Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/105

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES vested interest cannot be asserted against the police power of a state because of conditions once obtaining. To so hold would preclude development and fix a city forever in its primitive conditions. There must be progress, and if in its march private interests are in the way, they must yield to the good of the community." It may be added that the New York Commission in doing its work held to an extremely conservative point of view, even for New York conditions, and tested each proposal with a query as to whether it would tend to improve health, safety, and general welfare.

The disappointment in the New York law, among those interested in the improvement of cities, is in the low standard that existing conditions made it necessary apparently for New York to adopt. While the principles are sound and the methods of procedure worthy of the highest praise, the standards established by New York, if followed by any other city in the United States, with possibly one or two exceptions, will be harmful rather than beneficial. One has but to compare the regulations of a European city with those recently adopted in New York by the Districting Commission to realize how far we have fallen in our city building methods.

It is surprising that so few American cities have acted in this matter. It is now the one great outstanding opportunity in city planning. The New York principles point the way, and the courts have given an unqualified endorsement as to legality. The public mind is awakened. Conditions are peculiarly favorable. Action should follow rapidly, but it should be based upon a survey of local conditions and be accompanied by a comprehensive city plan of which the districting should be an integral part, perhaps the principal part, so far as immediate action is concerned.

Further discussion of questions relating to the establish-