GGR254
Lower Ninth. Early development
Early 19th century: sugar plantations converted to a residential area for free blacks and working‐class whites seeking affordable rents close to downtown New Orleans
Underclass space. Segregation
Economic poverty, poor living environments and social exclusion /distance deeply intertwined with physical isolation and residential segregation
Gateway suburbs
Racial geographies are more segregated than immigrant ones ▪ Central city (DC) = black/white city ▪ Inner suburbs = extremely mixed ▪ Outer suburbs = mainly white
Second Ghetto
Racially homogeneous: extremely high rates of residential segregation by race. Socially heterogeneous: wide range of classes and other forms of social association. Place of conflict and resistance from the 1960s Increasing intervention of the government in the housing market and other elements of urban life
Dynamics of segregation.
Racism: manifested in both informal and formal ways Wealth, income and status Ongoing economic inequality has created and reinforced black economic status Government transfers The erosion of government income and social assistance transfers and the curtailment of many programs => felt most severely by those at the lower end of the social scale Conservative ideology ▪ Conservative ideas and 'neo‐ liberalism' became more dominant ▪ The social welfare system . . . is an outmoded social dinosaur" (Ronald Reagan 1982) Access to housing:
Cubans Economic capital
Range of economic and social resources brought from Cuba were transferred and mobilized in Miami. As part of the Cold War world, Cubans were heavily favoured by the US government in a range of economic and social settings.
Expansionism through the frontier - Population Growth
Rapidly growing and mobile population spreads across the opened‐up territory
Recent immigrants
Recent immigrants in metropolitan Washington and elsewhere across the rest of the country are repeating past practices ▪ Geographic concentration ▪ Settling through chain migration ▪ Providing labour and investment Being absorbed in and realigning politics ▪ Both integrate into and refashion existing political lines ▪ Continue to balance ethnic identity and 'American‐ness'
Poverty. What is it?
Situation where a person has on‐going, persistent lack of the key elements of human survival: income, material assets, and quality of life
Example of an Underclass space and one public housing example
Skid Row ▪ Long history ▪ Linked to resources frontier ▪ Center of seasonal unemployment Wide range of spaces: SRO hotels, missions, saloons, clubs, brothels and pawn shops Public housing: Pruitt‐Igoe ▪ Existed between 1954‐1974 ▪ 33 buildings / 2,780 apartments ▪ Racially segregated A dismal failure due to poor construction, economic decline, white flight, and opposition to public housing Cabrini‐Green ▪ Built 1942‐1962; demolished 1995‐2011 ▪ Begins as a mixed project, but entirely black by 1970s ▪ Economic disinvestment in the downtown area ▪ Low investment in the buildings and job creation ▪ Stigmatization of the housing project and its inhabitants Recent changes spurred by shift from industrial to professional services and the growing demand for middle‐class housing (gentrification) Robert Taylor Homes ▪ Built for 11,000 but home to 27,000 at its peak ▪ 99.9% were African Americans - an area of segregated concentrated poverty
Incorporation -Dynamic economic base
Trade with the rest of the world creates global networks. Growth of massive industrial base from the 1820s led to industrial supremacy. Extensive agricultural and resource extraction systems
How was a set of isolated spaces transformed into the world's most powerful nation and the "world's first modern commercial, liberal republic" (Kagan, p. 71)
Transformation of an 'isolated' land into a minor colony and then into the world's most powerful economic, military and political power Transformation was driven by a set of inter‐related, long‐term processes that took place in three overlapping stages: 1. Incorporation 2. Internationalization 3. Impasse
Example of a Gateway City
Washington DC. Foreign born ▪ DC has become a gateway city for immigrants since the 1970s ▪ Washington's foreign born characterized by large number and wide diversity Washington's foreign born are largely suburban - this has increased over the years. Immigrants are heavily concentrated in the inner suburbs, forming an arc around DC in 1990
Cubans are economically integrated in the Miami economy in two ways:
a) enclave economy b) wider metropolitan economy
Agglomeration economies:
benefits that firms get from being close together ▪ They lead to declining costs and increased knowledge
The Cold War
era of political tension that defined the postwar period (1945‐1991) When America defeated the Soviet Union.
Balkanization
"Demographic balkanization involves a spatial segmentation of population by race‐ ethnicity, class and age across broad regions, states, and metropolitan areas driven by both immigration and long distance internal migration patterns." (W. Frey This is now a reality in S California, S Florida and is cycle of polarization and violence. The 3 beliefs of Balkanization 1. Immigration will take away jobs from Americans and drive wages down 2. There is a political/social cultural difference between immigrants and Americans. Belief that they will cause a dilution of Americaness and undermine what it means to be American. 3. Development of geographic separation and ethnic enclaves creating American and non-American spaces.
