The process of suburbanization drove the movement of Americans and turned the wheels of the new consumer economy. Seen from a macroeconomic level, the postwar economic boom turned America into a land of economic abundance. For advantaged buyers, loans had never been easier to attain, consumer goods had never been more accessible, and well-paying jobs had never been more abundant.
And yet, beneath the aggregate numbers, patterns of racial disparity, sexual discrimination, and economic inequality persevered and questioned man of the assumptions of an Affluent Society. In real estate appraisers arrived in sunny Pasadena, California.
While suburbanization and the new consumer economy produced unprecedented wealth and affluence, the fruits of this economic and spatial abundance did not reach all Americans equally. The new economic structures and suburban spaces of the postwar period produced perhaps as much inequality as affluence. Wealth created by the booming economy filtered through social structures with built-in privileges and prejudices.
Just when many middle and lower class white American families began their journey of upward mobility by moving to the suburbs with the help of government spending and government programs such as the FHA and the GI Bill, many African Americans and other racial minorities found themselves systematically shut out. A look at the relationship between federal organizations such as the HOLC and FHA and private banks, lenders, and real estate agents tells the story of standardized policies that produced a segregated housing market.
At the core of HOLC appraisal techniques, which private parties also adopted, was the pernicious insistence that mixed-race and minority dominated neighborhoods were credit risks. In partnership with local lenders and real estate agents, HOLC created Residential Security Maps to identify high and low risk-lending areas. People familiar with the local real estate market filled out uniform surveys on each neighborhood.
Relying on this information, HOLC assigned every neighborhood a letter grade from A to D and a corresponding color code. The least secure, highest risk neighborhoods for loans received a D grade and the color red. Doing so made visible the areas they believed were unfit for their services, denying black residents loans, housing, groceries, and other necessities of modern life.
Argument: Were suburbs good for America? Construct an argument e. Extension: Write a magazine editorial presenting the argument. Understand: Research census data from a local or regional community urban, suburb, or rural. Many South Side community leaders argued that permanently closing this L line would leave a majority of Woodlawn residents without direct rapid-transit service.
Others maintained that removing the L structure over 63rd Street would attract new businesses to the street. The CTA demolished the structure in Daley driving the first spike, Congress Expressway rapid-transit line, In , the city purchased most of these lines and unified them under the newly created, semipublic Chicago Transit Authority.
The CTA had to modernize rolling stock, pay wages, and improve service solely on money raised from fares, even as ridership and receipts fell. Car was one of hundreds of transit cars purchased by the CTA in the s to replace obsolete trains. This car carried L and subway passengers for almost 30 years. After World War II, residential and commercial development spread farther from the central city into less densely populated areas, and farther from existing fixed-route transit systems like the L and streetcars.
A bus, though forced to compete with trucks and private cars on congested roadways, could go anywhere, connecting neighborhoods with the L and with the city center. And, buying buses was cheaper than building new transit systems. One-quarter of all Loop commuters arrived at their destination on a bus. Even more took a bus to a rapid-transit line to begin their commute. Public-transit ridership peaked during World War II and then declined as more Americans took to their cars, and residential and commercial development moved father away from existing mass-transit services.
Between the late s and the early s, over U. In President Lyndon Johnson called for the nation to rebuild mass-transportation systems to renew American cities, and Congress passed legislation to provide some funding for transit.
By the s, aid to mass transit was one of the fastest growing federal programs. Support for mass transit was on the rise, even if ridership was not.
The civil rights movement had raised awareness of the transportation needs of the disadvantaged. Environmental issues gained public prominence, as did the escalating price tag for massive-road building projects and the costs of increased car and truck travel. The Chicago Transit Authority was hard hit by falling ridership and revenue. Will more Americans turn to public transportation as roads become increasingly congested? City and business leaders around the nation rushed to develop big modern airports to take advantage of the enormous growth of commercial air travel after World War II.
Originally intended to draw business into the city, the airports themselves quickly became major development hubs, even though they were often located far from the city center and from existing roads and transit lines.
It was developed on an old airfield in a quiet community far northwest of Chicago. The city annexed the land and built the Northwest Expressway to the airport in By the end of the s, industrial parks, manufacturing plants, office complexes, parking lots, and hotels dominated the surrounding countryside. The jet airliner offered more than an advance in speed.
It revolutionized the cost and comfort of flying. Lower maintenance costs meant lower fares. Smooth flight above most turbulence attracted passengers otherwise wary of flying. In , two years after the Boeing began flying commercially, air travel accounted for 42 percent of U.
By , it was 84 percent. Skip to main content. Search this exhibition. City and Suburb. Cite this Article Format. Stief, Colin. The History and Evolution of Suburbs. What Is Anti-Semitism? Definition and History. What Is De Facto Segregation?
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