142 Some Problems in City Planning 



land area of the United States, the effect of their expansion into good 

 agricultural land is enormous. This underscores the need for an ade- 

 quate national land use survey. Whatever the economic or cultural 

 losses may be, equally serious is the lost opportunity to create a 

 satisfactory design for the urban region. As Dr. Gulick states, "ur- 

 banization does increase the pressure on land as a resource, and 

 accentuates the need for planned controls and for dynamic programs 

 of land conservation and use." 



In the second part of his paper. Dr. Gulick makes proposals to 

 deal with the increased pressures on our resources. 1 concur that we 

 need more scientific analyses of the impact of urbanization on our 

 resources if a sound public and private policy is to be developed. We 

 need (1) to establish a firm basis for policy decisions about the 

 character of regional development; (2) to program public works for 

 conservation of resources and for economic development; and (3) 

 to adopt measures for renewal, conservation, and rehabilitation of 

 cities, and for the building of new cities. 



Our social science research effort also needs to be expanded if 

 decisions about the character of future urbanization is to be realis- 

 tically adapted to changing needs. 



Dr. Gulick has made an admirable argument for education in re- 

 source use. Americans have not yet grasped the full extent of our 

 urban problems, nor have enough dedicated persons become con- 

 cerned with them. As Father Hesburgh has said, what happens to 

 education, happens to America.^ I, too, believe that our schools, 

 with inspired teachers, could bring about a revival in our sense of 

 values and in the sense of community that underlies any successful 

 social and political program. 



Dr. Gulick's statement of the role of government and its relation 

 to private action is succinct. Without the broad framework of con- 

 scious and authoritative social control he suggests, no program will 

 succeed. 



The few elements for priority action at first seem to oversimplify 

 the task — but actually they are comprehensive. If air, water, land, 

 and transportation are controlled adequately in interrelated programs 



* Father Theodore Hesburgh, University of Notre Dame, on CBS program, 

 "The Great Challenge: Education for What," February 23, 1958. 