virtual destruction of indigenous societies -Culture and environment
'America' at the time of European contact contained a wide variety of indigenous societies operating in a range of different environments
Imperial destiny
'American' (aka European) superiority and their rights to the land
Cuban migration
'Golden exiles' (1959‐1962) followed most notably by the 'freedom flights,' (1965‐1973) the Mariel boatlift (1980)
Bush administration explained the LA riots in two main ways
(1) Gangs: LA gangs used the King verdict as pretext to cause damage. (2) Social assistance: 'Welfare' programs that were part of Johnson's War on Poverty considered to be a central reason for the riots "I believe the lawless social anarchy which we saw is directly related to the breakdown of family structure, personal responsibility and social order in too many areas of our society" (U.S. VP, Dan Quayle)
Great Migration
(1890‐1945) Large‐scale migration from the south to the north
Bracero Program
(1942‐1964) A guest worker scheme started in 1942 to control Mexican migration ▪ US employers want cheap labour and Mexicans want better wages ▪ Ending of program in 1965 leads to the development of a new program
Environmental justice Dreier and Pulido's arguments
+ Dreier: government role's in environment issues? For whose interests? + Pulido (2000: 13) "Pollution concentrations are inevitably the product of relationships between distinct places, including industrial zones, affluent suburbs, working‐class suburbs, and downtown areas, all of which are racialized" Both speak of the social and political consequences of environmental activities ▪ Strong relationship between environment, capitalism and policy ▪ Environmental events do not operate in a social or spatial vacuum
Three forms of settlement in Washington DC.
1.Highly dispersed Indians, Mexican and British 2.Dispersed with areas of concentration Salvadorians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Ethiopians 3.Concentrated Vietnamese, Somalis and Bolivians
1. Why does segregation persist? 2. Why persist?
1. Continued existence of social and economic inequalities and racism 2. People and groups provide: ▪ Social contracts ▪ Collective social control Political voice: rally together over issues
Why did the Gunbelt emerge?
1. Flee old locations-Locate on 'greenfield' sites: create new industrial complexes away from older sites with their obsolete buildings, established labour rules, and old production practices 2. Promotional activities-Aggressive promotion (à la Grantham) by all levels of government (state, county and city) to attract industries involved in military production 3. Strategic-Perceived vulnerability of certain industrial and population centers, most of which were in the eastern US in the immediate postwar period 4. Agglomeration tendencies-▪ Skilled labour - scientists/engineers ▪ Information - military contacts/technology
6 themes
1. Long-term integration of the USA into the global economy and the international political arena drives and shapes its development 2. Ideology and making of space 3. : Changing regional and urban geographies have shaped American economic, social and political development 4. The massive growth of the US since 1950 had led to the acquisition of unprecedented political and economic power, but at great social and economic cost 5. Character of America's social economic and political divides and relationships are clearly evident and reproduced in urban spaces 6. Public and private agents have played a defining role in the creation of national, regional and urban geographies
How did the Sunbelt emerge as the dominant region in the postwar period?
1. Rapid economic growth 2. Population Growth 3. Rapid urbanization 4. Marketing and selling of the Sunbelt 5.Federal policy and spending since the 1930s
Three dimensions of segregation
1. Social class-Class structure establishes access to resources and class is socially reproduced and sustains existing structures of power and wealth. 2. Household type-Segregation is correlated to life cycle and life style 3. Race and ethnicity-Groups separated due to racial and ethnic discrimination Fulfills several functions: ▪ Defensive: reduce isolation ▪ Support: provide networks ▪ Cultural: maintain legacy ▪ Attack: base for action
Growth dynamics of the Manufacturing Belt
1.Center of new forms of capital investment 2.Agricultural industrialization 3.Industrial‐mineral‐forest linkages 4. Dynamic population growth
Internationalization How does the US justify its economic expansionism?
1.Cold War: era of political tension that defined the postwar period (1945‐1991)Cold War: functioned as a geographical imagination - Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" - that strengthens and reinforces America's international power and reach. 2.Military‐industrial complex: growing relationship between the state, business and the military that consists of: ▪ Government stimulation and support of overseas expansion ▪ Growing government and military intervention in most aspects of everyday life
Sunbelt-Rapid economic growth
1.Natural resources Exploitation of natural resources (oil, lumber, sun, etc.) have underpinned a vast set of industries (oil and gas, pulp and paper, tourism, etc.) 2.Regional diffusion ▪ Common throughout many areas ▪ 1947‐87: industrial growth = 120% (US=30%) ▪ Large‐scale growth in many sectors, including traditional (resources) and high‐tech industrial as well as financial 3. Wages and markets ▪ Low wages and non‐unionized labour ▪ Growing (affluent) market 4. Modernization of agriculture ▪ Mechanization and science ▪ Modern large‐scale organization ▪ Regional and international markets Florida's postwar citrus industry is a leading example of modern agriculture in the Sunbelt California is the largest food producer in the US
Chinese Exclusion Act
1882 A discriminatory act that shaped American society
Deindustrialization. Runaway factory ‐ Borg‐Warner
1950: all 24 plants located in the Midwest 1975: most of the 55 plants found in the South. Decline of the Manufacturing Belt relative to the rise of the South and the West.
