1 <head><title>History Of Cities And City Planning
</title></head><body> 
   3 <h1>History Of Cities And City Planning
</h1> 
   5 <h1>By Cliff Ellis
</h1> 
   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> 
  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> 
  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> 
  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> 
  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.
 
  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> 
  52 Washington, D.C., for example, displays the monumental buildings,
 
  53 radial street pattern, and large public spaces typical of capital
 
  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
 
  63 <h2>Constraints on City Form
</h2> 
  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
 
  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> 
  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> 
  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> 
  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> 
  96 <h2>Elements of Urban Structure
</h2> 
  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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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
 
 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> 
 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
 
 162 <h2>Evolution of Urban Form
</h2> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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
 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 241 <h2>Transition to the Industrial City
</h2> 
 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> 
 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
 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 306 <h3>The Form of the Modern City
 
 307 in the Age of the Automobile
</h3> 
 309 The city of today may be divided into two parts: 
<p> 
 313 <li>An inner zone, coextensive with the boundaries of the old industrial city.
 
 315 <li>Suburban areas, dating from the 
1920s, which have been designed for the automobile from the beginning.
 
 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> 
 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> 
 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
 
 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> 
 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.
 
 371 <h3>The Economics of Urban Areas
</h3> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 415 <h2>Modern City Planning
</h2> 
 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
 
 426 <h3>Visionary or Utopian City Planning
</h3> 
 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
 
 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> 
 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> 
 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
 
 464 <h3>Institutionalized City Planning
</h3> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 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> 
 523 <h2>Conclusion: Good City Form
</h2> 
 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> 
 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
 
 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> 
 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> 
 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
 
 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>.
 
 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.
 
 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>.
 
 594 <h3 align=
"center">ADDITIONAL TERMS per GNU GPL Section 
7</h3> 
 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.
 
 604 Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this
 
 605 copyright notice and these terms.
 
 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.
 
 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.
 
 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>