Evening star., 1937-02-28
National Face-Lifting
Operations
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

ASoA CoIHCC AOSdOCO uIAolsllIly o4uIu
areas of $50 cities in the United States.
This does not include what the Govern
ment has done through its Federal Hous-
ing Administration.
In England there used to be a saying
that thing was as safe as houses and,
perhaps, Americans, being largely Of
English stock themselves have taken
that idea to heart. Certainly real estate,
in the United States, according to Fred
erick M. Babcock and other authorities,
has reflected the legal privilege Of
relative freedom from control"
This is an old privilege, under the
English common law, and considered so
much of a privilege that men have
fought for it. The idea has endured
that, if man has an acre of land, it
is his from the middle of the earth
to the uttermoSt height of cosmic rays.
That idea has undergone changes in
some lands. Even in the United States
there has been limited naturalization
of the subsoil, as when public lands are
purchased for song, riches in oil, in
copper, i'll gold or other minerals SUBJ
sequently found underneath shall revert,
at least in part, to the people.
~
But, for the most part, as Mr. Bah-
cock says, land in private ownership
has been committed to such uses as the
Whims and aspirations of private owners
have dictated. This freedom has been
precious right of owners and has per-
mitted American cities to develop In
genious types of land utilization
Sam Walter FoSs, the Boston poet,
once wrote a set of rhymed lines TO
celebrate the building of Boston, of
which, he said. the universe was
suburb. 1t dealt with the laying out
of that city and went on to describe
how long dead COWS had wandered here
and there treading paths. Then, said
he. the lines of the streets OF Boston
followed the cowpaths.
1t is probably true that most American
cities have been created in just about
that way Even the Federal City Of
Washington the National Capital, al
though carefully planned by Maj. LIN
FAINT with streets and avenues. all as
pretty as an etcher's design, underwent
difficulty in getting itself perfected AS
in Boston and elsewhere. the streets
began to wander. The lines of the
original survey were forgotten or ignored
and the highways of the city meandered.
When Gov. Shepherd set about trying
to straighten them he discovered build
ings set in the middle of surveyed
streets and streets running through
settlements. The series of condemna-
tions which he brought about came near
to causing his assassination, but the
I'll ,%,yol l1y-1 1lrY
plished.
So it has gone with most American
cities, save that none OF them has had
the detailed preliminary planning which
Washington had. Take, for example,
the great city of Baltimore, which now
is approaching a million population.
When the Free State of Maryland first
was settled it was decided in all gravity
to found its chief city, its great port, at
the head Of chesapeake Bay, where the
mighty Susquehanna joins the broader
waters. Houses were built and laws writ
ten to govern the community. But, In
a short time, there was only Scanty
community to govern. An upstart VIII
lage named Baltimore began to grow.
None knew quite why, but the in
dubitable fact was that it did.
Today Baltimore stands as one OF
Americas chief cities. and the planned
town at the confluence of the Susque-
hanna and the Chesapeake has half o
dozen cottages-all very nice but very
quiet!
Almost every one knows the story Of
Chicago and every one the story OF New
York In both cases complete lack OF
plan characterized their development.
The same is true of many other cities
which have sprung from the plains or
appeared as outcropS on mountainsides.
Now. it seems. there is strong pressure
to change all that.
The basic theory is that each dWeller
in city has a responsibility TO his
neighbor. and that responsibility must
be expressed in the management OF his
real estate. Time was when any owner
of a piece of ground could erect upon
1t anything he liked. 1t might be
gas tank. it might be a monument to
departed ancestor. it might be roller
coaster. or it might be a garbage in
cinerator. After all 1t was his land, to
have and to hold.
*
But. more recently, times have changed
and, apparently, the thought of the
country with them. 1t seems that now
a man must be more conscious OF his
neighborS than of yore. Cities have put
into effect zoning ordinances which lay
down the law specifically and say that
this kind of building and only this
kind of a building shall be erected here.
to the end that the character OF an
area. shall be preserved.
One might think that this would apply
only to new work. and that assumption
would have been sound but short time
ago. 1t no longer would be. In many
American cities entire blocks Of struc-
lures have been torn down and been
replaced with houses of what has been
considered more appropriate design and
certainly of more appropriate sanitation.
A new doctrine has sprung up which
Is called by the experts the doctrine OF
the control of neighborhoods, and the
result has been-or is in rapid process OF
being accomplished-the lifting of the
face of America. What is known to the
technicians as an integrated community
is taking the place of the sprawllng
neighborhood. 1t is not alone in the
suburbs that this thing is being done.
In cities not single blocks but groups
of city blocks have been razed and re-
built either with small individual cot
tages or with spreading apartment
houses, especially fitted to what are pre-
Sumed to be the requirements OF the
particular neighborhood.