744 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



THE CITY PLAN AND THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 



The planning of cities involves the adjustment of the physical re- 

 sources of the city to meet the needs of its population, present and 

 future. The proper planning of cities may be made to improve hous- 

 ing conditions in a variety of ways. The functions of city planning 

 may be considered conveniently under two captions. First, the re- 

 modeling of the old city, and second, the determination of the mode of 

 development of new sections. Of these the first program is largely 

 remedial in character, while the second is fundamentall}^ preventive. 



From the housing point of view the remodeling of portions of the 

 city already built may not have a marked effect upon the dwelling 

 conditions of the population in quarters so treated. In any district in 

 which streets are widened or trees or grass strips are placed, impetus 

 for the remodeling of old buildings is likely to be purely superficial. 

 A new brick face may be placed on an old insanitary building. The 

 dark room may remain. Still under such conditions the occupants 

 profit by an increase of light and air from the widened street, by 

 purification of air where trees are placed and by the increased 

 beauty of their outlook. 



THE INSANITARY AREA. 



City planning within the heart of a built-up city may also involve 

 schemes for dealing in a large way with districts in which the houses 

 are highly insanitary and are beyond repair, positively unsafe, and 

 dangerous to health and morality. There are many ways in which a 

 district of this sort can be treated. First, it may be neglected by 

 health and tenement departments that are overworked and unable 

 to deal with a problem so large and apparently hopeless. In the sec- 

 ond place an attempt might be made to repair the district, either at 

 the cost of the city or by the city at the cost of the owners (the Bir- 

 mingham method), or the owners might be ordered to make the neces- 

 sary repairs at their own expense. Special powers would be necessary 

 if improvements on private estates are to be made by the municipality 

 at public expense. The third program would undoubtedly result in a 

 patchwork reform. No one of these progi'ams is adequate to deal 

 with such districts ; they are merely palliative and might reduce but 

 would not destroy the unhealthfulness of such a district. 



Another possibility would be the complete destruction of the entire 

 area by the city. This might be done with the intention of replacing 

 the area with a park — as was done by New York City, for example, in 

 the notorious Mulberry Bend — or the area could be rebuilt by the city 

 with municipal dwellings or other buildings. The cost of the first 

 half of this latter program renders it undesirable if there is a cheaper 

 alternative which is equally effective. As for the latter, municipal 



