American Population Boom’s “Suburbanization Begins” Positive or Negative
After reading “The New urban sociology,” specifically chapter 6 on suburbanization. Globalization, and the emergence of the multi center region. I begin to become exceptionally fascinated with the cause of suburbanization of middle class Caucasian Americans Post World War II in the 1930’s, which is best known as the era of the baby boom. As the chapter states growth beyond city borders was a common feature of industrialized societies as early as the nineteenth century. Though this facts remains it drove me to do a little investigation on my own concerning the major push out of urban communities and into suburban areas.
According to article “Baby Boom” After World War II had drawn to a close, the United States experienced unprecedented population growth that to this day has shaped the social and political landscape of the country, and changed how and where many Americans live. Known as the "baby boom," this population expansion took place between the years 1946 and 1964, with the peak occurring in 1957. The elevated birthrate, unparalleled in American history, added more than 50 million babies by the end of the 1950s.
There is a clear coloration between the populations boom in American suburbanization as shown in the graphs below, but another question of mine that surfaced was how did the effect of massive suburbanization effect the inner larger cites. I am beginning to believe that this massive change has played a key role in current poverty and lack of resource within inner cities such as Detroit.
When people leave areas in massive quantities the only things that they leave behind aren’t their homes. Evacuated cities suffer from lack of property taxes that directly hinder funding for public education, job opportunities, and local resource not to mention the lack of people to work at corporations to maintain production. When all of these resources leave simultaneously there is no surprise that the results are increase in crime rate within those areas, job loss ending in forms of ghettos and massive impoverished zones.
Meanwhile the demographics of lower class America which is dominantly minorities are suffering not only from a racist society now there fighting against the effects of what is known as “White Flight”. The effects of resources and major being limited and communities getting worse begins to push middle class whites out while boxing lower class demographics in.
In the mid-twentieth century United States, suburbanization was caused by federal governmental incentives to encourage suburban growth and a phenomenon dubbed "white flight" where white residents sought to distance themselves from racial minorities in urban areas.
Push factors are those that push people out of urban areas while pull factors are those that entice individuals to leave urban zones for the suburbs.
Pull factors are those that attract people to suburbs in particular (like more land or bigger homes).
White flight refers to the large-scale migration of whites from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogenous suburban areas.
So I in this with the question was suburbanization the next step to innovating building within society? Or was it a way to systematically promote segregation by class, income, and race? Even more important with the current shifts of white flight reverting from suburban areas back to inner city of Chicago and relocating minority family’s is all of this things conspiracy or coincidence.
Which end in Blockbusting which refers to the practice of introducing African American homeowners into previously all white neighborhoods in order to spark rapid white flight and housing price decline.
Source: Boundless. “Suburbanization.” Boundless Sociology. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 13 Feb. 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/population-and-urbanization-17/urban-problems-and-policy-125/suburbanization-707-10233/
http://eyeonhousing.org/2016/02/boomers-prefer-suburbs-and-cul-de-sacs/https://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/baby-boom/
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Interesting and informing read. To share my input on the impose "was suburbanization the next step to innovating building within society? Or was it a way to systematically promote segregation by class, income, and race?", I think it your on to a very interesting conspiracy. I do believe that suburbanization was a necessary in the development of major cities. Once people started to move out of the city and it allowed for new developments, new technology, more space for building new infrastructures, etc. This is how our cities grow and expand and become the urban arenas of our country. However, I completely agree with you. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that there are forces continuously systematically burdening minority groups and those forces are hidden within our government agencies. Creating the idea of having a private, spacious home would appeal to the majority who could afford them, especially with minority groups, predominantly African American moving into cities to find work. You point out that mass amount of departures can lead to a decrease in education, local resources, etc and that's what was left for the groups coming in. It can be suspected that throughout time, minorities will be pushed into the suburban areas while white americans move back into the city. It's already in the progress with government assistant programs like Section 8 allowing recipients to live in suburban areas with better schools, housing, and food options. Good read and interesting questions.
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