Impasse
1960 due to competition with other countries and tech and overseas invest
Sunbelt-Population Growth
1965‐1980: Sunbelt gain 6.1 m migrants 1965‐1985: Manufacturing Belt lost 6.5 m
Under theme 2
19th century liberalism link to manifest destiny and reservation and need to spread civil. Immigrants and diversity. Trump believes that balkanization is increasing with the number of immigrants. Ethnic, enclaves, ghettos, slum, border, Chinese exclusion act, and the use of space in a smaller scale. The urban underclass as a poverty structural issue and unemployment. Policy, public housing, healthy environment, and how it impacts US citizens. Second Ghetto and housing projects for a healthier environment that will help people thrive
Cancer Alley
85 stretch of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge More than 130 petro‐chemical plants ▪ Weak regulation /enforcement More than 1,000 toxic chemicals are regularly released into the air, water and soil ▪ Significant control of the state by the petro‐chemical industries "There is certainly a friendly relationship between elected officials and the industry" (Senator Bennett Johnston D‐La) "We supported them and they supported us" (Senator John Breaux D‐La) ▪ Over‐concentration of poor and minorities ▪ These groups are the most vulnerable to chronic and acute toxic release
Define Environmental justice
: a reduction and redistribution of environmental risks
Incorporation -Territorial Expansion
: building up the space to form the new industrial state.creation of present‐day state political system
Geographic imagination
A relational view of the world in relation to you which shapes our understanding of the world and material reality. Us vs them concept (Gilley). Isn't innocent British used GI to control Imagining a coherent territorial entity containing a group of people with common attachment to that territory through mental images, knowledge, boundaries, simplification. Is often tied to the experience of the expanding frontier that both sets American history apart from elsewhere (particularly Europe) and serves as the dominant metaphor for American initiatives inside and outside its national territory. (agnew and sharp).
Expansionism through the frontier - Property relations
A set of 'liberal' property relations develops around occupied by indigenous Americans as a commodity to be bought and sold
Deindustrialization
A sustainable decline in industrial (manufacturing) activity and capacity. Large-scale regional and local economic changes in postwar period. Cause is very complex due to combination of a local to global process. Cheaper production is found in countries where environmental laws are nonexistent or weak and less unions to protest for higher wages so wages are low. 1963‐1982 21,000 factories closed down in the NE region.
Forced 'immigration'
Africans and the American agricultural system: enforced labor (slaves) for the southern plantation from settlement (in the 1600s) until 1865 (13th Amendment). . Political economy Slavery: foundation of a distinctive political economy in the southern states.A system linked to the production of cash commodities (cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice) for international markets
virtual destruction of indigenous societies-
After 1785 the US government and native groups entered into hundreds of treaties giving free title to the former "Rights granted to Indians by treaty . . . were steadily eroded, and the treaties proved to flimsy barriers to the waves of settlers" (Kagan, p. 82)
virtual destruction of indigenous societies- Government‐native treaties
After 1785 the US government and native groups entered into hundreds of treaties giving free title to the former "Rights granted to Indians by treaty . . . were steadily eroded, and the treaties proved to flimsy barriers to the waves of settlers" (Kagan, p. 82)
Two authors arguement on expansionism are
Agnew and Sharp Continental, capitalist economy built on frontier expansion. The making of this new world was legitimized by a 'geographical imagination' Kagan "There was scarcely an American in a position of influence in the early years of the republic who did not envision the day when the United States would stretch across the entire expanse of the continent" (p. 77)
Incorporation and 4 main ideas
America's integration into the world economy. 1. Dynamic economic base 2. Political Independence 3, Territorial Expansion 4. Population
Hurricane Katrina
Aug 23‐28: Tropical depression which turns into a Category 5 hurricane Aug 29: Hits New Orleans and continues through Louisiana and Mississippi ▪ 1,826 people died (1,577 in LA, the rest in MS and FL) ▪ Physical damage of various kinds valued at $150 billion Hit New Orleans the hardest: ▪ More than 1,100 people killed and 130 missing ▪ 400,000 people fled the flooding ▪ More than $100 billion in damages to residences, businesses, infrastructure
Define Expansionism
Battle for empire by European powers ‐ carve out different areas
Incorporation -Political Independence
Building of a nation state and a strong government. Building of a patriarchal system built around class and race
Expansionism through the frontier - Capital investment
Capital from foreign and domestic sources invested in a range of sectors
Growth dynamics of the Manufacturing Belt- Center of new forms of capital investment
Center of new forms of capital investment ▪ Sectoral shift: new forms of capital formation and accumulation ▪ Shift of capital from mercantile to industrial, financial and related functions ▪ Agglomeration economies: benefits that firms get from being close together ▪ They lead to declining costs and increased knowledge
Poverty- unequal income distribution
Changes to income distribution since the 1960s => greater share of jobs with low wages, poor security, few benefits, etc. => greater income inequality
Theme 1
Clearing out indigenous space for Euro-America affairs. Manifest destiny and the frontier. Immigration and focus on bringing in immigrants from the N&W Europe then S&E Europe. Labor migrants Deindustrialization and the integration of the US industry to global industry for cheaper labor Geographic Imagination after the cold war and world wars
Heterolocalism
Community formation is made through distant social networks rather than geographic propinquity
Deindustrialization What accounts for these changes?
Component I. Structural decline in manufacturing employment. Component II. Shrinking share of national employment Component III. Manufacturing job loss not compensated for by jobs elsewhere
Urban underclass Popular and conservative idea revolves around ideas about and what is the problem with this view?
