20 Comments
Keeya Marquez
2/3/2014 12:46:07 am
During the late nineteenth century, many people in the U.S. began to move, some to the west, but even more to the city. With an abundance of opportunities, it is no wonder people found the cities alluring. They had many opportunities for jobs, and city was quite the place to be. City parks gave people places to relax in "nature", there was planting of housing available for families with the creation of suburbs, along with all the new technologies arising. However, these cities also posed dangers as well. Fires occurred very frequently. With many people very close together and inadequate sanitation, disease also spread very quickly. Besides just these factors, removal of waste and pollution created problems, making the cities not the most sanitary places to live. The cities also faced large rates of poverty violence and crime. Although these issues made the cities a bit frightening, the opportunities they presented and grandeur (in some places) of them continued to allure people to move there.
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Maddy Vogel
2/3/2014 01:03:09 pm
Keeya, nice post! You really focused on the risks and dangers of life in a city. Isn't it amazing that people would put their lives and well-being in danger for the chance at a fresh start? Ambition was surely the driving force behind many moves to the city. I think this still holds true today when it comes to cities.
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Luke Stewart
2/3/2014 02:26:13 am
People had reason to love and hate to city and urbanization. The city was a place where you could have anything you wanted from your work to nature in a small area. People could shop for cheap clothes in stores and buy food instead of grow their own. New inventions such as sky scrapers were built. Cities became giant wonders that people visited just to see. yet urbanization had its downfalls. As the population increased the hazards of living increased. Crime rates sky rocketed. Murders went from 25 in a million people to 100 in a million in less than a century. Poverty levels increased and disease strained to urban people. Cities became death attractions where you could go and get sick or if you lived right, make millions in a business.
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Rachel
2/3/2014 05:49:07 am
The idea of the city had many enticing characteristics to Americans during this time period. The city and urbanization allowed for people to have larger social, political, and economic networks. People were no longer isolated to the rural landscape of America, and began to have access to new ways of life. The city provided the means for the emergence of department stores which then led to people being able to purchase necessities like clothes which they used to have to make. The city also helped develop the concept of public transportation. People could now live a little ways from work and commute. Another alluring aspect to the idea of the city was that people could still enjoy nature through city parks while leaving near others. Such parks as Central Park were created for the recreational use of the people of the city. These were just a few benefits to city life. There were also cons associated with city life. The amount of poverty, crime, and violence dramatically increased with the development of cities. The government struggled to control the outbreak of crime. There were also problems with fires and sanitation. People had to learn news ways to dispose of waste. Environmental degradation also started with is still a major issue with cities today. City life provided both reward and trouble for Americans of this time period.
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Timmi Keisel
2/3/2014 06:32:53 am
Great answer Rachel! Do you think it would be worth all of the dangers of the city to move their for all the new opportunities?
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McCall Etl
2/3/2014 01:46:32 pm
Great answer Rachel! Timmi, I wanted to answer your question with a yes; however, living in the country is pretty great to me, so that's tough!
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Timmi Keisel
2/3/2014 06:30:55 am
During the mid-1800’s the American dream was to move west with the buffaloes and Native Americans where you could see for miles and miles. By the late 19th century, American’s vision had changed. Urbanization was becoming wildly popular. New technology was introduced, creating new opportunities, drawing the attention of both Americans and many immigrants mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe. Most moved into apartments in the cities and worked in factories. Leisure was also a new concept at this time that was very attractive. Rather than farming on their own land to sell and eat off of what you grew, many people were drawn to the urban scene at this time, and for those who didn’t want to live in the middle of all the excitement, there were many suburbs on the outskirts of the city and workers could commute by train. However, urban life wasn’t a perfect utopia by any means either. Safety at the time wasn’t exactly what we would consider kosher now. With electricity being a very new concept, many fires took place. People living so much closer together also meant disease spreading rapidly, and treatment was rare, especially for the poor. The crime, especially murder, rate was way higher than it had ever been also. During this time of great urbanization, the rich got richer, the middle class was starting to experience new luxury, and the poor continued to get poorer.
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Arjana Begzati
2/3/2014 09:03:02 am
Very nice dinsticnction between the positive and negative side of urbanization! Do you think that people would have handled even worst situations for am economic advantageous life in cities?
