ABSTRACT
A mature city is full of places that have distinctive physical attributes and rich associations for neighborhood and city residents, places that signify the durability of the physical and social conventions characteristic of the city and its neighborhoods. A mature city is in many respects a state of mind. Its inhabitants' perceptions of their city reflect the city's mid-life crisis. The world seems more complicated than it was before: childlike notions of omnipotence and control are counterbalanced by experience, which results in self-doubt and, to some degree, a wavering confidence. A place-based plan would be fine-grained in the sense that each place in the city would be documented and would be assessed in terms of its potential to address the short- and long-term issues and trends to which the city must respond and of its contribution to agreed-upon local and citywide needs.
