERNANCE.

Rae defines what he means by "renewing" the city, certainly NOT the kind of renewal the Lee administration practiced. Rae outlines a "tall order," basically the restoration of urbanism in the face of the "accidents of urban destruction" (p. 313) See also the bullet points, pp. 313-314.

Lee's situation also different from Rices's in 1910. (a) sharp decline in grounded leadership; (b) end of urbanism (p. 315)

1. But counterbalancing these losses, was the large-scale help from the federal government, which Lee virtually created an alternative government (the Kremlin) to tap into and carry out urban renewal on a grand scale -- this was the "extraordinary politics" of the Lee era.
2. He recruited the smartest, most arrogant people to manage this massive urban renewal effort.
3. I like the name for this shadow government -- the Kremlin.
4. Kind of urban redevelopment laid out in the 1949 Housing Act was large-scale, hardly favorable to small-scale urbanism. (see p. 318)

In contrast to the standard view of public bureaucracies as inefficient, low quality results -- "Lee's Kremlin was a startling exception: its project plans, its budgetary ingenuity, its shrewd organizational workings, its capacity to compete for federal funding, all of these and more of its aspects were of the very highest quality." (p. 321)

Organic analogy -- federal aorta pumping economic energy into the Kremlin.

Got an amazing amount of money from federal govt. -- on a per capita basis, far and away the highest of all U.S. cities by a wide margin. (see p. 320)

Lee creates Citizens Action Committee (CAC) made up of business leaders supportive of his plans, to blunt criticism of the harm done under the guise of urban renewal. These leaders were not really "grounded" in the city, more of an invented elite.

Impact of Urban Renewal (pp. 320-321), stresses the devastation wrought by highway building in particular.

Notes the "modernist ideas" that are reflected in Lee's urban renewal program, even if Lee was unaware of modernist thinkers and architects such as Le Corbusier. See all of pp. 332-333. Clearly hostile to urbanism. Especially Vincent Scully's critique, to which Lee responds personally (p. 335)

Residential and Racial Impact of Urban Renewal

1. Note observation of the first director of New Haven's Family Relocation Office - "the job is impossible" (p. 338)
2. Tremendous numbers of people relocated.
3. Proportionally, it was mainly "Negro Removal" and the Africanization of public housing. But also at the center of this story is "White Removal" to the suburbs, which was voluntary and encouraged. Over 50,000 whites left New Haven, 1950-70.

Business impact of urban renewal was often lethal, especially for small business that once made up the thick fabric of enterprise of urbanism. Even a downtown mall ultimately failed.

All this urban renewal and redevelopment could not make up for the decline in manufacturing that had been the basis for so much of New Haven's economic life.

Lee did recognize that all this change was not necessarily doing poor people much good, so he created the "sociological version of Ed Logue's Kremlin -- Community Progress, Inc. (CPI), which grew fat with federal money (300 full-time employees). Instituted job training programs, although not enough jobs were available. Really did not involve or engage the poor themselves.

Lee and CPI staff recognized that: "...even the best built public housing sometimes created 'nothing but transplanted ghettos where the poor are lost among the poor, the alienated among the alienated, unmotivated school children consigned to schools full of their own.'" (p. 349)

Model to the Nation -- yet New Haven and Dick Lee are praised nationally. (p. 351) Receive "Model Cities" designation.

Then, a race riot, Aug. 1967. Politcal impact great. How could this happen in a "model city?"

Lee could not deliver jobs to these areas -- "mousetrapped by history." See, bottom p. 354.

CPI really out of touch: "an overly centralized, paternalistic, big brother institution, manned by 'planner administrators' who believe they know what is best for everyone." (p. 356)

In many ways, Lee was a remarkable mayor (bottom, p. 357), yet the forces of creative destruction which led to the end of urbanism would undermine even his best efforts. See last paragraph, p. 360.
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See you tomorrow to begin wrapping up this urban saga.

Summary Comments: Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9: INVENTING DICK LEE

I love that story about "snow tickets" (end of Chapter 8), which introduces the subject of Chapter 9, Dick Lee. It harkens back to a more "urbanist" time in New Haven. We'll see later (Chap. 10) how Dick Lee's tenure as mayor will in many ways belie that urbanist experience.

Opens by underscoring the importance of Dick Lee's (partial) Irish heritage and Irish patronage. "Dick Lee was deeply grounded in ward politics and chose, for obvious reasons, to stress his Irish blood at the expense of the Scottish and English plasmas with which he was in fact diluted. He never for an instant imagined himself giving up his lace-curtain Irish identity or his place in the city's street corner urbanism."

