Urbanization and Sub-urbanization
Urbanization is defined the process of the migration of people from rural to urban areas and the social, cultural, and behavioral impacts, for example Mumbai, Delhi, and Rio de Janeiro. On the other hand, suburbanization is the migration of people from the city to the suburb areas or rural regions to the suburbs. It entails the surrounding the cities using single developing housing for instance Phoenix and Los Angeles. Suburbanization has been facilitated by the expansion of transport networks and the increased ownership of cars which have allows people to commute to and from work. Furthermore, the population of a particular area increases proportionally with factors that affect urbanization. There is a push and pull relationship between the two elements. There are numerous factors which affect the levels of urbanization: education, unemployment rates, access to health, availability of resources, and recreational development. Finally, the consequences of urbanization include increased crime rate, loss of identity, traffic congestion, pollution, poverty, rapid spread of disease, loss of biodiversity, and urban sprawl.
Reasons for Sub-urbanization in the United States
After the World War Two there was a vast movement of people into the new suburbs. The rapid expansion of the suburbs was necessitated by various historical forces, such as the mass demilitarization after the War, subsequently the “baby boom”, social bequest of the Depression, increased government participation in housing and development projects, the marketing of automobiles, sudden change in demographics, and economic success. The high employment rates lead to an increment in income and subsequently consumer spending. In addition, mortgage financing was readily available in favorable terms. Further, as American families started moving from cities and farms into new suburbs, the American culture went through a major transformation. The race and social class dynamics shifted; the long distance between work and home spawned a housing and highway construction boom; and the older community facilities began to disappear as the families turned inward. Another reason that led to suburbanization was The National Defense highway Act that was signed in 1956 by Eisenhower. The act stated that the government would build a national highway in a bid to connect the North to South and East to West. The military defense used the highway as an airstrip and the highway also resulted in a vast road network.
Reasons for Urban Planning
Urban planning is an essential tool for city leaders in a bid to create sustainable development. Urban planning is utilized when drafting municipal budgets by informing service and infrastructure investments, balancing the expansion demands with the need to safeguard the environment. Furthermore, it apportions economic development in a particular territory to maximize social objectives and develop a system for collaboration between the private sector, local governments, and the public. An example of a city that has suffered due to the lack of urban planning is Houston. Some of the urban planning initiatives include the separation of waste facilities and coal power plants from residential places. Also, the amenities should be accessible and situated logically. A good transportation network, law enforcement, public infrastructure, public entertainment amenities, educational facilities, hospitals, and environment preservation structures are essential in urban planning.
Kevin Lynch’s Design Ideas
Kevin Lynch was a professor of urban studies who utilized social sciences principles like psychology to explain and understand the basis of cities and what features to their recognition. He interviewed and studied various cities across the United States, such as Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City. Lynch identified five main elements that all cities need to incorporate in the planning process so that they can be useful and efficient. The elements were: edges, paths, landmarks, nodes, and districts. Notably, each of the elements can take up different forms and shapes, Kevin maintained that attractive cities are not just well organized and orderly; they should also be vivid with unique visual stimuli and varied texture.
In addition, Kevin Lynch provided significant contributions to city planning through research on how people perceive and navigate through the urban landscape. His four core concepts that are used today by urban planners are: urban systems have held legible via definite sensory cues. Secondly, the image has to be discerned by the observer, promptly selected by the local community, and manipulated by city planners finally. Next, the legibility and imageability would result in identification of structures, and thus a precise identity. Through his work, Image of the City, he has made remarkable and durable influence in the urban planning.
1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Planning History
The World’s Columbian Exposition that took place in 1893 transformed Chicago City and influenced its development for many decades to come. The Chicago World’s Fair was situated in Jackson Park and attracted about 27 million visitors; almost half of the visitors were from outside the US. Columbian Exposition celebrated the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. The planners wanted to showcase the country that was still recovering from the Civil War that had occurred 28 years earlier. Also, they wanted to exhibit the city’s international stature barely 22 years after the destruction by fire. The fair’s lead architect, Daniel Burnham, was in charge of the design and planning of the main buildings. The massive and neoclassical structures, White City, were exhibited during the Fair.
The legacy of the World’s Columbian Exposition’s influence can be viewed in numerous American cities currently. The City Beautiful movement was also formulated in response to the Exposition. The movement was attributed to the landscape designs and classical architecture exhibited at the fair. When the visitors moved back to the home cities, they saw a gritty and unorganized urban landscape when compared to the ‘white city’. Therefore, they realized that the need for the public welfare to beautify their cities. Consequently, there was erection of war monuments and enormous public building projects in American cities such as Detroit, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. Further, the urban infrastructure in New York City was a chaotic mess that was compounded by immigrants who worked in factories and resided in poor tenement houses. Nonetheless, the city government did not legislative control over the city’s aesthetic elements of the city. Accordingly, the movement resulted in the development of many art societies that aimed to obtain legislative ways for aesthetic regulation within the city such as the New York Landmarks Law and the Bard Act.
Social Aspects of Planning
The social aspects planning occurs when the government agencies, legislators, funders and other policy makers attempt to solve or improve the conditions in the local community by creating and implementing policies that are intended to have positive results. The policies take the form of incentives, laws, regulations, programs, media campaigns, or services information. For instance, the state Board of Health adopts a regulation that bans smoking in public places attempts to safeguard the public from the effects of second-hand smoking and to minimize smoking in general.
Housing is one of the fundamental aspects in which urban planning decisions have the greatest social impact. Decisions about capital investments like water lines and land use controls have an impact on the type of housing. Such decisions also determine the house and rental costs and subsequently the residents. Through costs mechanisms, the housing patterns will favor racial integration and others favor racial segregation. In the end, the housing policy will also have an impact on the educational policy, access to social services, recreation, and most importantly, employment. Furthermore, unemployment can lead to the disintegration of the family unit, welfare dependency, crime, alcoholism, homelessness, among other social issues.