]>
Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
1 | <head><title>History Of Cities And City Planning</title></head><body> | |
2 | ||
3 | <h1>History Of Cities And City Planning</h1> | |
4 | ||
5 | <h1>By Cliff Ellis</h1> | |
6 | ||
7 | <h2>Introduction</h2> | |
8 | ||
9 | The building of cities has a long and complex history. Although city | |
10 | planning as an organized profession has existed for less than a | |
11 | century, all cities display various degrees of forethought and | |
12 | conscious design in their layout and functioning. <p> | |
13 | ||
14 | Early humans led a nomadic existence, relying on hunting and gathering | |
15 | for sustenance. Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, systematic | |
16 | cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals allowed for | |
17 | more permanent settlements. During the fourth millennium B.C., the | |
18 | requirements for the "urban revolution" were finally met: the | |
19 | production of a surplus of storable food, a system of writing, a more | |
20 | complex social organization, and technological advances such as the | |
21 | plough, potter's wheel, loom, and metallurgy. <p> | |
22 | ||
23 | Cities exist for many reasons, and the diversity of urban forms can be | |
24 | traced to the complex functions that cities perform. Cities serve as | |
25 | centers of storage, trade, and manufacture. The agricultural surplus | |
26 | from the surrounding countryside is processed and distributed in | |
27 | cities. Cities also grew up around marketplaces, where goods from | |
28 | distant places could be exchanged for local products. Throughout | |
29 | history, cities have been founded at the intersections of | |
30 | transportation routes, or at points where goods must shift from one | |
31 | mode of transportation to another, as at river and ocean ports. <p> | |
32 | ||
33 | Religious elements have been crucial throughout urban history. Ancient | |
34 | peoples had sacred places, often associated with cemeteries or | |
35 | shrines, around which cities grew. Ancient cities usually had large | |
36 | temple precincts with monumental religious buildings. Many medieval | |
37 | cities were built near monasteries and cathedrals. <p> | |
38 | ||
39 | Cities often provide protection in a precarious world. During attacks, | |
40 | the rural populace could flee behind city walls, where defence forces | |
41 | assembled to repel the enemy. The wall served this purpose for | |
42 | millennia, until the invention of heavy artillery rendered walls | |
43 | useless in warfare. With the advent of modern aerial warfare, cities | |
44 | have become prime targets for destruction rather than safe havens. | |
45 | <p> | |
46 | ||
47 | Cities serve as centers of government. In particular, the emergence of | |
48 | the great nation-states of Europe between 1400 and 1800 led to the | |
49 | creation of new capital cities or the investing of existing cities | |
50 | with expanded governmental functions. <p> | |
51 | ||
52 | Washington, D.C., for example, displays the monumental buildings, | |
53 | radial street pattern, and large public spaces typical of capital | |
54 | cities. <p> | |
55 | ||
56 | Cities, with their concentration of talent, mixture of peoples, and | |
57 | economic surplus, have provided a fertile ground for the evolution of | |
58 | human culture: the arts, scientific research, and technical | |
59 | innovation. They serve as centers of communication, where new ideas | |
60 | and information are spread to the surrounding territory and to foreign | |
61 | lands. <p> | |
62 | ||
63 | <h2>Constraints on City Form</h2> | |
64 | ||
65 | Cities are physical artifacts inserted into a preexisting natural | |
66 | world, and natural constraints must be respected if a settlement is to | |
67 | survive and prosper. Cities must conform to the landscape in which | |
68 | they are located, although technologies have gradually been developed | |
69 | to reorganize the land to suit human purposes. Moderately sloping land | |
70 | provides the best urban site, but spectacular effects have been | |
71 | achieved on hilly sites such as San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, and | |
72 | Athens. <p> | |
73 | ||
74 | Climate influences city form. For example, streets have been aligned | |
75 | to take advantage of cooling breezes, and arcades designed to shield | |
76 | pedestrians from sun and rain. The architecture of individual | |
77 | buildings often reflects adaptations to temperature, rainfall, snow, | |
78 | wind and other climatic characteristics. <p> | |
79 | ||
80 | Cities must have a healthy water supply, and locations along rivers | |
81 | and streams, or near underground watercourses, have always been | |
82 | favored. Many large modern cities have outgrown their local water | |
83 | supplies and rely upon distant water sources diverted by elaborate | |
84 | systems of pipes and canals. <p> | |
85 | ||
86 | City location and internal structure have been profoundly influenced | |
