Mumford, Jacobs, and the Failure of the American City

Volumes have been written about the social and physical deterioration of the American city in the 1950s and 1960s as well as the contrary boom of the American suburb. And while a multitude of reasons have been adduced for the urban conflagrations of the late 1960s – racism, war, poverty, drugs, unemployment – it is difficult to fault the fiscal commitment of the federal government itself. New Deal programs such as the Federal Housing Administration (1936), the United States Housing Authority (1937), and the Federal National Mortgage Association (1938) not only survived the war but were expanded into major housing and rehabilitation programs during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. The housing act of 1949, the cornerstone of all postwar legislation, promised a “decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family” and created the Urban Redevelopment Agency, which (armed with the new constitutional powers of eminent domain) authorized federal funds for the condemnation, purchase, and clearance of slums. Eisenhower signed into law an even more comprehensive housing act in 1954, which expanded such federal programs as fha Mortgage Insurance and allowed the idea of urban rehabilitation to be translated into a full-fledged urban renewal program. The Interstate Highway Act of 1957 created a new national system of freeways, which would soon be extended into the cities.