Individuals could not grow their own food, given the space and land constraints and therefore were dependant upon the city infrastructure to provide it. This then creates additional industry, and the story goes on to build whole insular and expansive systems within the city to meet the needs of labor and industry. Agricultural support systems, in outlying areas, transportation systems to make logistics of such provision possible as well as markets to bring the goods to consumers and of course the restaurant industry all grew with the population.
Housing, is another example. Housing in newly forming cities is often substandard, as it was in most U.S. cities, and where it existed in this manner, city planning, codes and standards had to be created to respond to concerns regarding safety and other issues. This became substantially more important as industry introduced thinks like electricity, running water and waste removal systems to buildings. This growth, in residential and commercial codes and restrictions has been exponential over the years and often again revolves around events and conflicts that drive such issues, such as injuries and illness caused by poor building infrastructure in both a structural and infrastructural manner. (Hommann 33)
New York, is often seen as the primary example of urbanization as housing grew at a rate that was not practical, given the labor demands and many people ended up living for a good deal of time in shared, cramped and squalor conditions to remain as members of the labor of the city. Disease also became an issue, early on as the infrastructure rarely met the demands of waste removal or human mass cohabitation, not to mention the air and water pollution that ensued. City planning to a large degree was a response to these conflicts of need. (Watts 276) As cities grew, people multiplied and industries demanded...
European immigration skyrocketed between 1840 and 1910, from about 600,000 in the decade 1831-40, to over 5 million in the decade 1881-90. Between 1860 and 1900 America's urban population quadrupled. (The all-time high of 8.8 million immigrants occurred in the decade 1901-10.) (Hommann 33)
Industries could not grow without workforces and other resources, and in many ways cities are the prime example of the life blood of industry, to both grow and support that which is available and to develop other industries that support the support system. To make all this possible city planning was eventually the norm, and bureaucratic standards and systems were created to supply both labor and supplies for industry and labor to it. Transportation and communications systems as well as supply systems developed first in a natural manner, according to the needs of the industry first and then the labor force and then systems began to be regulated, through city planning and development to meet these two basic needs in a more reasonable and less conflicted manner.
Works Cited
Hommann, Mary. City Planning in America: Between Promise and Despair. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1993.
Kantor, Paul, and Stephen David. The Changing Political Economy of Urban America. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1988.
Walton, John. "Urban Sociology: The Contribution and Limits of Political Economy." Annual Review of Sociology (1993): 301.
Watts, Sheldon. "The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America." Journal of Social…
