Urban Economics: James E.Vance
James E. Vance is considered to be one of the most important geographers of the 20th century in the United States. His wide interest in the ways in which the urban construction developed in time and space has given him a reputation of a subtle analyst of the geographic space with a historical approach. His main areas of interest included the evolution and structure of the urban systems, including transportation, the trade inside the cities, as well as the social process that in the end shape the evolution of the urban dwellings. It can be said that throughout his academic activity he tried to focus and discuss the process of evolution and transformation of city forms having in mind the elements that compose an urban environment. One of the most important works of Vance's academic thought deals with a thorough analysis of the Californian landscape. "California and the search for the ideal" tries to discuss the issue of the development of the Californian environment from the end of the Civil War up to the development of the new urban structures and the urban framework. His wide interest in the historical development of the cities is obvious from the early start of his essay. In this sense, he connects the end of the Civil War w
From the perspective of Vance's presentation, it can be said that the essay is a presentation of urban sociology as well. However, it can also be added the fact that the development of western parts was imminent for the history of the US especially taking into account the Gold Rush of the middle of the century. In this sense, through the description of the suburbs, he explains the way in which old Americans came to enter in contact with immigrants. On the one hand, there is the mega polis which is the result of an emerging economy, of a desire for improvement, of evolution and development of the American nation, especially in the late 19th century and the 20th century. However, in comparison to the London expansion, "American residential expansion showed more force if less pattern. Thus, the first phase represented the creation of the core of the city as "city in a garden", thus the establishment of the individual from his natural environment inside a definite space, determined through some sort of invisible boundaries and encouraged by the development of science and technology. The creation of the housing possibilities is indeed essential for the existence of a city and most importantly it is essential in Vance's particular approach on the evolution of the area under analysis. It represents the closest reproduction of the natural environment of the wilderness, of the primitive state of the human being. He makes clear differences between them. The comparison was made with a British city particularly because of his relation to the British environment as well as due to the fact that London is considered to be a true example in the evolution of the urban environment. Vance points out that what had been up until then scarcely populated areas, became in the 19th century areas with "single family house standing detached on its own lot, either cramped or expansive" and the basic element of American housing" (Vance, 1972). The result was the shaping of lines of discrete suburbs, strung like beads on the strings of iron rails radiating from central cities. More precisely, Vance views the end of the Civil War as a catalyst for the rapid growth of the population and the expansion west, towards California. Thus, the old Americans came to live in the suburbs, while the immigrants in the center of the cities. In this sense, he points out the emergence of Chicago, "the city in a garden" and the subsequent evolution of the cities through the introduction of transportation, the electric trolley and in the end the automobile.
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