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Summary Of Suburban American Problems And Promise

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When given the task to watch and understand the documentary "Suburban American: Problems and Promises" I was genuinely interested. Due to my interests in property development and real estate, I wanted to know the reasoning for why certain areas and region were considered appropriate locations for building a suburban neighborhood. Therefore, I started to realized that the audience that the movie was directed towards was people who are interested in the development of the Urban and Suburban areas of our previous and present generations. Also, this documentary should spark the interest in any American history fans, construction management and even people that are interested in civil rights movement. This documentary touches on all the reasons …show more content…

The purpose of this documentary was to insight the public of why American suburban areas during the mid-1900s were populated and categorized the way they were. It showed how American History, Politics, War and Social Revolutionizing had a direct correlation between the urban planning of suburban areas. It helped explain the misconception between the stereotype about living in a suburban area. The director wants to teach the audience that there is more to just picking a district and suburbanizing it. There are hidden political and economic reasons behind every factor put into the building and colonizing of a suburban community. Before watching this documentary I had minimal knowledge about the reasoning behind where suburban areas were located. However, I do have a pretty good level of knowledge when it comes to construction and urban planning. I grew up in a design household. With my father being a Corporate Architect and my mother being a crafts designer, I had no choice but to absurd the design knowledge that I was surrounded in. Also, I spent a summer interning for an architectural firm called "Roger …show more content…

How, where, why and who colonized American suburban areas. During this time the United States was just finishing its historical and extremely controversial era of segregation towards Blacks, Jews and Immigrants as a whole. This made for a very intense development of what is now modern America. For example, one of the first suburban communities built was in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Bordering Cleveland, I was the most renowned fully planned community in the US at this time. It was founded by two brothers, M.J and O.P Van Sweringen. Shaker Heights was most well-known for being the first community to put a deed restriction on every piece of property. Stating that Jews and Blacks weren't allowed in this suburb. Even though the US Supreme Court said these racial convents were not enforceable, due to the end of US segregation. Another community that went through some of the same segregating problems was in Levittown, New York, where the discrimination was still very much a thing in communities. The documentary talked about how these communities were built to be very simple and family orientated cookie cutter houses. This was because there was a huge wave of first-time house buyers. With over 15 million of them being soldiers returning from war, looking to start a family and live peaceful after just being overseas. The documentary talks a lot about how race, economy, transportation and social acceptance have

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