DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 The Restructure of New York City: For the better or worse?

 

(http://www.open-trip.com/new-york-city-tour.html)

 

"The current social and physical landscape of the Chicago metropolitan area is, in many ways, a product of the         "During the 20th century, Chicago's

restructuring of the the world   metropolitan area served as an 

economy during the latter half  example of perhaps most significant

of  the twentieth century"         change in American Society."

(Fleming 98). During the 20th century, the metropolitan area served as an example of perhaps the most significant change in American Society. Decentralization, fragmentation, and polarization each played key roles in the change of the civic landscape. However, through time, these three components have been applied to major US cities as a means of restructuring the economy. New York, similar to Chicago, is an example of one of these cities. 

 


DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Decentralization

Fleming referred to decentralization as the way middle and upper income whites moved first their homes and their stores, churches, and jobs out of the central cities and into the outlying regions around those cities. Similar to Chicago's population behavior in its six- county metropolitan population from 1920 to 2000, after its loss of 91,000 jobs in the city and growth of employment in the suburb, New York City experienced major changes. "Since the early 1950s, New York has lost more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs, a drop from 1,070,000 in 1953 to 486,000 in 1984 and to fewer than 300,000 in 1994 (New York Times 1994, 4 August)" (Godfrey 443). Like Chicago, management and domestic organizations in New York were split into different spatial locations. Corporations moved to outlying portions of the metropolitan area rather than out of the region entirely. This caused a change in the population of New York's metropolitan area. "An in-migration of small households of professionals and an out-migration of the middle classes to the suburbs, especially to the rapidly growing metropolitan fringe, have characterized demographic change in New York City" (Godfrey 445).

 

(http://www.jstor.org/stable/215919?seq=9)

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Fragmentation

Fleming defines the idea of fragmentation as the way a social place is balkanized into thousands of small and medium sized communities, most of them legally autonomous and socioeconomically isolated from the others. New York City is genrally broken up into five boroughs: Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island.

The Five Boroughs of New York City: 1: Manhattan2: Brooklyn 3: Queens 4: The Bronx 5: Staten Island

(Image created 18 August 2005 by Julius Schorzman

 

 

Manhattan is the most densely populated of the boroughs and contains most of the headquarters of many corporations. Manhattan is also home to the most skyscrapers. It is most closely associated with New York City and is known as perhaps one of the most expensive areas in the United States. 

 

(http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/new-york/nyc/manhattan)

 

 

The Bronx is the only city of the five boroughs that is part of the United States mainland and is the most northern borough. It is the only borough with a Hispanic majority.

(http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/new-york/nyc/bronx)

 

 

Brooklyn is the most populated borough and is well known for its culture and diversity. Due to its diversity, Brooklyn contains dozens of distinctive neighborhoods. Jobs in this borough have particularly revolved around manufacturing, but have shifted to a more service based economy.  

(http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/new-york/nyc/brooklyn)

 

 

Queens is the largest of the five boroughs and is also the most ethnically diverse.  Though some may argue that Queens may seem a bit suburban, Queens is has many urbanistic features. It divides into five towns and the residents often identify with their neighborhood rather than the city itself. The economy of Queens is based on tourism industry, and trade. 

(http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/new-york/nyc/queens)

 

 

Staten Island is the most suburban of the five boroughs and is the most popular for tourists. Though it is the least populated borough, Staten Island is the third largest in area. The borough has the highest white population of the five boroughs.

(http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/new-york/nyc/staten-island)

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Polarization

Fleming views polarization as the way communities have developed unevenly, some becoming prosperous and others, stagnant or distressed. As shown in the figures below, there is a clear correlation between the ethnicities and poverties within certain areas.

 

 

(http://www.jstor.org/stable/215919?seq=14)

 

(http://www.jstor.org/stable/215919?seq=19)

 

Due to the locations of the more prestigious forms of employment, and also the required skill level, there was an increase in the poverty level of the inner city. "Outside corporate centers downtown, the inner cities have been hurt by the decentralization of employment in the United States" (Godfrey 455). 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Conclusion 

     Fleming is not trying to say that decentralization into suburbs are bad, but he is trying to get the reader to understand that racism is the cause behind it.  The decentralization of large cites, put simply, is an act of segration.  While Blacks continue to stay or move to the central areas of the city, whites continue to move out and create their own communities, known as suburbs.  This creates the separation of races surrounding decentralized cities.  

     With decentralization inevitably comes fragmentation and a difference in socioeconical areas.  Fleming says that polarization occurs when the majority of wealth is separated from the poor.  Polarization and fragmentation are linked.  After a large city has been fragmented into different suburbs each identified with a particular socioeconomical background, one can see the how economic disparencies are polarized.  The large gap in wealth between cites is directly related to how they were fragmented.  

     Ultimately, Fleming correctly demonstrates that decentralization, fragmentation, and polarization are direct causes of more segrated communities.  As a reader we can take a stand back and look in our communities and see the causes that these phenomenae have on us as people, particulary focusing on relationships between races.  

     As active members of society we should look further into these issues and examine how they affect class relations. We can work to move forward, together.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.