Problems
The first problem that came with the rapid growth of American cities in the late nineteenth century was the spread of infectious diseases. During this period, there was immigration of people from rural areas to urban centers. This migration enhanced rapid spread of many infectious diseases since it allowed diseases that were initially localized to spread more quickly. Diseases such as cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, typhoid, tuberculosis, malaria among others became very common in most of the American cities (Jindrich 147). For instance, about two percent of the newborns in the New York City did not celebrate their first birthday due to the spread of numerous infectious diseases.
Secondly, poor housing was another major problem since the population in the cities grew faster than the rate of construction of new houses. Immigrant workers lived in cramped houses that did not have basic amenities such as ventilation, toilets, and running water. They lived in tenement houses, which were heavily overcrowded, making their safety an issue of concern. Thirdly, insecurity was also high in the cities with theft and robbery becoming the order of the day (Jindrich 147). Although profession police forces came into existence later to protect property and maintain order, the cases of organized crimes were also rising. Other illegal practices such as sale of illegal alcohol and narcotics, prostitution, gambling among others increased in the same period. Finally, there were no infrastructures to support the growing population. For instance, there was no established transport system in most of the cities causing traffic congestion along the few roads. There were few trains, buses, or trolleys to transport the working population to their jobs.
Response failure
There are many reasons why the American institutions did not respond well to the rapid urbanization. First, the urbanization process outpaced the capacity of local authorities to provide clean water, sewage systems, garbage collection, and other basic amenities (Laitos and Ruckriegle 847). Most of the cities were heavily crowded with impersonal places used for purposes of making money. The city authorities were not able to provide decent houses leading to high monthly rents and sharing of rooms. The rapid growth in cities give city authorities little time for urban planning, creation of fire and police departments, as well as the development of building codes. For instance, New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago cities had a population of more than one million people by 1900, yet they were not equipped to support this rapid population growth. Their streets were full of dung and urine from horses that were common means of transport by then. The cities did not have any system for garbage collection or for managing their wastes. Secondly, corruption was high in city governments as well as city services. This made it difficult for the city authorities to provide efficient services to the city dwellers. Provision of poor services resulted in many problems such as rapid spread of infectious diseases, lack of basic amenities, and congestion among others (Laitos and Ruckriegle 847). Thirdly, there were no laws to prohibit the construction of tenement houses, which were common in most of the cities. These houses were poorly ventilated, dark, unclean, and unsafe for human living. It was until the beginning of the twentieth century that most cities started to enact laws to prohibits construction of such houses. For example, New York City passed such a law in 1901 that required all its buildings to have the necessary facilities such as indoor toilets, open courtyards, fire safeguards, and good ventilations.
Work cited
Jindrich, Jason. Suburbs in the City: Reassessing the Location of Nineteenth-Century American Working-Class Suburbs. In: Social Science History 36.2(2012):147-167.
Laitos, Jan and Ruckriegle, Heidi. The problem of amenity migrants in North America and Europe. In: The Urban Lawyer 45.4(2013):849.
