Nature of Urban Planning

While some forms of planning have been around for many decades, the economic disasters of the Depression era led to more thought about the problem. Redevelopment occurred as the centers of cities became old and dilapidated and there was an exodus to the suburbs, which lasted into the 1960s. Experts understood that coordination of concerned government agencies was essential if anything was to be accomplished. This task fell to executives in government rather than legislators. In the pre-war years, established landuse principles prevented uncontrolled development, which most people considered a worthy objective.

About this time, however, special interest groups began to be concerned about the maintenance of property values and economic advantage. The federal government also became involved, with Section 701 of the Housing Act of 1954. This act brought smaller and poorer cities into the picture because the federal government provided the funds for urban planning.

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ed an obstacle to people who wanted to use the land adjacent to it. The solution the city tried was building another just like it in another section of town and moving the inhabitants of Dante Place to it. They hoped to salvage the latter by converting it into a middle-class project. This compounded the mistake. Other cities have had similar experiences. St. Louis built a housing project that became a center for the sale and use of narcotics, to the extent that all were afraid to live there and the structure had to be abandoned, a useless white elephant. This should not be surprising, however, because, according to Richard Sennett, "the modern planner lacks visual precepts for how races might be mixed in public places, or how to orchestrate the zoning and design of streets so that economically mixed uses work well." In fact, he says, "it is equally obscure how to design house projects and schools that mix races, classes or ages." He concludes that "human diversity seems something beyond the powers of human design." What sort of planning will correct these urban evils? Roger Bolton says, "The conflict is between the ideal of improving the welfare of deserving people as individuals, regardless of where they live, and t
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Approximate Word count = 1962
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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