1. He was also nutured by the DTC (Democratic Town Committee).

Then there was the rivalry between Italian politicians recruited by the Republican party and the Democratic Irish.

Italian-American mayor, Celentano (1945-53), was very much in the mold of Frank Rice -- focusing on providing government services well. Nicely state, see middle p. 295. Because he was so focused on the small scale, he did not see that so much was changing around the city.

One of those changes being traffic congestion on New Haven streets, with average speeds around 5mph. Parking was also strangling the downtown area. Trolleys were losing out to the automobile (but there were other factors at play in the demise of the trolleys nationwide -- a conspiracy to dismantle them led by GM). (see p. 296)

Suburban development picking up. School populations declining.

Add insult to injury, HOLC had declared most New Haven residential areas a bad mortgage risk; favored the suburbs.

Above changes announce the "end of urbanism." (see middle, p. 298)
Ethnic mayors, like Celentano, continued to be "detail men" - attending to city services even as the city as a whole was undergoing significant change.

Rae then notes Lee's strong reaction to visiting a slum when he was campaigning. This is the beginning of what will become his consuming interest in URBAN RENEWAL. "Slum clearance and redevelopment quickly became Lee's passion,..." (p. 304) A problem was the "top-down" approach of the Federal government: do something TO or FOR city neighborhoods, but not WITH them. Also believed in "environmental determinism," that "good buildings make good neighborhoods," when in reality it is more "good neighborhoods make good buildings." (p. 305) And Rae goes on to give a glimpse of the heavy hand of urban renewal which clearly undermined urbanism.

Lee believed current city government was incapable of making the needed changes.
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That's all for now. I'll post summary comments on Chapter 10 early next week.

Summary Comments: Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8: RACE, PLACE, AND THE EMERGENCE OF SPATIAL HIERARCHY

Opens with a personal story (Arwildie Windsley) who came to New Haven from Beaufort, S.C. as part of the "Great Migration."
"The Windsleys traveled in the vanguard of a great migration, which brought roughly 150,000 southern blacks north annually from WWII's industrial boom until the 1970s." (p. 255) (Actually, this was the tail end of the Great Migration of Blacks from South to North.)

1. Many residential areas were closed to them, as well as jobs.

First public housing project (Elm Haven) is built and at first considered a great success, but then, largely due to the closing of the Winchester plant, jobs and savings evaporate, and this public housing project would be transformed into a civic and economic disaster by century's end.

Unfortunately for blacks migrating north, this was the time of the "end of urbanism," as Rae describes:
"One historical fact about race asserts itslef in every aspect of New Haven's history after about 1950. The timing of the black migration to New Haven was an economic horror: if the goal was to capture high wage manufacturing jobs in and near central-city neighborhoods -- jobs that could be performed without advanced education -- the timing couldn't have been worse." (p. 258)

And another nice quote: "Ardie's adult life was spent struggling against the swift tide of creative destruction, at its point of convergence with racial segregation, at increasing spatial separation from an incresingly decentralized industrial system. She had, by the time she left town, lived through the end of urbanism." (p. 260)

Three actions which reinforced neighborhood inequality --
1. municipal zoning
2. neighborhood security studies of HOLC (Home Owners Loan Corp.)
3. initial phases of public housing

Zoning defined on p. 261. Initially zoning was a reaction to negative environmental and health effects of industrial production. In New Haven, as elsewhere, they separated heavy industry and commerce from residential areas. Major effect: "...to shift spaces away from heterogeneity of uses. No longer would it be easy to turn a corner house into a corner store. No longer would mixed-use neighborhoods be seen as the urban norm." According to Jane Jacobs, this leads to a reduction of security, confidence, real human value.

HOLC and New Deal evaluations of neighborhoods:
**practice of REDLINING, which created a self-fulfilling prophecy of decline in areas where minorities were concentrated. Criteria clearly racist, see p. 265. HOLC rejected the very idea of a diverse, immigrant city. Racism did reflect values that drove the housing market. see p. 266. HOLC team clearly placed great weight on newness and on isolation from difference, which obviously favored suburban housing.

"HOLC's stated intention in conducting residential security studies was to steer mortgage money toward economically safe neighborhoods and away from economically dangerous ones....the HOLC evaluations achieved that goal through accurate appraisal, given the historical prejudices abroad in the real estate markets of that period." (pp. 272-3)

Public housing begins (Elm Haven). No stigma in early years of public housing. But would come to be looked upon very negatively. Despite the best of intentions, public housing tends to anchor people (mainly Blacks) to poor neighborhoods with few opportunities. Concentration effects of so many poor people in the projects -- crime, drugs, etc. (June Manning Thomas talks about this in Detroit.)