87 | by natural transportation routes. Cities have often been sited near | |
88 | natural harbors, on navigable rivers, or along land routes determined | |
89 | by regional topography. <p> | |
90 | ||
91 | Finally, cities have had to survive periodic natural disasters such as | |
92 | earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, and floods. The San Francisco | |
93 | earthquake of 1906 demonstrated how natural forces can undo decades of | |
94 | human labor in a very short time. <p> | |
95 | ||
96 | <h2>Elements of Urban Structure</h2> | |
97 | ||
98 | City planners must weave a complex, ever-changing array of elements | |
99 | into a working whole: that is the perennial challenge of city | |
100 | planning. The physical elements of the city can be divided into three | |
101 | categories: networks, buildings, and open spaces. Many alternative | |
102 | arrangements of these components have been tried throughout history, | |
103 | but no ideal city form has ever been agreed upon. Lively debates about | |
104 | the best way to arrange urban anatomies continue to rage, and show no | |
105 | signs of abating. <p> | |
106 | ||
107 | <h3>Networks</h3> | |
108 | ||
109 | Every modern city contains an amazing array of pathways to carry flows | |
110 | of people, goods, water, energy, and information. Transportation | |
111 | networks are the largest and most visible of these. Ancient cities | |
112 | relied on streets, most of them quite narrow by modern standards, to | |
113 | carry foot traffic and carts. The modern city contains a complex | |
114 | hierarchy of transportation channels, ranging from ten-lane freeways | |
115 | to sidewalks. In the United States, the bulk of trips are carried by | |
116 | the private automobile, with mass transit a distant second. American | |
117 | cities display the low-density sprawl characteristic of auto-centered | |
118 | urban development. In contrast, many European cities have the high | |
119 | densities necessary to support rail transit. <p> | |
120 | ||
121 | Modern cities rely on complex networks of utilities. When cities were | |
122 | small, obtaining pure water and disposing of wastes was not a major | |
123 | problem, but cities with large populations and high densities require | |
124 | expensive public infrastructure. During the nineteenth century, rapid | |
125 | urban growth and industrialization caused overcrowding, pollution, and | |
126 | disease in urban areas. After the connection between impure water and | |
127 | disease was established, American and European cities began to install | |
128 | adequate sewer and water systems. Since the late nineteenth century, | |
129 | cities have also been laced with wires and conduits carrying | |
130 | electricity, gas, and communications signals. <p> | |
131 | ||
132 | <h3>Buildings</h3> | |
133 | ||
134 | Buildings are the most visible elements of the city, the features that | |
135 | give each city its unique character. Residential structures occupy | |
136 | almost half of all urban land, with the building types ranging from | |
137 | scattered single-family homes to dense high-rise apartments. | |
138 | Commercial buildings are clustered downtown and at various subcenters, | |
139 | with skyscrapers packed into the central business district and | |
140 | low-rise structures prevailing elsewhere, although tall buildings are | |
141 | becoming more common in the suburbs. Industrial buildings come in many | |
142 | forms ranging from large factory complexes in industrial districts to | |
143 | small workshops. <p> | |
144 | ||
145 | City planners engage in a constant search for the proper arrangement | |
146 | of these different types of land use, paying particular attention to | |
147 | the compatibility of different activities, population densities, | |
148 | traffic generation, economic efficiency, social relationships, and the | |
149 | height and bulk of buildings. <p> | |
150 | ||
151 | <h3>Open Spaces</h3> | |
152 | ||
153 | Open space is sometimes treated as a leftover, but it contributes | |
154 | greatly to the quality of urban life. "Hard" spaces such as plazas, | |
155 | malls, and courtyards provide settings for public activities of all | |
156 | kinds. "Soft" spaces such as parks, gardens, lawns, and nature | |
157 | preserves provide essential relief from harsh urban conditions and | |
158 | serve as space for recreational activities. These "amenities" | |
159 | increasingly influence which cities will be perceived as desirable | |
160 | places to live. <p> | |
161 | ||
162 | <h2>Evolution of Urban Form</h2> | |
163 | ||
164 | The first true urban settlements appeared around 3,000 B.C. in ancient | |
165 | Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. Ancient cities displayed | |
166 | both "organic" and "planned" types of urban form. These societies had | |
167 | elaborate religious, political, and military hierarchies. Precincts | |
168 | devoted to the activities of the elite were often highly planned and | |
169 | regular in form. In contrast, residential areas often grew by a slow | |
