Forging A More Perfect Union

About the Book

Cities today are the weakest link of both democracy and modern affluence. Their explosive sprawl wastes land that promotes both urban social crises and environmental decay through mass auto movement on outrageously costly freeways-contradicting the inherent role of cities to minimize even the need to travel.

The immense sprawl unnecessarily assures human isolation (with the consequent dependence upon television), undermines sustainable ecology, and abandons huge areas of the old inner city. Consequently cities are waste-generating environments that arbitrarily promote production and consumption for purposeless and endless economic growth that can never satisfy human "needs".

As basic organizers of life in society, cities can become inspired environments of human development. But they must be built compactly to preserve large, accessible open spaces for recreation, parks, and natural areas. Then they can underwrite an unprecedented human efficiency comparable to productive efficiency.

To build such cities, a major shift is required to control their structure and eliminate urban development as merely a promotional waste by real estate speculation. Urban development authorities are required to build cities through principles of land conservation, urban spaciousness, minimal need for transportation, human efficiency, and highly congenial human spaces.

About the Author

Following service in the Marine Corps in World War II, Kenneth Schneider studied sociology and city planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked in planning for some years, including assignments at the United Nations in New York. Subsequently he worked with CARE in the Philippines, Sierra Leone, and Jordan. Following his overseas work, Schneider stressed his role as a generalist writing The Destiny of Change and Autokind Vs. Mankind, and completed On the Nature of Cities while founding a small business publishing large format post cards. He managed the company for almost twenty years. Since 1997 he has completed four additional books, noted in the front piece, all intended to stimulate a basic dialogue about fundamental change in society.