Factors affecting the development of the United States

Not long ago, the relevant agencies in the United States investigated and summarized the top ten factors that have affected the development of American cities in the past 50 years. Respondents agreed that the government's policies on urban development, especially a series of policies to promote urban suburbanization, have the greatest impact, among which large-scale interstate highway plans and potentially influential housing loan policies are more significant. Many enterprises use policy guidance to form typical development models such as "standardized residential areas" and "suburban multi-functional shopping centers", which leads to large-scale urban sprawl.

Interstate Expressway Planning and Rapid Development of Highway Traffic

Known as "the greatest project after the pyramid", the interstate highway plan has completely changed the distribution of American cities. The original intention of the plan is to solve the traffic congestion problem in the city center by establishing long-distance traffic between cities without signal lights, so that vehicles can enter and leave the city quickly. However, the "urban peripheral ring road" originally built for long-distance travel has gradually evolved into a "traffic trunk road" in the suburbs. The cheap farmland around the ring road has become an ideal place to build suburban houses, shopping malls, industrial parks and parking lots, which has triggered the transfer of population and employment opportunities from the city center to the suburbs, and gradually formed an American urban pattern that relies on highways at present.

Government's Housing Mortgage Loan Policy

The long-term mortgage loan policy with low down payment and fixed interest rate and related supporting policies adopted by the United States after World War II played a vital role in the construction of the first batch of suburban houses after World War II. Thanks to this policy, the proportion of private property in American housing has increased from 44% in 1940 to 66% at present.

Urban industrial relocation

After World War II, American industry was mainly concentrated in northern and midwestern cities, but this advantage was quickly lost because enterprises took advantage of cheap labor and preferential taxes and fees in suburban areas. At the same time, the rich land resources in the suburbs can better meet the requirements of modern industrial production of enterprises, such as transportation from railways to highways, and factories from urban multi-storey to suburban single-storey. The orientation of cost control makes industrial enterprises gradually transfer from urban areas to low-cost areas-first suburbs, then satellite cities, and finally even foreign countries. In traditional heavy industry cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia, nearly three-quarters of heavy industry enterprises have moved to other places. Industrial relocation not only affects the economic situation of traditional industrial cities, but also shakes the close urban neighborhood relationship based on work and residence, making millions of African-Americans who moved to the north lose their jobs.

Old city reconstruction

The goal of American Housing Act 1949 is to "provide well-off housing and suitable living environment for every American", but the "old city reconstruction" advocated by the same act has affected the implementation of this plan. The old city tower, which has been vacant for decades, not only destroys the original vitality of the old city, but also is not suitable for poor families to live in. However, due to the transformation of the old city, blacks all moved to the ghetto with high residential density in the urban area.

Although the government tried to solve the declining situation in urban areas through a series of policies, such as building high-end apartments and shopping malls convenient for car purchase to attract the middle class, the effect was not satisfactory. These middle classes still choose to live in the suburbs and regard the urban area as the service area of the expressway.

Large suburban residence

1947- 195 1 year, the large-scale residential development in the east of new york (Levi's City) became the symbol of American suburbanization after the war. For the first time, developers have positioned the consumption market of single-family houses in most middle-class and even working-class families. Through standardized and large-scale construction, the cost has been greatly reduced and the housing industrialization has been realized. With the support of the government's financial policy, these suburban houses, which are flexible in design and easy to adapt to the improvement of housing standards through internal transformation, have a lower monthly rent than urban houses, so suburban houses have become the first choice for the middle class.

Racial segregation and discrimination at work

After the Second World War, more than 4 million African-Americans who moved from rural areas in the south to cities in the north were forced to live in crowded and crude Jewish areas, making it difficult to find jobs.

Although the civil rights movement declared the illegality of apartheid and work discrimination, it was impossible to fundamentally eliminate discrimination. If colored people enter the white residential area in the city center, white people will sell their houses at "panic prices" out of fear. Therefore, blacks are still unable to integrate into the middle-class residential circle, and these residential areas have become expanded areas of racial discrimination (called "areas with high racial concentration" by social scientists), which are frequent places for social problems such as poverty and crime.

Suburb multifunctional shopping center

Suburban shopping centers, which appeared in the 1950s, have the advantages of all kinds of goods in downtown department stores and the characteristics of specialty stores, and are mostly located at the entrances and exits of expressways, with sufficient parking spaces. Due to the comprehensive functions of shopping, catering and entertainment, and the provision of various services, these suburban shopping centers quickly replaced the dominant position of downtown department stores. In the 1990s, due to the appearance of more convenient postal services, e-commerce and other business models, the development of suburban shopping centers stagnated. It is estimated that more than 25% of suburban shopping centers may close down in the next 10 year, and many developers are seeking new business ideas.

The spread of "spreading pie" in cities

According to the convenience of transportation, developers have built a large number of satellite cities around the central city, and built large-scale houses, suburban shopping centers, office buildings and parking lots along the expressway, which has spread the city like a pie, especially in traditional cities in the northern and midwest of the United States.

Air conditioning technology

Due to the development of air conditioning technology, the dependence of residential buildings, office buildings, schools, entertainment centers and other properties on the natural environment has been greatly reduced, making the suburbs very suitable for human living and life, leading to the large-scale spread of cities and the development of suburban shopping centers.

Urban riots

Due to the rising unemployment rate, the widening gap between the rich and the poor and racial discrimination, violent conflicts between black and white police broke out in many big cities in the 1960s. The riots shocked the whole country, leading to white immigrants and reduced investment, while the crowded Jewish areas moved to the city center with declining population, economic recession and vacant houses.