Suburbanization Lecture

On April 12, I attended Kenneth Jackson’s lecture, “The Road to Hell: Race, Suburbanization, and the Changing Fortunes of Baltimore.” During this lecture, Jackson reminded his audience that Baltimore city’s population is diminishing, decreasing 30% in about fifty years, while its suburbs now have double and triple the amount of inhabitants as the city itself. Surprisingly, the city of Baltimore has even become less diverse than it was during the post-Civil War era. Following the Civil War, many African Americans moved to Baltimore to get out of the South, and at the time there were many opportunities for them in the industrial field. However, with the changing of the economy to a service and skill-based economy in recent years, it has become much harder to find a job with little education, as now the largest employer in Baltimore is Johns Hopkins University. This caused many of the minorities who were uneducated to migrate away from the city and towards the suburbs, where the land is cheaper and more plentiful.
This migration to the suburbs is not necessarily a good thing because it could mean the death of many “great American cities,” as Jane Jacobs would say. Cities, particularly Baltimore, are hubs of history, religious heritage, and culture that date back to the 1700s and to glaze over their significance would do an injustice to the history of our country. There may be crime and poverty in the cities, but along with these, there are also many positive aspects. People just must do as the crow does in Joy Harjo’s “The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles” and “find gold in the trash of humans” (line 23).
Kenneth Jackson does, however, think that eventually there will be a return to the cities, and in future years these centers of history, culture, and heritage will experience a revival and an increase in population. Towards the end of his lecture, his tone changed as he expressed his hope for the future of the American cities and a decline in racial consciousness. People will realize their need for the constant human contact and the feeling of community that comes with being a city dweller.
People will also return to the cities for practical reasons, such as the best in resources, especially hospitals. In the suburbs, many times hospitals are scattered throughout large areas, yet they are not necessarily considered the best in care. The large city hospitals are usually the ones that are considered the best because they offer specialization, the most resources, and doctors who are at the top of their fields.
Kenneth Jackson’s lecture was eye-opening for me because after living in the city of Baltimore over the past eight months and celebrating The Year of the City through Loyola, I could not believe that the city was dying. I have seen too many of the city’s strong points to think that cities could eventually be phased out. After living in the suburbs for most of my life, I can understand the draw, but I do not think this should come at the expense of the cities. I agree with Jackson that the cities will experience a revival because people will eventually realize all of the resources that the city offers and return to the place where they once called “home.”