Tappan Zee Bridge
"A symbolic span over which Westchester and Rockland Counties will move virtually overnight, twenty years into the future" When Governor Thomas F. Dewey made this pronouncement in December of 1955, it does not seem as though even he knew how true his words would be. It took till 1989 and "Field of Dreams" to coin the phrase "If you build it they will come", but someone could have very well made the same observation during the 1950s in reference to Rockland County New York. Both of these statements cannot fully impress into the minds of readers that changes that came with the opening of a single roadway.
After World War II ended there was a great difference between the number of people who wanted to buy houses and the number of houses that were available. This caused an increase of house building and a change in people's way of life. Those decades marked the beginning of the baby boom and the suburbanization of society. Areas around major cities were the most influenced by such changes and Rockland County, New York, a suburb of New York City, was no different. Every spot in Rockland County lies less then fifty miles from Columbus Circle in Manhattan. This close proximity, along with the "country-like" atmosphere, attracted many people to the area. This area was not easily accessible because it was cut off from New York City by the Hudson River. The building of the Tappan Zee Bridge in 1955 became the gateway to Rockland County and its country atmosphere. Many people flocked to this area and it soon changed dramatically from a rural landscape and agricultural economy to a bustling suburb. The changes that came with this transformation including, population growth, land usage, and infrastructure forever cha...
... middle of paper ...
...e the same dream. This dream crowds the suburbs, which are supposed to be open and roomy. Instead, growth creates mini-cities; pushing the dream suburb farther and farther out, away form the city. A prospective homebuyer seeking an affordable home on more then a quarter acre, in a country setting is rarely available. Instead prospective buyers in Rockland County see the same suburban sprawl that plagues Long Island and Westchester. Because the land has become so expensive it longer is profitable to build houses for families just starting out. Instead huge houses are built on small lots to take advantage of the land. This practice has now become the norm for developments around Rockland County. Today you can no longer look at Rockland County to fulfill that dream. Instead you must now go further and further north towards Orange or Dutchess Counties to find the subur.
After 1830, the construction of railroads and macadam turnpikes began to bring improved transportation facilities to come American communities, but the transportation revolution did not affect most rural roads until the twentieth century. Antebellum investors, public and private,...
After the American Revolution, New York became a part of the United States and the city expanded rapidly. Back then, before cars and subways existed, people had to live close to their work place. The Lower East Side became very crowded with working men and women who had families. In 1833, architects realized that they could make a good deal of money by building small, cheep dwelling for families. Soon after, the first tenement was built on Water Street in October, 1833. It was four stories high and was called a “single decker” meaning one apartment per floor. Within a few years, tenements had taken the place of one-family homes in the neighborhood....
Creation of highway networks outside the city and subsequent growth of suburban communities transformed the way citizens worked lived and spent their leisure time. Downtown businesses closed or moved to malls inducing a reduction in downtown shopping and overall downtown commercial traffic.
Schaffer, Richard, and Neil Smith. "The Gentrification of Harlem?" Annals of the Association of American Geographers 76.3 (1986): 347-65.Department of Geography. Hunter College of the City of University of New York. Web. 25 May 2014. .
Construction of The Peace Bridge in Buffalo New York What can construction do for an area? The construction of an office building may bring in a firm, corporation, or company. The construction of a sporting arena may keep a team where it currently is, or bring a new team to that area. For example, the construction of the HSBC Arena kept the Sabres in Buffalo. The construction of a casino may bring in tourists, or people who live in the outlying suburbs.
We take them for granted when driving miles to the closest mall. We are unconscious of their usefulness when traveling to see a distant relative by car. We can't take a moment to stop and admire their beauty and usefulness; the architectural wonders that are highways and their interchanges; which have such a rich history embedded in the American suburbia of today. Let's go back to the early 1900's, when the automobile was starting to become a dominate part of the American life (Morton, 2014). Around this time; a shift began to occur towards private transportation over public by influencing policies in their favor (Nicolaides and Wiese, 2006). One of these polices was created by the Federal Aid Highway of 1925; the United States Highway System which basically expanded the highways across the United States connecting one another, creating new opportunities for growth in many areas (Weingroff, 1996). This had many effects on different factors of the American way of life; specifically suburbia (Morton, 2014). After the war, the private home that was a luxury a few years prior, was now becoming affordable for many thanks to low interest rates and flexible payments through the National Housing Act of 1934, created by the Federal Housing Administration (Fishman, 1987). Perfect example of a policy acting towards private over public was the Los Angles Master Plan of 1941, which pushed the direction of private automobiles and singles households: there being 1.16 million cars (2.4 people per car) and having 31 percent of the city land dedicated for single family homes, this was really solidifying the post suburbia lifestyle (Fishman, 1987). In Los Angeles alone around this time, 900 square miles were transformed to tract development homes ...
