The Studies of America

Urbanization is both positive and negative for society. Urbanization is the growth of cities; specifically the population growth in urban areas. The general idea is to allow a more convenient area for businesses, people, and general communication. It allows businesses to have enterprises and buildings close to each other. People are able to experience new things such as elegant restaurants, plays, hotels, and business. The amount of communication in a populated city is extremely large. The world’s largest cities are the ones with television networks, commercialization, and also problems. Cities are filled with a large amount of people below the poverty line, and are releasing harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, and at the same time taking up green areas in order to expand. The negative seems to over-power the positive. Urbanization is causing people to lose their homes, and is creating more poverty than wealth. It seems that the wealthier the people, the better off they are with urbanization. The general idea of urbanization seems to be supporting the wealthy; expanding areas and making newer attractions. Urbanization is ignoring the fact that there are more poor people than wealthy people. The wealthy still are able to continue the expansion of urbanization, simply because they have enough money and power to do so. Cities are focusing on expanding when they should be focusing on quality over quantity. The cost of the 2016 Olympics, if in Chicago, would have been $4.8 billion. Is tradition more important than welfare? I mean seriously, is one more year of the Olympics more important than the effort to eliminate poverty? Sure, the Olympics would have been cool to have, but would the money be going toward the most important cause? It would also cause an extreme increase in the population of Chicago. The migration to a small area creates density and chaos among the population. This allows more communication, and therefore a better understanding of the world around them. Although is helps society, there are less wealthy people than poor people. The poor people are unable to find jobs and are unable support their families due to the amount of people and the limited jobs. The world maximum population is much lower than it is now, the amount of technology and medicine created has extended the life expectancy of people, and has given people a way to survive under extreme conditions. The overall outcome of urbanization is both good and bad. More people are able to live and the technologies are becoming more advanced. At the same time, people are living in poverty, struggling to keep food on the table, if they even have one, for their family. Urbanization seems to overthrow the poor, and benefit the wealthy. As long as the wealthy become wealthier, the poor will continue to lose money and their loved ones. Urbanization is the reason there is an increase in poverty.

The article, Downtown Renaissance, is bout the population growth in cities. After World War II, the population growth in the united states began to become more dense in city areas causing the income to drop. This change made people begin to think that the city life was over, but cities struck back creating a more attractive place filled with new attractions such as shops and restaurants. The commercial industry grew and expanded with the new and improved city life. The article states that people began to go to the city just for prom pictures; there was a noticeable amount of people wanting to be in the city, and have a city background just for pictures. By personal experience, i know that my family always takes the Christmas card picture in the city so that the background is complimentary with the image we are trying to portray to others, that of elegance and sophistication. The city of Greenville suffered a population secretion after World War II as well, and with the same cause, the same outcome. In the 1970s and 80s cities were "places of crime and danger" according the Paul Levy, the president of the Philadelphia Center City District.The population was increasing due to the amount of improvements the city had to offer. Cities seem to become more populated with the more attractions and activities offered. In times of depression and sorrow, people look to "get away" from everything. A populated city is the center for activity; allowing people to shop and have an elegant meal, the perfect escape for a stressing person. This is the reason that the population grew in cities. With the improvements of industries and commercialism, the population is still growing, and the city is becoming more wealthy. Cities are helping people realize the world around them, and are allowing people to have a positive "get away".


http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2006062300

The urban sprawl was a 75% increase in population, in the city of Atlanta, Georgia in 16 years. The amount of city was increasing; a local paper states that 500 acres of green land was to be turned into housing developments, parking lots, and shopping malls. The widespread suburban growth is known as an "urban sprawl". This began when the people living in the city wanted to live on the outskirts. Due to the baby boom, there was a massive increase in wanting a suburban home. This is extremely similar to what people want now. The increase in transportation has given people the option to live in suburban areas around the city; this is making the city less dense, but still a place or work and entertainment. It would seem that the urban sprawl is what saved the cities from chaos and over-population. The new form of urbanism, "new urbanism" or "smart growth", is the action of making neighborhoods mixed with different people and different types of housing. The main goal of this form is to reduce the amount of pollution and congestion caused by cars. The form of change has caused people to believe that it is harmful to the environment, because of the amount of green areas they are affecting. It has also caused less pollution, and saved the lives of many. Is this just another way to expand the population? It is doing the same thing that medicine and technology has done for us, expands our lives and lets us live happier lives, but it is also causing the streets of many cities to roam with the homeless. Is there any hope for a type of urbanization that will only affect the general wellbeing of the people positively and not negatively?