Ghetto comes to be identified with Blacks (defined, p. 280). "The intense marginalization of black ghettoes is an inescapable element in the end of urbanism story." (p. 280)

Summary Comments: Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7, BUSINESS AND CIVIC EROSION, 1917-1950

Rae opens by reminding us of the power of the "creative destruction" of capitalism in a quote from Lewis Mumford's "City in History." (endnote #1)

The urbanizing technologies of the 19th century -- those centripetal forces -- had run their course by the time of Mayor Frank Rice's death (1917). So, we are reminded again about the decentralizing forces about to be unleashed. (see mid. p. 216)

Note the tremendous production and profit spikes of industry during WWI. And because of their growth, these companies became more national and eventually international and lost their local grounding. Less and less concern for the health and well-being of New Haven. This was such a big loss because these businesses had provided the tax revenue, jobs, (the "economic juice"), leadership that made governance during the Rice administration that much easier. (p. 218)
(1) The impact on labor (in terms of loss of jobs primarily) was especially great. (see bottom pp. 220-1)
(2) The out-migration of major industry did not take place overnight. It was a slow but irreversible movement, facilitated by movement away from the fixed-route rail system to the variable-route trucking/auto system, which would be greatly accelerated after 1960 when highways improved greatly.

Then, comes the automobile and the "smell of profit."

"Urban Thrombosis" -- clogging the arteries of the city; at first, the automobile clogged central city streets before it opened up the metro. area to development.
(1) At first the automobile is for the privileged only, but Henry Ford's Model T would change all that, making the car affordable for almost anyone. Amazing how rapidly it caught on. Also significant were all the other manufacturing interests that got behind it too. (see, bottom, p. 225) By the mid 1930s, as many as 100,000 cars and trucks were penetrating the city center of New Haven.

Rae notes growth of suburbs before mid-century, at first supported by the trolley. Suburban development would eventually lead to out-migration not just of people but perhaps more important, taxable property -- the "grand list" of homes, etc.

Consolidation in the grocery business with A&P, undercutting the "thick fabric of enterprise" of some 600 small, neighborhood "mom & pop" stores, which provided a livelihood for so many as well. "Relentless price competition, reliable supply chains, and strategic location made these stores formidable machines of creative destruction." (p. 238) They were "factory assembly lines for consumption." (p. 238) And they would eventually be overtaken by even larger superstores, like the 8- theater complexes replacing the single theater, and now 8-theater complexes being replaced by 16 and 24-theater complexes. "If a thing is worth doing, it is often, in the heat of capitalist turmoil, worth overdoing." (p. 241) And as local chains are bought up by larger national chains, there is less and less cocnern for local life.

Rae reminds us of the importance of the rich "civic fauna" of voluntary organizations which is now threatened. Catholic parish system, other religious groups, hold on, but many other voluntary organizations go out of existence. Charitable organizations come to be managed by professional social workers (replacing the "blue collar potentates").

And Yale spreads its wings and reaches out for national prominence; selects a president who is NOT from the New Haven area or a member of the "club." Note Yale transformation, top, p. 248.

Nice summary of these changes, last long paragraph, pp. 252-253.
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That's all for now. I'll post summary comments on Chapter 8 soon.

Summary Comments on Chapters 4, 5 & 6

CHAPTER 4: LIVING LOCAL

"The urbanist city was full of citizens who were committed to it -- by choice, by chance of birth, by economic necessity, or by some combination of these...." (p.113) Rae then goes on to describe the "fully grounded city citizen," as opposed to the mere visitor or suburban commuter.

Rae follows up with some comments about "urbanity," or the quality of being "urbane," which entails contact with people of very different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. And for the city to function and interaction to work, one needs to be urbane, which is also a hallmark of civilzation. (p. 114)
(1) But modern cities are more organized so as to minimize contact with difference; Rae describes what so many cities like New Haven have become -- "a pattern of organized isolation." (p. 115 mid)

There is a fair amount (perhaps too much) of boring detail about who lived where, but the overall point is well-taken: that different classes, different statuses (eg. professors, seamstresses, laborers, etc.), different ethnicities all identified with and lived in the city of New Haven.

