The Studies of America

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