ABSTRACT
In broad terms, urban redevelopment is an attempt to reconstruct those portions of our great cities that have deteriorated into slum conditions, and that are urgently in need of rehabilitation. In almost every city of the United States areas can be found, usually surrounding the central business and wholesale districts, which have fallen into a state of physical disrepair. These are also areas of “social disrepair” characterized by crime and delinquency, high rates of disease, family disorganization and poverty. On the one hand, these areas exhibit a very high density of population—at least in number of persons per room—while on the other hand, large parts of the areas are often in vacant land or in commercial and industrial use. These “blighted” areas constitute a heavy drain upon the community in terms of public services and tax delinquency, and their reconstruction has become one of the fundamental … municipal problems.
Herbert A. Simon, “What Is Urban Redevelopment?,” Illinois Tech Engineer, December, 1946.
