1.
Pittsburgh
–
Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city proper has a population of 304,391. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U. S. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclines, a fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in manufacturing of aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, sports, transportation, computing, autos, and electronics. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment, Americas 1980s deindustrialization laid off area blue-collar workers and thousands of downtown white-collar workers when the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters moved out. The area has served also as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research. The area is home to 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University, the region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction. Pittsburgh was named in 1758 by General John Forbes, in honor of British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. The current pronunciation, which is unusual in English speaking countries, is almost certainly a result of a printing error in some copies of the City Charter of March 18,1816. The error was repeated commonly enough throughout the rest of the 19th century that the pronunciation was lost. After a public campaign the original spelling was restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1911. The area of the Ohio headwaters was long inhabited by the Shawnee, the first known European to enter the region was the French explorer/trader Robert de La Salle from Quebec during his 1669 expedition down the Ohio River. European pioneers, primarily Dutch, followed in the early 18th century, Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio in a 1717 manuscript, and later that year European fur traders established area posts and settlements. In 1749, French soldiers from Quebec launched an expedition to the forks to unite Canada with French Louisiana via the rivers, during 1753–54, the British hastily built Fort Prince George before a larger French force drove them off. The French built Fort Duquesne based on LaSalles 1669 claims, the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years War, began with the future Pittsburgh as its center. British General Edward Braddock was dispatched with Major George Washington as his aide to take Fort Duquesne, the British and colonial force were defeated at Braddocks Field. General John Forbes finally took the forks in 1758, Forbes began construction on Fort Pitt, named after William Pitt the Elder while the settlement was named Pittsborough
2.
Confluence
–
In geography, a confluence is the meeting of two or more bodies of water. The term is used to describe the meeting of tidal or other non-riverine bodies of water. A one-mile portion of the Industrial Canal in New Orleans accommodates the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada is at the confluence of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario. The junction of the Green River and Colorado River forms the heart of Canyonlands National Park in Utahs Canyon Country, the Sangam, near Allahabad, India, where the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna meet to create one of the holiest places in Hinduism. The Ohio River is formed by the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, located in Pittsburgh, the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers in Three Forks, Montana form the confluence of the Missouri River, one of the longest rivers in the United States. Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is at the confluence of the Gombak River and the Klang River. Passau known also as the Dreiflüssestadt, because the Danube River is joined there by the Inn River from the South, manaus, Brazil is on the Rio Negro near its confluence with the Amazon. It is the port and a hub for the regions extensive river system. Osijek, Croatia, is on the bank of the river Drava 25 km upstream of its confluence with the Danube. Belgrade, the capital of Serbia lies at the confluence of the Sava, the Hochelaga Archipelago, including the island and city of Montreal, is located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River in Quebec, Canada. Winnipeg, Canada, is at the confluence of the Red River, the area is referred to as The Forks by locals, and has been an important trade location for over 6000 years. The confluence of the rivers Danube and Morava in Devín on the border between Slovakia and Austria, triangle of Three Emperors, former tripoint in Europe. Cairo, Illinois, in the United States, where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River, St. Louis, Missouri, is built just south of the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. Lyon, France is located on the confluence of the Saône and Rhone rivers, lytton, British Columbia, Canada, is located at the confluence of the muddy Fraser River and the clearer Thompson River. The confluence between the Franklin River and Gordon River in south-western Tasmania The confluence of the Snake and Columbia River at the Tri-Cities of Washington, the confluence of the rivers Pivka and Rak is one of the largest subterranean confluences in Europe. The confluence at Lokoja, Nigeria, where the Niger and Benue rivers merge, the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, located at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. This merging point is the beginning of the Nile, columbus, Ohio, in the United States is at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers. Luang Prabang in Laos is at the confluence of the Mekong, River Kabul and River Swat at Attock, in Pakistan
3.
