Growth Management by Local Initiative: “Grass Roots” Planning in California

Abstract

If California does not secede from North America with the help of the San Andreas fault, its residents sometimes fear that it will sink into the ocean instead, foundered by the weight of its growing population. In order to accommodate immigrants from other states and counties, hillsides are graded, and neighborhoods tom down and rebuilt, in the blink of an eye. The population already exceeds the wildest imaginings of the original freeway engineers; in southern California, the land of the automobile, commuting speeds are expected to average 10 miles per hour in 1990.