"Close Quarters, Strange Voices" (p. 136) does recognize the downside of this "grounded localism:" very high densities, deplorable conditions of tenements, back tenements being "a frightfully wasteful method of housing, morally and socially, as well as economically."

Rae concludes with some interesting comments about the "suburbs within," one of which would later become an area for public housing and not much else. (pp. 138-40)

Today, separation of work and life is enscribed in the layout of the city.


CHAPTER 5: CIVIC DENSITY

The two opening quotes are a real key to the rest of the chapter. The importance of voluntary organizations to our democracy is highlighted. Rae staunchly defends Schlesinger's claim that voluntary organizations have been "schools of self-government," especially in cities. And, as he emphasizes later, these voluntary organizations gave many ordinary people opportunities for leadership that they did not have in the workplace. CEOs were also among the leaders of these organizations, but for the most part blue collar folks took charge. Secondly, the idea of "SOCIAL CAPITAL" is crucial. Urbanism was a necessary prerequisite to the development of social capital which is crucial to the well-being of individuals and the larger community.

Voluntary organizations are the "CIVIC FAUNA" -- the animal life of that city habitat.

Amazing how involved in various organizations people were: (see p. 162) "All, or virtually all, of the people who were assembled by these organizations -- whether for religious worship or a fraternal lodge meeting or a sporting contest -- were members of locally grounded communities." (pp. 143-4)

I can personally identify with what Rae says about the importance of Catholic parishes (see, bottom p.150-1). And "...the Catholic parish system, with its intense commitment to place, represents a stabalizing force as the centered, grounded city begins to dissolve (mid to late-20th century)." (p. 152)

Interesting how Yale University and the hospitals were also very much grounded in that community at that time, although that will change later as Yale develops a more national and international focus.

The neighborhood (public) schools played a key part in knitting the diverse population of New Haven together. "The neighborhood school represents civic density at its thickest." (p. 176)

Finally, the last section, "Civic Density and Social Capital Formation," (pp. 181-2) is just excellent from start to finish, and it provides a summary of sorts for chapters 2-5. Social capital, centering, groundedness, civic density -- all key aspects of urbanism at its height, and something we desperately need to restore to cities in the 21st century.


CHAPTER 6: A SIDEWALK REPUBLIC

Conflict between business or property interests and residents' interests is much wider today. At the time of urbanism, these often conflicting interests were closer together -- many more people had a stake in the economic vitality of the city and they lived there as well. Many were small business owners. (see p. 186)

Mayor Rice's attitude toward the "City Beautiful" ideal and the proposals inspired by it was one of disdain and non-action. He had a sense that these proposals were beyond the capacity of city government to achieve. Mayor Rice believed in the market (the private economic sector), which may have worked during his administration, but which would later contribute to the demise of urbanism and the rise of sprawl. Market forces which were behind the auto industry and single family homes dictated a decentralized future.

Mayor Rice was a great mayor in his own right and at that time. He was honest and worked within the limits of what city government could do to satisfy his citizen customers. But he was also lucky to have inherited the city's economic and social strength. Last couple pages of the chapter are interesting and significant. (see, pp. 209-11)

Mayor Rice's greatest achievement -- sidewalks, which as he once said he used to say just to needle (irritate) the grandiose "City Beautiful" proponents.

Significance of referring to Mayor Rice's tenure as mayor as "The Sidewalk Republic" I believe may be to draw a stark contrast with the grandiose ideas of City Beautiful.

Summary Comments on Chapters 1, 2 & 3 of "City"

Before I post my summary comments on the first three chapters which you also commented on this past week, let me remind you to incorporate these summary comments in your notes. If I ask anything about this book on the final exam, it will come from this material. Also, I believe some of these comments may have some use in writing the paper for this course and possibly the short essays you will be doing later in the term.

CHAPTER 1: Creative Destruction and the Age of Urbanism

I was gratified that all three of you selected passages which I also singled out in my own reading. Understanding the phenomenon of "creative destruction," which lies at the heart of our capitalistic system, is crucial to understanding 19th and 20th century urbanization in America. This economic imperative has done a lot more to shape cities than local, state, or even federal government actions. Indeed, it appears that unless government actions were in line with the private sector (as they were in the case of the decentralizing automobile and single-family home), they tend to be voted down. As Rae observes, local government decisions depend very much on what happens OUTSIDE the city.

