The 1950 Census (largest, Baltimore, suburban, highway)

[DANNYY]

1950 was a very unique year for the census, 8/10 of the cities peaked in population that year, and only 1/10 (Los Angeles) grew by the next census in 1960. The remaining 1/10 (New York City) also fell from it's 1950 census in 1960.

What do you think caused this?

Westward relocation to the Pacific?
Suburban growth?

Please state what you think caused 8/10 of the greatest cities known in American History to peak in their population and never be able to regain it ever again.

Largest cities in the United States by population by decade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

^^ You can check out the table for 1950 yourself.

[missRoxyhart]

In one word, the car.

The article actually brings up some reasons, "suburbanization, improved infrastructure-more easily facilitated car commutes, white flight-and-the GI Bill." I'd agree with all those.

Really, with the car and the rise of suburbs, cities may look like their shrinking but might actually not be. Take like Chicago, sure the city proper kinda shrank but I think alotta the reason for that was because people could live outside the city with their own house, lawn, and all that, and drive to work. With suburbs people can sprawl outward beyond the city limits so they can enjoy everything the city has to offer while at the same time enjoying their own "more comfortable" life outside of it.

Also you can't deny the constant move south and westward. With modern car culture and commercial air travel exploding the way they did after WW2, pretty much everyone who wanted to move could. And with Cali (and other warmer destinations to an extent) being praised as a golden land, who wouldn't wanna go there? People build it up like paradise. Anyway the shift south and west is obvious looking at newer lists.

Lastly, one interesting point to bring up with the 1950 Census list is that for L.A. " 78% of it's growth has been due to Hispanic influx." That's pretty much saying 80% which is of course huge. I'm curious, can anyone figure what L.A.'s current population would be without that? Would it still be a top city, population wise, today? It's a very interesting case, well, I think so anyway.

[knke0204]

Dwight Eisenhower and the passing of the Federal Highway Administration in 1956.

The advent of the 30 year mortgage.

And, the 'affordability' of homes - Allowing for massive chunks of land to be purchased, as well as cookie-cutter post WWII developments.

And, the passing of several Human Rights laws that required minimal building standards in inner cities-Including running water and plumbing, X amount of windows per Sq feet for natural lighting and requiring Garbage and disposal services.

Many people lived in Inner Cities up until then, and it wasn't rare to see a Baby Boom family of 10 living in a 2 bedroom, shared floor bathrooms in a high rise in an inner city.

Levittown, PA and Levittown, NY are manufactured suburbs. Build on patoto and bean fields in outskirst of Philly and NYC respectively, resulted in the mass manufacturing and pre-fabricated homes. Before this, and before subdivision developers, making a home consisted of the Father of the family building it with his bare hands, and using money from his pocket. Most materials were purchased there. There was almost NO financing available to the average borrower, so many were forced to rent in tennants or high rises. If you did live in a home, you probably bought it on a 5 year loan, inheirited it, or built it from scratch using wood and other materials from your land.

FHA and other lending availability allowed the American consumer (the every day american) to build a home with a loan for 30-years, as mortgages were now backed with Federal Insurance in the event the borrower could not repay.

Also, the mid 40's saw in influx of 18-25 year old boys coming back from the war. The massive amount of service men were eligable for VA backed Home Mortgages as well, allowing them to purchase a home (finance it).

Homes were never built the way there were starting to be built-mass produced. Cheap materials and basic layouts and home designs kept costs low and kept production quick in building (I heard in Levittowns they were completing 5 homes a day)

The technology increase from war Manufacturing spilled over into American Automobile production. Autos increased greatly in technology (if you will) and reliability. That, coupled with the new interstates, people didn't need to live in the inner city, close to their employment. They could live the 'American Dream' 10-15 miles (early post WWII suburbs) from the center of the city...

Cities swelled to the populations around the 1950s because they had no other options - no Homes to buy because A) no way to finance it, unless you had the lump sum or could afford high payments on a 5 yr mortgage B) Homes were expensive to purchase so you either had to inheirit it, or build it your own from scratch C) no standards, norms, or rules prohibited super dense apartment buildings where up to 10 families shared 1 toilet and 1 shower, and required ZERO garbage pick up and had no ventilation or lighting. New laws FORCED people out, and the FHA and VA loans followed.

All of those things together are the reasons why Detroit, Cleveland, NYC, Minneapolis, St. Louis, etc all had much bigger populations in the 1950s.

[DCnative1990]

wow D.C. was once in the top 10.

damn "white flight" and suburbanization ><.

[missRoxyhart]

Another interesting point brought up in the article.

For Houston in 1960, "First appearance in top 10. Houston was a harbinger for the rise of the lower-density Sun Belt cities, which would dominate the top 10 by 2007, made possible through the advent of air conditioning."

AC did make alotta places more "livable" than they used to be, it was even a part of the decline of Atlantic City. With AC, you can live relatively "comfortably" anywhere. So you can add that to the list of reasons "colder" cities shrank while "warmer" cities grew.

[DCnative1990]

Originally Posted by missRoxyhart

Another interesting point brought up in the article.

For Houston in 1960, "First appearance in top 10. Houston was a harbinger for the rise of the lower-density Sun Belt cities, which would dominate the top 10 by 2007, made possible through the advent of air conditioning."

AC did make alotta places more "livable" than they used to be, it was even a part of the decline of Atlantic City. With AC, you can live relatively "comfortably" anywhere. So you can add that to the list of reasons "colder" cities shrank while "warmer" cities grew.

Yea but New York City is gonna always be the biggest city in the US.

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by DCnative1990

wow D.C. was once in the top 10.

damn "white flight" and suburbanization ><.

Yeah and Baltimore at one point was the 2nd largest city in the country by population.

Even more intriguing is that Philadelphia and NYC are the only two still on the list that have been there from the start of the census... they're the only survivors from then to now.

[knke0204]

Cool input, but I'm sick of writing a paragraph and then people writing 7 word responses. Read what I wrote, and that will explain EXACTLY why.

[missRoxyhart]

Originally Posted by DCnative1990

Yea but New York City is gonna always be the biggest city in the US.

Definitely, I was just saying that's why some cities grew while others shrank.

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by knke0204

Cool input, but I'm sick of writing a paragraph and then people writing 7 word responses. Read what I wrote, and that will explain EXACTLY why.

I know how you feel! Normally I write paragraphs of things and only get like a "one word" answer.

Okay, I'd like to add something to your list/paragraph.

Back in high school we also learned in AP US History class that suburban growth also came partially because of the fear of a nuclear disaster. To get away from the core of the city and into a more spread out location would be a lot safer especially with developments of basements in the suburban locations in the Midwest and Northeast.

They would do nuclear threat tests all the time, they would display the tests on the television screens of those locals watching television, this was during the period where the Soviet Union and USA were bulking up their arms and defense and building atomic bombs at fast rates.

Plus it was the introductory phase of the Cold War and the stressed relationship with the Soviet Union post World War II.

It led to massive migration from the cities to the suburbs, and 9 out 10 of those cities suffered greatly from their 1950 peak to their 1960 drop. The only city on the list that did not suffer was Los Angeles.

I also found it quite surprising to see Buffalo on the list as one of the nations 10 largest cities! LOL, and that too for nearly 2 decades it stayed on the list!