http://www.issues.abc-clio.com/Issues/Display.aspx?issueid=913458

Now that i have learned a little about urbanization, I am going to continue looking into the outcome and the affect on the people. I like how there is two points to the effects of urbanization; positive and negative, both having powerful points and arguments.

Cities Homeless Population may be on the rise
By Megan Cottrell

This article is saying that the rich are getting more rich, and the poor are becoming more poor. It is as simple as that. The less wealthy people are unable to find jobs in order to support their family, and begin to lose money on the basic necessities. They are unable to find jobs because of amount of people looking for jobs, and the small amount of work available. In Deerfield, a simple job at Best Buy would be a dream job for most people living in the streets of Chicago. A homeless shelter has had to double the amount of families in a room for 8 out of 10 rooms. The director of the shelter said that the people who are coming in are becoming average Joe's, the amount of homeless people in the city has forced the building of 200,000 housing choices. This investment is necessary to stabilize the families and the community. With the incoming of immigrants and the birth of children, the population has reached the maximum for the city of Chicago. People are now moving to Chicago for the homeless shelters. As the rich get more rich, the poor become more poor, it is as simple as that.


http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/Citys_homeless_population_may_be_on_the_rise,21190

U.S. Population, 2010: 308 million and growing
By. Robert Schlesinger
The Article states that the population in America is around 308,408,400 people, and grew by 2.6 million in just one year. According to the article, there is a new birth every eight seconds, and there is a death every twelve seconds. An interesting fact that the article states is that there is nearly 1 new immigrant every 37 seconds. The idea that the population is increasing at such a fast rate, is scary. It would seem that there is an umbrella effect going on. As more people are admitted into the united states, there is more births and immigrants. There is no way to stop the rapid increase due to the amount of people in the U.S. and the amount that are still entering. The population is an obvious problem, and it would seem that there is no way to change it, but with the increase in population, it leads to more scientists, designers, architects, etc. With these people, the population will still be able to increase due to the technologies and space available for people. This will still only prolong the unavoidable end, an extreme downfall in population due to the effects of nature or an other obsticle. I see the world becoming a futuristic movie, with extremely large, high tech, cities and areas of depression and death, but this will take thousands of years to come to.


http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/12/30/us-population-2010-308-million-and-growing.html

Total Urbanization By Douglas Bell

The story is about two boys who live in the city, surrounded by skyscrapers, taxis, and people. The narrator of the story recalls his past, and relates it with the future. He recalls a past filled with promise and the idea of destiny, but when he compares the past and the present, he realizes that the change has only benefited the city, and how his life has stayed the same. Throughout the boy's life, he lived with limitations, such as money and food, he never had the chance to expirence the life that the immigrants and upper class american people had. He then realized that he had not made the most of his life, and died, knowing he had an unsatisfied life. The story shows how urbanization is good, it allows people to question themselves, and shows people the improvements of action. The story shows both the positive and the negative side of urbanization. The positive being the satisfaction of change and experimentation, and the negative side, showing how the lack of change leads only to curiosity and regret. I personally believe that urbanization is a good thing for society, knowing that there will always be regret, not knowing the possible outcomes of action.



http://www.sffworld.com/authors/b/bell_douglas/fiction/totalurbanization1.html

One more example of urbanization is the California gold rush. In just one year the population of California grew from 15,000 to nearly 150,000. The increase in huge! Can you imagine the population of deerfield becoming 150,000 in just one year. That is amazing. Although this is not because of the city, there was a similar "want". They wanted money and gold, the generally reasoning for urbanization is money and technology, but they both are in order to become more civilized. Once the gold was gone, people left. Would it be the same for urbanization? Once technology catches up with the rest of the country, will we stop focusing on the cities and start focusing on other important things like the environment? i hope so.



