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Lena Klein9/13/04In Ronald H. Bayor's artical of "The Second Ghetto, Then and Now", he explores the nature and factors in which public policy is used for purposes of racial segregation. Bayor starts off showing how the second ghetto enabled Hirsch to reveal strategies meant to control black migration patterns ald H. Bayors article of “The Second Ghetto, Then and Now”, he explores the nature and factors in which public policy is used for purposes of and provide a model for analysis of the way in which U.S. cities connected public policy decisions to racism. With a municipal government combined with white business leaders it was easy to impose a racial blue print on the city. Bayor compares Atlanta, the city in question, to Chicago by analyzing similar agendas and housing development patterns. The pattern of public housing projects were built only in certain areas and the renewal leading to commercial development was turned into an attempt to push blacks out of the downtown business district. Bayor explains the tools of public policy urging the relocation of black communities to be urban renewal and public housing site selection. Bayor cites the ghetto today as being public housing projects made into mixed community income sites. He uses examples of Techwood-Clark Howell Homes, East Lake Meadows, and Perry Homes. He explains that the redevelopment of communities raises the cost of new housing, pushing lower income families and individuals into a compact “ghetto” community. Here we see class becomes the defining factor rather than race. The main goal of Atlanta and Chicago is described as being the re-attraction of the solvent population to the central city and to strengthen the city’s tax base. This includes moving the middle class back into the city of Atlanta. Bayor’s next point is that even when political power shifts from whites to blacks black political leaders still follow the business interest agenda by following the suit of the white establishment. The goal then, as described by Bayor, is to find a way to save the city and business area in a non-racist way. He ends by saying that Atlanta’s rebuilding doesn’t mean black removal, simply lower class removal. He also shows that black suburbanization since the 1950s has led to the growth of independent black communities. He also cites our political failure, that the concentrated poverty of the black ghetto is still ignored. 9/6/04 J.B. Jackson’s “The Discovery of the Street” is an overview of the development of the city from a clustered formation of buildings to a grid layout of streets and paths. In the Middle Ages buildings networked closely together was the typical perspective of the city; however, the contemporary city is viewed as an aerial formatted framework. Streets have become so important they are referred to as the arteries of the city. The first shift of city evolution from an assembly of legally defined groups to a composition of well defined spaces is the 11th century northern European permanent marketplace. Produce of vegetables, livestock, and raw materials were grown around and near the marketplace for convenience and the marketplace eventually grew from a street to a town as development continues. The rectangular public space in the center of town eventually became the market. This distinction led to specialization of markets. Civic authorities ordered public spaces for trading as a recognition of the importance of merchant crafts in the “process of congregation”, congregation due to similar activity yielding geographical congregation. The invention of the harness, leading to the wagon, enabled merchants to use horses to haul greater loads further distances, thus urbanizing the marketplace. Roads had to be bigger for wagons with more space for parking, loading, and unloading. Roads also had to be widened for real estate activity to make land available in lots. Streets were laid out due to traffic, orderly expansion of town, new concepts of land ownership, and town definition. Small towns were miniature versions of a celestial prototype as a walled city divided into four quadrants by two intersecting streets with distinct areas of castle, cathedral, and market. This cruciform layout stressed the religious emphasis of the cities. A tight collection of neighborhoods made up a compound where roads existed as narrow pathways leading to work rather than nearby precincts. During the 11th century streets became a link between the private domain and the main town, creating a new kind of linked community. Designed streets became more prominent in Europe when merchants were granted land for building houses near the marketplace. Streets were commonly devoted to a specific craft or trade. They created orthogonal patterns based on right angles and perpendicular lines. Town authorities used the growth of streets as an opportunity to exert control in the form of building regulations on design, height, and construction. Streets introduced a precise system of linear measurements in the assessment of land so land became a commodity. They became a spatial unit for public use. With streets came the introduction of concepts of architectural orientation, harmony, and façade. In conclusion, over time our perception of the city has shifted from a cluster of towers to a network of avenues and streets with the growth of the town leading to urbanization around the marketplace. 