Urban planning is a technical and political process that takes into consideration man’s environs and surroundings. This field of study is focused on the use of land, public welfare, urban environment which includes air, water, and all kinds of infrastructure passing in and out of urban areas such as transportation networks, communication and distribution networks. Urban planning started way back in the 20thcentury. Urban cities that are admired today during the world war two can be traced to be great ideas of visionaries who lived and wrote long ago though in most cases they have been substantially ignored and their ideas rejected by most of their contemporaries (Hall). Today these ideas have been put into practice and lessons learnt from them have been essential in planning and maintaining of urban infrastructure.
Actions of urban planning are believed to have started in 1967when hundreds of residents of the bush wick section of Brooklyn met with a professional plan in order to deliberate upon what steps the Government of that time should take in terms of neighborhood development. Planning started by people involved writing the ideas onto a sheet of paper which was commonly referred to as the wish list. Afterwards, people got tired of writing their ideologies on a piece of paper and were in great need for change. They came about with what was called the planning game. It consisted of different players, each with a different role to play. The planning game consisted of two kinds of players which included the starring and the others who play the supporting roles. The starring were the change initiators, implementers and preventers. While the ones that played the supporting roles were greatly the financiers. They provided the stars with all necessary support which included financial and political support. The supporters were mainly well-known figures in the community that included the community leaders, visionaries, bankers, public officials and private developers (Garvin). Through these great men and women, many lessons can be learnt as far as urban planning is concerned.
One of the most valuable lessons learnt from the 20th-century urban planning was that for any planning and advancement of modern infrastructure and technology, there has to be public involvement put into consideration. Traditionally, changes were dictated by people in power which included the redevelopment officials who planned secret agreement with the government. This led to citizens getting angry since their neighborhoods were demolished without their approval. These activities resulted in community resistance that gave birth to the development of a citizen advisory committee whose primary role was to oversee the activities that are touching the livelihoods of the citizen and were handy in approving of development works in the community (Garvin). Public participation mainly includes two aspects where one is policy orientation while the other is for people to participate in. Public participation involves people knowing their individual quality and their awareness of the urban planning (Mohammadian et al.). The Government should be at the forefront in guiding planning properly and improve public awareness on their own rights.
Accepting and appreciating the historical visionaries in relation to urban planning is another important factor that can be learnt from the 20th-century urban planning. As mentioned earlier the success of the modern development of infrastructure and planning in many modern cities around the world can be traced back to early visionaries offered various solutions to. Infrastructural development in the urban area cannot begin on its own. There have to be people who are responsible for giving a plan for the development who might include the architects. Traditionally, in the 20the century, the visionaries were not taken seriously, they were almost ignored and rejected by their contemporaries. Afterwards, during the world war, two heir ideologies began falling into place, and people started embracing what they said. Their visions have been used to date in the modern urban planning (Hall).
Third, Government, public officials and the government should play a vital role in maintaining the urban planning and implementation. American Government, for example, consists of a mixture of private and public officials, elected and appointed, civil servants and their counterparts. Each entity in the government hold its own history, way of doing things, and also, it’s financing mechanisms. In relation to the 20th-century urban planning, the Government acts as starring since its main functionality is to initiate development projects in the urban setting and the investors who serve as the supporting team comes in handy in financing those projects and ensuring their completion. During the 20th century, the Government played a vital role in telling the other players what to do. For example, the Government can tell the transport sector to ensure the expansion of road in particular areas (Garvin). This kind of communication acted as an essential contributing factor in the urban planning during the 20th century. Strong Government initiative is to establish policies and implement programs that are clearly needed by the people. The Government should also take an initiative in harnessing and direct the energies of the private sector into playing useful role in urban development (D.G Williams)
Another important lesson learnt from the 20th-century urban planning was that there has to be security and law enforcement among the people in a community. Security is one of the reasons why urban development slugs down since development activities cannot take place in the unsecured area. Most crimes occur due to various reasons which include; poverty and unemployment. From the 20th century urban planning, the Government took the initiative to plan for the housing for the poor and oppressed in the society since this was the only way to prevent crime and insecurity in the society. In the 20th century, the virtuously poor people would be assisted to go directly via the settlement house or the municipal housing project to the garden city heaven. Recently, mega events have been the keystone for urban development (Garvin). But it cannot be successful without security measures put into place. A necessary condition for any successful event or development activity is ensuring the safety of tourists, urban visitors, participants and residents (Bennett and Haggarty).
Lending institutions played a colossal role in shaping urban planning in the 20th century. In the 20th century, visionaries and reformer critics inspired the players in the planning game. Though the players could not achieve anything without any financial assistance. The money that enabled development exercises came from banks, insurance companies, investors, purchasers of security, friends and the future occupants of the proposed projects (Garvin). Recently, financial institutions have been very helpful in a development project which contributes to urban planning. They include, the offering of loans to single business owners, financing pollution control in private industry and also in companies, giving money for infrastructural development (Cruz, Takemoto and Warford).
Involvement of private developers and public entrepreneurs is another important lesson learn in the 20th-century urban planning. These people are crucial in the creation of opportunities, seizing them and making changes in them. In the 20th century, entrepreneurs were the major players in the planning game not considering whether they were private or public entrepreneurs. Private developers and public contractors were significantly used in transforming innovations and were often discovered by others into new and profitable projects. Their major role was to initiate the investment of others. Private developers used to play the planning game in order to enrich themselves while the public entrepreneurs played the planning game on behalf of the community. Both they intentions, although they were different, played a significant role in the urban planning (Gravin).