170 | process of accretion, producing complex, irregular patterns that we | |
171 | term "organic." Two typical features of the ancient city are the wall | |
172 | and the citadel: the wall for defense in regions periodically swept by | |
173 | conquering armies, and the citadel -- a large, elevated precinct | |
174 | within the city -- devoted to religious and state functions. <p> | |
175 | ||
176 | Greek cities did not follow a single pattern. Cities growing slowly | |
177 | from old villages often had an irregular, organic form, adapting | |
178 | gradually to the accidents of topography and history. Colonial cities, | |
179 | however, were planned prior to settlement using the grid system. The | |
180 | grid is easy to lay out, easy to comprehend, and divides urban land | |
181 | into uniform rectangular lots suitable for development. <p> | |
182 | ||
183 | The Romans engaged in extensive city-building activities as they | |
184 | consolidated their empire. Rome itself displayed the informal | |
185 | complexity created by centuries of organic growth, although particular | |
186 | temple and public districts were highly planned. In contrast, the | |
187 | Roman military and colonial towns were laid out in a variation of the | |
188 | grid. Many European cities, like London and Paris, sprang from these | |
189 | Roman origins. <p> | |
190 | ||
191 | We usually associate medieval cities with narrow winding streets | |
192 | converging on a market square with a cathedral and city hall. Many | |
193 | cities of this period display this pattern, the product of thousands | |
194 | of incremental additions to the urban fabric. However, new towns | |
195 | seeded throughout undeveloped regions of Europe were based upon the | |
196 | familiar grid. In either case, large encircling walls were built for | |
197 | defense against marauding armies; new walls enclosing more land were | |
198 | built as the city expanded and outgrew its former container. <p> | |
199 | ||
200 | During the Renaissance, architects began to systematically study the | |
201 | shaping of urban space, as though the city itself were a piece of | |
202 | architecture that could be given an aesthetically pleasing and | |
203 | functional order. Many of the great public spaces of Rome and other | |
204 | Italian cities date from this era. Parts of old cities were rebuilt to | |
205 | create elegant squares, long street vistas, and symmetrical building | |
206 | arrangements. Responding to advances in firearms during the fifteenth | |
207 | century, new city walls were designed with large earthworks to deflect | |
208 | artillery, and star-shaped points to provide defenders with sweeping | |
209 | lines of fire. Spanish colonial cities in the New World were built | |
210 | according to rules codified in the Laws of the Indies of 1573, | |
211 | specifying an orderly grid of streets with a central plaza, defensive | |
212 | wall, and uniform building style. <p> | |
213 | ||
214 | We associate the baroque city with the emergence of great | |
215 | nation-states between 1600 and 1750. Ambitious monarchs constructed | |
216 | new palaces, courts, and bureaucratic offices. The grand scale was | |
217 | sought in urban public spaces: long avenues, radial street networks, | |
218 | monumental squares, geometric parks and gardens. Versailles is a clear | |
219 | expression of this city-building model; Washington, D.C. is an example | |
220 | from the United States. Baroque principles of urban design were used | |
221 | by Baron Haussmann in his celebrated restructuring of Paris between | |
222 | 1853 and 1870. Haussmann carved broad new thoroughfares through the | |
223 | tangled web of old Parisian streets, linking major subcenters of the | |
224 | city with one another in a pattern which has served as a model for | |
225 | many other modernization plans. <p> | |
226 | ||
227 | Toward the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly in | |
228 | America, the city as a setting for commerce assumed primacy. The | |
229 | buildings of the bourgeoisie expand along with their owners' | |
230 | prosperity: banks, office buildings, warehouses, hotels, and small | |
231 | factories. New towns founded during this period were conceived as | |
232 | commercial enterprises, and the neutral grid was the most effective | |
233 | means to divide land up into parcels for sale. The city became a | |
234 | checkerboard on which players speculated on shifting land values. No | |
235 | longer would religious, political, and cultural imperatives shape | |
236 | urban development; rather, the market would be allowed to determine | |
237 | the pattern of urban growth. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston around | |
238 | 1920 exemplify the commercial city of this era, with their bustling, | |
239 | mixed-use waterfront districts. <p> | |
240 | ||
241 | <h2>Transition to the Industrial City</h2> | |
242 | ||
243 | Cities have changed more since the Industrial Revolution than in all | |