Conservative ideas: ▪ Social pathology ▪ Culture of poverty Problem: ▪ Behaviour not poverty ▪ Welfare dependency
Effects on the Sunbelt
Defense dependent: large expanses of the Gunbelt are reliant on military spending, especially small towns and 'single‐industry' cities.Has underpinned economic development - increased economic and social diversity. But ... it has supported uneven development in parts of the Sunbelt (especially in the Old South): poverty, environmental degradation, urban problems, etc.
Expansionism through the frontier - Exploitation of natural resources
Demand from manufacturing for lumber, minerals, coal, etc. and from growing population for commodities
Suburban poverty. Increasing, why?
Demographic: shifting mobility and migration patterns Economic: restructuring of the economy and the government ▪ The self‐sufficiency standard measures living costs ▪ Implications for a growing share of Orange County's populations are bleak
Militarization
Economic, social and political processes that organize everyday life and society around military action and violence. Important contributor to national technologial innovation through private and public Research and Development (R&D) investment.The military generates direct (military, contractors, service) and indirect jobs.Large number of communities are dependent on military spending: a) stimulates local economies and b) diverts funds from other places and spending areas
Exceptionalism define, key ideas (SCM), and key moments
Exceptionalism define, key ideas, and key moments Belief that America is exceptional inherently different from any other place which gives particular rights and gives rise to idea that world needs to be Americanized. Key ideas 1. Superiority - overpowering rightness of American political and economic system 2. Civilization and duty to spread freedom and democracy across the world 3. Manifest destiny Key moments 1. American revolution - development of democracy and freedom 2. Frontier 1630- 1880: Turn savage world into civilized and the establishment of the nation state 3. The Civil War of 1861 is the basis for democracy for all and strengthening of the nation state. 4. Overseas mission to spread American values, cold-war and anti-communism central to America's postwar image of itself and role in the world 5. Radical Islam where US frames itself as different and bringer of peace. Muslims have been a central issue in Trumps campaign
How did Americans achieve Expansionism through the frontier?
Exploitation of natural resources. Capital investment. Ideology of stratification. Property relations. Population Growth. Imperial destiny
virtual destruction of indigenous societies- European‐native interactions (Schien)
Expulsion ▪ Articulation ▪ Stratification
Miami. Public policy
Federal and other levels of government became increasingly involved in Miami's housing market ▪ 1937 Housing Act: initiated large‐scale public housing construction ▪ 1949 Housing Act: liked urban renewal and public housing ▪ 1965 Housing Act: increasing privatization of low‐income housing ▪ 1992 Hope VI program: replace with low‐income areas with mixed income
Sunbelt-Marketing and selling of the Sunbelt▪ How was this done?
Federal policy and spending since the 1930s▪ Labour: improve wages and working conditions ▪ Agriculture and energy: accelerate modernization and support domestic production ▪ Transportation: integrate regions ▪ Result: the Sunbelt incorporated into the 'modern' USA
virtual destruction of indigenous societies-Land cessions
Giving up the rights to land, usually in exchange for something else Process starts on the eastern seaboard and works its way west
Immigration policy
Has changed dramatically over the last 150 years ▪ Immigration to the US was more or less 'open' until the late 1800s ▪ Restrictive legislation slowly put into place from the late 1800s ▪ 1875 Page Act: restricted those considered 'undesirable' - targets Chinese laborers
Expansionism through the frontier - Ideology of stratification
Hierarchical systems established around political, social and economic institutions
virtual destruction of indigenous societies- Western Liberal Ideology
Horace Greeley (1811‐1872) Progressive editor, and reformer: "There is no hope for them. God has given this earth to those who will subdue and cultivate it, and it is vain to try to struggle against his righteous decree."
The Frontier
How America was settled through the battle for an empire by European powers from 1630-1880
Paterson, NJ ("Silk City")
Hundreds of towns and cities developed as industrial centers from the early nineteenth century feeding domestic and international demand. Industrial city that exemplifies urban‐industrial growth in the Manufacturing Belt. Blue‐collar world: factories, housing, union hall, saloon, church/synagogue, etc.
Hurricane Betsy
Hurricane Katrina was not the first disaster in 1965 Hurricane Betsy struck ▪ Louisiana: 76 people killed/$12 billion of damage/164,000 homes flooded Levees. Situation in 2005 ▪ Betsy: resulted in the building of higher levees and other measures ▪ Eve of Katrina: extensive system of levees (and pumping stations) in place ▪ New Orleans was a barricaded urban space
How is urbanization affected by immigration?
Immigration over the last 150 years has been closely associated with urbanization ‐ most immigrants have settled in cities such as NY, LA, Miami, Chicago
The Old South.
Institutionalized racism History of slavery ‐ legacy of separation, segregation and racism. 'King Cotton' and export crops dominate economy. Small urban population / lack of diversified activities / agricultural dependence. Small manufacturing base Low‐wage, labour‐intensive and centered on a narrow spectrum of low‐value industries (textile, shoes). Control from the N. High degree of poverty. World War II: by most measures (income, infant mortality, etc.) it was a depressed region lagging behind the rest of the U.S.