Allegheny River
–
The Allegheny River /ælᵻˈɡeɪni/ is a principal tributary of the Ohio River, it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the Point of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, the Allegheny River is, by volume, the main headstream of the Ohio River. The river is approximately 325 miles long, running through the U. S. states of New York and it drains a rural dissected plateau of 11,580 square miles in the northern Allegheny Plateau, providing the northeastern most drainage in the watershed of the Mississippi River. Its tributaries reach to within 8 miles of Lake Erie in southwestern New York, the Allegheny Valley has been one of the most productive areas of fossil fuel extraction in U. S. history, with its extensive deposits of coal, petroleum, and natural gas. The name Allegheny probably comes from Lenape welhik hane or oolikhanna, there is a Lenape legend of a tribe called Allegewi who used to live along the river. The river itself, however, is called Alligewi Sipo, the whites have made Alleghene out of this, the Six Nations calling the river the Ohio. The Geographic Names Information System lists O-hee-yo and O-hi-o as variant names, the river is called Ohi, i, o in the Seneca language. In New York, areas around the river are named with the alternate spelling Allegany in reference to the river, for example. Port Allegany, located along the river in Pennsylvania near the border with New York, the Allegheny River rises in north central Pennsylvania, on Cobb Hill in central Potter County, approximately 10 miles south of the New York border. South of Franklin it turns southeast across Clarion County in a course, then turns again southwest across Armstrong County, flowing past Kittanning, Ford City, Clinton. The river enters both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, the Pittsburgh suburbs, and the City of Pittsburgh from the northeast, the Allegheny joins with the Monongahela River at the Point in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to form the Ohio River. Water from the Allegheny River eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In its upper reaches, the Allegheny River is joined from the south by Potato Creek 1.7 miles downstream of Coryville, Pennsylvania and from the north by Olean Creek at Olean, many additional streams enter or join with the Allegheny River along its course. The Allegheny River has eight locks and dams, which form corresponding pools, the Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station is associated with Kinzua Dam. Numerous bridges and tunnels span the river throughout its course, the Allegheny River Tunnel, utilized by Pittsburgh Light Rail, went into service in 2012. In the 16th century, control of the river valley passed back-and-forth between Algonquian-speaking Shawnee and the Iroquois, the conflict over the expansion of British settlement into the Allegheny Valley and the surrounding Ohio Country was a primary cause of the French and Indian War in the 1750s. During the war, the village of Kittanning – the principal Shawnee settlement on the river – was completely destroyed by British reprisal raids from Central Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, the British, after gaining control of the area in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, kept the area closed to settlement, in part to repair
4.
Ohio River
–
The Ohio River, which streams westward from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River in the United States. The 981-mile river flows through or along the border of six states, through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River, the basin includes many of the states of the southeastern U. S. It is the source of drinking water for three million people and it is named in Iroquoian or Seneca, Ohi, yó, lit. Good River or Shawnee, Pelewathiipi and Spelewathiipi, the river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans, as numerous civilizations formed along its valley. For thousands of years, Native Americans used the river as a major transportation, in 1669, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle led a French expedition to the Ohio River, becoming the first Europeans to see it. After European-American settlement, the served as a border between present-day Kentucky and Indian Territories. It was a transportation route for pioneers during the westward expansion of the early U. S. In his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1781–82, Thomas Jefferson stated and its current gentle, waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a single instance only excepted. During the 19th century, the river was the boundary of the Northwest Territory. Where the river was narrow, it was the way to freedom for thousands of slaves escaping to the North, many helped by free blacks and whites of the Underground Railroad resistance movement. The Ohio River is a transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of the humid subtropical. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates, in winter, it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely further south toward Cincinnati and Louisville. At Paducah, Kentucky, in the south, near the Ohios confluence with the Mississippi, Paducah was founded there because it is the northernmost ice-free reach of the Ohio. The Ohio River is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at Point State Park in Pittsburgh, from there, it flows northwest through Allegheny and Beaver counties, before making an abrupt turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia–Ohio–Pennsylvania triple-state line. From there, it forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of Wheeling, West Virginia, the river then follows a roughly southwest and then west-northwest course until Cincinnati, before bending to a west-southwest course for most of its length. The course forms the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky. The Ohio drains parts of 15 states in four regions, northeast New York, a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny. Pennsylvania, a corridor from the corner to north central border
5.
