http://goodspeedupdate.com/2008/2197 Rob Goodspeed's blog Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:30:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://goodspeedupdate.com/2008/2197/comment-page-1#comment-324147 What a Difference 40 Years Makes - The Goodspeed Update Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:25:51 +0000 http://goodspeedupdate.com/2008/2197#comment-324147 [...] also Remembering 1968 and Understanding the 1960’s “Civil Disorders’ No Comments Leave a [...] [...] also Remembering 1968 and Understanding the 1960’s “Civil Disorders’ No Comments Leave a [...]

]]> http://goodspeedupdate.com/2008/2197/comment-page-1#comment-85743 Christopher Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:30:11 +0000 http://goodspeedupdate.com/2008/2197#comment-85743 I don't know enough about DC planning history after the war to know the specifics, but I do know that in general after WWII there was a real problem with overcrowding in American cities. And a sense that something needed to be done about this, and so between elimination (as in DC) of Alley dwellings or in downgrading density (in the case of SF) were two ways that city governments responded. So at the same time that citizens and their elected leaders were saying -- enough growth, enough crowding -- the feds and the developers were poised to develop outside of the cities (not that they already hadn't been, our disgust with cities as Westerners dates throughout modern history, and always rapidly increased with technological advancements in transportation). Having the Federal government grow so rapidly during WWII and the New Deal (and suddenly need to find land for these newly created departments) didn't help the urbanization any either. So many cofactors, a perfect storm of events, I suppose. I don’t know enough about DC planning history after the war to know the specifics, but I do know that in general after WWII there was a real problem with overcrowding in American cities. And a sense that something needed to be done about this, and so between elimination (as in DC) of Alley dwellings or in downgrading density (in the case of SF) were two ways that city governments responded. So at the same time that citizens and their elected leaders were saying — enough growth, enough crowding — the feds and the developers were poised to develop outside of the cities (not that they already hadn’t been, our disgust with cities as Westerners dates throughout modern history, and always rapidly increased with technological advancements in transportation). Having the Federal government grow so rapidly during WWII and the New Deal (and suddenly need to find land for these newly created departments) didn’t help the urbanization any either. So many cofactors, a perfect storm of events, I suppose.

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