Public housing
Public housing houses the largest numbers of the underclass Underclass space ▪ Origins lie in the 1937 Housing Act ▪ Complicated history ▪ Home to millions
Access to housing and segregation
It is characterized by a dual housing market: race is rooted in space. Practices and codes. From blockbusting to violence. role of federal housing policy ▪ Intervention segregation ▪ Absence of national policy shifting capital investment White suburbs and gentrified areas = new investment and redevelopment. Black areas =disinvestment/decline/absence of redevelopment
Nativism
Long‐term discrimination that has shaped programs and legislation. Has produced a range of laws to restrict migration. A form of racism.
Immigration and Nationality Act, 1965
Main thrust was to replace national quotas with overall hemispheric limits ▪ Abolish 1924 Act quotas ▪ Increase from outside of Europe ▪ 170,000 from Eastern Hemisphere ▪ 120,000 from Western Hemisphere Purpose: to readdress the wrongs of the 1925 and 1952 policies - to allow larger numbers of Europeans (and not Asians, Africans or Latin Americans) ▪ Intended purpose backfired ▪ Massive immigration from non‐European areas ▪ 2011: 81% from Asia and Latin America
virtual destruction of indigenous societies- Property relations
Native land => settler, government and corporate land ▪ Europeans and Native Americans had different conceptions of land ▪ Native = communal property ▪ European = individual and private property
Is American exceptional?
No, the American revolution was not unique in any way and was similar to revolutions in Europe. The frontier was started because Americans were greedy and wanted more land so they took the native land by force and few legal means. The civil war was about creating a modern industrial capitalist society and creation of a large nation market and labor force for factories and stores of the modern economy. It solidified a unified national state led by the North. Overseas missions were taken to look for new land and resources to impose control and order. The Cold war was a battle btwn two powerhouses fighting over land and resources to gain control of the world. In terms of radial islam, Americans have always treated new immigrants harshly and have tried to segregate them.
What is the Manufacturing Belt?
Occupies a small part ‐ the northeast of the country. 1919: 73% of manufacturing employment but only 50% of population. New York and Chicago become America's financial powerhouses by 1900.Had the largest concentration of America's most important metropolitan centers and a wide set of diverse cultural worlds.
Manifest destiny
Ordained that Americans should be spread out across the continent. Ordained to be a world power with US bases in S America, Asia, Africa
Deindustrialization. Why did it take place?
Part of the impasse - loss of global dominance since the late 1960s ▪ High: shifting capital is responsible
Riskscapes
Places are subject to range of environmental risks, ranging from hazardous waste to ambient noise and housing quality Social hierarchies ensure that some places are more likely to have a greater range of environmental risk than other places As Pulido makes clear for LA, a differentiated social geography (most typically by class and race) is associated with the geography of environmental risk (riskscapes) "The poor and especially the non white poor bear a disproportionate burden of exposure to suboptimal, unhealthy environmental conditions in the US" (Evans and Kantrowitz 2002: 323)
Internationalization
Political‐military‐economic globalization: rise to world dominance begins in the second half to the nineteenth century. Economic concentration: domination of world industryUS economic expansionism: move of multinational corporations, (MNCs) overseas ‐ this takes many forms: factories, offices, mines
Orange County Two major nodes
Population and high‐tech economic development centered on 2 major nodes: Anaheim and Irvine
Another major shift in source of immigrants to the USA => increasing diversity specifically Asians in
Post 1965
Explain where is poverty found? The geography of America's poverty
Poverty is not random distributed: found in specific parts of a metropolitan area, thus producing distinctive clusters of concentrated poverty in the inner city. The reverse is true - areas of high income => distinctive areas of concentrated wealth in the outer city. ex: ‐ Why increasing inequality in LA? ▪ Population/competitive economy ▪ High polarized labor market ▪ Weak economic growth ▪ Scaled‐back welfare system
Vast majority of immigrants came from Western and Northern Europe in?
Pre 1880s
Orange County
Rural area A key element of LA's metroburbia complex Pre‐1950s: mainly farm land with little urban development Rural a large suburban district ▪ 2010: 34 municipalities of a population just over 3 million ▪ 2000: 1.3 million workers employed in 76,000 firms => A significant part of the LA "metroburbia" Racial difference Large, varied and dual labor force: managerial and technical on the one hand, low‐wage, industrial and service workers on the other Rich area and predominately white 44% and Hispanic 34%
Growth dynamics of the Manufacturing Belt-Dynamic population growth
Rural migration from all parts of the US to Northern cities by people left jobless by agricultural modernization. Immigrants (mainly from Europe) flocked to the region's industrial cities.
Orange County. Class and neighborhood examples
Santa Ana: Hispanic with low median income, high rates of foreign‐born and over‐ crowding, high rents, and a great deal of (sub)urban hardship Coto de Caza: Typical wealthy American suburb as described by Knox ▪ Master‐planned, guard‐gated private community of 14,000 ▪ 82% white, 8% Hispanic, 6% Asian and 1% black ▪ Median household income $164,385; poverty rate = 1.8% ▪ Median house price = $967,000
Lower Ninth
Segregated metropolitan area. White population: concentrated in the city's west section and higher ground close to the river ‐ and the suburbs. While the Black population: concentrated in the city's central and eastern areas ‐ and the lower ground in the suburbs. Racial incidence of flooding in the city ▪ Whites made up 28% of population and 20% of flood victims ▪ Blacks made up 67% of population and 76% of flood victims
Hurricane Katrina. What happened?
