Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/73

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES

The basic principle of port and harbor organization from a city planning point of view is that a port should be developed as a unit under public control of the terms on which private carriers, shippers and consignees shall be served. The port being once conceived as an organic whole, administered by the city for the benefit of all, there can be no thought of returning to the private rivalry and mutual obstruction from which American waterfront developments still suffer.

A port at which the several parts are properly related to each other will enjoy the advantages of industrial as well as commercial opportunity. The growth of a city depends more on the establishment of factories than upon the passage and transshipment of commodities. Cheap transportation ana good terminal distribution are important in factory development. City planning should aim especially to provide intercommunication between the factories at a port, its docks, and all transportation lines. Otherwise the city cannot successfully compete in the production and distribution of wealth.

Cities that are fortunate in also being ports should base their city plans upon the peculiar opportunity that the port affords. Mistakes in planning and development which exist at most of the older port cities of the United States should gradually be corrected and new improvements undertaken with reference to a preconceived design. When in accord with the general plan of the public or private terminal, improvements should be encouraged, but they should be subject to such public regulation and supervision as may be necessary to fit them into a public system of administration.

Some of the principal points which should be kept in