"California gold rush." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

Okay, the more i read about urbanization, the more i want to turn on the grammies and watch taylor swift destroy beyonce. But also the more i read, the more links i pass by, and the more i learn about urbanization! Turns out there was a massive migration of americans across the western half of America. This movement is actually what created economic success in America. It is weird to think about how America started, and how many details created the America that we see today. If one little detail were different than america would be a different place. It seems like the main purpose of urbanization is to bring the country together. Back when the movement occured, the more people who joined, the closer everyone got. Maybe urbanization is actually about being one. And right now, thats what we need. We need to be together as one, and realize that we are a place of all, instead of one.




"westward expansion." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

After reading about urbanization my assumptions were bassically correct. In 1900 there was aproximately 220 million people who lived in urban areas, and in only 50 years the population increased to 732 million. A large cause of urbanization is argriculture. Generally, large amounts of exports are transfered through urban areas, which creates more jobs for the working American. I was interesrted to find that the newest "form" of urbanization, actually seems like the reverse affect of urbanization. The goal is to create a less chaotic enviorment where people can walk around a mixed-use community. Although this form still incorporates motor transportation, and is only making the cities larger; which is the goal.



"urbanization." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
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Wow, okay. To be completely honest, the general idea of urbanization is non-existant to me. From what i know now, urbanization is the growth of cities? Like a rapid increase in population in cities? Thats my guess. I beleive that urbanization is a bad thing. The more people in the cities the more problems in the cities. Cities should be places of work and enterprise. The growing amount of apartment complexes and other accomidations is giving the public a reason to go to the city. My mom plans to buy a small house in the city of Chicago once i go to college, she believes that it will give her more of a reason to go to the city, and would allow her to see my brother more. My brother works in the city with the stock markets, exactly what he does, i do not know. I am even planning on going to a college where i would be able to go to the city whenever i want. Is all of this good? I know that the general idea of a city is "chaotic". So wouldnt more people mean more chaos. Wouldnt everything become more stressful? Im guessing that people are attracted to technology, and cities seem to represent a high form of tech. The only large problem i see with urbanization is that it pin points large targets in the US. If there were only 4 locations in America where the population is large, then it would seem that our country is only 4 parts. Terrorists would have the largest targets, and if they were to attack, the reaction from America would be chaos. And it would seem that urbanization is the crash to America. However, i do not know any facts or statistics according to urbanization. This is only my thoughts.

I watched the Barack Obama State of the Union speech last night. Generally i liked what he had to say. He spent a decent amount of his speech focusing on health care. I liked how he also wanted to make sure that the people know he is focusing on created more jobs. When Barack Obama became the new president he was focusing on "change" and said that he had a plan in order to obtain that "change". At this point i don't see much change, everything seems to be the same. The only difference is that Bush is no longer our president, but there are still negative remarks in the news. Obama now is making more promises of innovation and "change". He wants engineers to focus on green energy and green technology to keep a cleaner environment. I agree that we need to find a new source of energy besides oil, etc. He wants to reduce our deficit, by freezing government spending starting in 2011. Why not now? The way things are going, by the time 2011 comes, there will be an excuse to make the date later, and then after that even later. We need to act, and procrastinating wont help. I understand what he is trying to do, but the only way to make any of this happen is to "make it happen," just do it! Don't wait. Action is what we need, and that is what he promised, but we are still a lackadaisical country.

I have no idea what my first post should be about. Should it be about American Studies? Tommy dropping the class? Yastrow in Isreal? Lost coming back? YES! LOST! The greatest show on the face of the earth. Although it has been extremely long since the show has been on, i still remember everything. Last night when i got home from tennis, i walked ionto my house and my mom, dad, and brother are all watching the season finale of season 5. I got the chills and was freaking out. After the episode, there was a preview for the up coming season. I was freaking out. Oh My God. LOST.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtkBV7epYVk&feature=related