A Futuristic Century

Throughout my experience in CRP 165: Social Issues in Urban and Regional Development, I was struck personally by the lectures regarding the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. This discussion was an interest to me, primarily because I never realized how much everything has changed overall. Literally everything! I was also interested in this discussion because during this time, pretty much everyone and anyone could “plan”. This was due to the fact that planning was not yet its own “Professional Occupation”. Also, planners that actually developed plans had no political and/or legal plan to implement the specific design. During this time, humans’ ideas were just seen as “good ideas” that could possibly improve structures, environments, and cities. But, no one really acknowledged the greatness of planning and that’s what was shocking to me personally. You’d think that planning has always been valued and portrayed as a way of preparing for and improving the future; but, that’s not how it always was. Every depiction, every building, every structure, every form of technology, everything is different now from how it was back then.

The 19th century began with a total United States population of 5,000,000, but by the end of it, the population had greatly increased- it was already at 75,000,000. This is a major increase that impacted several of people in the cities in negative forms. During this century, we were also introduced to railroads and steam engines. This means more people were able to move across the city. As more and more people moved to the city, streets became congested- causing death and illness all around. Open spaces in between buildings had also vanished. Throughout this time, the outcomes of congestion continued deteriorating- more deaths than births were occurring. There are many aspects and objects that led to rapid urbanization during this century. Have you ever seen New York City before it was full of hundreds of skyscrapers and building? Or before it had a giant patch of green space within it? Well, that was not always like that! It is shocking to me to see how everything has developed overtime- New York City being one depiction of this change.

During the 20th century, the automobile allowed for the widespread of people. This meant people were able to travel even further and across the city. Trucks became extremely helpful and popular too, since they allowed people to carry food, supply, etc. Shortly after the wave of the automobile, highways and parkways were built. This allowed people to travel through the city in a quick and short-mannered way. Overall, the 20th century was a period of decentralization, urban sprawl, and suburbanization- greatly promoted by technology.

In the 21st century, more people were moving into the cities than ever before. Suburban populations were larger than the central city and central sprawl populations integrated. This became an issue in this century because the growth of people moving into these neighborhoods drove rent to a slight increase. Although people faced density challenges due to population growth, they were also able to provide much more services from everywhere on the planet- thanks to virtual technology. This century was a time of retrofitting the already built environment, enabling humans to meet certain social needs and demands. I feel like this is how our generation is today. Everything revolves around technology. A lot of people can’t even go a day without technology.

Learning more about these centuries was interesting to me because I think it is so crazy how much people and technology have changed and improved throughout these time periods. Back then, it was surprising having a truck to drive around because it enabled humans to carry a large amount of food and supply that they wouldn’t be able to carry in just a car. Generation to generation, everything is becoming more virtual and, in a way, easier. This makes me wonder if more technology is really all that great? Just look at how the world is now, compared to how it was back in the 19th century. We have way more technology available to us than ever before! Artificial intelligence robots are already in the making. I wonder how developed artificial intelligence will be in a few hundred years from now. Everything is changing and developing, and it will continue to do so throughout time.

How will the world look in a decade? How will it look like in a century from now?