Transportation, of course, was a big factor in fueling city growth, as well as undermining the quality of "urbanism." The railroad played a key role in growth and centralization of cities, and the gap between the dominance of the railroad and the rise of the automobile (roughly 1870-1920) was precisely the time that Rae contends "urbanism was at its height in places like New Haven." The automobile, along with the AC electrical grid "...ended the urbanism friendly age of centered development." (p. 21)

Rae also makes a very astute observation about the cumbersome legislative process of the federal government, especially when it is working AGAINST the grain of capitalism, rather than with the grain. (see pp. 27-28)

The last section, "Urbanism Old and New," (pp. 29-31) I believe presents the basic argument of the book and it is an important one, as we consider improvements in cities today and especially in the future.


CHAPTER 2: Industrial Convergence and a New England Town

One way of thinking about this chapter is to recall my earlier observation about 19th century urbanization in America being determined mainly by CENTRIPETAL (or drawing in) forces. Of course, Rae goes into great detail about how the development of new energy sources (steam), the fixed-route railroad (and lack of variable-route modes of transportation), and industrial development, not to mention the "massive concentration of labor at the site of manufacturing," along with huge waves of immigrants, all contributed to the centralization of growth in New Haven, clustered around that original 9-square grid which was focal point of the pre-industrial New Haven. As Rae observes: "For all these reasons, steam boilers and steam fitters, factories and operatives in the thousands, sweatshops and seamstresses, tenements and families crowded into the center of New Haven and learned to live with one another at close range. This was the fragile coincidence that came apart over the course of the years 1920-1970." (p. 59)

Very interesting contrast between Doolittle's promotion of pre-industrial New Haven in 1824, which highlights its pastoral qualities (pp. 35-36) and an 1892 description which emphasized New Haven's position as a manufacturing and transportation hub. (pp. 51-52)

Finally, in highlighting the growth assumptions for New Haven circa 1910, Rae notes how far off they proved to be, because we did not realize that this era of centralization was near its end. At the end of this chapter, I made the following comment in the margins: "To make more accurate predictions, if not to make meaningful and significant changes, we must understand these larger technological/economic/ecological factors which have proven the real keys to urbanization, and not necessarily political decisions of local officials."


CHAPTER 3: Fabric of Enterprise

One thing that clearly stands out in this chapter is just how thick that fabric of enterprise had become in New Haven by the early 20th century. The opening two paragraphs (pp. 73-74) provide a nice description of the "era of urbanism" as reflected in the "fabric of enterprise." For example, Rae comments:

"In the peak years of its urbanist era, New Haven's fabric of enterprise was rich and multilayered, centered and grounded. Its richness lay in the number and variety of enterprise -- including thousands of small retail stores, services of every imaginable variety, major industrial firms of world stature. It was centered in that firms were very tightly clustered in the central city -- around its industrial nodes, where working-class housing grew up in abundance, and in its downtown business district. It was grounded in having an abundance of business organizations led and managed by people living in the city, and reliant on the city for success -- reliant on city customers, reliant on city workers, reliant on city suppliers. And it was integrated through mixed-use location, long before zoning came along to regulate and homogenize land use."
(This also comes through in the passage on p. 88 which Miya read in class.)

Rae then gets into the story of Italian entrepreneur, Sylvester Poli. It is interesting and significant where he lived: "...it is characteristic of the period that people of considerable wealth often lived close to people with very little." (p. 77), which is so different from the stark class division of today's cities.

It is also amazing how dominant the foreign-born population was, who along with a small number of blacks and Asians, amounted to over 70% of the total population. (p. 79) Nonetheless, Rae points out how that minority WASP population largely controlled the New Haven Civic Improvement Committee, although they did make room for Mr. Poli as a sort of token foreign-born member. The "City Beautiful" ideas that emanated from that committee proved no match for the energy of the largely immigrant small business community.

On p. 93, Rae identifies three factors that would later help unravel this fabric of enterprise and thereby undercut urbanism.

Bankers were also largely committed to local enterprise. The rise of the downtown department store, in its own way, contributed to this thick fabric of enterprise. And he closes the chapter by highlighting the concentration of major manufacturing companies in the downtown area, another facet of urbanism which has largely disappeared today.
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That's all for now. On Tuesday (9/28), because I'll have to leave early, we'll only cover one chapter, Chapter 4, and then we'll cover the next two chapters on Thursday. I should be able to hand back your written commentaries on Tuesday as well. See you then.

