Transcript Geography of the Twin Cities Development Part 8: Auto Era and Suburban Competition David A.

Geography of the Twin Cities
Development
Part 8: Auto Era and
Suburban Competition
David A. Lanegran
Geography Department
Macalester College
This is the north side of 7th Street East at Wabasha in 1952. Some great old
cars are visible. We also see the coming changes in the city. In the later
1950s the economy would boom as cars and houses would both become
larger and traffic congestion would take over the downtowns.
In 1956, the great period of urban expansion had begun. The mix
of high, medium, and low-density housing had changed with the
addition of more low density development. The primary direction
of growth was established.
By 1964, the move to the suburbs was in full force. The low density area
had leaped the Minnesota River and surrounded the lakes. The rate of
building was fantastic, and the nature of the city was altered forever. The
streetcars were replaced by buses and the era of personal transit was
established. Cars and suburban houses continued getting bigger.
The rapid rate of suburbanization was
aided by new laws that made it easier
to incorporate independent
communities. The political leaders
began to understand that a
metropolitan area was developing that
needed to be managed as a unit. The
first step in this direction was the
production in 1958 of a land use map
of the entire area.
In the 1950s, the cities were a mixture of the old industrial city and the new service center. There were
still many industries located in the railroad corridors and near the falls industrial area that were
functional but did not yield high profits. Although a great deal of investment had occurred at the city's
edge, little had been done to improve the city core. Various slum clearance and urban renewal
programs had started on the fringes of the downtowns. The general view of the future was mixed. Most
believed the city centers were obsolete and prone to abandonment. Many wondered who would build
new buildings in the downtown and about the likely future of the railroad-oriented milling district that
was rapidly becoming derelict.
An office scene, depicted in an economic development
promotion piece developed by the state government in
1960, gives little hint of the revolution that would occur
in offices over the next 25 years.
By the same token, the state was promoting skilled craftsmen
working in traditional industries.
Three examples of technical work in the 1950s.
A middle-aged white worker operating
a drill press by hand. This was typical
for many industries in the 1950s.
These jobs would all be lost to
mechanization or off-shore completion
during the last decades of the 20th
century.
The South St. Paul Stockyards at their peak in 1960. The new
bridge under construction would be an important link in the
circumferential freeway that would usher-in a new set of industrial
locations that were freed from the constraint of railroad access.
While urban leaders in the core cities
struggled with issues of obsolete
infrastructure, traffic congestion, and
worker turnover, their industries were
being lured to the ex-urban fringe by
communities with brand new industrial
sites and promises of new buildings
designed to fit the requirements of the
new machinery and the trucking
industry that shouldered an everincreasing share of the transportation
business.