Planning Quote of the Day

"solved" by physical isolation and segregation

"[After World War II] virtually every American problem, real, imagined, or socio-psychopathic, was 'solved' by physical isolation and segregation; from race relationships, to illness, to illegal behavior, to undesired contact with persons of lower income, spatial segregation was the answer -- an answer embodied in and enforced by local zoning ordinances."

-- Laurence Gerckens, "American Zoning & the Physical Isolation of Uses" (in Planning Commissioners Journal #15)

as early as 1752

"As early as 1752 one hundred and twenty licensed taverns did business in [Philadelphia] ... . Such houses offered a genuine social solvent. 'I dined at a tavern with a very mixed company of different nations and religions,' recordered Dr. Alexander Hamilton in his Itinerarium in 1744. 'There were Scots, English, Dutch, Germans,and Irish; there were Roman Catholicks, Churchmen, Presbyterians, Quakers, Newlighters, Methodists, Seventh daymen, Moravians, Anabaptists, and one Jew,' gathered in 'a great hall well stocked with flies.' Daytimes, hundreds frequented the London Coffee House at Front and Market streets, opened by William Bradford in 1754, which served as a general clearinghouse for business, news and gossip ... ."

-- From Rebels and Gentlemen: Philapdelphia in the Age of Franklin, by Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1942).

For more on the important role that taverns and other "third places" have played in cities and towns, read excerpts from Ray Oldenburg's, "Our Vanishing Third Places" in the Planning Commissioners Journal (complete article is available to order & download).

Take a look also at a post on our PlannersWeb blog, "Exchanging Local News: from Colonial Taverns to Email Networks," that discusses how neighborhood communication has moved from the kind of third places Oldenburg focuses on to email networks. We take a look at one such network: Front Porch Forum. Is this trend something to be cheered, or saddened, by?

society will build what it believes in

Q. Is the current wave of preservation too intense?

A. I don't think so. Twenty-five years ago we tore down indiscriminately and cruelly. And I think that the forces that work to destroy buildings will always be strong. Sometimes it's simple greed, but there's usually some kind of social force behind it. Society will build what it believes in. Right now it believes in luxury condominiums.

-- from interview of noted architectural historian Vincent Scully by New York Times reporter Eleanor Charles (February 7, 1988)

Note: this week's three quotes will all be from this insightful 1988 interview. While the interview focused on issues facing Connecticut, Scully's responses were often broader in scope.

from William Penn's 1683 plan

"From William Penn's 1683 plan for Philadelphia to the latest neo-traditional addition, the primary American town building motivation has been land speculation."

-- From "The Control of Land Subdivision," by Larry Gerckens, FAICP, in The Promise of America issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal (Spring 2000)

Note: this issue is available through the end of January at a specially discounted price using this link.

the municipal reform movement

"Adoption of a comprehensive plan and a capital budget, both now common municipal practice, helped to remove the corrupt boss politician and his cronies from the capital expenditure process, taking away one important source of their power. Planners can thus take credit for making a major contribution to the municipal reform movement that significantly cleaned up American politics in the first half of the twentieth century."

-- From "The Abolition of Corrupt 'Boss' Governments," by Larry Gerckens, FAICP, in The Promise of America issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal (Spring 2000).

Note: this issue is available through the end of January at a specially discounted price.