Critical Comments on Wirth & Looking Ahead to Tuesday

The urban text that I used previously had a great section which challenged many of the claims made by Wirth and others about the city and how it impacted human behavior and attitudes. This section was entitled:

"The Classic Theories and Modern Research: Myths and Realities"

The fundamental question being: "Is the city a heaven or a hell? A place where the best attributes of human life emerge or a place where people inevitably go bad?" (these questions may be a bit simplistic, but the text's authors go on to make some good points nonetheless.)

A. Tolerance in the City

1. Are urbanites more tolerant, less parochial than small town folk because of their exposure to people of diverse backgrounds? Research suggests that this is only partly true. Greater tolerance of others' lifesyles and attitudes is more prevalent in the city. But this could very well be NOT because of the city per se, but because city people tend to have higher levels of education and wealth, which are variables that are correlated with greater tolerance.

2. Another factor promoting greater tolerance may be migration -- that those moving to the city tend to relate to strangers better; they almost have to in order to make it. (This is not a very strong criticism because migration certainly is an urban factor.)

B. Impersonality in the City

1. Are urban relationships marked by loneliness, indifference (blase attitude), anonymity? Classical theorists such as Wirth suggested that the sheer number of people you encounter would engender this.

2. But many urbanites are not lonely; impersonality and anonymity are not dominant characteristics. The authors cite Whyte's "Street Corner Society" study of an Italian ethnic enclave in the North End of Boston which was very close-knit, just the opposite of Wirth's claim. In general, certain city areas contain many people with common interests (college students, for example) and backgrounds (ethnicity) which entail close, personal relations with others.

3. "Indeed, what seems to be significant about the urban environment is not the lack of ties and attachment but how these ties vary."

4. Often see a proliferation of voluntary associations -- groups, clubs, singles' bars, etc.

5. There may be areas of the city that are poverty stricken, dilapidated, with few or no small shops and businesses, high crime areas, where impersonality is more pronounced (and one might also include the Central Business District, CBD, in this). But NOT the city as a whole. The authors of the text, then, go on to make an important overall point:
"Wirth's mistake, and that of other classic theorists, was to allow the most visible aspects of city life, its PUBLIC DEMEANOR, to become the basis of his theory about urban life in general. Although, following Park, he did acknowledge the neighborhood element in city life, he tended to focus his attention on "street behavior." Wirth saw, of course, the hustling, competing, apparently lonely crowd. By not examining more closely the PRIVATE lives of the city's citizens, he inadvertently distorted urban life into a stereotype of impersonality."
"We are led, then, to the conclusion that the early study of both rural and urban places suffered from what might be called a "MISPLACED CONCRETENESS"....There is an important difference between the statement that one commonly sees more strangers in cities and the statement that cities are impersonal. In some ways they are; in other ways they clearly are not."

C. Density and Urban Pathology

1. Are densely populated cities breeding grounds for psychological disorders or anti-social behavior such as crime?

2. Seems to connect with common sense -- people experience more frustration, aggression in crowded settings such as a traffic jam. But is it really the crowded city causing this? Might we not feel as frustrated and angry if we broke down on a lonely country road?

3. Then there are the rat studies -- high density rat populations tend to produce a reaction known as the "BEHAVIORIAL SINK" -- aborted pregnancies, even cannibalism may occur among rats packed together in a crowded cage. Edward Hall made an explicit comparison with urban life. He contended there was a biological basis to the way we react in crowded situations (which is similar to Wirth and Simmel).

a. One problem is that no one yet has been able to locate any genetic code for spatial behavior in humans. It may well be that spatial expectations are learned (or cultural).

b. Second, Hall points to evidence of the high incidence of social problems in densely settled areas of the city, but these areas also happen to be lower-class, ethnic areas. This correlation may be SPURIOUS -- problems are really caused by the poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, etc. and NOT population density per se. In fact, research has shown just this.

c. And human beings have a distinct advantage over rats -- supeior adaptibility.

4. And when we look at cities globally, this relationship does not hold up. Bombay (or Mumbai) India has a very high degree of urban crowding but an extremely low homicide rate.

D. Urban Malaise

1. Do urbanites feel more anxious or depressed than people in other environments?

2. Studies have shown that neither adults nor children show greater stress in an urban environment. Stress, of course, has very much to do with how a person deals with their situation, not just the situation itself. Stress-related diseases such as hypertension and heart disease were found to be lower among city residents. As the authors then observe: "A recent survey of the National Center for Health Statistics sought to find the incidence of stress-related, chronic health problems, such as hypertension and heart disease, among those over 65 years of age. The results: 47.6 per 100 for farm residents; 47.5 for small-town residents; 40.5 for city residents."

