PLAN261 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Garden District, New Orleans, Horsecar, Mcmansion
Document Summary
Suburbs are in a peripheral location in relation to the downtown, mostly residential, and low density. The first is railroad and horsecar suburbs (1830-90), mostly upper/middle class people. Horse cars (allowed mass transit) and railroads allowed cities to expand, and railroads were expanded from city centres to suburban areas. The second is streetcar suburbs (1888-1928), which had more expansion of cities, and more middle class people in suburbs. Facilities were mainly on intersections and busy streets. Streetcar ridership dropped in 1940s due to increase in automobile use. The third phase: early automobile suburbs (1908-45) had more car sales due to henry ford and the model-t automobile. Highways were built, and many people owned cars (accelerated suburbanization). The last stage is post ww2 and early freeway suburbs (1945-1960), where major city had highways, and many levittown-style housing was built (they had smaller lots but bigger sizes than houses before them).
