The Structure of American Cities in the Post-War Era

Bibliographic Data

ID2201600
AuthorsHomer Hoyt (corresponding author)
Year1943
Volume48
Issue4
Pages475-481
Publication date1943-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/219214
OpenAlexW2021597208
LanguageEN
Citations received8

The marked tapering-off in the upward slope of urban growth indicates a waning in the power of American cities to expand their industry and trade. At this turning-point in urban trends the question may be raised whether present theories of urban growth will explain the future city pattern. The Burgess concentric-circle theory, according to which the high-rent residential area encircles the outer rim of the city, has been modified by the sector theory, according to which the high-ren section moves in only one or two sectors from the center to the periphery. Both of these theories were developed to fit the facts of a private-enterprise economy during the growth of mass transportation lines. The automobile has led to a recent growth of clusters of homes in vacant areas between fixed transportation routes. In the last decade there was also a marked increase in population of central rooming-house areas due to conversions of larger quarters into small units. To these changes that were in evidence before the attack on Pearl Harbor the war has added new complications. The outward movement of population has been halted by the tire shortage. Most new permanent housing will be stopped for the duration. This pause in city growth gives planners the opportunity to consider the post-war city pattern. After the war over twenty-nine million war workers and men in the armed forces will constitute a great mobile force ready to shift to any city offering employment in peacetime industries. The cities with the most new war plants, raw material, markets, and transportation will attract these post-war manufactures. The number of houses built by private builders will depend upon the extent to which costs are reduced by mass-production methods. Federal subsidies will be employed if private initiative fails to furnish homes. The pattern of the future city should provide for more open spaces around the main business center and for the rebuilding of blighted areas for all income groups. Industries located in converted war plants on the periphery of the city will enable workers to live in garden homes between the city and the country. The widely expanded use of the airplane will enable executives to commute several hundred miles to their offices. The future metropolitan district should bring about a synthesis of the city and the country and increase the demand for a unified metropolitan government

Development economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economic shortage · Economics · Economy · Geography · Government (linguistics) · Peacetime · Political science · Population · Population growth · Sociology · Demography · Law · Urbanization and City Planning

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