Schedule for March 27-31
Monday March 27
Turnpikes & Levittown
- NJ Turnpike on the Web: http://www.jerseyhistory.org/what_exit/index.html
- http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/
- http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/
Post a comment to this blog (click below on "comment") with your impressions about the relationship between housing development and freeway expansion. I want us to begin this conversation with your impressions about post-war American suburbs. What was the driving force behind a change society? When did the most dramatic changes occur (which decade: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, etc.?)? What would you like to know about the relation between cities and suburbs from the 1950s through the 1980s? Do you have questions that you would like to have answered this week (and into next?)
Wed., Mar. 29
Groups 1 & 2: •
Jackson
,
“CH11: Federal Subsidy …,” “CH12: The Cost of Good Intentions” *
Groups 3, 4, & 5: •
Jackson
, “CH13, “The Baby-Boom …,” and “CH14, “The Drive-In Culture …”
Friday, March 31
Group 1, 2, 3: Cohen, A Consumers’
Republic, Chapters 5 & 7—Residence & Segmenting *
Groups 4 & 5: Malcolm Gladwell, “The Terrazzo Jungle,” from The New Yorker * and Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic, Chapter 6—Commerce *
The town seems like it is leave it to beaver land too perfect. At least that is the way it seems to be portrayed. The turnpike let people drive through New Jersey and into the rest of the country leaving it behind. But I am immpressed how they built the road.
After WWII automobile production increased dramaticly. This was a driving force behind the movement into the suburbs because people did not need to life close to their employment or public trasportation. The movement into the suburbs lead to the development and modifications of the freeway system. Construction of the freeway sometimes took a long time not just because of construction but deciding where the road would actually go and buying the land for it was a long process.
The design of the suburbs was not specificly consentrated and the auctual dwelling but also the surrounding landscape. Parks, schools, shopping centers, etc played a vital role in the development of the suburbs.