Experts Clash on Urban Development

The sharp clash over the future role of the city in society developed last night among two professors and an urban development director. The viewpoints of three men ranged from pessimistic cynicism to academic consideration of the problem, before the Law School Forum.

We don't know what the fate of the city is, and I'm far from sure who cares," Edward J. Logue, Director of the Boston Development Authority, declared.

He pointed out that few people want to live in a city today and therefore cities have few friends." As people move to the suburbs, the city gradually decays into slums. Yet, while the richer taxpayers move out, the city's expenses remain the same, he said.

Logue said that present federal agencies are inadequate to deal with the problem, noting that "the FHA has probably done more to destroy cities than other single force." "We are really the beginning of urban redevelopment that's kind of a shock because the urban law was passed 12 years ago!" he exclaimed.

Concluding on a slightly more optimistic note, Logue said he felt that "the hope for American cities is that we've run out of other interesting problems."

Oscar Handlin, professor of History, asserted that the problem of city development has resulted from the changing nature of society. "We stand at an interesting juncture in history, in which one kind of urban community is drawing to a close," he said.

The change has been so rapid and radical that the name "city" is now obsolete, according to Handlin. He added that "we can no longer treat Boston, New York, or Philadelphia as urban centers--we must rather consider the entire regions as urban societies."

Thus, it is possible to attain desirable elements of urban life outside the central city without any of the disadvantages of the city.

Still another concept of the problem was explained by Lloyd Rodwin, professor of Land Economics at M.I.T. The real difficulty is related to the city's slums, he insisted.

Rodwin also criticized federal action in this field. He emphasized that the bulk of federal housing aid helps middle income families who are moving to the suburbs. "The Federal government has no urban housing policy. There is no systematic atempt to deal with the problems of the city as a whole," he asserted.