E. Finally, let me throw out another critical speculation based on my reading of "City: Urbanism and Its End": I believe Douglas Rae would argue that there was a lot that was positive about "urbanism" at its height in cities such as New Haven in the early part of the 20th century and perhaps Wirth, looking at the city some three decades later, was looking at the city when urbanism was on the decline. In any case, as insightful as both Wirth and Simmel's essays are, I believe they were basing their views more on a caricature of the city and not the city in all of its complexity.


Please incorporate the above comments in your notes, along with the material I posted on Friday (9/18), the previous blog.
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LOOKING AHEAD TO TUESDAY: Again, we will be getting into the new book I ordered for this class and I trust you have all picked up. We will cover the Preface and Chapter 1 on Tuesday. Now that I have gotten into the book a bit more, I can say that it is indeed a terrific read and awfully insightful. I believe we are all going to learn a lot about how cities in America have grown and declined over the past two centuries.

Filling in Gaps & Wirth's Essay

First, let me go back to my somewhat scattered remarks about the origin and development of the city, which I presented this past Tuesday (9/14). I talked about the origin of the city and Aristotle's observation that people initially gathered in cities for security, but stayed to pursue the "good life," which I interpreted rather simply as pursuing ends that go beyond mere biological survival - hence the development of a craft life, art, etc. I also commented on the significance of the development of agriculture which provided the necessary food surplus to make cities possible. Early cities were also ceremonial centers and centers of military power. What I left out of my presentation was an interesting quote from that text I used in the past, about how this urban development was something of a mixed blessing:
"This, then, was the period of the first urban revolution. From approximately 4000 B.C.E. to 500 C.E., urban sites multiplied and their populations grew to sizes previously unknown in human history. (Rome at its apex surpassed a million people)."
"In retrospect, the first urban revolution appears to have been something of a mixed blessing. The city's greatest positive attributes are its ability to improve people's standard of living, provide choice in the conduct of life, and stimulate the human imagination. On the other hand, these first cities also had rigid social class divisions that extended the city's benefits to only a small minority of the urban population. With the emergence of city-states and urban empires, human warfare and bloodshed rose to unparalleled levels."

And with regard to urbanization in North America from colonial times through the 20th century, I just want to underscore that broad way of characterizing this period. From colonial times through the early 20th century, this was a period of "URBAN IMPLOSION" in which CENTRIPETAL FORCES were dominant and people were drawn into the city. Cities were fairly compact and densely populated, and because of industry often rather dirty and polluted. Beginning in the mid 20th century, an "URBAN EXPLOSION" takes place in which CENTRIFUGAL FORCES such as our auto/highway system begin to draw people out of central cities to surrounding suburbs. It is a time of METROPOLITAN EXPANSION, and the rise of the MEGALOPOLIS, such as the Boston-Washington D.C. corridor which is almost one continuous urban conglomeration. We will be examining some of the adverse consequences of this trend in "Geography of Nowhere" toward the end of the course and I believe it will also come up in our discussion of "City: Urbanism and Its End," which we will be getting into shortly.

I hope that helps to fill in some gaps in what I tried to present in class this past Tuesday.


WIRTH'S ESSAY

As you recall, we just got into Wirth's famous essay, "Urbanism as a Way of Life," yesterday. I want to present the rest of this in this blog, and include some critical perspective from that text I used in the past. I do this so that we can begin to discuss our new book next Tuesday according to that schedule I handed out. There is a lot more to Wirth's essay than I am going to bring out here. For example, I appreciate the plea he makes at the very end for a comprehensive theory of the city rather than a collection of unsupportable judgments about different aspects of the city. This is not to say, of course, that Wirth's theory (or Simmel's, for that matter) is the comprehensive theory we should accept and use. As I will note below, many aspects of his theory have been challenged by more recent research.

A. As you recall, Wirth begins his essay by offering a definition of the city based on THREE characteristics, and then he proceeds to deduce the social consequences that follow from each of these characteristics. His definition: The city is "a relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially and culturally heterogeneous individuals." (p. 148)

1. Size of the Population Aggregate: large population size he believed to be correlated with greater occupational and cultural diversity. And with people from many different cultural backgrounds and pursuing specialized lines of work, this necessitated more dependence on formal control structures, such as a legal system. Secondary group contacts more important. Relationships come to be based more on utility and rationality. As Wirth himself says (and note his use of Simmel's term, "blase": "...the city is characterized by secondary rather than primary contacts. The contacts of the city may indeed be face-to-face, but they are nevertheless impersonal, superficial, transitory, and segmental. The reserve, the indifference, and the blase outlook which urbanites manifest in their relationships may thus be regarded as devices for immunizing themselves against the personal claims and expectations of others."
"The superficiality, the anonymity, and the transitory character of urban social relations make intelligible, also, the sophistication and the rationality generally ascribed to city-dwellers." etc. (p. 153)

