In Michael B. Katz’s “What is an American City?,” there were several interesting points that he rises in regards to the makeup and definition of the modern-day city. His claim that “America is living through a transformation as profound as the Industrial revolution” was especially interesting because I never thought of modern-day American cities to be in that extreme of a phase as the Industrial revolution was.
I agree that American cities behave in cycles and people and cities themselves are always going to be changing over time. This is obvious through photographs of nineteenth and twentieth century American cities, which show very different lifestyles from today. I also found it interesting how he compares the development of Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In modern-day America, these cities are considered to be two of the biggest and most lively cities, but clearly it was not always that way. Los Angeles grew more rapidly than Philadelphia, which lost its population because it was an old industrial city and many manufacturing jobs were lost. The growths of these cities have made them very different but they have change drastically from the cities they were considered to be before. This further emphasizes his curiosity about the definition of the American city.
It is also interesting how the development of so many American cities was based on the regional location and the types of jobs that the cities can provide for its residents. For example, it is interesting that cities like Las Vegas and New Orleans build their cities around entertainment. The distribution of jobs in various American cities is a vital reason why many cities today are the way they are.
Another strong influence on cities has been immigration in America, which has clearly made many American cities stronger than before. Immigration in general changed the culture and lifestyle in many cities. I agree with his point that over time, the distinction between cities and suburbs was diminishing.
Personally, I agree with the belief that modern-day cities are defined by what they produce. Since America has become a consumer-based country, the cities are easily identifiable by what they have to offer. For example, Silicon Valley is clearly infamous for producing successful technology companies. In conclusion, I don’t really think that there can be a permanent definition for what makes up an American city since there are always changes taking place, but the closest one for modern-day cities would be defining them based on what they produce.
