Urban History for Planners

This article analyzes the conceptual and historiographic differences between the closely related fields of urban history and planning history. It reviews the origins of urban history as a distinct field and argues that work in urban history falls into three broad categories dealing with civic life, individual and group relations, and the physical evolution of urban places. It identifies topics that are particularly fruitful and generate new scholarship, and suggests ways in which each of these realms of urban history raises questions of relevance to urban planning and urban policy

From Urban Frontier to Metropolitan Region: Oregon\u27s Cities from 1870 to 2008

Presentation and paper from 2008 Toward One Oregon Conference. A revised version of this presentation was published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, 110(1), 74-95

United States Regional History as an Instructional Field: The Practice of College and University History Departments

In one sense, American history is a sequential process of regional development marked by a persistent tension between regional cultures and economic interests and integrative national institutions and values. Since the 1890\u27s, regional history has been an active enterprise supported by academic instruction, leading university presses, specialized journals, and professional organizations. A survey of college and university departments of history yielded data to analyze the present ambiguous position of regional history within the evolving discipline of American historical studies

International Cities in the Dual Systems Model: The Transformation of Los Angeles and Washington

Though both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., have grown into world cities since the 1940\u27s, there are differences between them that are explained better by the two model system approach than by other approaches. Washington is distinctly and deliberately isolated from its immediate surroundings and is the center of an international information network. Los Angeles is the production and distribution center of an international region - Mexico and the United States. A valuable measure of the difference is the high proportion of professional workers in Washington, in contrast to the employment structure in Los Angeles, which closely reflects the national pattern

Perspectives on Urban Economic Planning: The Case of Washington, D.C., Since 1880

There is little doubt that the United States has been undergoing a sweeping and multi-faceted economic transformation since the early 1970s. The industrial mix and spatial distribution of activities within the national economy are being altered by basic changes, including (1) the simultaneous growth of certain manufacturing industries and the decline of others, (2) the broad decentralization of manufacturing production to overseas locations and the rising importance of international trade, (3) the shift of employment from manufacturing and transportation into information processing activities, and (4) the emergence of historically peripheral regions in the South and West as centers of innovation and economic change. In varying combinations, these changes are altering the economic circumstances of American cities and forcing reconsideration of appropriate economic roles. With the effective withdrawal of the federal government as an initiator of local economic development in the 1980s, responsibility has fallen on states and municipalities as the traditional promoters of urban growth. State economic development agencies, blue-ribbon panels, futures task forces, and special economic planning committees in a variety of versions have all aimed to consider what their various cities should do next. In some cases, the result may be the abandonment of economic strategies that sufficed for a century or more. Civic leaders across the country chase high-tech industry. Manufacturing cities seek positions in the transactional economy. Other communities try to devise new roles as international retail cities, travel destinations, amateur sports centers, or health care centers. Debates about the future of American cities draw heavily on academic expertise in economics, planning, regional science, and related fields. Book catalogs in these applied fields are filled with city and regional case studies whose titles or subtitles proclaim their interest in deindustrialization, reindustrialization, economic prospects, structural change, and prospects for change. However, few studies are available to allow comparison of current economic planning concerns with past experiences. As a contribution toward a historically informed discussion of decision-making in economic restructuring, I have begun to explore the case of Washington, D.C., a city that has never found it easy to achieve a natural economic role. It has experienced an ambiguous regional orientation, uncertain opportunities, and entrenched preconceptions about appropriate activities. In particular, the generation of Washington leaders following the upheavals of Civil War and Reconstruction faced a need for economic redirection with parallels to the deindustrializing factory towns of the 1970s and 1980s. The focus of this examination is the evolving character of ideas on Washington\u27s potentials as an economic entity. Washingtonians have engaged in an ongoing conversation or discussion about the possibilities of economic development. My interest lies in the articulation and evolution of public ideas, not in the separate questions of the implementation process or the equitable division of the benefits of growth. Ideas about economic development may have their final test as they affect the production and distribution of wealth, but they also have careers as intellectual constructs that express a social context of power and values

Greater Portland: Experiments with Professional Planning, 1905-1925

Portland, Oregon grew so rapidly in population and wealth between 1905 and 1912 that the city\u27s business leadership called for a systematic plan for future urban growth. The City Improvement League accepted the architectural recommendations of Edward H. Bennett to develop outward from the city\u27s center through a series of government buildings, neighborhood parks, and parkways. Unfortunately, the local economic boom collapsed in 1912 and ended any chances of implementing Bennett\u27s plan. Six years later, prosperity returned and a new architectural proposal by Charles Cheney gained acceptance, only to be subverted by the post-World War I economic slump

The Light on the Horizon: Imagining the Death of American Cities

Cities in the United States have never known the direct effects of total war. Lacking this bitter experience, Americans have had to imagine the impacts of catastrophic warfare on their urban centers. This paper examines fictional depictions of future warfare as it has been imagined to affect U.S. cities, particularly since 1945. It draws on films, short stories, and novels from the thriller, future war, and science fiction genres to explore common assumptions and underlying attitudes about cities and city life. It finds that cities are conspicuous by their absence from such stories of future war and its impacts. Cities most often disappear offstage in a burst of light on the horizon, allowing the plot to follow the survivors in small towns and rural settings. This pattern is similar in depictions of the immediate days after the atomic bombing (or the arrival of a surrogate disaster such as a stray meteor or a plague) and in stories set in a deep future decades or centuries after the Big Blowup. Indeed, cities are often depicted dangerous even in their death throes and after, supporting the conclusion that these narratives express the strong fear of cities and preference for middle landscapes that has long marked American culture. Some of the key texts include Philip Wylie, Tomorrow; Pat Frank, Alas, Babylon; Stephen King, The Stand; Walter Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz; Leigh Bracket, The Long Tomorrow; Harlan Ellison, A Boy and His Dog; and the movies Testament and The Day After

Regional City and Network City: Portland and Seattle in the Twentieth Century

Although Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, have comparable early histories, similar economic bases, and parallel demographic profiles, their responses to the rise of a global economy in the 20th century differ. Both were regional capitals in the first half of the century. Since then, however, Portland has kept its traditional role and has gained ground as a regional capital, while Seattle has become a network city transferring goods, services, and ideas reaching beyond the Pacific Northwest. [Western History Association best article award for 1993

Redefining Quaker Simplicity: The Friends Committee on National Legislation Building, 2005

In 2005, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the major Quaker peace and justice lobbying organization in the United States, completed a substantial remodeling and expansion of its office building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The building exemplifies a self-conscious effort to express Quaker values of simplicity and stewardship in architectural choices. Examining the changing meanings of simplicity as expressed in Quaker meeting houses, this article argues that contemporary Friends in the United States have given nontraditional meanings to the concept and now associate simplicity with environmental stewardship in personal and community life. For example, the use of natural light now takes on a multitude of symbolic meanings in addition to practical functions. The decision by FCNL to accept the costs and complications of\u27green building\u27 grew directly from this commitment to understanding of simplicity, even though the new structure itself is not necessarily simple in design and engineering

Draining The Swamp: A Guide For Outsiders And Career Politicians

What do Ron Paul, Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump have in common? They’ve all promised to “drain the swamp” of Washington politics. These ambitious “hydraulic engineers” rely on a phrase that is deeply mired in our political discourse. The metaphor gets its clout from the notion that Washington was built in an actual physical swamp, whose foul landscape has somehow nourished rotten politics. The assumption is just plain wrong: Washington was never a swamp, as I’ve discovered in exploring its first two centuries