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.