9/6/04 In Timothy Cummins “Stripping Away Layers of the Past” Cummins analyzes the growth of Atlanta as a city and the importance of seeing the historic pre-city within the modern day city. According to Cummins, every construction leaves a permanent “impress” upon the character of a city. The old holds its own while new elements alter the physical character of a city. The city shows its history in its older architectural achievements. He describes the town as a palimpsest, a document whose surface writing has been recorded over imperfectly erased remnants of earlier texts, used by classical scholars to reconstruct lost literary works; or, in this case, lost cities. Atlanta has grown from the center of the Zero Mile Post of the Western and Atlantic railroads by accident. It is an unplanned city that emerged and grew from a commercial rivalry between Savannah and Charleston. Interconnecting railroads spurned the growth of Atlanta with rail connections linking Atlanta to major southern cities in all directions. From the development of this extensive rail system Atlanta businessmen championed their city’s role as distributional center in the manufacturing economy of the Southeast. Topography was also a major impress upon the growth of Atlanta. The 1,000 foot ridge on which Atlanta began to expand was important to the early growth and topography of the region. The urban Atlanta was built on flatland while the suburbs extended out into the hills of the eastern and southern regions. Merchants built their houses around the commercial district surrounding the rail terminus in the center of town and with the invention of the horse-drawn trolley people began to move outward beyond walking distance from shops. Some areas became more working class in character. Samuel Mitchell donated lot 77 to the State for speculating fortune, to be turned into railroad shops. Landowners in lots 78 and 52 followed suit, hoping their areas would be industrialized. All three landowners set up conflicting street grids so that traffic ended up not flowing well. To solve the problem the rest of the lots were set up with a uniform grid. Train tracks were also eventually bridged over to allow continuous flow of growth and expansion. The color line, or racial distinction, also influenced the development of Atlanta’s neighborhoods. Atlanta formed a distinct black community, and thus a black area. Universities and colleges were built on the highest points of the city in order to impress their status within town. In conclusion, color line, topography, and transportation influenced the expansion and urbanization of Atlanta, a city unintended, growing from the terminus of a railroad. 9/1/04 In Redesigning the American Dream “Housing and American Life”, by Dolores Hayden three cities are described. Each city meets a specific goal, yielding either monetary or idealistic “profit”. The first city is Kaiserville in Vanport City, Oregon. It is a city hurriedly built for working women with families during World War II assuming jobs being abandoned by men going to war. Personnel hires enough people to populate the town before it is even built. It exists as the first integrated publicly subsidized city in the United States. The architects for this town had to meet several difficult requirements without little time for error. These requirements included affordable housing near child-care facilities and job sites. The houses are mass produced identical houses simply built for meeting the basic needs of their intended residents. The developer, Kaiser doesn’t make much money on the construction of the city, but reaps profits from the ships and war workers built for him. Kaiser the industrialist isn’t out of the game even after his city is dismantled and reduced to a park. He enters the realm of post-World War II housing with new developments meant to help women losing their jobs to returning veterans. He helps bring these women jobs, housing, and mortgages on easy terms. The second city, Levittown, is a post- World War II city designed for the working middle class veteran and his stay-at-home wife. There is no initial integration because selling houses to the smaller black population who can afford the houses would deter the greater majority of white buyers from settling in the town. The housing follows the suit of traditional colonial American housing emphasizing privacy. Public space is sacrificed for more private space. The developer intends for this town to encounter expansion and privatized growth. This town is also very monetarily profitable for Levitt, the builder. The third city, Baldwin Hills Village in Los Angeles, California reaps profit in an idealistic sense. It is funded by the FHA and Reconstruction Finance Corporation with specific designer ambitions, including: reinterpretation of the tradition of common land in a way that can later be emulated, to adapt the best low cost European public housing designs to American housing