Basic HTML Version
30
The
PLAIN TRUTH
December 1971
LOIG-BIIGB SOLUTIOI
POR CITY \VOBS
S
OLUTIONS
are not simple or clear
cut, but any
long-range
remedy
revolvcs around an urban "revolu–
tion." Therc are three vital "revolu–
tionary" changes needed to save our
cities.
Many great cities of the past and
present werc built by "benevolent
dictators ," not hamstrung political
hacks.
Needed: The Right Kind
of Mayor ...
Net¿·su•eek
magazine rcceotly stated:
"What everyonc wants is a
phi–
losopher-king,
a mayor with both
the
porver Jo govem and the tuisdom
10
do right."
Economist Raymond Vernon put it
this way:
"If
a major object of our
existence were to create great cities of
beauty and grace, there would be
something to be said in favor of dic–
tatorship. As a rule, the great cities
of the past have been cities of the
powerful statc - cities in which a
domiuant king or goveming body
has had the power and the will to
impose its land-use restrictions upon
the obedient populace."
But, a dynamic city government in
the strong hands of the
wrong
man
could be a disaster. Many of today's
metropolitan mayors, given such
power, might do a commendable
job, with remarkably immediate and
positive results. Other men migbt
not have the wisdom, leadership, or
judgment to handle the job_ Where
are the men that can be trusted to
properly handle 140 million urban
Americans living in 250 separate
metropolises of over 50,000 people
each?
And, given the men, how can they
have the power to
acl
within Amer–
ica's representative democracy of
endless checks and balances?
Part of the answer líes in a change
of governmental structure.
. ..
A New Kind of
Government .
..
We are nearing 1976 - a world
totally different from 1776. The
United States is now 60 times more
populous than 200 years ago;
5
times
as large geographically; thousands of
times more wealthy in material
goods; is more urbanized, mobile,
sophisticated - and weaker in spirit.
Yet, with all these changes, the
governmental structurc of
3
Y
2
mi
I–
lion backwoodsmen, town craftsmen,
and plantation owners is virtually un–
changed. The Constitution, as drawn
up for that society, is revered as
though it fell from Heaven.
"lf we had to do it all over
again," wrote New York University
Professor of Urban Government,
Richard A. Netzer, "We would
probably have three types of govern–
ment -
Federal, metropolitan and
regional."
Think :1bout what this
means.
The concept of states grew out of
land grants to a number of rich
merchants, noblcmen and financiers,
each group wanting a colony of its
own. They didn't conceive of
one
nation. Counties grew out of pioneer
townships. In both cases, borders
were set by purely arbitrary and acci–
dental happenstance, not refiecting
today's population distribution in any
way.
The U. S. Post Office uses Zip
Codes, a metropolitan, people-based
system; state and county addresses
are no Jonger necessary. Marketing
maps or Zip Code tables cross state
lines as if they weren't there (most
borders are artificial longitude and
latitude lines). You don't see state
lines from a plane; you see human
settlements. Where the people
are
should govern where our jurisdic–
tions lie.
The senseless interstate
f
intrastate
controversies ( where the Federal
Government can only enter into
"interstate" cases but is powerless if
no state lines are crossed) should
be
"lf we had to do
it all over again,
we would proba–
bly have three
types of govern–
ments
...
Federal,
Metropolitan and
Regional.'
1
Rich<>rd
A. Nerzer
- N Y. Univo,.ftr
abolished. Since each American is in
the economic, cultural, geographical,
and transportational
"orbit''
of a
metropolitan arca, would not a logi–
cal government for 1976 indude
governments based on human settle–
ments- Federal, metropolitan (city)
arca, and regional (local) section
government ?
...
And a New Kind
of People
Of course, no governmental
or
leadership changes will ever solve
the "people problem" which is weak–
ening the spirit of America. A