244 | the previous centuries of their existence. New York had a population | |
245 | of about 313,000 in 1840 but had reached 4,767,000 in 1910. Chicago | |
246 | exploded from 4.000 to 2,185,000 during the same period. Millions of | |
247 | rural dwellers no longer needed on farms flocked to the cities, where | |
248 | new factories churned out products for the new markets made accessible | |
249 | by railroads and steamships. In the United States, millions of | |
250 | immigrants from Europe swelled the urban populations. Increasingly, | |
251 | urban economies were being woven more rightly into the national and | |
252 | international economies. <p> | |
253 | ||
254 | Technological innovations poured forth, many with profound impacts on | |
255 | urban form. Railroad tracks were driven into the heart of the city. | |
256 | Internal rail transportation systems greatly expanded the radius of | |
257 | urban settlement: horsecars beginning in the 1830s, cable cars in the | |
258 | 1870s, and electric trolleys in the 1880s. In the 1880s, the first | |
259 | central power plants began providing electrical power to urban areas. | |
260 | The rapid communication provided by the telegraph and the telephone | |
261 | allowed formerly concentrated urban activities to disperse across a | |
262 | wider field. <p> | |
263 | ||
264 | The industrial city still focused on the city center, which contained | |
265 | both the central business district, defined by large office buildings, | |
266 | and substantial numbers of factory and warehouse structures. Both | |
267 | trolleys and railroad systems converged on the center of the city, | |
268 | which boasted the premier entertainment and shopping establishments. | |
269 | The working class lived in crowded districts close to the city center, | |
270 | near their place of employment. <p> | |
271 | ||
272 | Early American factories were located outside of major cities along | |
273 | rivers which provided water power for machinery. After steam power | |
274 | became widely available in the 1930s, factories could be located | |
275 | within the city in proximity to port facilities, rail lines, and the | |
276 | urban labor force. Large manufacturing zones emerged within the major | |
277 | northeastern and midwestern cities such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, and | |
278 | Cleveland. But by the late nineteenth century, factory | |
279 | decentralization had already begun, as manufacturers sought larger | |
280 | parcels of land away from the congestion of the city. Gary, Indiana, | |
281 | for example, was founded in 1906 on the southern shore of Lake | |
282 | Michigan by the United States Steel Company. <p> | |
283 | ||
284 | The increasing crowding, pollution, and disease in the central city | |
285 | produced a growing desire to escape to a healthier environment in the | |
286 | suburbs. The upper classes had always been able to retreat to homes in | |
287 | the countryside. Beginning in the 1830s, commuter railroads enabled | |
288 | the upper middle class to commute in to the city center. Horsecar | |
289 | lines were built in many cities between the 1830s and 1880s, allowing | |
290 | the middle class to move out from the central cities into more | |
291 | spacious suburbs. Finally, during the 1890s electric trolleys and | |
292 | elevated rapid transit lines proliferated, providing cheap urban | |
293 | transportation for the majority of the population. <p> | |
294 | ||
295 | The central business district of the city underwent a radical | |
296 | transformation with the development of the skyscraper between 1870 and | |
297 | 1900. These tall buildings were not technically feasible until the | |
298 | invention of the elevator and steel-frame construction methods. | |
299 | Skyscrapers reflect the dynamics of the real estate market; the tall | |
300 | building extracts the maximum economic value from a limited parcel of | |
301 | land. These office buildings housed the growing numbers of | |
302 | white-collar employees in banking, finance, management, and business | |
303 | services, all manifestations of the shift from an economy of small | |
304 | firms to one of large corporations. <p> | |
305 | ||
306 | <h3>The Form of the Modern City | |
307 | in the Age of the Automobile</h3> | |
308 | ||
309 | The city of today may be divided into two parts: <p> | |
310 | ||
311 | <ul> | |
312 | ||
313 | <li>An inner zone, coextensive with the boundaries of the old industrial city. | |
314 | ||
315 | <li>Suburban areas, dating from the 1920s, which have been designed for the automobile from the beginning. | |
316 | ||
317 | </ul> | |
318 | ||
319 | The central business districts of American cities have become centers | |
320 | of information processing, finance, and administration rather than | |
321 | manufacturing. White-collar employees in these economic sectors | |
322 | commute in from the suburbs on a network of urban freeways built | |
323 | during the 1950s and 1960s; this "hub-and-wheel" freeway pattern can | |
