government representatives and con- tribute continuously to the emerging renewal plans for their area. This prac- tice is growing but the long held con- tempt for the inarticulate by many a professional administrator dies slowly.
There remains also the tendency to think that social problems will dis- appear when a routine can be found for processing them. This see-sawing of emphasis on the part played by a society's local government on one hand and its citizenry or the other raises serious questions as to the represen- tativeness of the average local council. Perhaps even worse than this it sug- gests a polarity of the issue between local government and professional ac- tion versus low income neighbourhoods championing citizen participation.
Renewal in the past, in the name of the general good has undoubtedly fur- thered most directly the aims of the cities' business interests. To suggest however that a dose of citizen parti- cipation is all that the sick city needs is to still beg the issue. Local neighbour- hood interests will constantly clash with city wide interests, particularly in terms of transportation and employ- ment. The interests of both city and neighbourhood should modify each other; otherwise instead of planning there is just the substitution of yet another bias.
Citizen participation is confused by some as a substitute for government, while its real purpose is to sharpen. government. The short term gains to be had from not facing a hostile negro neighbourhood with this fact can only lead to further mistrust and further allegation of betrayal on the part of local government. There is a dangerous tendency to overcompensate in the forms at representation, yet without the concurrent change in attitudes by those performing the local government function.
No assurance can be given that local involvement will produce a significantly better physical development. However the value of physical development itself is getting to be de-emphasised. So an- tagonised do some of the disclaimers seem about unsuccessful new develop- ments that they become distracted by
Dramatic revival is demonstrated in these pictures taken in Philadelphia, Penn. A period of two and a half years separates the two views which are of the same street; the church
the buildings themselves and appear to blame the new buildings as failing, when often it is really the original action of slum clearance which brought them about that is more precisely to blame.
The de-emphasis of physical plan- ning and the new emphasis on social planning will be for the better only if the aims of both are better co-ordi- nated; one is not a substitute for the other as an answer to our urban pro- blems. Since most social action pro- grammes have a physical component in them they can ignore the physical im- plications of their decisions only at their peril. The passing of initiative from the physical to the more socially minded camp is in part a reflection of the unsatisfactorily narrow approach to urban planning so evident in the past.
Perhaps unfortunately, physical so- lutions can be propped up on the land- scape quickly, relative to the problems of inertia and co-ordination needed to be overcome before implimenting most socially oriented solutions. This impatience to get something built has lead to a certain amount of monument building and prompts many, concerned that the federal subsidies may not continue to their specific city, to deve- lop as much as possible, as soon as possible, and "get our share". In turn this leads to plans that are sometimes vague and grandiose but add up to no significant long term re-use value for the land.
Even more specifically it very often frustrates co-ordinated planning, by pandering to short-term interests
governing initial selection of the re- newal site. In general an existing city structure is likely always to be the chief physical constraint to renewal. However, many cities in the second or third generation of their renewal pro- grammes are finding that the most serious limitation of all is the just-com- pleted stage of their renewal plan, especially when it is the first stage simply because of hasty initial site selection. The problem is usually com- pounded by social displacement when a further assumption has been that the best place to start is where the build- ing condition is worst.
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Any city needs its old housing, it provides marginal accommodation, at marginal rentals, for people in marginal situations. Renewal plans can only af ford to remove the excess marginal housing that is unoccupied or cannot be substituted for and even then the process, for the sake of social adjust- ment, should be slow.
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Quite obviously these two conside- rations are at loggerheads with the considerations of increased city taxes, the political value of physical symbols and the application of up-dated build- ing codes; not to mention aesthetic
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Far East BUILDER, May 1969