Made in 1960 by Arthur Barr, this film presents one of the earliest looks at the tremendous problem of Urban Sprawl. growth in single-family homes begin built outside cities. The growth of suburban regions is (according to the narrator) one of the biggest challenges facing the United States of the 1960s. The desertion of the metropolises’ downtowns, and the explosion of suburban populations, was indeed a threat to the health of American cities. Highways, such as Los Angeles’ 101 Freeway seen at the 1:44 mark, provided easy access for commuters and helped develop a commuter culture. At 2;11, suburban housing tracts are developed in the San Fernando Valley, replacing farms and farm crops with housing. Mile after mile of housing is seen being built, and along with them come utilities (4:21) such as telephone and electrical cables and pipes.
Early shopping malls are seen at 4:50, including a shopping center with a May Company store and loads of ’50s Chevy Belairs in the parking lot. At 6:00, a new subdivision known as “Tropicana Village” is built boasting 10,000 new homes. “Pacific Gardens” seen at 6:06, is in Santa Clara, California. Santa Clara is studied in more detail at the 6:30 mark.
At 8:00, demolition of houses is seen and the construction of new apartment buildings in the city. At 8:50, expressways or highways are seen under construction.
Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl describes the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density, monofunctional and usually car-dependent communities, in a process called suburbanization. In addition to describing a particular form of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. In Continental Europe the term “peri-urbanisation” is often used to denote similar dynamics and phenomena, although the term urban sprawl is currently being used by the European Environment Agency. There is widespread disagreement about what constitutes sprawl and how to quantify it. For example, some commentators measure sprawl only with the average number of residential units per acre in a given area. But others associate it with decentralization (spread of population without a well-defined centre), discontinuity (leapfrog development, as defined below), segregation of uses, and so forth.
The term urban sprawl is highly politicized, and almost always has negative connotations. It is criticized for causing environmental degradation, and intensifying segregation and undermining the vitality of existing urban areas and attacked on aesthetic grounds. Due to the pejorative meaning of the term, few openly support urban sprawl as such. The term has become a rallying cry for managing urban growth.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