324 | be observed on many city maps. New bridges have spanned rivers and | |
325 | bays, as in New York and San Francisco, linking together formerly | |
326 | separate cities into vast urbanized regions. <p> | |
327 | ||
328 | Waves of demolition and rebuilding have produced "Manhattanized" | |
329 | downtowns across the land. During the 1950s and 1960s, urban renewal | |
330 | programs cleared away large areas of the old city, releasing the land | |
331 | for new office buildings, convention centers, hotels, and sports | |
332 | complexes. Building surges have converted the downtowns of American | |
333 | cities into forests of tall office buildings. More recently, office | |
334 | functions not requiring a downtown location have been moved to huge | |
335 | office parks in the suburbs. <p> | |
336 | ||
337 | Surrounding the central business area lies a large band of old | |
338 | mixed-use and residential buildings which hose the urban poor. High | |
339 | crime, low income, deteriorating services, inadequate housing, and | |
340 | intractable social problems plague these neglected areas of urban | |
341 | America. The manufacturing jobs formerly available to inner city | |
342 | residents are no longer there, and resources have not been committed | |
343 | to replace them. <p> | |
344 | ||
345 | These inner city areas have been left behind by a massive migration to | |
346 | the suburbs, which began in the late nineteenth century but | |
347 | accelerated in the 1920s with the spread of the automobile. Freeway | |
348 | building after World War II opened up even larger areas of suburban | |
349 | land, which were quickly filled by people fleeing central city | |
350 | decline. Today, more people live in suburbs than in cities proper. | |
351 | Manufacturers have also moved their production facilities to suburban | |
352 | locations which have freeway and rail accessibility. <p> | |
353 | ||
354 | Indeed, we have reached a new stage of urbanization beyond the | |
355 | metropolis. Most major cities are no longer focused exclusively on the | |
356 | traditional downtown. New subcenters have arisen round the periphery, | |
357 | and these subcenters supply most of the daily needs of their adjacent | |
358 | populations. The old metropolis has become a multi-centered urban | |
359 | region. In turn, many of these urban regions have expanded to the | |
360 | point where they have coalesced into vast belts of urbanization -- | |
361 | what the geographer Jean Gottman termed "megalopolis." The prime | |
362 | example is the eastern seaboard of the United States from Boston to | |
363 | Washington. The planner C.A. Doxiadis has speculated that similar vast | |
364 | corridors of urbanization will appear throughout the world during the | |
365 | next century. Thus far, American planners have not had much success in | |
366 | imposing a rational form on this process. However, New Town and | |
367 | greenbelt programs in Britain and the Scandinavian countries have, to | |
368 | some extent, prevented formless sprawl from engulfing the countryside. | |
369 | <p> | |
370 | ||
371 | <h3>The Economics of Urban Areas</h3> | |
372 | ||
373 | Since the 1950s, city planners have increasingly paid attention to the | |
374 | economics of urban areas. When many American cities experienced fiscal | |
375 | crises during the 1970s, urban financial management assumed even | |
376 | greater importance. Today, planners routinely assess the economic | |
377 | consequences of all major changes in the form of the city. <p> | |
378 | ||
379 | Several basic concepts underlie urban and regional economic analysis. | |
380 | First, cities cannot grow if their residents simply provide services | |
381 | for one another. The city must create products which can be sold to an | |
382 | external purchaser, bringing in money which can be reinvested in new | |
383 | production facilities and raw materials. This "economic base" of | |
384 | production for external markets is crucial. Without it, the economic | |
385 | engine of the city grinds to a halt. <p> | |
386 | ||
387 | Once the economic base is established, an elaborate internal market | |
388 | can evolve. This market includes the production of goods and services | |
389 | for businesses and residents within the city. Obviously, a large part | |
390 | of the city's physical plant is devoted to facilities for internal | |
391 | transactions: retail stores of all kinds, restaurants, local | |
392 | professional services, and so on. <p> | |
393 | ||
394 | Modern cities are increasingly engaged in competition for economic | |
395 | resources such as industrial plants, corporate headquarters, | |
396 | high-technology firms, and government facilities. Cities try to lure | |
397 | investment with an array of features: low tax rates, improved | |
398 | transportation and utility infrastructure, cheap land, and skilled | |
399 | labor force. Amenities such as climate, proximity to recreation, | |
400 | parks, elegant architecture, and cultural activities influence the | |
