76 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



This program will be carried out only upon application by local 

 neighborhood groups who want trees in their particular area. The 

 Fairmount Park Commission will establish criteria to determine 

 policies on which these trees will be provided for the citizens. This 

 explicit, albeit humble, act will assert our concern about improving 

 the environment of all parts of the city, including the least privileged. 



This relates to a broad problem of which we are conscious in 

 approaching the total question in the city of both the strengths and 

 the shortcomings of the urban renewal program as it is now being 

 administered. 



We are concerned because, with the best will in the world, the 

 actual products of the urban renewal program up to the present 

 moment fall short of the mark. Too much is being spent in too small 

 an area and too many of the people who should be receiving the 

 benefits of urban renewal are not, because of the highly concen- 

 trated aspects of the program at the present time. 



This concept of the immediate improvement of the environment 

 on a broad basis by the proposed tree planting program is obviously 

 not the whole answer, but it is a step to bridge the gap, to move into 

 positive action, to give hope and encouragement to people in all parts 

 of the city and particularly in depressed areas. 



There is a kind of phenomenon which I might call the administra- 

 tive hardening of the arteries which goes about something like this: 

 The local communities become stirred up about a problem as, for 

 example, they were with the problem of their blighted areas. They 

 make representation to the Congress. There are hearings and Con- 

 gress adopts legislation such as the National Housing Act. 



Then the agencies are set up to administer the program and the 

 program gets underway. In a massive problem such as this, the 

 experience in the field of the local community uncovers the fact that 

 the program, as currently administered, fails to meet precisely the 

 objectives established for it. Therefore, on the feedback principle, 

 which is the basis of all scientific thought and all automation, there 

 should be a constant review, reevaluation, change in the policies in 

 which the Federal program is readjusted so that it more and more 

 nearly meets the reality of the problem in this field. 



The horrible phenomenon is that the cities, the communities, and 

 the local agencies applying for funds to the Federal Government, are 

 so afraid of offending the Federal people and therefore not getting 

 money, that there is great reluctance to suggest any revisions. This 