Preserving the spirit of art was an essential element to succeed in the urban planning. Many people in the 20the century used their talent in art to be helpful in the urban planning exercise. For example in the book Cities of tomorrow showcases a character known as Geddes in his mission going to India to showcase his civic exhibition which had first seen life at the great international town planning meeting in London in 1910. These and many other people in the 20th century were very instrumental in promoting urban development through art and innovations (Hall). Urban planning cannot be possible without people inventing and using their own skills to showcase how they can help in implementing development I urban settings. As Julia Lossau stipulates, art is seen as an instrument that can be used to improve the image of urban spaces and can, therefore, be applied in the context of city marketing, urban management, and neighborhood development (Loss and Stevens).
Using the fiscal rules is yet another lesson that can be learnt from the 20th-century urban planning. When dealing with development projects that require a lot of funds, it is critical for the Government to ensure that it plans and control the flow of money. This was done by applying three rules of economics. First, is to ignore the needs and concentrate on the present market demand. The Government should focus on the activities that will meet the needs of the people. The second rule is to maximize the operating income which is mainly the cash revenue less all the expenses. Governments are required to maintain balanced budgets. Failure to do so, it significantly affects the level of taxes and leads to the breakdown of services and termination of employees. In the third rule, the Government has to put into consideration the risk of failure. The Government has to be prepared and have a backup option in case of any failure. This also happens in the private sectors. In the event of any unexpected failures lead to dying of many Government services that might also be very essential in urban development.
Integrating cultural activities and skills to modify and beautify the urban cities was one of the issues put into consideration during the 20th-century urban planning. As stipulated in the book Cities of tomorrow, 20thcentury manifestations came mainly in other places and cultures where in the great commercial cities of middle and western America; civic leaders built in order to overcome inferiority complex and boost business. Additionally, newly designated capitals, British servants commissioned plans that would express imperial dominance and racial exclusiveness. As Malia Guardua ascertains, new urbanism ideology calls for different communities to be linked through improved public transit and carefully designed streets that support interaction between civic and commercial centers and diverse residential areas (Monclús and Guàrdia i Bassols).
Cities that were shaped by the 20th-century urban planning
New York
New York was the first urban city to hold America’s first urban planning conference in 1898. This is where a British planner asked whether he and his colleagues were striving for beautiful people or beautiful cities. They were majorly concerned about whether urban planning was about the physical design or whether it was about making things easier for people who lived in the urban cities. Before the conference, there were three groups of people who thought of how the city should look and function. These groups included the architects, public health officials, and social workers. Each group had its own ideology on how the city should look like.
The architects were mainly focused on the city as a built environment. The public health professionals put into consideration the infrastructure. This is because they thought there was a connection between certain diseases affecting the community and social conditions. They based their argument on how planning a water system would work, where waste would go and how to get garbage out of the city. All these plans were made since they knew it was the most efficient way to stop diseases from spreading. Their primary aim was to improve the lives of the people through cleaner tenements, space for immigrant children to play and to create more light and fresh air for residents. During this meeting, planners realized that there was a need to deal with the growing population. This was due to the horse manure that was found all over the city. By then, horses were the key mode of transport. Even after the conference came to a standstill, the social workers and public health officials continued to play a significant role as far as urban planning is concerned.
The outcome of this great struggle was the creation of an urban planning school at Harvard. It was the countries first urban planning school whose main concentration was in landscape architecture in 1898. This project was devoted to Frederick Law Olmsted. Initially, it was a place to start, but afterwards, they began offering classes in city planning, first for higher education in America. The activities of this school were divided into three faculties which included ; City planning schools, school of architecture, and school of landscape design.
America’s first city planners were very influential since they started creating their own master plans. They were the hired by different cities to make plans. They were able to create city planning consultancies where they spread their services to other cities which included Memphis, Newark and New jersey. Today New York stands out to be one of the most beautiful and most magnificent cities of all time thanks to the 20ty century urban planners.
Beijing
Planning in Beijing involved several stages which include stage planning, planning, examination and approval, modification and implementation. Mani method of urban planning used in china was public participation. At present public participation in Beijing mainly exist in the planning process and mainly focuses on the presentation and evaluation of design schemes while in the other stages public input is limited and incomplete.
Planners used to carry questionnaire in order to take information from the people with a view to understanding the status quo during the planning of urban development. During the planning approval stage, public participation was limited since it only required the intervention of expert argumentation and examination and also the approval of the congress. Through public involvement, Beijing has remained to be one of the major attractions of investors all over the world.
In conclusion, 20th-century urban planning has played a vital role in reforming the infrastructure of major cities all over the world. From the book Cities of tomorrow and the planning game clearly stipulates the efforts made by early planners in order to have a beautiful world and organized cities as we have today. Planning should be the key objectives of any Government as far as urban planning, and infrastructure development is concerned.
References
Bennett, Colin J, and Kevin D Haggarty. Security Games. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Cruz, Wilfrido, Kazuhiko Takemoto, and Jeremy J Warford. Urban And Industrial Management In Developing Countries. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1998. Print.
D.G Williams, Taylor. Urban Planning Practise In The Developing Countries. Newyork: Pergamon press, 1982. Print.
Garvin, Alexander. The Planning Game. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
Hall, Peter. Cities Of Tomorrow. Oxford: Blackwell, 2014. Print.
Lossau, Julia, and Quentin Stevens. The Uses Of Art In Public Space. Print.
Mohammadian, Abolfazl et al. Civil Engineering And Urban Planning III. Print.
Monclús, F. J, and Manuel Guàrdia i Bassols. Culture, Urbanism And Planning. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. Print.
