Book contents
- Frontmatter
- POLITICS: Détente and Multipolarity: The Cold War and German-American Relations, 1968-1990
- SECURITY: German-American Security Relations, 1968-1990
- ECONOMICS: Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict: Economic Relations Between the United States and Germany, 1968-1990
- CULTURE: Culture as an Arena of Transatlantic Conflict
- SOCIETY: German-American Societal Relations in Three Dimensions, 1968-1990
- 1 “1968”: A Transatlantic Event and Its Consequences
- 2 Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
- 3 Women and the New Women’s Movement
- 4 Transatlantic Networks: Elites in German-American Relations
- 5 Bridging Constituencies: German Political Foundations in German-American Relations
- 6 Normalizing German-American Labor Relationships in a Changing International Environment
- 7 German and American Churches: Changes in Actors, Priorities, and Power Relations
- 8 The Twisted Road Toward Rapprochement: American Jewry and Germany Until Reunification
- 9 Difference and Convergence: Immigration Policy in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
- 10 Urban Planning, Transportation, and Suburban Development: Striking a Balance
- 11 Relations Between Right-Wing Extremists in Germany and the United States, 1945-1990
- 12 With America Against America: Anti-Americanism in West Germany
- 13 The Maturation of a Relationship: The Image of America in West German Public Opinion
- 14 Between Private Opinion and Official Pronouncement: Images of America in the German Democratic Republic, 1971-1990
- 15 The American Image of Germany, 1968-1991
- OUTLOOK: America, Germany, and the Atlantic Community After the Cold War
- Index
10 - Urban Planning, Transportation, and Suburban Development: Striking a Balance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- POLITICS: Détente and Multipolarity: The Cold War and German-American Relations, 1968-1990
- SECURITY: German-American Security Relations, 1968-1990
- ECONOMICS: Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict: Economic Relations Between the United States and Germany, 1968-1990
- CULTURE: Culture as an Arena of Transatlantic Conflict
- SOCIETY: German-American Societal Relations in Three Dimensions, 1968-1990
- 1 “1968”: A Transatlantic Event and Its Consequences
- 2 Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
- 3 Women and the New Women’s Movement
- 4 Transatlantic Networks: Elites in German-American Relations
- 5 Bridging Constituencies: German Political Foundations in German-American Relations
- 6 Normalizing German-American Labor Relationships in a Changing International Environment
- 7 German and American Churches: Changes in Actors, Priorities, and Power Relations
- 8 The Twisted Road Toward Rapprochement: American Jewry and Germany Until Reunification
- 9 Difference and Convergence: Immigration Policy in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
- 10 Urban Planning, Transportation, and Suburban Development: Striking a Balance
- 11 Relations Between Right-Wing Extremists in Germany and the United States, 1945-1990
- 12 With America Against America: Anti-Americanism in West Germany
- 13 The Maturation of a Relationship: The Image of America in West German Public Opinion
- 14 Between Private Opinion and Official Pronouncement: Images of America in the German Democratic Republic, 1971-1990
- 15 The American Image of Germany, 1968-1991
- OUTLOOK: America, Germany, and the Atlantic Community After the Cold War
- Index
Summary
Perhaps the central question facing urban and regional planners in the late twentieth century was that of the relationship between the forces of government and those of the private economy. One American student of transportation policies wrote that the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany exemplify the “market” and the “social subsidy” models of public policy, respectively. That is, Americans tended to mistrust public intervention in the market, whereas Germans did not trust private firms to make the right decisions for the community. Neither country has ever conformed rigidly to one model, but in the face of many forces making German and American cities more alike, different attitudes persisted, and they influenced the way many people viewed urban policies across the Atlantic.
GLOBAL FORCES AND TRANSATLANTIC SIMILARITIES
The late 1960s marked a new era in the urban policies of the United States' and the Federal Republic's urban policies, although the circumstances were rather different in the two countries. In Germany, the enormous task of postwar reconstruction was drawing to a close. The pressing shortage of housing no longer overshadowed attempts to rethink the design of cities and their connections to the hinterland. As a result, Germans were less likely than before to envy the conditions in American cities. For their part, Americans saw more crisis than opportunity. The urban riots of the 1960s called attention to the growing racial and economic segregation that had accompanied the decentralization of American cities. Some American planners began to look to Europe, including Germany, for models of urban vitality, but much evidence suggested that German cities were in fact following the same course of development as American ones, if more slowly.
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- Information
- The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990A Handbook, pp. 489 - 494Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004