The Planning Imperative in America's Future

Abstract

City planning in the United States has gone through a number of changes in the past six decades and is likely to continue to change in the forthcoming years. This movement began with an interest in the City Beautiful, went on to be concerned with the City Efficient, and then with the City Social in the thirties. The postwar era produced a period of interest in the city as a system, while the sixties saw a spate of federal legislation which both institutionalized the city planning process and broadened its scope. In the future, planning should become concerned with matters of pollution, population distribution through a forceful urban growth policy, and enhancement of the quality of urban life.