Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Abstract
American cities can be looked at in many ways, but one thing
everyone should be able to agree on is that they are in big trouble.
They are dilapidated, congested, trash-strewn, unsafe, rebellionprone,
poverty-stricken, polluted, frightened, demoralized and generally
on the run. They give every indication of being beyond hope,
and little leadership or new ideas are in evidence suggesting otherwise.
Actually all cities throughout the industrial world are in trouble,
but U. S. cities seem to be especially bad. In contrast, Toronto and
Montreal, which Americans visit in great numbers, have a completely
different tone. Not only do they look better, they feel a whole lot
better, with an optimism and verve that is noticeably absent from
Chicago, Cleveland, New York or Los Angeles. This is a striking
paradox, that the richest and most powerful nation in the world is
losing its ability to maintain healthy communities, that somehow material
growth has created problems that are bigger than the people,
not just in the environment but in social and psychological life as well.
This article will be an attempt to take a cold look at this situation.
The approach will be sociological, with an eye toward social relations
and problems of organization. It will be diagnostic, with an emphasis
on what is wrong and how it might be righted. This analysis will also
be from the heart, for I have lived in American cities all my forty
years and my six children will probably be doing the same. These
are my cities and their sadness is my sadness.
I will begin by discussing some of the broaderpublished or submitted for publicatio