Simple fact: the levees didn't hold: 169 miles of damaged levees and 50 breache
Suburbs and big builders
Structures of building provision: agents work in structures and with institutions ▪ Big developer/builder: key agent that captures control of the housing market and transforms metroburbia space Major characteristics Key features are size (large), scope (many aspects of unit development), operations (bulk and mass production), reduced costs and high profits, and focus (suburbs) Ex : D.R. Horton Housing market The big builder (along with other exchange and design professionals): plays a central role in the conception, financing, development, building and marketing of residential and commercial subdivision Pressure group Real estate industry is one of the country's most powerful political lobby groups and it uses its influence to shape legislation and programs Government support Alliance of big builders and the state guarantees private profits and creates new retailing, industrial, and residential landscapes in the metroburbia Several key measures: ▪ Transportation: Interstate Highway Act, 1956 ▪ Accelerated depreciation: Internal Revenue Act, 1954 ▪ Mortgage: various Housing Acts
Morales family
Suburban poverty. Orange County▪ $400 a week family income ▪ $1,200 rent on 2‐bedroom (sublet 1 room to family of 5 for $500) ▪ Morales: typical of increasing levels of 'urban hardship' in the suburb
Suburban‐city growth
Suburbanization is linked to city decline as population loss and economic disinvestment plague the central city
Sunbelt-Rapid urbanization
Sunbelt cities are the fastest growing ones in the country. Cities such as Atlanta are the: ▪ Centers of growth economic sectors (IT, finance, etc.) ▪ Coordinator of regional markets ▪ Node connecting region to the rest of the USA and the world
How did America clear out indigenous space for Euro-American affairs?
Territory 1. Culture and environment 2. European‐native interactions (Schien) 3. Property relations 4. Western Liberal Ideology 5. Government‐native treaties Land cessions
Gateway cities
The 'gateway' city is a useful way to conceptualize the functions and meanings of ethnic space, both today and in the past. Immigrants seek support, information, and cultural artifacts ▪ Traditionally settled in the central areas of older gateway cities (NYC, Chicago, etc.)▪ Segregated districts such as Little Italy (NYC) provided various functions ▪ Conduit: flow of capital, people, ideas, ▪ Acculturation: support and change Second and third generation move out from the central core ▪ Typically reflects (in some form) social mobility and social assimilation Some of the older vacated central‐city immigrant spaces have become consumption sites of tourism, nostalgia and 'ethnic food" or residential gentrified spaces
Miami. Real estate industry
The 'hidden hand' that shapes the urban land and housing markets ▪ Speculators: used federal funds to build for‐profit housing ▪ Blockbusters: bought white homes and sold to African Americans ▪ Slumlords: 1,000s of landlords squeezed high rents
The result of Expansionism ?
The creation of the territory of what is now the continental USA in 1880 and ▪ Land taken away from Natives ▪ Massive population loss ▪ Creation of 'American' territory and the formation of a continental, capitalist society
Urban underclass spaces, Where can they be found?
The underclass is "a minority within a minority": most are trapped in the inner‐city of America's metropolises. In inner‐city speculative housing estates, the streets, and public housing projects.
Poverty-Institutional policy and social rationalization
This can take several forms, from public housing and welfare policy through highways and education
Cubans Social capital
This success is built on a strong enclave society which masks class, racial and gender exploitation (Stepick and Grenier)
The 1992 riots.
What happened? Amateur footage showed the LA police beating up a defenceless Rodney King (March 3, 1991). Violence (53 dead, 2,300 injured), arrests (16,000 in jail) and property damage ($1 billion) in various but specific parts of the city. Police state =Mobilization of 10,000 National Guard, 4,000 soldiers, and the entire LAPD.
Define Environmental equity
a fairer distribution of environmental risks by group
Living in extreme poverty is defined as
having an income of $2 day or less ▪ Has increased dramatically since 1996
Incorporation - Population
immigration as population generator and creator of multicultural society
Growth dynamics of the Manufacturing Belt-Agricultural industrialization
increased inputs and linkages, corporate control and external dependence
Ethnic enclaves
is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity.
Recent immigrants cluster in two types of cities:
knowledge‐service and Sunbelt
Growth dynamics of the Manufacturing Belt-Industrial‐mineral‐forest linkages
new levels of capital investment that exploits the area's lumber and mineral resources and productivity a result of the combination of quality, quantity and accessibility. Growth of industrial cities dependent on strong and direct links to agriculture, mining, etc. Similarly, growth of rural industries dependent on the demand from the industrial‐ urban complex.