Frank Lloyd Wright
–
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures,532 of which were completed. Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment and this philosophy was best exemplified by Fallingwater, which has been called the best all-time work of American architecture. Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the concept of the Usonian home and his creative period spanned more than 70 years. In addition to his houses, Wright designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums and he often designed interior elements for these buildings as well, including furniture and stained glass. Wright wrote 20 books and many articles and was a lecturer in the United States. His colorful personal life made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as the greatest American architect of all time, Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright in the farming town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States, in 1867. His father, William Carey Wright, was an orator, music teacher, occasional lawyer, William Wright met and married Anna Lloyd Jones, a county school teacher, the previous year when he was employed as the superintendent of schools for Richland County. Originally from Massachusetts, William Wright had been a Baptist minister, Anna was a member of the large, prosperous and well-known Lloyd Jones family of Unitarians, who had emigrated from Wales to Spring Green, Wisconsin. One of Annas brothers was Jenkin Lloyd Jones, who would become an important figure in the spread of the Unitarian faith in the Western United States, both of Wrights parents were strong-willed individuals with idiosyncratic interests that they passed on to him. According to his biography, his mother declared when she was expecting that her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings and she decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infants ambition. In 1870 the family moved to Weymouth, Massachusetts, where William ministered to a small congregation, in 1876, Anna visited the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where she saw an exhibit of educational blocks created by Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel. The blocks, known as Froebel Gifts, were the foundation of his innovative kindergarten curriculum, Anna, a trained teacher, was excited by the program and bought a set with which young Wright spent much time playing. The blocks in the set were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form three-dimensional compositions, the Wright family struggled financially in Weymouth and returned to Spring Green, Wisconsin, where the supportive Lloyd Jones clan could help William find employment. They settled in Madison, where William taught music lessons and served as the secretary to the newly formed Unitarian society, although William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music, especially the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, with his children. Soon after Wright turned 14, his parents separated, Anna had been unhappy for some time with Williams inability to provide for his family and asked him to leave. The divorce was finalized in 1885 after William sued Anna for lack of physical affection, William left Wisconsin after the divorce and Wright claimed he never saw his father again. At this time he changed his name from Lincoln to Lloyd in honor of his mothers family
6.
Opera house
–
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other houses are part of larger performing arts centers. In contrast, there was no house in London when Henry Purcell was composing. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, with the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to a publicly supported system. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies raise funds from a combination of government and institutional grants, ticket sales, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples introduces the plant horseshoe, the oldest in the world, a model for the Italian theater. On this model were built following theaters of Italy and Europe, among others, the theater of the Palace of Caserta. Given the popularity of opera in 18th and 19th century Europe, opera houses are large, with generally more than 1,000 seats. Modern opera houses of the century such as New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Many operas are better suited to being presented in smaller theatres, in a traditional opera house, the auditorium is U-shaped, with the length of the sides determining the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer to the stage, are boxes and this is especially true of Wagners Bayreuth Festspielhaus where the pit is almost completely covered. The size of an opera orchestra varies, but for some operas, oratorios and other works, it may be large, for some romantic period works. Similarly, an opera may have a large cast of characters, chorus, dancers, therefore, a major opera house will have extensive dressing room facilities. Opera houses often have on-premises set and costume building shops and facilities for storage of costumes, make-up, masks, and stage properties, major opera houses throughout the world often have highly mechanized stages, with large stage elevators permitting heavy sets to be changed rapidly. At the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, sets are changed during the action, as the audience watches. This occurs in the Mets productions of such as Aida. Much the same happened in the remodeling of Milans La Scala opera house between 2002 and 2004, since the 1990s, however, many opera houses have begun using a subtle form of sound reinforcement called acoustic enhancement. Often, operas are presented in their languages, which may be different from the first language of the audience. For example, a Wagnerian opera presented in London may be in German, therefore, since the 1980s modern opera houses have assisted the audience by providing translated supertitles, projections of the words above or near to the stage
7.
Point State Park
–
Built on land acquired via eminent domain from industrial enterprises in the 1950s, the park opened in August 1974 when construction was completed on its iconic fountain. Pittsburgh settled on the current design after rejecting a plan for a Point Park Civic Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The park also includes the outlines and remains of two of the oldest structures in Pittsburgh, Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne. The Fort Pitt Museum, housed in the Monongahela Bastion of Fort Pitt, commemorates the French and Indian War, the park, a registered National Historic Landmark, is operated by the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks. The location of the fountain at the tip of the Point previously served as a connector for two old bridges, the Manchester Bridge and Point Bridge, both were removed in 1970 to make way for the fountain. In April 2009, the fountain was turned off for a $9.6 million upgrade and refurbishment, the fountain also serves as the western terminus for the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile hiker-biker trail beginning at the 184. Michael