What They Say...

Are We Big Enough to Master It? . . .

EXPLOSIVE URBAN EXPANSION

"Unless the problems of physical planning are tackled with that same degree of dynamism and imagination that we know to exist here in abundance, the future vitality and health of this whole region is in the most dire peril."

Prof. Patrick Horsbrugh, of the University of Illinois' Departments of City Planning and Landscape Architecture, is the author of these words. And he was talking about Illinois, not some distant state or metropolitan area.

In an address before the University of Illinois Citizens Committee at Chicago, Horsbrugh declared that the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway would change Chicago and the whole state of Illinois into a metropolitan area. The Chicago of the future will expand another 60 miles west and south within a quarter of a century, and as a result of this growth all Illinois will be affected, he said. Illinois will become a "world center."

Failure to plan for the future could cause slums, poor sanitation, juvenile delinquency and a host of other problems.

It is not too early for city governments, civic-minded citizens and community organizations to

* Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois, March 5, 1958.

Page 65 / Illinois Municipal Review / March 1958

start planning now for this explosive growth, and that includes Springfield, for Springfield will expand, too, as it already is doing.

A good start has already been made by our City Council under the energetic leadership of Mayor Nelson Howarth. The City Plan Commission, created by the present Council, is doing yeoman's work to plan for both the growth within and outside Springfield. A vast urban renewal project will soon be under way. Community wide rehabilitation of our sewer system has already started. A new city hall will soon be built.

But as energetic as the City Council has been in its work, there has been a lag of whole-hearted community support of the Council. The Association of Commerce and Industry has worked shoulder to shoulder with the Council, but too many citizens—some of whom are leaders in some profession or business—have put their own selfish and immediate interests above the long-range interest of the community.

Not long ago, an influential individual in Jerome flatly declared that Jerome residents would never vote to annex to Springfield because it would cause an increase in their property taxes. Residents in Southlawn and Leland Grove have expressed exactly the same sentiments. "We don't give a hoot about Springfield's future," they blatantly assert. "We're interested only in ourselves."

Such an attitude is not only selfish. It is stupid.

Whether these citizens realize it or not, their own future is wrapped up in Springfield's future. If Springfield is to take advantage of the golden opportunities that come its way, its citizens must be single-minded in their efforts to promote Greater Springfield.

And one of the ways that Greater Springfield citizens can be single-minded is to support and work for the City Council's annexation program which has been stalled by the obstinance of such communities as Leland Grove.

Horsbrugh, speaking of the impact of future growth, declared: "In civic terms you now possess one of the biggest of human problems, that of simultaneous internal re-organization and of unprecedented expansion, for unless this urban renewal is undertaken on a far larger scale than practical at present, the ancient fabric will never withstand the strains of periferal growth."

That is our challenge. Are we big enough to meet it?

Page 66 / Illinois Municipal Review / March 1958