Concentrated poverty
once an issue only for the central city ‐ now found in the LA suburbs, including wealthy Orange County - growing numbers of poor and very poor areas (in Santa Ana in the 1970s, and Anaheim in the 1980s)
Underclass Liberal response
people outside the formal occupational system ▪ "Persons who are weakly connected to the formal labor force and whose social context tends to maintain or further weaken this attachment." (Van Reitsma 1989) ▪ Product of capitalist labour market Concentration: growing share living in extreme poverty ▪ Social isolation: "groups . . . left behind" (WJ Wilson, 1987)
Poverty. Extent Key feature of American life:
rates and number of people living in poverty is and continues to be very high: 43.1 million in 2015 (13.5% of the US population). Varies by socio‐economic group,by 'racial/ethnic' group. The rate for women is higher than for men, but parallels the racial/ethnicity divide.The US record is poor at best measured against other capitalist, industrial nations.
When was 'America' made by?
the 1880s
Internationalization occur?
the 1840s to the present day
Lower Ninth: White out‐migration
▪ 1960: out‐migration of whites ▪ 1940: only 31% of the ward was black ‐ in 2000 it was 90%
Love Canal
▪ 36 acres site in Niagara Falls, NY ▪ Area of hazardous waste dumping ▪ Love Canal: failed plan to build a waterway in the 1890s ▪ Various uses before 1942 ▪ 1942‐1953: Hooker Chemicals dumps 22,000 tons of hazardous material ▪ Mix of dioxins and other carcinogens Extensive school and housing development of the canal area after 1953 ▪ Seepage of waste for 20 years ▪ Large number of health problems ▪ Residents organized against the dump ▪ 1978: declared a state of emergency ▪ Schools and some houses demolished ▪ 1980: Superfund Act passed (fund to clean toxic site and cost 400 million) ▪ Federal and residential lawsuits against Hooker
Deindustrialization. When did it happen?
▪ Begins in the 1930s and accelerates from the 1950s
Miami. Legree family experience is typical
▪ Bought a house in the white subdivision of Orchard Villa in 1957 ▪ Hate mail and harassing phone calls threatening to bomb the house ▪ Seaboard White Citizens Council organized daily pickets outside the house ▪ Dade County Property Owners Assoc. sought legal means to evict the family ▪ Locals picketed the elementary school
Community solidarity. Major forms Alberts argues that ethnic solidarity takes 4 forms:
▪ Bounded: shared experience ▪ Reactive: feelings of discrimination ▪ Political: strategic voting ▪ Mobilized: mobilize ethnic resources
Environmental justice. Social dynamics
▪ Capitalist relations: "blind and deal to consequences and dangers" (Beck 1986: 4) ▪ Segregation: class and race produce differentiated landscapes ▪ Government regulation: controls and shapes decision‐making
Underclass: Three key elements
▪ Class structures shapes an individual's place in society ▪ Class character of American society is racialized and gendered (More Blacks and Hispanics in poverty who are women than Asian or white) ▪ Post 1980s structural changes: strengthen existing inequalities (75% of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are children)
Levee?
▪ Embankment to protect land from flooding ▪ Either natural (deposition) or artificial (steel, stone, earth)
Undocumented
▪ Enter without permission of the US ▪ Staying beyond the termination of a visa ▪ 5.8 million of the 11.1 million undocumented in 2014 are Mexican ▪ Mexicans account for more than half of the undocumented (52%) Seasonal: related to agricultural seasons: make money in the off‐season Cyclical: undocumented migration increases when crossing is restricted Economic and social practices: housing and income needs in Mexico and American demand for cheap labour
Mississippi River Commission
▪ Established in 1879 to oversee federal policy for and funding of flood control ▪ Prior to this individual planters and city authorities paid for levee construction ▪ 1926: had built levees from Cairo (IL) to New Orleans (LA)
New Orleans geography
▪ Flooding covered 80 percent of the city to depths of 5 or more feet Most of the city is below sea level already. Wetlands Much of New Orleans is built on wetlands - a problem for two reasons: a) poor drainage for the urban land b) destruction of 'natural' sponge for excess water
Immigration
▪ Fuels population growth ▪ Slow up to the 1840s ▪ Rapid since then, especially after 1950 Source has changed dramatically over time from N & W Europeans to S & E Europeans to Latin Americans to Asians
Border Patrol
▪ Function: control the border ▪ Priority: to patrol the Mexican border and to control undocumented migration Growth ▪ Has become easier to shift goods and investment cross the border ▪ Tighter control on labour (people): 'stillwatches' and the 'fence Increased enforcement ▪ Led to lower probability of getting across the border ▪ In turn, this has led to more attempts and a higher cost of getting across Increased enforcement Forced people to attempt more dangerous methods and routes Militarization Drug smuggling and immigration are part of the growing militarization of immigration policy - an expanding network of agencies (INS, DEA, FBI and the military) to combat consequences of growing enforcement
LA riots Little evidence for Bush's assertions
▪ Gangs were not heavily involved ▪ Assistance programs had been reduced Alternative accountsthat are all associateed with residential segregation (1) Perceptions of years of systematic police abuse (2) Economic disinvestment and large‐scale job loss (3) Dismantling of safety net, leaving large numbers in poverty
What is the Gunbelt?
