Inner Cities: The Donut Effect | Feb 13th 2008
The proliferation of the modern American ghetto began after World War II. After the war the process of what is called “white flight” or suburbanization began to take root in America.
Before WWII urban areas were mixed environments with many different neighborhoods scattered throughout. Jobs inside urban areas were only secured with the ability to travel to that job. Therefore, most affluent people lived and worked in the community.
However, affordable automobiles changed that. No longer did an affluent person have to live near his job. He could drive a car from miles away.
With the ability to travel further distances; rich and upper middle class Americans began to form their own niche communities outside of the urban center.
The morning and afternoon commute quickly became an American tradition.
Unfortunately the majority of people left inside the urban centers were poor. The rich had taken their tax dollars elsewhere. These taxes paid for better schools, better roads and a better decor for suburbia.
This process quickly “gutted” the urban center. All that was left were poor individuals, with more needs, and less tax dollars to spend in their benefit.
An example of this can be found very close to home. Nashville is one of the few cities who attempted to alleviate the problems caused by suburbanization. In the early 60’s a process began in which mayor Beverly Briley proposed to expand the boarders of Nashville city. He succeeded in creating Nashville-Davidson or Metro Nashville. This kept tax revenue more evenly distributed over the Nashville area and has led to it being one of the most financially stable cities in the United States.
A stark contrast to Nashville can be found three hours to the Southwest. Memphis handled suburbanization in much the same way as the rest of the country. They simply did nothing. It is, to this day, one of the poorest cities in America.
It probably seems to most people, especially those in our generation, that American life has always been this way. They would be partially correct. There have always been “imaginary lines” dividing American society.
However, suburbanization is different because those lines are no longer “imaginary”. They are, in fact, very real. A quick glance at the difference between schools in Franklin and Antioch should be all that is needed to confirm the reality of these lines.
I lay out all of this information, probably scattered with opinion, in hope that someone will pass by and read it. The wheels will turn and I will have one more person who is aware of the situation facing us locally all over the United States.
So, I leave you with one last comment on this portion of the topic. Next time you hear someone say, “how come the richest nation in the world can have so many poor people?” I want you to answer with this one word: Suburbanization.
Now I will leave an open ended question for us to discuss next time.
How can such a process be allowed to exist without much scrutiny? In other words, why doesn’t anyone do anything about this?
