Changing Places: American Planning Policy for the 1990S

ABSTRACT:

Millions of Americans have cast their urban agenda ballots by voting with their feet and moving out of the core of the nation’s cities. Suburbanization has weakened the urban and social and economic fabric; the problems of metropolitan America are spread and not arrested. As the nation divides, it reduces its capacity to address the fundamental requirements of national aspirations for a just and economically equitable society. The Los Angeles riots were a vivid reflection of the flawed logic of current urban policy that increases social, economic, and physical distance. The authors offer an explanation of the problems and a set of recommendations for urban planning and policy to address the issues of urban decline. There are no panaceas in their prescriptions. Only a total rethinking of the nation’s priorities and a reinvestment in social and human capital can transform urban life. Due to the momentary public concern over Los Angeles and other big cities, the next Administration will face perhaps the best and last chance to alter the fortunes of the nation’s urban areas.