DeBerardinis, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the project was scheduled to be completed within four years, with the majority of the work to be completed in time for Pittsburghs 250th anniversary celebration in 2008. Sections of the park have fallen into disuse since it was established in the summer of 1974, the homeless have used the trenches surrounding the foundations of the remains of Fort Pitt as a temporary shelter for years. Graffiti on the structures of the park had become a major problem, sections of the park were littered with fence posts, cut logs, plastic drums, and rolled up snow drift fencing. The walkways were cracked and beginning to fall apart, the restoration project aimed to reestablish the park as a recreational destination. These plans were not put into place without some controversy, on January 25,2007,13 members of two local labor unions were arrested for blocking access by contractors to the work sites at the remnants of Fort Pitt. The unions were protesting the use of four nonrepresented workers by the contractor, in addition, advocates for historical preservation disagreed with the decision to bury the remnants of the forts walls, which could damage the bricks and remove the walls from public access. Point State Park was reopened to the public in the spring of 2008, the renovation process took a year and a half to complete. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, creating the Ohio River, has impacted the history of Point State Park. This confluence was referred to as the Forks of the Ohio and it was once at the center of river travel, trade, and even wars throughout the pioneer history of Western Pennsylvania. During the mid-18th century, the armies of France and the Great Britain carved paths through the wilderness to control the point area, the French built Fort Duquesne in 1754 on foundations of Fort Prince George, which had been built by the colonial forces of Virginia. The French held Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War, the French held the fort successfully early in the war, turning back the 1755 expedition led by General Edward Braddock. A smaller attack by James Grant in September 1758 was repulsed, two months later, on November 25, the Forbes Expedition, under General John Forbes, captured the site after the French destroyed Fort Duquesne the day before
8.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
–
It is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. The museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, under the guidance of its first director and it adopted its current name after the death of its founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, in 1952. In 1959, the museum moved from rented space to its current building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the cylindrical building, wider at the top than the bottom, was conceived as a temple of the spirit. Its unique ramp gallery extends up from ground level in a long, the building underwent extensive expansion and renovations in 1992 and from 2005 to 2008. The museums collection has grown organically, over eight decades, and is founded several important private collections. The collection is shared with the museums sister museums in Bilbao, Spain, in 2013, nearly 1.2 million people visited the museum, and it hosted the most popular exhibition in New York City. Solomon R. Guggenheim, a member of a mining family, had been collecting works of the old masters since the 1890s. In 1926, he met artist Hilla von Rebay, who introduced him to European avant-garde art, in abstract art that she felt had a spiritual. Guggenheim completely changed his strategy, turning to the work of Wassily Kandinsky. He began to display his collection to the public at his apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, as the collection grew, he established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, in 1937, to foster the appreciation of modern art. The foundations first venue for the display of art, the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, opened in 1939 under the direction of Rebay, in midtown Manhattan. By the early 1940s, the foundation had accumulated such a collection of avant-garde paintings that the need for a permanent museum building had become apparent. In 1943, Rebay and Guggenheim wrote a letter to Frank Lloyd Wright asking him to design a structure to house, Wright accepted the opportunity to experiment with his organic style in an urban setting. It took him 15 years,700 sketches, and six sets of working drawings to create the museum, in 1948, the collection was greatly expanded through the purchase of art dealer Karl Nierendorfs estate of some 730 objects, notably German expressionist paintings. By that time, the collection included a broad spectrum of expressionist and surrealist works, including paintings by Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka. Nevertheless, she left a portion of her collection to the foundation in her will, including works by Kandinsky, Klee, Alexander Calder, Albert Gleizes, Mondrian. The museum was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952, Rebay conceived of the space as a temple of the spirit that would facilitate a new way of looking at the modern pieces in the collection. She wrote to Wright that each of these great masterpieces should be organized into space, would test the possibilities to do so
9.
Monona Terrace
–
Monona Terrace is a convention center on the shores of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin. Originally designed by Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright, it was first proposed by Wright in 1938, the county board rejected the plan by a single vote. Wright would continue to support for the plan until his death in 1959. For the next four decades, various proposals for a center on the Monona Terrace land would be considered and rejected. Several times, it appeared that supporters of the project would be able to secure the financing to complete the project. In 1990, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin resurrected Wrights proposal, the proposed construction was put to a public referendum in 1992 and it passed. In 1997, nearly sixty years after Wrights original inception, Monona Terrace Community, Monona Terrace is located two blocks from the Wisconsin State Capitol building in downtown Madison. From the roof of Monona Terrace, one can see views of downtown Madison, including the Capitol, Wright made several alterations to the design of Monona Terrace during his lifetime. Although the exterior design is Wrights, the interior as executed was designed by former Wright apprentice Anthony Puttnam of Taliesin Associated Architects, the building was constructed by J. H. Findorff and Son Inc. a southern Wisconsin contractor. The facility hosts over 600 conventions, meetings and weddings each year result in an average of $52 million in economic activity for the region. Monona Terrace also runs community programs that serve approximately 56,000 people each year. Monona Terrace also offers guided tours, a shop, a rooftop cafe. Dane Dances, Ironman Wisconsin, and U. S
10.
Great Depression
–
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
11.