2. Population density: this just intensifies the above effects. Diversity comes to be reflected in distinct neighborhoods based on class and ethnicity. Wirth called this process of specializtion, "ecological specialization." Tend to judge or regard others on (superficial) outward characteristics or symbols such as uniforms, types of homes people live in, etc. Although there may be greater toleration of differences among urbanites, there also tends to be an increase in social distance. High density may also increase anti-social behavior. And, reminiscent of Simmel, Wirth says, "The close living together and working together of individuals who have no sentimental and emotional ties foster a spirit of competition, aggrandizement, and mutual exploitation. Formal controls are instituted to counteract irresponsibility and potential disorder. Without rigid adherence to predictable routines a large compact society would scarcely be able to maintain itself. The clock and the traffic signal are symbolic of the basis of our social order in the urban world." etc. (p. 156)

3. Heterogeneity: Among the consequences of this, Wirth identifies "depersonalization." Against a background of commercial mass production and consumption, personal relations are eroded by an emphasis on money. Also, social mobility undercuts the establishment of binding traditions.

Clearly, the above theory of urbanism is quite pessimistic. The authors of that text observed: "... Wirth was pessimistic about urbanism as a way of life. He saw the city as an acid that, in time, dissolved traditional values and undermined...meaningful relationships."
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That's all for now. I'll blog the criticism of Wirth's essay on Monday.

Reminder & Extra Credit Opportunity

REMINDER: Don't forget to post your urban impression comment by Wednesday. I saw Maya's there this morning, so that means Frances and Hannah need to do this. Remember that I will be lecturing on the origin of the city and we will be discussing those two classic essays I handed out last Thursday, beginning with Simmel's "Metropolis and Mental Life." On Tuesday (9/14) we will meet in Main 122, then go from there to some more comfortable corner of the Great Oaks lounge in Milliken.

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: As you know, former Spartanburg Mayor, Bill Barnett, will be our Convocation Speaker on Thursday (9/16) of this week. If you attend and want to earn 3 extra credit points, I'd like you to post a short reflection on his talk focusing on anything he says that helps you understand the challenges of being the mayor of a city such as Spartanburg. I am not sure what his specific topic will be, but I would guess that in his speech he will say something about his time as mayor which you can comment on. All I am looking for is a paragraph or two. And, if for some strange reason, he does not say anything pertinent to city government, then you are welcome to focus on what you believe was the most significant thing he said in general.

Welcome & First Exercise

WELCOME to the blog that I have set up for this course, Sociology 230, Urban Sociology. We will be using this blog for a variety of activities this semester, which would include the following:
(1) For what I call "activities and exercises" in the course syllabus, such as the one described below. I may ask you to comment on some video program I may show in class, or on something in the assigned reading, etc.. Among these activities and exercises, you will be called upon to contribute some questions for both the midterm and final exams, which will be posted on this blog. I may also use this blog to post descriptions of some of the short essays you'll be writing during the semester.
(2) I may use this blog, on occasion, to post lecture notes, if I get behind in class. Frequently, I will use this blog to follow-up on a class lecture or discussion to clarify or elaborate on a point I made in class. (BUT PLEASE DO NOT EXPECT THAT I WILL BE POSTING EVERYTHING I COVER IN CLASS ON THIS BLOG.)
(3) There may also be some extra credit opportunities for which I will ask you to post a comment on some outside lecture, film or article that is pertinent to the class.
(4) Finally, you, of course are welcome to use this blog to comment on or ask questions on anything we cover in class.
When I do post an exercise I will always be sure to mention it in class and ask you to check the blog, but I would also suggest that you get in the habit of checking this blog once or twice a week even if I don't call you attention to it in class. This blog will be an important source that you will need to consult for both the midterm and final exams, not to mention the short essays and paper you'll also be doing.
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FIRST EXERCISE: URBAN IMPRESSIONS
I want each of you to post a one or two-paragraph comment on your impressions of visiting or living in a large city (roughly 250,000 or more). General impressions are fine, but also include at least one particular experience you had which you believe is indicative of urban life in America today. This exercise is worth 5 activity points, and I'd like you to post your comment by WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15TH.