401 | location decisions of businesses and individuals. Many older cities | |
402 | have difficulty surviving in this new economic game. Abandoned by | |
403 | traditional industries, they're now trying to create a new economic | |
404 | base involving growth sectors such as high technology. <p> | |
405 | ||
406 | Today, cities no longer compete in mere regional or national markets: | |
407 | the market is an international one. Multinational firms close plants | |
408 | in Chicago or Detroit and build replacements in Asia or Latin America. | |
409 | Foreign products dominate whole sectors of the American consumer goods | |
410 | market. Huge sums of money shift around the globe in instantaneous | |
411 | electronic transactions. Cities must struggle for survival in a | |
412 | volatile environment in which the rules are always changing. This | |
413 | makes city planning even more challenging than before. <p> | |
414 | ||
415 | <h2>Modern City Planning</h2> | |
416 | ||
417 | Modern city planning can be divided into two distinct but related | |
418 | types of planning. visionary city planning proposes radical changes in | |
419 | the form of the city, often in conjunction with sweeping changes in | |
420 | the social and economic order. Institutionalized city planning is | |
421 | lodged within the existing structures of government, and modifies | |
422 | urban growth processes in moderate, pragmatic ways. It is constrained | |
423 | by the prevailing alignment of political and economic forces within | |
424 | the city. <p> | |
425 | ||
426 | <h3>Visionary or Utopian City Planning</h3> | |
427 | ||
428 | People have imagined ideal cities for millennia. Plato's Republic was | |
429 | an ideal city, although lacking in the spatial detail of later | |
430 | schemes. Renaissance architects designed numerous geometric cities, | |
431 | and ever since architects have been the chief source of imaginative | |
432 | urban proposals. In the twentieth century, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd | |
433 | Wright, Paolo Soleri, and dozens of other architects have designed | |
434 | cities on paper. Although few have been realized in pure form, they | |
435 | have influenced the layout of many new towns and urban redevelopment | |
436 | projects. <p> | |
437 | ||
438 | In his "Contemporary City for Three Million People" of 1922 and | |
439 | "Radiant City" of 1935, Le Corbusier advocated a high-density urban | |
440 | alternative, with skyscraper office buildings and mid-rise apartments | |
441 | placed within park-like open spaces. Different land uses were located | |
442 | in separate districts, forming a rigid geometric pattern with a | |
443 | sophisticated system of superhighways and rail transit. <p> | |
444 | ||
445 | Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned a decentralized low-density city in | |
446 | keeping with his distaste for large cities and belief in frontier | |
447 | individualism. The Broadacre City plan of 1935 is a large grid of | |
448 | arterials spread across the countryside, with most of the internal | |
449 | space devoted to single-family homes on large lots. Areas are also | |
450 | carefully set aside for small farms, light industry, orchards, | |
451 | recreation areas, and other urban facilities. A network of | |
452 | superhighways knits the region together, so spatially dispersed | |
453 | facilities are actually very close in terms of travel time. In many | |
454 | ways, Wright's Broadacre City resembles American suburban and exurban | |
455 | developments of the post-WWII period. <p> | |
456 | ||
457 | Many other utopian plans could be catalogued, but the point is that | |
458 | planners and architects have generated a complex array of urban | |
459 | patterns from which to draw ideas and inspiration. Most city planners, | |
460 | however, do not work on a blank canvas; they can only make incremental | |
461 | changes to an urban scene already shaped by a complicated historical | |
462 | process. <p> | |
463 | ||
464 | <h3>Institutionalized City Planning</h3> | |
465 | ||
466 | The form of the city is determined primarily by thousands of private | |
467 | decisions to construct buildings, within a framework of public | |
468 | infrastructure and regulations administered by the city, state, and | |
469 | federal governments. City planning actions can have enormous impacts | |
470 | on land values. From the point of view of land economics, the city is | |
471 | an enormous playing field on which thousands of competitors struggle | |
472 | to capture value by constructing or trading land and buildings. The | |
473 | goal of city planning is to intervene in this game in order to protect | |
474 | widely shared public values such as health, safety, environmental | |
475 | quality, social equality, and aesthetics. <p> | |
476 | ||
477 | The roots of American city planning lie in an array of reform efforts | |
478 | of the late nineteenth century: the Parks movement, the City Beautiful | |
