At the turn of the 20th century, American cities had the following:
Corruption
Gangs
Tenements
Pollution and sanitation issues
As the cities grew so also did corruption as people sought to make it however way they could. Gangs were also formed for the same reason and terrorized many cities as they had political backing.
Tenements were a common feature as well in order to deal with the massive increase in population and this led to a lot of pollution and sanitation issues as the tenements were not well maintained.
In conclusion, American cities had a lot of negatives at the turn of the 20th century.
