Responses to the Industrial City (cont.)

Planning, Social Theory & Policy

City Beautiful Movement Goals

“beauty, order, system & harmony”

Middle & upper middle-class effort to refashion the city into beautiful, functional entities

Garden City Movement

Eb. Howard’s:Garden Cities

Concepts

"To-morrow: A peaceful path to Real Reform”(1898)

Impact in Britain

Letchworth:1903

Welywyn:1920

British New Towns

Post World War II Britain Planning Act (1948): rebuilt & avoid excesses of American suburban growth

Development Corps w/ direct Treasury finance

By 1971 – 28 towns (1,415,000 people)- 182,000 new houses; - over 35 mil. Sq. ft. of new factory space

American Influence

Design Implications – Radburn Plan

Greenbelt Cities

New Towns (?) – Reston, New York & Columbia, Maryland

Greendale WI

1938

LeCorbusier

Modernist Influence

Public Housing

Modernist Influence

Town Plans

* Brasilia

* Chandigarh

Social Science

Chicago School & Human Ecology

Park & Burgess –*Social Change(Deviance)*Ethnography*Ecology

Homer Hoyt’s Model

Assessing the “American Dream”

A Nation of Homeowners -?

1920 – 20% 1940 – 44% 1960 – 60% 1980 – 66% 2000 – 67%

Housing Market

Industrial City – introduced generalized housing market

Before Twenties Boom – Prior to economic boom, two-thirds

of American population judged to be poorly served by private market (“the Housers”)

1920s – Changing Urban Form

Streetcar Suburbs – radial development, lower density & greater dispersion

In 1920s, for the first time, suburbs grew faster than the central cities – much faster

Automobile’s contribution – “The city is doomed . . . We shall solve the city problem by leaving the city.” Henry Ford

Policy related to home ownership . . .

’20s Streetcar & Automobile Suburbs “take-off”

Influence on the shape of the city – filling in the radius w/ lower densities

Streetcar suburb – Av. Lot size 3,000 sfAuto suburb – Av. Lot size 5,000 sf

Pop. Density fell from 20,000 sq. mile to 10,000 sq mile in auto suburb

Depression Era Impact

i. Construction Industry – fell 95% (’28-’33)

ii. Mortgage Defaults – by 1933, 50% technically in default

Responses

Home Owners Loan Corporation (1933)

Federal Housing Administration (1934)

= Keynesian Suburbs

John Maynard Keynes

New Lending Practices

FHA Insurance – eliminate banking risk

Allowed financing of up to 93% of cost (instead of 50-75%)

Repayment period extended from standard 10 years to 25-30 years

Geography of Loans

Race: Homer Hoyt’s 1933 analysis1. English, Scotch, Irish, Scandinavian2. North Italians3. Bohemians or Czechs4. Poles5. Lithuanians6. Greeks7. Russian Jews8. South Italians9. Negroes10. Mexicans

Geography of Loans

City vs. Suburb:1. Age of property

2. Rental Property vs. Home Owner

FHA assessment practices – “redlining”