Berkeley (California) and Hartford (Connecticut) are examples of cities that in the past decade were able to utilize progressive planning and citizen participation to address the interests of disadvantaged groups, challenge elitist planning agendas, and encourage institutional innovation adapted to local circumstances. (Author/GC)

Triage policy is the exclusion of severely declining urban areas from services and programs on the grounds that the intensity of their needs cannot be met and the provision of services is therefore inefficient. Community groups must insist that severity of need, human benefits, and community protection be the priorities for allocation of funds.…

Advocates of the "new realism" in urban revitalization argue that effective urban policy involves attracting industries and white-collar taxpayers while improving public management and reducing public services. If this approach is not counterbalanced by socially conscious interests, cities may soon have little room for many of their present…

There is little likelihood of significant new funding for cities. The future may require real decentralization in the ways we live, with fundamental restructuring of political and economic institutions. A system of communities structured locally around new institutions and supported by regional planning might sustain a different culture. (SLD)