479 | movement, campaigns for housing regulations, the Progressive movement | |
480 | for government reform, and efforts to improve public health through | |
481 | the provision of sanitary sewers and clean water supplies. The First | |
482 | National Conference on City Planning occurred in 1909, the same year | |
483 | as Daniel Burnham's famous Plan of Chicago. That date may be used to | |
484 | mark the inauguration of the new profession. The early city planners | |
485 | actually came from diverse backgrounds such as architecture, landscape | |
486 | architecture, engineering, and law, but they shared a common desire to | |
487 | produce a more orderly urban pattern. <p> | |
488 | ||
489 | The zoning of land became, and still is, the most potent instrument | |
490 | available to American city planners for controlling urban development. | |
491 | Zoning is basically the dividing of the city into discrete areas | |
492 | within which only certain land uses and types of buildings can be | |
493 | constructed. The rationale is that certain activities of building | |
494 | types don't mix well; factories and homes, for example. Illogical | |
495 | mixtures create nuisances for the parties involved and lower land | |
496 | values. After several decades of gradual development, land-use zoning | |
497 | received legal approval from the Supreme Court in 1926. <p> | |
498 | ||
499 | Zoning isn't the same as planning: it is a legal tool for the | |
500 | implementation of plans. Zoning should be closely integrated with a | |
501 | Master Plan or Comprehensive Plan that spells out a logical path for | |
502 | the city's future in areas such as land use, transportation, parks and | |
503 | recreation, environmental quality, and public works construction. In | |
504 | the early days of zoning this was often neglected, but this lack of | |
505 | coordination between zoning and planning is less common now. <p> | |
506 | ||
507 | The other important elements of existing city planning are subdivision | |
508 | regulations and environmental regulations. Subdivision regulations | |
509 | require that land being subdivided for development be provided with | |
510 | adequate street, sewers, water, schools, utilities, and various design | |
511 | features. The goal is to prevent shabby, deficient developments that | |
512 | produce headaches for both their residents and the city. Since the | |
513 | late 1960s, environmental regulations have exerted a stronger | |
514 | influence on patterns of urban growth by restricting development in | |
515 | floodplains, on unstable slopes, on earthquake faults, or near | |
516 | sensitive natural areas. Businesses have been forced to reduce smoke | |
517 | emissions and the disposal of wastes has been more closely monitored. | |
518 | Overall, the pace of environmental degradation has been slowed, but | |
519 | certainly not stopped, and a dismaying backlog of environmental | |
520 | hazards remains to be cleaned up. City planners have plenty of work to | |
521 | do as we move into the twenty-first century. <p> | |
522 | ||
523 | <h2>Conclusion: Good City Form</h2> | |
524 | ||
525 | What is the good city? We are unlikely to arrive at an unequivocal | |
526 | answer; the diversity of human needs and tastes frustrates all | |
527 | attempts to provide recipes or instruction manuals for the building of | |
528 | cities. However, we can identify the crucial dimensions of city | |
529 | performance, and specify the many ways in which cities can achieve | |
530 | success along these dimensions. <p> | |
531 | ||
532 | A most useful guide in this enterprise is Kevin Lynch's A Theory of | |
533 | Good City Form (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1981). Lynch offers five | |
534 | basic dimensions of city performance: vitality, sense, fit, access, | |
535 | and control. To these he adds two "meta-criteria," efficiency and | |
536 | justice. <p> | |
537 | ||
538 | For Lynch, a vital city successfully fulfils the biological needs of | |
539 | its inhabitants, and provides a safe environment for their activities. | |
540 | A sensible city is organized so that its residents can perceive and | |
541 | understand the city's form and function. A city with good fit provides | |
542 | the buildings, spaces, and networks required for its residents to | |
543 | pursue their projects successfully. An accessible city allows people | |
544 | of all ages and background to gain the activities, resources, | |
545 | services, and information that they need. A city with good control is | |
546 | arranged so that its citizens have a say in the management of the | |
547 | spaces in which they work and reside. <p> | |
548 | ||
549 | Finally, an efficient city achieves the goals listed above at the | |
550 | least cost, and balances the achievement of the goals with one | |
551 | another. They cannot all be maximized at the same time. And a just | |
552 | city distributes benefits among its citizens according to some fair | |
553 | standard. Clearly, these two meta-criteria raise difficult issues | |