programs, and to maintain the car for the sake of air pollution, child safety and open space design. Construction lagged due to usual city building problems such as budget cuts, redrafting of plans and land acquisition problems. The city ended in low-rise, medium density housing with generous floor plans, lush landscapes, parks, private outdoor family space, common laundries, garages and a community center. The architects were so proud of the city they abandoned their metropolized houses to come live in the new town to prove its success. This city is integrated from the start, but women and non-whites slowly replace whites and become known as “problem families”. To solve this problem they came in and changed the housing into condos, prohibited children under the age of eighteen and built a gold-green. Most modern housing follows Levitt’s model of a city rising around residential areas meant for working class men and their dependents. Modern housing also seems to get bigger as households get smaller. The main issues for each of these cities is affordable housing for the main market of individuals buying at the time, redesigning public and private space alike and creating cities with social services and accessibility to jobs and child care. 8/24/04 Where I lived perfectly paved streets lined by perfectly trimmed bushes guard perfectly painted houses with exactly nine windows in the front. Everyone has a garage because carports are supposedly a sign of lower class. You know that you want to speak to someone if they have a perfectly manicured lawn, because then they have the potential to be a good neighbor. The high society tension is eased by children selling lemonade for twenty-five cents on their front lawns, making you smile even when you are mad at your neighbor for not asking you to feed their dog while they were away last week. All animosity aside, the outsides really reflect the insides. You know a family is getting caught up in a hectic schedule if they don’t change a light bulb as soon as it has burned out or if their house isn’t painted as soon as it starts chipping. The cleanliness of the newly paved streets reflects what we want them to reflect, our sterile clean households waiting within. We all have the same Bradford Pear trees and Cherry trees because it is our goal to be precise and uniform. Azaleas beautifully decorate our uniform lawns to add color to even the dullest of lives. I basically grew up in high society suburbia with middle class southern mothers and fathers raising their perfect families. The real problem with my neighborhood is that every house looks alike. There is no sense of individuality or personality reflecting by houses or lawns. Every now an then there will be a swing in the yard. The stealthy businessman next door has his lawn done by paid workers, but it still looks the same as the man next to him who takes the hour and a half out of his day to do his own lawn. Every now and then you might get a new outsider who insists on rose bushes or gardenias, but it doesn’t last long. The conformity spreads like a disease. Every now and then everyone walks around inspecting their lawns to make themselves available for chatter, and if you are out and about it is rude not to call on a neighbor. All the houses were designed with a southern-greek revival style in mind and southern décor within. On the holidays everyone puts candles in their nine perfect windows and we line the streets with little white bags with candles in them. It creates a beautiful ambiance and as fake and ritualistic as it sometimes seems to be, it is comforting, like we are all together in a way. All of the houses are beige, white, light yellow or light blue; kind of the unspoken approved list of house colors. Every now and them someone will have a pool party or barbecue and we all get together for some good laughs (and some fake ones too). Mostly, every family consists of a soccer mom, a hardworking dad, 2-3 kids and a dog or two. That is the life of a typical family on my street. It’s mainstream and typical, but it was nice to grow up in. 8/24/04 Physical qualities for urban fabric: -wide sidewalks invite many people at once as if to say “I can hold everyone!” -the street is a place for anyone and everyone -the ocean is a place of gathering-everyone is going there to meet for celebration -the long avenues are adventurous, not frightening Distinctive qualities of social fabric: -the togetherness of the city promenade on Market Street -different classes, races and professions can mix in street of diversity -the pier near the bay is a place for gathering and rejoicing -diversity of shops and places along the avenue allows everything to become comfortably fluid San Francisco sounds like a lot of major U.S. cities, complete socially with disregard to wariness in times of gaiety. The long streets, wide sidewalks and the usual landmark, such as a harbor or pier, characterize a big city. But, a city becomes unique when you know it first hand. No one will know San Francisco like Rebecca Solnit until they experience the joyous throng of people as described in her quotes. Links to this Page
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