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ing such an abundant life in the city of
the near future?
Tomorrow's Cities?
Here is how
Lo! Angele! Times
sci–
ence writer, Irving S. Bengelsdorf,
envisions the future city sorne would
like to live in.
"There will be bigger and more luxu–
rious stadiums for larger and larger
crowds to watch athletic contests. There
will be more swimming pools, tennis
courts, golfing greens, dance halls,
bowling alleys, color telcvision sets....
Recreation will be rampant. ..."
This city of the future is expected to
be a fantasy to behold
!
lt
appears
everything must be bigger and better -
and more fun.
For better or worse, everything
iJ
get–
ting
bigger!
But are things getting bet–
ter?
The answer is a resounding "No!"
Glimpses into proposed future cities
and suburbs - though filled with glit- .
tering promises - are not reassuring.
Says Bengelsdorf, now detailing the
reality
of the future city if today's
trends continue:
"But 1985 also will have increased
crime, gambling, sexual promiscuity,
riots, air and water pollution, traffic
congestion, noise and lack of solitude.
More and more, there will be 'no place
to hide' . ...
llmbostodor
Colleso
Photo
According to Dr. Herman Kahn, nearly half
of
all Americans will soon be
housed in three dense, suburban "strip cities." Two of these are
ChipiHs
and
Boswash
(pictured above), and the third is
Sansan,
stretching from San
Francisco down to San Diego.
"Intensified by social, ethnic and
racial (problems], the cities of 1985
will be seething centers of periodically
great turmoil and confusion."
It
is predicted that tomorrow's city
sidewalks will
be
like
loday'I.
Only,
they wiU be a
who/e lot woru.
In fact, large portions of many cities
could be
plain dead
by then. This is the
frank ana lysis of experts, when they
add up the burgeoning problems of
cities.
Here is what one magazine predicted:
"By 1980, the pollution problems of
sorne major cities will be unsolvable.
"By 1982 or 1983, an air pollution
catastrophe will kili thousands in sorne
U. S. city.
"By the mid-1980's, if not before,
every man, woman and child in thc
hemisphere will have to wear a breath–
ing helmet to survive outdoors. Most
animals and plants will be dead.
"By the end of the '80's, the U. S.
will begin to experience major ecolo–
gical breakdowns of its soil and water.
Plagues of new diseases -
which
humans cannot resist and which our
medicines cannot cure - wiU rage.
"By 1990, those of us who are left
will be living in domed ci ties [per–
haps the author should havc said
"doomed"J.
JI{/
ithin a genuaJion, it
may be
atl
over for man"
(
Good
Ho1tSekeeping,
August, 1970).
Unbel ievable But True
Not a very reassuring prediction for
us mortals who have no place
else
to go.
And absolutely
FRIGHTENING
to the
experts who have studied today's critica!
situation.
It
led
one
expert, Professor Rene
Dubos of the Rockefeller Center, to tell
an international conference on the
environment that "human life may
become impossible in a decade or so."
This was well over two years ago. And
the problem has not been alleviated.
Dubos had to warn his colleagues
that unless action is taken soon, "we
may lind that
half the pop11lation
in
these cities will
be
sick and the other
half will be engaged in giving them
medica! treatment."
Possible health disasters are merely
one aspect of the city crisis. Another is
racial tension.
With peoplc of varying races packed
together, sorne experts fear that out-