The Idea of the City

• Introduction:
  The suggestion for this seminar came from an MLA graduate, Gil Sandler, who 'Emailed' his thoughts to Dr. Nancy Norris last December.

• Course Format:
  The resources of the SCS Computer lab and its excellent staff, the format, coding (known as HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language), and tools of the World Wide Web were combined to make the syllabus and related materials available electronically.

  Let's begin with a brief tour through the syllabus which is available to the members of the seminar at their computer learning stations here on the 4th floor of Shaffer or at home by way of the State Archives server and the internet.

• Objectives:
  • to explore the Idea of the City in the setting of the New World and to

  • introduce students to the computer skills necessary to avail themselves of the resources of the World Wide Web as they pursue the topics of the seminar

  For example, we have traveled to the work of Dr. William Bowen at the Geography Department of the University of California, Northridge, where, in the context of discussing Fogelson's view of Los Angeles, we have consulted Dr. Bowen's on-line atlas. This is his analysis of the quality of life in the city. We will also be visiting the work of Michael Stern and Nealy Payton at the University of Virginia where they have been trying to reconstruct the edge city of Owings Mills into a viable urban place.

• Ideas Explored:
  The idea of the city has waxed and waned in America. Using Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a sample 'Edge City' we discuss:
  • The struggle for recognition and acceptance in the 17th & 18th centuries (1607-1830s)

  • the acceleration of growth, and begrudging acceptance brought by industrialization (ca. 1840-1920)

  • the decentralization brought by improved transportation, industrial decline (loss of employment in manufacturing and heavy industry) (1920-1980s)

  • the competition for limited resources between the often lifeless edge city and the 'traditional' central city (1970s to the present)
    • The 1960s represent a major change in our perceptions of the importance and value of the central city. Many of our leaders abandoned the cities to their fate, emphasizing instead the need for effective policing of the streets. Listen carefully to who the Governor thought it was necessary to consult in the wake of the 1967 Cambridge disturbances, and who he blamed for what happened in April of 1968.

    • Today we generally think of the city with considerable ambivalence
      • crime ridden
      • cultural oasis
      • possibly a place to help by hiding its ills in the countryside or suburbia (David Rusk proposal: Baltimore Unbound)?
      • possibly a place to dump or confine all of our social ills where we can either manage them better or more easily ignore them?

• Conclusion:
  • The Urban Vision of the Calverts

  • seeing the world a little differently (but not too differently?)
  • George Tucker's view of the American City (1855)

Final Observation