Suburbanization and the Hollowing of the City

            At the very start, it has been discussed that in the 19^th century, urbanization was at its peak while 20^th century was all about sub-urbanization. Countless businesses along with people left cities for suburbia’s greener pastures. America transformed into a suburban nation from an urban nation with implications far-reaching for cities. The foundation of suburbanization of the 20^th century can be seen emerging from the previous century.

Considering the compactness of preindustrial city, dwellers often used to live within the distance which was easily coverable to their jobs. In the midway of 1800s, this actually began to change when innovations in transportations occurred. It allowed people to reach areas far from their homes. When industrialization rose, the center of cities actually started to become crowded, polluted, and even noisy. By the late 19^th century, the proliferation of renowned streetcar suburbs took place. This initial suburbanization was majorly limited to only the upper classes, meaning this phenomenon didn’t spread widely.  

The change in that began during 1920s when movers to suburbs exceeded the number of that to cities. Actually, the middle class was expanding in terms of not only affluence but size as well making investors prefer real estates in suburbs.

            Moving on, it has been discussed that metropolitan fragmentation’s second cause has been the incapability of cities to expand their limits through consolidation and annexation. During the 19^th century, typically, suburbs began to lose their individual identities because the mass philosophy was adopted by municipal governments and expanded their areas and population by pushing their boundaries in an outward direction.

In the book by Kneebone & Berube (2013) there is the also discussion about the war on poverty and there is the history regarding the inner city and in rural areas; the suburbs and the middle- and upper-class families are discussed. Furthermore, it has been explained that government policies rural problem on have helped in aggravating and producing metropolitan inequalities. 149 competent urban scholars were asked by a recent survey to determine the most significant and critical impacts on the U.S. metropolitan areas. There were two important consequences of federal policies. First of all, they have continuously preferred nothing but disinvestments in central cities and investments in suburbs (Kneebone & Berube, 2013).  

Incentives were provided by these policies for middle-class Americans and businesses to move to nothing but suburbs while daunting poor citizens from doing the same. Poor has also been concentrated upon by governmental policies in central cities. Secondly, state and federal policies promoted political fragmentation and economic competition in metropolitan areas by permitting local autonomy over education, housing, land use, and taxation but also by failing to offer initiatives for cooperation or regional governance.

            Suburbia is necessary a phenomenon which is political and political independence is a thing that diversified settlements which are beyond city limits have in common. The meaning of local autonomy is all about suburban communities seeking to do nothing but control their own fate which is immensely free from the requirement to fit their interests to those of other metropolis’s residents and local jurisdictions.  Considering the fact that local governments in America seem to bear the initial duty of for the basic public services’ provision like fire protection, police, education, as well as the functionalization of independence, land use, and housing offers suburbs with a significant control over community life’s parameters, involving the strength to leave unwanted neighbors aside.

At last, policies have been compared of the past and the present. Considering the fact that in the post years of WWII, the speed of suburbanization increased and many suburban municipalities actually used their codes of zoning (McGovern, 2016).

References

Kneebone, E., & Berube, A. (2013). Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. Brookings Institution Press.

McGovern, S. J. (2016). Urban Politics: A Reader . CQ Press.