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What a great article. This is the kind of history one has to dig up on thier own but answers so many questions one had about how we got where we are. One of the reasons I tend to harp on modernist ideology is that anyone of those slum clearance plans could have been drawn up by LeCorbusier and company. It seems willfully ignorant not to understand the intellectual roots of ideas we now view as grotesque, but which polite society signed on to without hesitation only 50 years ago. Something else I hope someone could dig up are the interviews made of the residents where the neighborhoods where demolished. It reads like a PTSD manual.

"There are certainly reasons to believe race played a part as well" That's an understatement. Ultimatley, the realestate holders of these and surrounding neighborhoods used the modernist plans of slum clearance under the ruberic of wanting to provide "light and shade" knowing full well they'd devastate the very communities they where proporting to help. Unfortunatley for city lovers, these developers had some naive albeit well intentioned planners and architects as handymen.

This "scientific" approach which left out anything to do with emotion (as unscientific) seems to have had its apogee in the post WWII years when data ruled. The insights Jane Jacobs brought to how we now view cities was impossible to ascertain through this model, and as such we had to go to the extreme to see the faults of that approach. Not to through science under the bus, but thankfully its definition has been broadened to take into account unquantifiable information such as sense of place and beauty.

It's only fair to point out that some large scale city renewal efforts have produced wonderful results like Baron Von Hausman's new Paris of which there's a great account in David McCulloghs new book, "Americans in Paris", but it's clear (from the book) that what replaced a lot of Medeaval Paris was equal or better than what was torn down. There are many reasons we ended up destroying large parts of our cities and ultimatley our culture, so it's simplistic to blame it on any one thing, but one should follow history wherever it may lead as the best way to prevent this kind of maddness again.

by Thayer-D on Jul 9, 2012 2:03 pm • link • report