Daley Asks Coordinated City Planning

Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago, and two local erperts on city problems considered the progress and difficulties of urban renewal in a lively Law School Forum last night at Rindge Tech.

Daley, who was introduced as mayor of the city with "the major renewal program in the United States," stressed the necessity of broad, coordinated planning in urban renewal. Lack of such planning, he said, leads to delays, conflicts, and misunderstandings.

"Trail-Blazing" Efforts

Using Chicago's "trail-blazing" efforts as examples, Daley explained that the scope of urban renewal is widening to include consideration of transit systems, sanitation problems, and "improved educational, health and recreational facilities of all kinds." He also told of a change in focus of renewal from one of "slum clearance" to one of "rehabilitation."

In the 35 urban renewal programs now under way in Chicago, modernizing and strict enforcing of basic codes have led to increased public compliance with legal standards, Daley said.

Daley criticized the Federal Housing Authority for "financing the development of the suburbs" during the past few years by "taking money from the cities." It is not possible to have a healthy suburb and an unhealthy city, he noted, because the two are economically interdependent.

Role of Local Authorities

The role of elected local authorities, Daley concluded, is particularly important in coordinating and strengthening policies of urban renewal. Specialists study the problems, but elected officials bear the responsibility of making decisions. He asserted that solutions will be found for cities' problems, and he pointed to Chicago's renewal "pilot project" in the Hyde Park-Kenwood community to show that they can be found.

Edward Logue, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and James Q. Wilson, associate professor of Government and director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of M.I.T. and Harvard, were the evening's other two speakers.

The most dramatic part of the evening followed as Logue confronted a surprised and slightly uncomfortable audience, demanding that they "stop kicking Dick Daley and the rest of the mayors around."

He asserted that the mayor's job is difficult because he has to deal with rehabilitation one day and garbage the next.

Logue quickly assessed the audience as 60 per cent suburban and 40 per cent urban dwellers, and went on to describe the hypocrisy of suburbanites' attitudes toward urban renewal.

Wilson continued the friendly tone stating that he was not going "to talk critically about mayors." He spoke instead about "the unfortunate mechanism" by which Chicago has solved the problem of power distribution, which gives citizens a voice in polities, "but no one's voice is heard very clearly.