554 | which will continue to spark debates for the foreseeable future. <p> | |
555 | ||
556 | These criteria tell aspiring city builders where to aim, while | |
557 | acknowledging the diverse ways of achieving good city form. Cities are | |
558 | endlessly fascinating because each is unique, the product of decades, | |
559 | centuries, or even millennia of historical evolution. As we walk | |
560 | through city streets, we walk through time, encountering the | |
561 | city-building legacy of past generations. Paris, Venice, Rome, New | |
562 | York, Chicago, San Francisco -- each has its glories and its failures. | |
563 | In theory, we should be able to learn the lessons of history and build | |
564 | cities that our descendants will admire and wish to preserve. That | |
565 | remains a constant challenge for all those who undertake the task of | |
566 | city planning. <p> | |
567 | ||
568 | <p> | |
569 | ||
570 | <hr> | |
571 | <p> | |
572 | <h2>Micropolis, Unix Version.</h2> | |
573 | This game was released for the Unix platform | |
574 | in or about 1990 and has been modified for inclusion in the One Laptop | |
575 | Per Child program. Copyright © 1989 - 2007 Electronic Arts Inc. If | |
576 | you need assistance with this program, you may contact: | |
577 | <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis</a> or email <a href="mailto:micropolis@laptop.org">micropolis@laptop.org</a>. | |
578 | </p><p> | |
579 | ||
580 | This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify | |
581 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by | |
582 | the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at | |
583 | your option) any later version. | |
584 | </p><p> | |
585 | ||
586 | This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but | |
587 | WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | |
588 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU | |
589 | General Public License for more details. You should have received a | |
590 | copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If | |
591 | not, see <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/">http://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>. | |
592 | </p><p> | |
593 | ||
594 | <h3 align="center">ADDITIONAL TERMS per GNU GPL Section 7</h3> | |
595 | ||
596 | </p><p> | |
597 | No trademark or publicity rights are granted. This license does NOT | |
598 | give you any right, title or interest in the trademark SimCity or any | |
599 | other Electronic Arts trademark. You may not distribute any | |
600 | modification of this program using the trademark SimCity or claim any | |
601 | affliation or association with Electronic Arts Inc. or its employees. | |
602 | </p><p> | |
603 | ||
604 | Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this | |
605 | copyright notice and these terms. | |
606 | </p><p> | |
607 | ||
608 | If you convey this program (or any modifications of it) and assume | |
609 | contractual liability for the program to recipients of it, you agree | |
610 | to indemnify Electronic Arts for any liability that those contractual | |
611 | assumptions impose on Electronic Arts. | |
612 | </p><p> | |
613 | ||
614 | You may not misrepresent the origins of this program; modified | |
615 | versions of the program must be marked as such and not identified as | |
616 | the original program. | |
617 | </p><p> | |
618 | ||
619 | This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public | |
620 | License. <b>TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS | |
621 | PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY | |
622 | OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE ENTIRE RISK OF | |
623 | SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE RESIDES WITH YOU. ELECTRONIC ARTS | |
624 | DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTIES, | |
625 | INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, | |
626 | FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY | |
627 | RIGHTS, AND WARRANTIES (IF ANY) ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, | |
628 | USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE. ELECTRONIC ARTS DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST | |
629 | INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE PROGRAM; THAT THE PROGRAM WILL | |
630 | MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE | |
631 | UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE COMPATIBLE | |
632 | WITH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE PROGRAM WILL BE | |
633 | CORRECTED. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS OR | |
634 | ANY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY. SOME | |
635 | JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED | |
636 | WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS ON THE APPLICABLE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A | |
637 | CONSUMER, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY | |
638 | NOT APPLY TO YOU.</b> | |
639 | </p> | |
640 | </body> |