The City: Under the Knife, or All For Their Own Good

(10 of 10)

Last Chance. But a start has to be made somewhere—it all takes time. A new development in a slum area will only slowly inspire reconstruction of the other slums around it. And it has been 30 years or more for instance, since Philadelphia's upper-and middle-class families considered living in the center of town. Until Bacon started its renewal, there was precious little reason why they should. But Bacon and other U.S. planners are, and properly should be, thinking in terms of the long future, to make the city attractive and stimulating again—creating new neighborhoods, bringing old ones back to life, seeding the streets with sudden green, opening up unexpected views, and giving men room to work and stroll and play and talk. To rediscover, in short, the pleasures of urbanity.