John F. Kennedy and Urban Policy

From our current 21st century vatage point with euphoria about millennials flocking back to cities, streetcars, bicycling, walkability and everything else that fits the image of a renaissance of cities, we tend to be nostalgic about postwar times when American cities were at their peak, By contrast, and in some type of simplified black and white thinking we consider the period between 1960 to 1990 "the dark ages" for cities. Dark because wrong policies aided white middle class families to flee to the suburbs in their cars so that the suburbs swelled and the cities emptied out. The time when Detroit and many other industrial cities fell from their zenith as gleaming jewels into an abyss from which some may never recover.

1963 marks the transition from "happy times before the big exodus" when streetcars still rumbled through some streets, departments stores dotted the shopping streets to urban renewal and anti-urbanity. Baltimore in 1963 was still close to its peak of nearly a million residents and lost 1/3 of its populace since then.

The 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination is a great opportunity to ask: Where were cities back then and what JFK's urban agenda? An attempt of a reality check with a critical eye towards the simple narrative of the rise and fall of American cities. Even a quick review shows us a more complex history.

Maybe because I belong to the generation infatuated with JFK I am happy to find that much of Kennedy's urban agenda not only sounds still relevant but was actually the opposite of ant-urban. The "urban report" of the National Democratic Committee (DNC) prepared in 1960 when Kennedy was still a Senator was the result of a mayor's convention. Its policies were endorsed by then Senator John F. Kennedy. Much of it sounds it could have come from a present conference of mayors.

Before getting into some more detail of the urban policies suggested by Democrats at the time, let me digress for a moment to describe what the date of 11-22-63 means for me.

Kennedy a change agent

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Regional and Urban Design Committee

John F. Kennedy and Urban Policy

Thursday, November 21, 2013

John F. Kennedy And Urban Policies

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