Overview of 20th Century Demographic Change and 'Urbanization'

• At the beginning of the 20th century (cf. Turner), the U.S. was still predominately rural
• Starting with the 1920 census, slightly more people were "urban" than "rural"
• 1920-1970 as a period of "urbanization," especially following WWII with the emergence of modern "suburbs"
• 1970-present as a period of "suburbanization" and "exurbanization": "suburbs" evolve into "exurbs" and "edge cities" compared to the historic core cities
• As historic core-city (inner-city) areas develop 'inner-city' problems (urban blight, etc.), one of the solutions is "urban homesteading"
• Continuous adjustment problems as American demographics and housing patterns change from the open spaces of the 19th-century 'frontier' to 20th and 21st-century urban milieus, with the background of popular belief in the 19th-century "individualism" mythologies.
  
• With increasing 'urbanization', institutions that have been based on post-frontier assumptions about rural, small town or community neighborhood residence, home ownership, etc., become strained. One example is the use of property taxation (rather than income taxation) to support municipal services, including the public school system.

Brief Review of Urban Terminology

• Contrasting Finland-U.S. definitions of 'city' vs 'suburb'
• Central city, city center, inner city, core city
• "Inner city" problems, urban blight, marginal and deteriorating neighborhoods, slums, ghettos
• City neighborhood, section, district (since "suburb" can't be used)
• Suburbs, suburbia, exurbia (cf. "edge cities", "exurbs", and urban "sprawl")
• Suburban subdivisions and 'cul de sacs' (see also separate image)
• 'Inner' and 'Outer'-ring suburbs (cf. Toles cartoon)
• Suburban/exurban 'gated' communities (see photos one and two)
• Metroplexes, a megalopolis

WWII Demographic and Social Change in Brief

• Prior to WWII, the U.S. was still largely a rural population, with the South and West only sparsely settled.
• With the economy focused on military training and the production of war materials, there was rapid, largescale population movement to the South and to the West coast, and new economic development of those areas
• The population movement from other U.S. regions into the South, and the interaction of black and white units in the U.S. military provide initial steps toward racial integration (cf. experiences of the 1942 Alcan Highway [see map] and Black Soldier Blues [PDF], (see also YouTube clips of Black Soldier Blues)
• The 'relocation' of large numbers of young adults to California and other areas of the West, often following their military experience, results in rapidly-growing political and economic significance for the region; similarly, the gradual development of the 'New South' over the coming two decades begins at this time
• With most able males in the military, women take over their jobs, become 'independent' both financially and psychologically — leads to the "Women's Liberation" movement post-war when the males return (cf. 'Rosie the Riveter' — see also original WWII poster and Wikipedia background).
• At the end of the war, millions of demobilized soldiers were suddenly back in the U.S., without relevant education or employment, or housing as they marry and the baby-boom generation begins (see also quick guide to 'generations')
• The 'G.I. Bill' is passed as a solution to financing education, job-training, and family housing, as well as providing a transition for the integration of returning soldiers into the changing economy
• In consequence, higher education rapidly expands, particularly outside the confines of large cities, from the relatively exclusive status it had had prior to WWII (e.g. as portrayed in films like The Way We Were [YouTube]). Whereas the 1940 census showed only 5% of the population holding a BA degree or higher, this had doubled to 10% by 1960 (30% by 2010); a college degree rapidly became thought of as a commodity 'everyone' could (and should) have. (See also How the GI Bill Changed the Economy)

