Urban design as public policy :

The problems of our cities, the countryside and the environment in general are painfully evident; and, had you been lucky enough not to notice, you could hardly have missed the flood of television documentaries or newspaper and magazine arti cles describing them.

There is some danger that all of this mobili zation of public opinion will be self-defeating in the end. After all, it is a rare person these days who is actually in favor of slum housing, or enjoys breathing polluted air. After a while, however, if people find that they can't do anything about a subject, they will stop wanting to hear it discussed. It would be unfortunate if "the urban crisis" and "the environment" joined the threat of atomic warfare in being considered situations that we will just have to learn to live with.

There is no escape from these problems. The traditional lines of demarcation between city and suburb, or between rural and urban areas, have been obliterated by the process of growth and change that has taken place in the last few decades.