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Megan Chintala
2/3/2014 10:50:31 am
You had great positives and negative outlooks on the urbanization situation. Your last sentence wraps up the whole question in one! Good job!
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Kirsten Comstock
2/3/2014 12:44:07 pm
This is a great answer. You have great points in your answer and I like how you added that leisure was "attractive". Like Megan said your last sentence does a great job of wrapping up this question. Good job!
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Elayna Muller
2/3/2014 10:49:59 am
From 1876-1885, the total immigration went from 1,086-2,976. The nation's cities allured Americans by their creation of public space, such as city parks which supplied the city folk with a way to escape from the crowds and hustle of urbanization. The natural world would provide relaxation for those seeking a stress-free environment, so in the late 1850s, Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed New York's Central Park. Once underway, Central Park became one of the most famous and adored public places in the world. Parks weren't the only public places, but libraries started to become a center of education and knowledge. Also, museums, theaters, concert halls, opera halls, and much more were popping up all over urban landscape. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art was the best known museum in the late nineteenth century, drawing more and more people towards cities. Wealthy residents were the main donors for such amazing buildings full of entertainment and knowledge; therefore, urban leaders started to expand their area exceedingly. These efforts to remake the city inspired the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This exposition transpired in order to honor the 400th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage, which they achieved by placing neoclassical buildings in the center or the "Great White City", and positioning a formal lagoon around it. "The movement strove to impose a similar order and symmetry on the disordered life of cities around the country. Only rarely, however, were planners able to overcome the obstacles of private landowners and complicated urban politics." Not only was the redesigning of former landscapes tempting, but the start of entirely new scenery brought people to cities. Marshy tidal land was inserted in Boston to create "Back Bay", and Chicago raised the street level of an entire city to escape the complications of the marshy land. Transportation and construction improved immensely in the city due to horsecars not being fast and/or sufficient enough for the hustle. New York experienced their first elevated railway while experimenting with cable cars. Along with New York, Virginia provided the electric trolley and Boston the American subway. In addition to the amazing transportation opportunities, the skyscraper was finally brought up in 1884. Steel girders were also supplied. What was frightening about such incredible inventions? Crime, fire, disease, and poverty. Large downtown areas were demolished by fires; however, disease was an even bigger issue. Poor neighborhoods were left with inadequate sanitation facilities and suffered from typhoid fever ad cholera. Pollution occurred often not only in the water supplies but in the air as well. Urbanization caused massive poverty, too, with little help to be provided to them. Crowded poverty increased the crime rate from 25 murders for every million people in 1880 to over 100 by the end of the century. Urban national guard groups arose to avoid uprisings that never even occurred. People living in urban areas often experienced a declining fertility rate, a high death rate from disease, and a high rate of infant mortality. Americans were afraid of catching diseases, getting persecuted, and becoming poor along with other difficulties that often came along with city life; whereas, those living in urban areas enjoyed fabulous transportation, scenery, public places, and entertainment.
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Keeya Marquez
2/4/2014 01:55:36 am
This is a fantastic answer! I love how you expanded a little on each detail involved in your answer, you defintietley brought up more points that I didn't think of. Great job.
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Megan Chintala
2/3/2014 11:06:39 am
After the Civil War, American had began to make changes in towns. These towns were now becoming cities due to all the immigrants coming over from Europe. These people who came over were coming over to work. They knew it would be cheap labor for them. So we continued to get more and more over here and they all packed into apartments in the heart of the city causing a lot of issues. At this point an urban area consisted of 2,500 or more people. That is a lot of people to be living really close together and working in the conditions they had to work in. Factories were not up to date like they are know. Things were being invented such as something we all love now, electricity. People didn't quit know how to work with it quite yet. So as you can probably guess, there were a lot of fires to be dealt with at this time. And this wasn't just happening in factories, but in all those apartments so close together packed with people. This was a huge hazard for these people. Also diseases was a big health issue for these people. The "city beautiful" movement wasn't always the answer to some people's lifestyles. Others were living on the outside of the city and taking railroads, bikes, and trolleys into town to go to work. Urbanization brought a lot of people over to the US, but with all these people not everything was to be perfect. There were still a ton of problems to be faced.