▪ Heavy concentration of military production, institutions, facilities and expertise ▪ Runs in a belt from coast to coast through the Sunbelt "States and communities also benefit from the billions of dollars the Pentagon spends on contracts in their jurisdictions for weapons, supplies, services and construction projects. Military purchases range from fighter jets to gasoline to landscaping. Some states, such as California, Texas and Virginia, benefit from both large military installations and local contract spending." (Bloomberg Study, 2011, p. 3)▪ Virginia and specific locales in the state are heavily dependent on defense spending ▪ This is the case with other Gunbelt states - such as CA, FL and TX
Growth dynamics of the Manufacturing Belt-Government policy
▪ Industrial policy: protect manufacturing interests (eg. McKinley Tariff of 1890) ▪ Infrastructures: build, support and maintain railroads, rivers, sewers, etc. ▪ Land policy: creating 'European' land, facilitating settlement, and expanding markets
Sunbelt-Marketing and selling of the Sunbelt
▪ Institutions have attracted capital investment to the Sunbelt ▪ Grantham's "selling of the South" ▪ How was this done?
segregation and an example
▪ Is a key feature of urban life ▪ Race, ethnic and class divides ▪ Is used for political ends ▪Key cultural/economic functions ▪ Enduring feature of urban America ▪ Social distance in space Territoriality ▪ "Attempt to establish some form of control, dominance or exclusivity within a localized area" (Knox 1994: 201) ▪ Symbol of group membership ▪ Means to regulate distance and interaction Ex: Chicago 1957 A segregated world consisting of: ▪ Racial and ethnic districts ▪ Public housing ▪ Class districts ▪ Intersection: class, race/ethnicity
Lower Ninth. Environmental inequality
▪ It was an extreme riskscape: remained inadequately protected from severe storms ▪ City's racial/class landscape and the government's inadequate protection => an environmentally unjust barricaded space
What types of people make up the homeless population?
▪ Old homeless: mainly single men ▪ New homeless: demographically diverse
Borders
▪ On maps and on the ground: borders make spaces of national sovereignty ▪ Borders "act" and are acted upon in certain ways Edge ▪ Demarcate territory ▪ Establish laws, policies, etc. ▪ Such as public/private space, national borders, etc. Symbol ▪ Mark out control and provide identity and authority ▪ Such as fences and the border control Place Places that determine and attract activity ▪ Such as immigration booths and border towns Actors ▪ Different actors play out different roles ▪ Such as immigrants, politicians Border Patrol officers, etc.
Miami's Second Ghetto
▪ Original concentrations are in Overtown and Coconut Grove ▪ Replaced by Liberty City, Brownsville and Opa‐locka
Environmental justice origin
▪ Origins: identification of community inequalities in the 1970s ▪ Becomes a mainstream yet disparate movement by the 1980s
Cancer Alley: Donaldsonville
▪ Part of metropolitan Baton Rouge ▪ Main parish main town ▪ Pop. of 7,600 (70% African American) ▪ Jobs: sugarcane and chemical plants ▪ CF Industries - largest nitrogen plant in the US: 7.6 m lbs of toxic waste a year ▪ It has a "great working relationship with the State" ▪ Extremely poor health, which is much higher for African‐Americans
Suburbanization
▪ Postwar period: they were the center of US population and economic growth home of the wealthy, well‐educated professionals, and other elements of the white middle‐class Now changing poverty rates are skyrocketing. ▪ By 2013: account for more than half of the country's population and jobs Demand for new residential units ▪ Postwar housing shortage pushed the need for new housing ▪ Solution: build on the edge of the expanding city Low‐density construction ▪ Non‐urban land turned into residential, transportation and business uses ▪ Frequently very low densities (aka sprawl) Auto‐dominated Low‐density suburbs dependent upon the automobile and highway Suburban retailing Retailing, especially in enclosed, heavily‐securitized, privately‐owned malls (with brand stores) alongside freeways servicing auto‐dependent lifestyle
Lower Ninth. Post‐Katrina
▪ Remained unsettled for a long time; some renovation & new housing construction ▪ 2010: 2,842 people lived there ‐ 14,008 in 2000 ▪ Fear that it will be turned into an area for well‐to‐do population
Great Mississippi flood, 1927
▪ River broke its levees in 145 places and flooded 70,000 sq. km, ▪ Large parts of Louisiana were affected ▪ Caused $5.2 billion in damages, heavily affecting 9 states, and killing 246 people The flood hit New Orleans because of the intentional destructionof a levee in suburban St. Bernard parish
Mexican immigration
▪ The border's total length is 3,169km ▪ Daily flows of undocumented migrants ▪ No consensus on a policy to deal with the undocumented ▪ Growth of drug related violence along the border ▪ US‐Canada border (2011) = 3987 miles - 345 agents (.09 agents per mile) ▪ US‐Mexican border (2011) = 18,506 agents (9.4 agents per mile) ‐ more than 700 miles (1125 km) of fencing
The Rise of the Sunbelt
▪ The rise of a powerful, prosperous new region ▪ Postwar phenomenon: "The stimulus of World War II and the prosperity of the post war era created a milieu in which the regional economy experienced unprecedented growth and diversification" (Grantham, 1994: 260) "Definition of the Sunbelt varied, but most interpreters identify the concept with expanding southern and southwestern regions characterised by a casual and inviting lifestyle, a favorable climate, and conservative politics increasingly inclined towards the Republican Party" (Grantham, 1994: 262)