Emergence of the Post-war Suburbs

• Levittowns emerge to meet the urgent need for new family housing (see also Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb). Using an assembly-line concept similar to what the industrialist Henry Kaiser had developed with Liberty Ships during the war, new homes were built quickly [YouTube], up to 40 houses a day, using standardized plans and prefabricated components.
• Family housing increasingly moves to available space in 'suburban' regions of established cities, often adjacent to new educational and training venues; as a result jobs also begin to move to the suburbs.
• The rapid expansion of quickly and inexpensively-produced standardized suburban homes, all of which look similar, are one of the factors behind a growing uniformity, or blandness, of suburban life, satirized by Malvina Reynold's song "Little Boxes", among others.
• The uniformity and relative anonymity of suburban life differed sharply from traditional small-town life in America, especially before WWII; new communities which had no existing institutions had a rapid and diverse influx of new residents who did not know each other. There was initial cooperation reminiscent of that on the frontier a century before as new social patterns were formed.
• Academic fields such as sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology expanded rapidly as new higher education campuses in suburban areas studied the communities around them. Some thought suburbia was creating a new form of social anomie; numerous classic studies such as David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd, Herbert J. Gans' The Levittowners, and William H. Whyte's The Organization Man focused on suburbia.
• Simultaneously with the movement of homes, schools and jobs to the suburbs, the 'automobile culture' rapidly expands: it becomes difficult to cope without a car, and multi-car families will soon become the norm.
• The expansion of an automobile-based 'suburbia' without a comprehensive development plan leads to increasing "urban sprawl" (see Patio Man and the Sprawl People, The Historical Roots of [Urban] Sprawl, and Urban Sprawl: Population Growth Around U.S. Cities, as well as 'Twin Cities' Urban Sprawl Views and Terminology)
• Toward the end of the 20th century, a quest for order and security in the face of high population mobility and a relatively "anonymous" urban milieu leads to the emergence of the gated community — first for retirees, then even for [younger] families.
• There are significant differences in taxation and cost of living from state to state, and even within each state (see Hypothetical Variances in U.S. Tax Burdens, State by State & District of Columbia (Kiplinger), as well as the interactive Retiree Tax Havens and Hells). Taxation differences also influence where people are choosing to live.
• See also other relevant web links in the US-2 References Index.

Selected Examples of Urban 'Identities'

"Provincial" or "Mainstream" Towns Peoria, IL (will it play in Peoria?) Oshkosh, WI (Osh Kosh, b'gosh!) Dubuque, IA ('little old lady in Dubuque') Paducah, KY Indianapolis, ID Planned Towns (cf. Tapiola, etc.) Reston, VA. Columbia, MD El Dorado Hills, CA Irvine, CA

"Special"-Reputation Towns Las Vegas, NV — gambling, entertainment Reno, NV — divorce, gambling Atlantic City, NJ — gambling (East coast) Salt Lake City, UT — Mormons, Lake, etc. Infamous (Inner-city) 'Slums' Pruitt-Igoe (St. Louis) (see also The Pruitt-Igoe Myth [Journal of Architectural Education, PDF] and The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History [Film trailer]) Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York City Watts/South-Central LA (Los Angeles) Chicago's 'South side' (cf. Neighborhoods ...)

Traditional Major City 'Reputations'

• New York: Big Apple, skyscrapers, fashion, trade, communications, international politics, Broadway, etc.
• Chicago: Windy City, Mayor Daley in the 1960s, Al Capone in the 1930s, ethnicity, livestock market, architecture, the 'El'
• Detroit: Automobiles, unionization, organized crime (Jimmy Hoffa and the UAW, etc.)
• San Francisco: Golden Gate, fog, arts, liberalism, education, AIDS, homosexuality (the 'Tenderloin' district), Asian-Americans, higher education, nearby Silicon Valley, etc.
• Los Angeles: Sun, smog, freeways, Disneyland, Hollywood, conservatism, Mexican-Americans, ethnic mixture
• Houston: Astrodome, space research, oil, Sunbelt growth
• New Orleans: French influence, Mardi Gras, jazz, river, food
• Miami: Sun, beach, retirement communities, nightclubs, Art Deco architecture, Jewish & Cuban ethnicity
• Pittsburgh: Steel, education, industry, "cleanup"...
• Philadelphia: Colonial heritage, "dull," lawyers
• St. Louis: Gateway Arch, jazz, blues, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, French & German & Italian ethnicity, the Gateway Arch, St. Louis Cardinals baseball
• Denver: Rocky Mountains, mile-high city, winter sports
• Boston: Culture, education, arts, colonial history, port
• Washington: Government, power, bureaucracy, military, museums, the 'Beltway', 'District' politics
• Milwaukee: Beer, sausage, cheese, German-ethnic