Urban Renewal

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URBAN RENEWAL

Urbanization of a society occurs when city population growth rates exceed that of rural areas. Urbanization was a hallmark of U.S. economic development throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Increasing industrialization lured multiple waves of immigrants into primarily Northern urban settings seeking employment. Initially, rural peoples arrived from farms at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Foreign immigrants followed from northern and western Europe in the mid-1800s and eastern and southern Europe in the 1890s through the early part of the twentieth century. Finally, African Americans came from the American South in two major migration waves during the first half of the twentieth century. Ethnic and racial enclaves and neighborhoods came to comprise the socioeconomic mosaics of cities.

Sanitation, poverty, and overcrowding were persistent urban problems from the beginning, and became a national problem toward the end of the nineteenth century. Enhancement of urban life was a key element of the 1930s New Deal programs. Congress created the U.S. Housing Authority in 1937 to clear slums and provide public housing for low-income residents. Employment programs funded the construction of public buildings such as schools, hospitals, and urban parks.

Economic prosperity characterized the United States after World War II (1939–1945). Transportation advances including urban freeway systems and low-cost government mortgages for war veterans fueled the great movement of white middle class city dwellers to the suburbs. With the exodus from cities taking away tax revenue and jobs, American cities began a steep downward spiral in quality of life and socioeconomic stability. Poverty, dilapidated housing, and high crime rates characterized inner city neighborhoods, largely populated by minorities. The urban black ghetto riots of the 1960s led to greater white migration to the suburbs, which became known as the "white flight." A pattern of urban de-industrialization followed, with manufacturing businesses moving out of inner city areas creating edge cities in the suburbs. Americans' attitudes toward the cities radically declined and racism became an urban problem rather than a Southern problem.

To counter these growing trends of declining inner cities, the first broad program of urban renewal was initiated in the 1950s. Congress funneled substantial amounts of federal financial aid to cities aimed at eliminating slums and ghettos and replacing them with improved housing and industrial and commercial areas. The Housing Act of 1954 provided "categorical" grants to restore older housing, directing public funds to specifically proposed actions. However, new high-rise housing projects of the 1950s and early 1960s soon represented the worst of black ghetto life.

The lack of success of categorical grants led to the Community Development Act of 1974. The act introduced block grants giving cities greater flexibility to address their specific needs through locally developed renewal plans. City plans required approval from the Department of Housing and Urban Development before qualifying for funding. Using block grants, cities would purchase slum areas, sometimes exercising eminent domain, to force the sale of private property to the government. The city would then demolish the buildings, clear the lots, and sell the land to private developers, or put it to public use. Highly toxic remains of abandoned industry often littered these inner city areas leading to costly environmental clean-up efforts. Prices for the cleared land were frequently set low and sometimes supplemented with tax breaks to attract private developers. Thus, the program operated at marked deficits for both city and federal governments. Housing developments, shopping centers, and office complexes were built in the newly cleared areas.

Although federal law required cities to assist displaced residents and businesses in finding new affordable locations, the dislocations often resulted in economic hardships. Urban renewal essentially became black removal. Cities typically built new public housing away from the renewal areas and traditional work sources while reserving renewal areas for the middle and upper income residents to stimulate economic growth.

The 1970s also saw other urban renewal programs including urban homesteading. Old abandoned houses that had fallen into city ownership were sold at low cost to individuals interested in restoring and living in them. The 1980s saw several states implement urban enterprise zones, attempting to attract new businesses to inner city areas. The zones provided tax cuts and relief from regulations including zoning laws and rent controls. These programs were largely ineffective, however, given the extent of city problems.

The results of federally funded urban renewal programs were mixed. A number of declining downtown areas were economically revitalized by introducing new industrial and commercial developments. Thousands of families found improved urban housing and new schools, parks, hospitals, museums, and libraries were erected in cleared slum areas. In some cases neighborhoods became integrated as a result. Many areas cleared under the federal programs, however, remained vacant. The high-rise low income public housing projects attracted poverty, crime, and disease. Consequently, many housing projects experienced high vacancy rates. Critics of urban renewal policies claimed cities' efforts to attract new business and higher-income residents caused cities that were already established to deteriorate.

The height of concerted urban renewal efforts at a national level ended after the 1970s. Under President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), the U.S. government substantially reduced financial aid for urban development and housing. Through the remainder of the twentieth century, urban renewal became more the responsibility of city and state governments and renewal activity declined significantly. The 1990s brought concepts of empowerment zones, in which distressed urban areas received tax breaks, federal investment for creating new businesses, and job retraining programs. Other urban renewal concepts involved home ownership zones for affordable housing, and education opportunity zones to assist the most needy schools.

See also: De-Industrialization, Ghetto, Industrialization, Slums, Suburbs (Rise of), Tenements, Urbanization