Urban decay
–
Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. Since the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay has been associated with Western cities, especially in North America, since then, major structural changes in global economies, transportation, and government policy created the economic and then the social conditions resulting in urban decay. In contrast, North American and British cities often experience population flights to the suburbs and exurb commuter towns, another characteristic of urban decay is blight—the visual, psychological, and physical effects of living among empty lots, buildings and condemned houses. Such desolate properties are socially dangerous to the community because they attract criminals and street gangs, however, subsequent economic change left many cities economically vulnerable. Changes in means of transport, from the public to the private—specifically, the manufacturing sector has been a base for the prosperity of major cities. When the industries have relocated outside of cities, some have experienced population loss with associated urban decay, cut backs on police and fire services may result, while lobbying for government funded housing may increase. Increased city taxes encourage residents to move out, rent controls are often enacted due to public pressure and complaint regarding the cost of living. Proponents of rent controls argue that rent controls combat inflation, stabilize the economic characteristics of a population, prevent rent gouging. Rent control contributes to urban blight by reducing new construction and investment in housing and deincentivizing maintenance, if a landlords costs to perform maintenance consume too large a proportion of revenue from rent, the landlord will feel pressure to drastically reduce or eliminate maintenance entirely. This effect has been observed in New York City as 29% of rent-controlled buildings were categorized as either deteriorated or dilapidated in contrast with 8% of non-rent-controlled housing, some historians differentiate between the first Great Migration, numbering about 1. Between 1910 and 1970, Blacks moved from 14 states of the South, especially Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, more townspeople with urban skills moved during the second migration. By the end of the Second Great Migration, African Americans had become an urbanized population, more than 80 percent lived in cities. A majority of 53 percent remained in the South, while 40 percent lived in the North and 7 percent in the West. Later urban centers were drained further through the advent of car ownership, the marketing of suburbia as a location to move to. In North America this shift manifested itself in strip malls, suburban retail and employment centers, large areas of many northern cities in the United States experienced population decreases and a degradation of urban areas. Inner-city property values declined and economically disadvantaged populations moved in, in the U. S. the new inner-city poor were often African-Americans that migrated from the South in the 1920s and 1930s. As they moved into traditional neighborhoods, ethnic frictions served to accelerate flight to the suburbs. Britain experienced severe urban decay in the 1970s and 1980s exemplified by The Specials 1981 hit single Ghost Town, some seaside resort towns have also experienced urban decay towards the end of the 20th Century, due to the popularity of Package holidays to the continent
12.
Robert Moses
–
Robert Moses was a city planner who worked mainly in the New York metropolitan area. One of his contributions to urban planning was New York States large parkway network. Robert Moses simultaneously held twelve titles, but was never elected to any public office, nevertheless, he created and led numerous public authorities that gave him autonomy from the general public and elected officials. Moses projects were considered by many to be necessary for the development after the Great Depression. During the height of his powers, New York City built campuses to host two Worlds Fairs, one in 1939 and the other in 1964. Moses also helped persuade the United Nations to locate its headquarters in Manhattan, instead of Philadelphia, by helping the state secure the money, Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to assimilated German Jewish parents, Bella and Emanuel Moses. He spent the first nine years of his living at 83 Dwight Street in New Haven. In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City, Mosess father was a successful department store owner and real estate speculator in New Haven. In order for the family to move to New York City, he sold his estate holdings and store. Mosess mother was active in the settlement movement, with her own love of building, Robert Moses and his brother Paul attended several schools for their elementary and secondary education, including the Dwight School and the Mohegan Lake School, a military academy near Peekskill. After graduating from Yale University and Wadham College, Oxford, and earning a Ph. D. in political science from Columbia University, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics. A committed idealist, he developed plans to rid New York of patronage hiring practices. None went very far, but Moses, due to his intelligence, caught the notice of Belle Moskowitz, when the state Secretary of States position became appointive rather than elective, Smith named Moses, Moses served from 1927 to 1929. Moses rose to power with Smith, who was elected as governor in 1922, during that period Moses began his first foray into large scale public work initiatives, while drawing on Smiths political power to enact legislation. This helped create the new Long Island State Park Commission and the State Council of Parks and this centralization allowed Smith to run a government later used as a model for Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal federal government. Moses also received numerous commissions that he carried out extraordinarily well, displaying a strong command of law as well as matters of engineering, Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called the best bill drafter in Albany. At a time when the public was accustomed to Tammany Hall corruption and incompetence, shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelts inauguration in 1933, the federal government found itself with millions of New Deal dollars to spend, yet states and cities had few projects ready. Moses was one of the few officials who had projects shovel ready
