Urbanization The evolution of Urban dwelling 1870 1910

Urbanization The evolution of Urban dwelling 1870 -1910

City Skyline

View video clip and answer questions • What are some reasons why European immigrants were coming to live in New York City? • What was the response to conditions in tenements • What is meant by “cleaner cities make better citizens”?

Urban Migration • Urban population ballooned from 10 million in 1870 to more than 30 million in 1900. • Immigrant experience • Renters • Low wages – unskilled, uneducated. long hours in factories. • Cities offerings • electricity, running water, and modern plumbing. • cultural attractions such as museums and libraries. • Mass transit • cable cars, then underground trains. • Boston - first subway system in 1897, and New York City and Philadelphia followed over the next decade.

Separation of Classes • In developing/modernizing American cities, distinct separation of classes emerges • Wealthy families • may have had live-in servants, belong to charitable organizations. • Moved to the suburbs • Poor families lived in tenements, barely supporting their families. • In working class families, women and children worked as well. • Do smart board activity

Tenements • Major Problems Living in Tenements: • Overcrowded (Families Shared Apartments) • No Garbage Pick Up • Dumped Garbage into Narrow Alleys • No Fresh Air • No Running Water • Sewage Flowed in Open Gutters (Spread Disease)

Political Machines • The Golden Era of Political Parties • Controlled the electorate (voters) • Provided social services (aid) • Tammany Hall • Boss Tweed • Political Machines: The term given to members of political parties that cornered mostly local and state politics through the use of patronage/spoils system(govt jobs) and graft ( bribery, corruption)

William “Boss” Tweed

Tammany Hall

Graft • Illegal activity, corruption • IE: skimming money off the top • Boss Tweed’s Courthouse. . . He had contractors promise to overcharge the government for their work so that they would win the bid. Then, the contractors would pay Boss Tweed

Write these questions in your notebook: 1. What do you see here? 2. Who is in the ring? 3. What is the cartoonist saying? 4. Does he like Tammany or not?