1

URBANIZATION IN THE

USA (AND ELSEWHERE)

How Our Cities Have ChangedBy

Terry Onley

(Sources listed on last slide.)

2

New York City, 1932

Unquestioned financial and corporate leading city, then…

Less so over time, IT companies were staying away in droves

3

With AOL-Time Warner coming to town,that might all change…

What is an “A”, “O”, “L”?

That’s OK, they still have Wall Street,sort of…

4

New York City

HoustonDubai

”The present now, will later be past, the order is rapidly fadin’. And the first one now, will later be last, for the times they are a-changin’” Bob Dylan, 1964

5

See the nice chart of projected Federal Spending. See the lovely rise right about, well, now. Do we think the Congressional Budget Office might be fudging a bit? Maybe a little conservative on the “All Other Spending”?

Maybe.

Perhaps a whole bunchof micromanagement?Federal oversight ofaffairs previouslyconsidered local?More Federal regulations,anyone?It’s all for your own good, you know…

6

Maybe that’s why D.C. and the surrounding states are the only places in theUSA that are not having a recession,in fact are experiencing growth inthe professional and businessservice jobs category, thebest IT job climate in thecountry, and risingreal estate prices.

Maybe

7

Here are some old pictures of Billings, Montana, andKaraganda, Kazakhstan…

The background is Karaganda…

I think

8

Here are some pictures of the train stations in Billings and Karaganda. The one in the background is in Billings…

I think

Makes you want to hop

on a train, and go pick some beets,

Doesn’t it?

9

Between 1846 and 1924, about 55 million Europeans emigrated, and about 41 million did notreturn. More than half of these folks stayed in the USA.

10

They were looking for a better life. We were unsure of them.

We exploited many of them, but in the end, we accepted them They became us

We are all immigrants

11

This is a picture of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. These beautiful buildingswere known as the “White City” (because most of them were painted white), and the whole project inspired the “City Beautiful” movement, whereby Chicago and other major cities were to be rebuilt as lovely park cities, withno buildings over 4 stories or so, and meandering parkways and tree-linedavenues throughout the city.

I wonder how that worked out…

The landlordsdidn’t like the idea.Taller buildings,more tenants,more rent.

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Oops!

The money won. It always does.

13

London in the 19th Century was a pretty nasty place, sooty and disease-ridden.

Yet, it had its charms, its beauty, its warmth.

It still does

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One can only hope that Houston and Dubai will retain their ancestral charm.

Especially Dubai…

15

For better or worse, our future will be hugelysteered by these developing cities.

Boom or bust, they are where the new moneylives, and will wield a disproportionate

amount of power in our “Global Village.”

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Looks like we’re all moving to the ‘burbs, anyway…

The End

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• Slides 2 & 3, Clough• Slides 5, 6, 13, 14 & 16, Kotkin• Slides 4 & 15, Khanna• Slides 7 & 8, Brown• Slides 9 & 10, Nugent• Slides 11 & 12, Rybcynski• All Slides, Google Images

Sources:

Tlo