Transportation & Suburbanization
Although San Francisco ranks as one of the most densely connected American cities, it experienced post-World War II suburbanization just like much of the rest of the country.
The rise in car ownership partially fueled this move. The maps to the right contrast the number of San Franciscans that owned a car in 1926, with the number that did in 2000. Other transportation industry advances—including the streetcar, bridges, and regional transit system (BART)—also contributed to ever-shifting neighborhoods, giving people the ability to move closer (or further) from jobs. Some of these modes of transportation were intended to bring more economic activity to the central city, but instead drained economic vitality, as money went out to the suburbs. According to Dreier, Mollenkopf, and Swanstrom, increased mobility options have only fueled segregation—especially economic segregation [5]. When the central city became connected to outlying areas, San Franciscans fled to the suburbs, like many Americans did in the mid-20th century. Poorer individuals were left behind to populate several of the inner city neighborhoods for many decades. In San Francisco, this led to an out-migration of white families—a trend that reversed in the early 2000s, when wealthier San Franciscans began to move back into the city and lower-income racial minority populations began to move out. |
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