The Political Side of Urban Development and Redevelopment

The fate of planned urban development and redevelopment largely depends on the political system. In the United States, political and governmental fragmentation has crucial consequences for development in physical, social, and political ways. The federal system, whatever its virtues, raises barriers which impede accommodation. The multiplicity of local units of government, not rationally determined, under mines co-ordination, power, and responsibility. The outcome of diffusion of power and dilution of responsibility is rigidity. Urban renewal is limited by the dichotomy of public and private control, tension between federal and municipal agencies, divi sion of power between different federal agencies, and fragmen tation of power at the local community level. Any change will require some adjustments in perspective. The possibilities for change, however, do not rest upon basic changes in political norms but, rather, on experimentation in their application. In conceptions of community, for example, the units have probably been too small, applying to limited, exclusive groups organized around shared activities. These come together, partially and fortuitously, in the urban scene. In that scene, the only en compassing organization is the political community. The political side of urban development and redevelopment is inescapable.—Ed.