Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/11



HE cities of the United States have not yet made many of those public improvements that are so essential to modern life, especially for the new era. Their streets are still obstructed and rendered dangerous as well as unsightly by poles and wires; school grounds are usually too small and undeveloped; playgrounds are inadequate in number and size; waterfronts are unattractive, wastefully administered, and mostly in private hands; parks are detached tracts of land, unrelated one to the other. American cities have not yet solved the serious problems related to railroad approaches and terminals and the elimination of grade crossings. They have not yet acted comprehensively with regard to the main thoroughfares for traffic or pleasure driving or street extensions in general. In a word, they have not yet applied in a businesslike and economical manner the methods characteristic of the modern city planning movement. Therefore the American city still suffers in many ways from haphazard, piecemeal and shortsighted procedure.

Nothing is more marked than the steadily increasing attention to every influence affecting the improvement of city life. This is due partly to the unprecedented growth of urban communities, partly to the vastly greater complexity of modern city life, partly to evils resulting from the lack of skill and experience in planning and constructing American