Explores solutions to the problem of shrinking cities, population declines in urban areas. Consolidation and de-annexation are not desirable alternatives, but for many shrinking cities no other workable alternative can be seen. The reality is that many cities will continue to shrink. Radical redesign can make cities better and smaller. (SLD)

Describes the evolving emphasis of schools of urban planning from concentration on scientific management, beautifying cities, and educating the public in the 1920s to solving the social problems in the 1960s. Calls for a collaboration of business and other professional schools to redefine the function and purpose of urban planning schools to…

Examines the reasons for the collapse of neighborhoods like Woodlawn so that suffering may be abated and not unwittingly exacerbated. (DM)

A review essay focusing on two recent books, The Politics of Neglect: Urban Aid from Model Cities to Revenue Sharing, by Bernard J. Frieden and Marshall Kaplan (The MIT Press), and Between the Idea and the Reality: A Study in the Origin, Fate, and Legacy of the Model Cities Program, by Charles M. Haar (Little, Brown). (JM)

Considers the nature of the urban crisis and proposed solutions. Policy ideas are presented that center on a level metropolitan playing field, one in which neither governments nor residents of cities and suburbs would be hostage to their municipal profiles and would have no incentives to seek comparative advantage. (SLD)