COMMUNITY PLANNING.

Edited by Herbert L. Marx Jr. '43 New York: H. W. Wilson, 1956. 207 pp. $2.00.

Mr. Marx has gathered together a series of short but illuminating and well-written articles on city planning. The general level of this little reference book is that of the educated citizen interested and concerned in his community's well-being and efficiency. Having desecrated the continent, and with very little of the globe left to investigate with the exception of the Arctic, American civilization is now settling down to correcting some of the more obvious mistakes in our topsy-turvy cities. It is a cliche of planning that it is impossible for the professional to go beyond the understanding of the population for which he plans. I should think that this collection of articles would be a useful contribution to the public education of "opinion molders" in cities of all shapes and sizes in this country. We are increasingly aware not only of the deficiencies of our present urban environment but also of the potentialities for future good urban development. The rich assortment of successful planning schemes found in this book gives a good indication of what might be done in any particular city.

We are now 60% urban. This may go up to 80% in the not-too-distant future as our industrial cities spread out into metropolitan areas. We foresee regional cities sprawling up the East Coast from Norfolk, Virginia, to Portland, Maine. It certainly behooves us, no matter what our personal job, to take an increasingly active part in community planning.

The articles are so varied, going all the way from slum clearance through mass transportation to a potential federal Department of Urbiculture, that it would appear to this reviewer foolish to single out any ten pages for particular comment. In view of the wideranging scope of Community Planning, I wish to commend to you the book as a whole, rather than any one article in it.