Evening star., 1935-10-02
Restore Blighted Urban
Areas to Healthy Life
To the Editor Of The Star:


I wonder If the originators of The
Stars commendable campaign to reduce
trafic accidents realize that they have
it in their power to push much larger
project which gets at the fundamentals
of our present serious traffic problem.
refer to a project which, under the con-
troll of the Housing Administration, would
involve the large-Scale rebuilding of the
disorganized areas Immediately adjoining
the downtown business districts.
Washington, in this particular. is faced
with a situation no different from that
of any large American city. AS the old
residential areas become outmoded and
less comfortable to live in they are
abandoned by their desirable occupants,
who move to the newer houses and apart
ments in the suburbs. The automobile is
the great factor precipitating this Selec-
ton of the remoter areas.
Meanwhile, into the rapidly decaying
downtown residential areas move the So
cially undesirable elements of our popu-
lation. The economically distressed and
the crime-plying groups take over the
'blighted areas"
Municipal services have to be ex-
tended miles beyond the old limits. Eco
nomic services, schools, transportation
lines, the sewerage facilities, fire and
police protection, cultural and recrea-
tional institutions all have to branch
out into the automobile doomed suburbs.
Business still being concentrated in
the downtown area, most workers have
to use the same StreetS-Widened three
or four feet, perhaps-that they used
decades ago. Moreover being motorized,
they require much more room per indi-
vidual worker to move. What results
is traffic problem that reaches alarming
proportions, exacting an enormous toll
in human lives, nerves. energy, time, eff
cheney and about everything worth while
in living.
We can't throw out the automobile.
What we can do-in addition to con-
Quoting be careful campaigns-is to make
the use of the automobile in the city
less necessary. This can be done by
restoring the blighted areas to the state
of being habitable.
Why should thousands of Government
workers have to creep and crawl and
twist through block after block of de
caying" residential property in order to
reach the outlying new, bright, and at
tractive districts? Why should criminals.
loafers, hordeS OF relief families and
other economic non-contributors be able
to have short healthful walk to any
of the downtown places of business or
recreation, while the socially desirable
families, marooned miles away, patronize
their small neighborhood stores and the
aters, rather than fight the traffic on
the way down town?
Such a project as I have in mind
would embrace more than the tearing
down of few novels such as those exist
ing within five blocks of the White House.
1t would involve a complete project OF
regional planning and development EX-
tenSive surveys valuations and statistical
study would be followed by wholesale
demolition of thousands of decaying
shacks, small shops and homes.
A new type of midtown residential
section would arise, built by Government
experts, embodying the newest and best
OF what we have learned about family
and individual housing. Light and air
are just as obtainable downtown as else
where by engineers and housing experts
who can plan on broad scale without
the limitations of the small individual
builder. Provision can be made for the
minimum Of annoyance from the through
traffic destined for the suburbs. Hap
PLY, such through traffic will diminish.
For with the establishment of desirable
living quarters close to the center of
town who would risk life and limb on
our highways in the rush hour, unless he
were sentimentally attracted to some
! locality?
Surely the time Is over-ripe for the
replanning of our motor areas. Make
it less necessary for automobiles to enter
the downtown districts Give human
! legs chance! RUTH WELTY.