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Zane Boerner
2/4/2014 02:17:12 am
You did a good job of giving a lot of examples for both the positives and negatives.
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Sabrina Lousberg
2/3/2014 11:55:16 am
The American dream during the mid to late 1800s was to move out westward where you could see for miles and miles without any interruptions but by the late 19th century, this vision changed drastically. Urban communities were beginning to pop up everywhere. Americans along with immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were being drawn in by the new technologies and opportunities arriving in the urban environments of the city. Most of these people lived in apartments and worked in factories. There were other alternatives for people who preferred not to live in the city. Suburbs were being developed as well. People could live in these suburbs and commute to work by train. Leisure was also very popular with Americans during this time period. They were now allowed more time to do things such as attending sporting events, going to the theater, going shopping, and even reading. The urban environment wasn’t always great. People lived closer in these new urban environments allowing diseases to spread easily. There often times weren’t many treatments for these diseases either. Crime was also a major problem during this time period. Murder was especially a serious problem. Fire was a huge hazard as well. Electricity was a fairly new concept so many fires occurred.
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Kirsten Comstock
2/3/2014 12:40:07 pm
There were many things that allured Americans into the nations expanding cities. One thing was that even though they were coming from rural areas with lots of beautiful nature there was still parks in the city so they still got a feel for nature. These people were not so secluded in the middle of nowhere anymore and now they had access to new and exciting things they never had access to before in the west. These people were now able to shop locally and get necessities very easily. It was easy to get around with the transportation in the city. People could get to work and other destinations faster now and that was very convenient. There were also a lot of problems with living in the urban area though. For example, there was a lot of crime and violence. Murder was a serious problem during this time. Disease also broke out and was an issue in the city and most of the time the poor could not afford treatment for these issues. Urbanization had its major perks, but also had a lot of down sides to it.
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McCall Etl
2/3/2014 02:01:15 pm
America was growing, and that was very obvious by the 19th century. Living in the vast open spaces of the west was once the American dream, but everything was changing. The expanding cities became a popular idea. New and different ideas were causing some changes. Immigrants were coming over from Europe and increasing the sizes of towns, which wasn't necessarily good, but it made these cities big, and somehow made time for leisure. The leisurely activities were very alluring to Americans. There were big chain stores and department stores to visit. This attracted many women. People were earning more money which also increased the shopping and leisure. Music, movies, amusement parks, etc., were becoming widely popular new ideas, and the entertainment was widely loved by many people. Sports became popular giving people even more ideas and reasons to love the expanding cities. However, when people needed a break from the city life, they had the opportunity to view nature through the developing parks. The city offered the best of all worlds. Public transportation and communication were also increasing, making getting around in these big cities easier. The cities also had their downfalls which made them seem frightening. Crime, poverty, and violence were all increasing with rise of cities. Not only that, there was fire and disease, and inadequate sanitation. These were all huge, scary problems. The city had both good and bad to it.
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Zane Boerner
2/4/2014 02:14:39 am
The expanding cities offered many opportunities for all of the people that began to move into America. Although the pay and working condiditons weren't always the best, jobs weren't too hard to find in the ever expanding cities. New ways of spending leisure time also began to arive such as department stores, new sportsk, and amusement parks. Cities offered a different way of life that presented more ways to spend leisure time that weren't available in rural areas and people were attracted to trying the new. The cities were not perfect though. With electricty being farely new and a lot of buildings being close together fires were a constant danger, and places weren't the cleanest.
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Ashton Reinhardt
2/4/2014 09:25:59 am
I like your answer Zane. I agree, the city was not perfect. But it did have several opportunities.
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Ashton Reinhardt
2/4/2014 09:24:30 am
With the city expanding, more opportunities were laid out in front of all the people that began to move to America. Jobs were pretty easy to find. However the conditions weren't the best. Amusement parks, department stores began to arose. The city offered a way of life like no other. They offered the Opportunity of enjoyment..however the city did have its disadvantages. It wasn't always the cleanest. Fire and crime was always a possibility. Electricity was new so it definitely wasn't hi tech. Crime was bound to happen when you have that many people living in one area.
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