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Tempora r y Addres s i s : S uit e 1 211, 615 Pea ch t ree Stre e t NE, Atl a nt a , 30308, Tel. 873 - 6983 S U ITE 27 4 0 • 2 PEACHTREE NUMBER 3 STREE;T TELEPHONE AT L AN T A , G A . 30303 577-3976 What It Takes to M a k e Great CI·t·leS An attack on slums isn't enough. • /5 J ANUARY 1 9 , 19 67 ~,.- ef~,.i~ 1q6q &)(C~ Cities need middle-class residents - and downtowns tHat are "cathedrals." FORTUNE January 1967 by Edmund K. Faltermayer Two characteristics, however, are common to all gr eat .cities. T hey a ll have a n exciti ng downtown filled with a great variety of shqps, t heatres, museums, and other att ractions, and laid out as a place of great beauty- designed, in the wor ds of archi tect Louis Kahn , to be "the cathedral of the city." Eq ually important, they have a Jar e middle-class o ulation residing near downtown, possessing t he purchasing power an the tastes to he p sustai n its activities. The anti-city bias shows in the limited asp irations of most recent city building. Urban-renewal f unds available each year have been only a fraction of what t he country spends on farm subsidies or space exploration. And they have been employed mainly for only two purposes, to rev italize ~ ~ess ~ t s-mostly th ro ugh face'='lifting rather than true "cathedral" design ing- and to eradicate the worst slums. It takes mor e t han t hat to achieve greatness. Despite the high-so undin g rhetoric used to promote it, the demonstration-cities program passed last year by Congress is not going to create great cities, either. It promises a stepped-up attack on the slums, with physical reconstruction and social services closely coordinated. While this kind of effort is commendable and long overdue, the program will do nothing directly toward reb uilding downtowns or making cities attractive places for middleclass citizens to live. Robert C. Weaver, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, argues that the new legislation will help middle-class neighborhoods by removing the blighting effects of slums that adjoin them. " There is nothing inconsistent in working on the cancerous part and improving the whole city," he says.'tut many authorities on urban affa irs are shar I critical of the e-sided emphasis on the slums. "For political reasons," as one oft em puts it, "we ave decided to throw most of our resources into the deficient areas of the cities, and k!;_the~s ~ !2,!" themselves." The middle-class citizen who prefers the city's sidewalks to sub urbia's lawns is the forgotten man in today's city-building efforts. Cities have devoted only the scantiest of resources to making urban li ving appealing to him, and ~ I ~ g J:Jrograms are tailored ~ to the ~ urbanite and the_m dweller. City planners, surprisingly, are not clear on what causes a neighborhood to start renewing itself. or how the process can be encouraged . Research is needed here. A selective form of urban renewal, in wh ich onl y the worst evesores and hopelessly run-down buildings are demolished, unquestionably has helped encourage the midd le-class people who are refurbishing houses on Philadelphia's Society Hill and on Balt imore's Bolton Hill. 6

T HE ATI..ANT A CONSTITUTION, 11,ur•doy, J an. 12, 1967 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1 - ---- - - - --··- -- - -· It's Just Carl And Betty Again By ACHSAH NESMITH The difference between a living city and a n urba n cadaver is its heart.

Bob Bivens

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