Challenges of Urbanization

The People: why were the three groups below drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest?

1. Immigrants: The immigrants were drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest because cities were considered convenient and the cheapest, according to them. In addition, "Cities also offered unskilled laborers steady jobs in mills and factories"
2. Farmers: The farmers were drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest because there was "rapid improvements in farming technology in the second half of the 19th century" Improvements such as the McCormick reaper and the steel plow were only available in the city, it seemed, therefore sending the farmers into cities.
3. African-Americans: The African Americans were drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest because they were trying to "escape racial violence, economic hardship and political oppression. Along with the fact that many African Americans were losing their jobs and there was more oppurtunity in Northeastern and Midwestern cities.
The Problems: What was done in response to the following five problems?
4. Lack of safe and efficient transportation
In response to this problem there were innovations in the mass transit system, which were designed to help get workers to their job more safely and efficeintly. The carts could hold large numbers of people as well, so it was easy to get a bunch of people to the place in which they were going. Also, cable cars were introduced to the San Fransisco area in 1873. The only problem with these new inovations is that it was hard to keep up with the maintenence of the cars when they would become broken down, or something else went wrong.
5. Unsafe drinking water
In response to this problem some cities such as New York built public waterworks to keep up with the increasing number of people in the city and their need for water. In 1908's, chlorination was introduced to help rid disease and bacteria from water; and prior to that in the 1870's water filtration was introduced for the same reason as chlorination.
6. Lack of sanitation
In response to problems, such as manure pilling up on the streets, by the 1900's a lot of cities had created sanitation departments as well as sewer lines. Although this was a good response to the bad sanitation in most cities, it was difficult to maintain.
7. Fire Hazards
In response to this problem, Cincinatti was first to take action by creating the first paid fire department in 1853. Others followed this leadership. In 1874, the first automatic sprinklers were introduced, wich were obviously a great innovation to ease the worry of fire hazards. Lastly, by the 1900's almost every city had a full time professional fire department. In addition, most wooden settlements were replaced with brick or stone, also to help reduce the risk of fires breaking out.
8. Crime
In response to this problem, New York City was the first to take real action against it. In 1844, New York City created the first full time police force (paid of course) which did indeed help reduce the crime risk in the city. However, since the forces in other cities were not as large as the one in New York City, they didn't work as well.