Urban redevelopment

After World War II, urban planners in major cities joined forces with social reformers to encourage urban redevelopment projects to address the declining quality of life in cities. At the beginning of the 20th century, cities in the

United States had been the lifeblood of the American economy. The advances of the factory system, developments in public transportation, and the mechanization of agriculture, which reduced the need for farm laborers, all led to urban growth throughout the country. But by the 1950s, the quality of life in urban areas started to decline. A rise in crime rates, less funding for the social programs that had been created through the New Deal of the 1930s, and SUBURBANIZATION were just several of the factors that led to declining cities. City populations that had steadily increased since the 19th century shrank, while the areas outside the cities rapidly grew.

The federal urban renewal program, created under Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, provided for demolition of slums and the construction of about 800,000 new homes throughout the nation. Between 1949 and 1973 approximately 600,000 inner-city housing units were demolished, forcing almost 2 million people to relocate to new neighborhoods. Many poor families were moved to high-rise apartment buildings that came to be known throughout the United States as “projects,” which were often plagued with violent criminal activity. As these PUBLIC HOUSING apartments became more derelict, many public housing authorities fell into bankruptcy, and their properties literally became walled off from the cities.

Urban redevelopment sought to eradicate racial segregation in city neighborhoods, eliminate substandard housing, construct well-built homes, and revitalize urban economies. Yet the housing sites were obtained through eminent domain, which enabled the government to take over privately owned real estate for public purposes. Title I of the Housing Act of 1949 enabled the federal government to pay two-thirds of the cost of acquiring land sites, while the local governments paid the remaining one-third. This allowed developers to build homes at below-market prices without providing any incentives to supply housing for the urban poor. Instead of affordable housing, urban redevelopment often created commercial centers for business and high-rise apartments for the middle and upper classes.

Not all urban redevelopment projects involved widespread destruction. Like many other projects, urban renewal in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia transformed an urban area into a more affluent neighborhood, but the change was accomplished through selective demolition of dilapidated homes rather than wholesale slum clearance. Poor residents were displaced, but restored colonial-era homes maintained a predominantly low-rise urban landscape punctuated by a few high-rise towers to accommodate population density.

Urban neighborhoods also were demolished to make way for the new highways authorized by the Eisenhower administration’s INTERSTATE Highway Act Of 1956.

Cities were physically divided, displacing many low-income residents from their homes. The act also helped thousands of white families leave cities and settle in the suburbs, where they could live apart from the city but still drive to work easily on the newly built highways. Some urban areas did improve with the renewal projects, but others declined with projects that shifted traffic patterns, isolated neighborhoods with highways, blocked vehicular traffic, and displaced large amounts of minority and ethnic residents.

Further reading: Carl Abbott, Urban America in the Modern Age (Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1987); Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 1961).

—Hilary Styer