The Brooklyn Bridge was a symbol of power, America did something no one else has done. America also built massive skyscrapers, like the Tribune Building to symbolize their progress. Americans felt a sense of pride and patriotism that was much needed after the Civil War. Another movement happening in big cities was the City Beautiful Movement. After the Industrial Revolution cities were nasty places. Mayors and other donors decided to make these cities more inviting. Cities like New York and Chicago are majorly inspired by this movement. When Chicago burned down in 1871, they rebuilt the city to be beautiful and white for purity. Cities felt the need to reinvent because people now had more leisure time and should be attracted to the events in the cities. Because of this movement, places that were once gross and industrial are inviting and lively, changing where many people who spend their free time throughout
Following the end of World War II, the United States found itself in a completely different world. The country was no longer in an economic depression and the country emerged as a major World Power. The country was becoming more prosperous and the birth rate was soaring. The need of housing rose and Levittown emerged as the standard for the fulfillment of the new housing need. Levittown the brainchild of the firm Levitt and Sons, and the first mass produced suburb in the country had an important impact on the country. Levittown set the standard to others around country, on how to build houses. Levittown also represented what was happening in the country as a whole. From the prosperity of the country, to the discrimination against minorities, Levittown defined America during this era.
The major geographic and map characteristics of my neighborhood, the local area, and the regional terrain as well as the landscape, are all reason why Vineland is different from the surrounding areas. How strong urbanism plays a role in the development of Vineland and Cumberland County. As well as how, I believe, Vineland is a formal region. How the boundaries of the region appear in broad zones of transition instead of sharply defined zones. Also the impact of Hurricane Sandy to the state of New Jersey and the rest of the Northeast United
Mark Clapson. 2003. Suburban Century: Social Change and Urban Growth in England and the USA. Berg. New York.
Many mass construction projects in the history of the United States have had a major impact on the economy and culture; however, not many of these have had as large as an impact as the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. The Interstate Highway Act revolutionized the way that we think about highways today. The act created an extremely easy mode of transportation for people across the country. Not only was the Interstate Highway Act extremely helpful in making rural and urban transportation for normal people, but it also helped commercial businesses in increasing sales across the country. These businesses were now able to transport their goods cheaper and faster. The Interstate Highway Act was tremendously beneficial in regards to its economic, social, and cultural significance. The legislation was significant economically in the way that it promoted business and cut travel costs, it was significant socially in the way that it allowed people to see friends and family even if they did not live close, and it was significant culturally in the way that it allowed people to move out to the country for low costs in order to live a happier life.
She also introducing new urban building standards. This this article she talks about, the idea some people have of tearing it down and rebuilding. She also talks about ideas people have about some parts of towns. In Boston, she talks about the area of North End, and the change that it was over gone. During her second visit to this area, she discovered that it had changed. She talked to other about it, although the statistic were higher than the city, the people still saw it as a slum. They felt that they needed to tear it down in order to build something better. This leads to the conclusion that the urban planners to do understand that the people of the city need. They have ideas that were developed years ago that they are still using. These ideas do not take account what the people want. The author also introducing new ideas of a perfect city to live in and what it would look like. The idea of a garden city was introduced. This city would be built around a park. Although the new ideas sounded great they could not be put into place today. The idea of a Garden City is something that sounds nice, but it is not possible in society today. Today a city should reflect economic status, and in order to achieve this the city should be big, and convey an image of power. A city that has aspects of nature in it would not convey that image. That upkeep of a city of that kind would also be difficult. The do understand the author's point of view. The planners often times do not take into account the desires of the people. The town that I grow up in want to become more urbanized. In order to do this, they are building a large shopping center. This shopping center is located in the canyon rim. This canyon rim has been important the people for many years. We come to the area to walk, what bass jumpers, and enjoy the scenic views. This new shopping center took away this area. Many of the people
An aging population, a younger generation who prefer walkable places, economic shifts, and the environmental impacts of suburban development are all contributing factors” (Beatz 141). Reshaping Metropolitan America gives an argument, as well as a blueprint, on how we can transform our infrastructure and housing demands by 2030.
It started with a governmental incentive of getting America out of the Great Depression. Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) was “signed into law by FDR, designed to serve urban needs” (Jackson, 196). This law protected homeownership, not only that, “it introduced, perfected, and proved in practice the feasibility of the long-term, self-amortizing mortgage with uniform payments spread over the whole life of the debt” (Jackson, 196). Because of this new law, it was cheaper to buy a house than rent. Then came the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that encouraged citizens to reside in new residential developments and/or areas with FHA-approved features, like Levittown. Mass-produced cars and cheap gasoline made the option of moving to a suburban area more of a reality for many families because now they can think to live such a lifestyle. With cars, come commuters who needs accessible roads to drive to and from work, to go grocery shopping, etc. which mean that the government need to pave roads for such commute to happen. “The urban expressways led to lower marginal transport costs and greatly stimulated deconcentration,” (Jackson, 191). As Jackson expressed, “The appeal of low-density living over time and across regional, class, and ethnic lines was so powerful that some observers came to regard it as natural and inevitable,” (190). Urban areas were becoming too crowded, too heterogeneous, more and more crimes were breaking out everyday; this is not an ideal living condition for a lot of people so moving to a bigger, more spread out area is a great contestant. Therefore, some of the key factors that explains the growth of the suburbs are housing policy (FHA & HOLC), mass-produced houses, mass-produced cars, cheap fuel, and government funding
New York City is one of the most significant city in the world. It started out as a small Dutch city and grew to what it has become today. It didn’t “just happen” right away but instead, it took a long time to be called as “The Big Apple” or “The City that Never Sleeps.” The character of the place has gradually changed over time and really came to become a global power city during the early twentieth century. For example, 1783 to 1835 was also an important time period in the history of New York City that laid a strong foundation to become an industrialized city. However, considering the developments that happened from 1898 to 1945 to be more organized and effective, the most iconic and quintessential period was from 1898 to 1945 in the history of New York, which we haven’t reached it in our course so far.