1 cities and suburbs Flashcards
cities as a sight of segregation
ghettos
black americans often lived in ghettos together due to white racism
cities as a sight of segregation
convenants and the FHA
restrictive convenants were put in place in cities and levittowns to prevent black americans from buying homes
- the federal housing association’s rules often meant black americans paid more for worse quality housing in the ghettos
cities as a sight of segregation
riots
‘housing riots’ involved looting/burning to drive out black americans
cities as a sight of segregation
by the mid 1960s public opinion on housing and black americans
there was lots of pressure to tear down black neighbourhoods and replace them with higher quality housing for white people
cities as a sight of segregation
levittowns
- excluded black people
- rules involved weekly lawn mowing, and no washing hung out on weekends
- rocks thrown at a black family in the Pensylvania levittown in 1957 and the authorities had to get involved.
cities as a sight of growth
1960: average purchasing power
the average american household had 30% more purchasing power than in 1950
cities as a sight of growth
domestic technology
made housewives lives easier + boosted consumerism and quality of life for some
suburbs
why were suburbs built increasingly in the post-war era?
post-war shortage of housing, suburbian housing was easily availale to mortgage
suburbs
how did the federal housing association boost housing sales in the suburbs?
the association offered house buyers 90% value mortgages with 30 years to pay them off with low interest rates (4%)
- between 1944-1952, 2.4m world war 2 veterans purchased homes virtually with no downpayment
suburbs
federal housing association exclusion
they openly excluded housing applicants in cities that would post a ‘risk’ - they were described as ‘un-harmonious racial or nationality groups’
suburbs
affluent white peole moved to.. what did the highways do to affluence?
the suburbs as it was more comfortable and spacious. This is why suburbs became racially homogenous neighbourhoods, the ‘white flight’
- also, the highways enabled these people to commute to city jobs, keeping affluence out of the cities.
service industries
By 1960
7.6m service workers
number of white collar workers grew, how much + why?
grew from 21.2m in 1950 to 27.2m
- technology meant blue collar was much less necessary
pruitt-igoe project
- government funded
- 33 11 story apartment buildings built from 1954-1956
- 10,000 people lived in these apartments.
- But, by 1963 open spaces had become litered, and rapes and muggings were common
pruitt igoe project
why do people think it failed?
- many tenants were women of colour, so authorities didnt consider it important to maintain their homes, water and electricity soon became unreliable.
