BLIGHTED DISTRICTS: THEIR CAUSE TH AND CURE WINNING ESSAY-WILLIAMS PRIZE 1925* By C. EARL MORROW and CHARLES HERRICK HE problem of the blighted district in cities is by no means a new one. Wherever and whenever men have found it beneficial to work together there have been areas of relatively unfortunate development. We are convinced that this condition is not inevitable, and that effective remedies will suggest themselves when the causes of the blight are searchingly studied. By a blighted district we mean one in which a normal** development has been frustrated. Ordinarily*** property values are an index of the situation: wherever property values fail to keep pace with the increase in other similar districts in the same city, or have actually decreased, the district may be termed a blighted district. In the case of a residential area where extreme conditions of this nature obtain, there is produced the social disease which we call a "slum". As the title implies, this essay attempts to find the causes of blighted districts and to propose remedies. The conditions imposed make it necessary to limit the discussion to essentials. The causes and remedies will be considered under the heads of City Planning Measures, Zoning Regulations, and Social and Hygienic Improvements. CITY PLANNING MEASURES City Planning proposes to secure the best adaptation of land areas. to desirable uses. Zoning and Housing are phases of comprehensive city planning, but their importance in the present discussion justifies *The conditions of the Williams Prize Competition may be found on page 64 of the April issue of CITY PLANNING. **In normal development we must include an average of social as well as economic well-being. ***There is a possibility of the existence of a slum on land which enjoys considerable appreciation in value. This has happened where a change in use of land is anticipated, as for example, in the residential area that will soon yield to business use. separate treatments. It is found advisable to include under city planning measures the treatment of the street system, public open spaces, public utilities, and community esthetics. Street layout is one of the most important elements in the adaptation of the form of land to its use. An unorganized, haphazard street system is one of the causes of blights in urban areas. An inadequate street system in a business district causes traffic congestion, keeping business, and therefore increase of property values, from a district which might otherwise advance normally by virtue of its nearness to the center of the city. Lot depth, a function of street layout, may be a cause of blight. Lots that are too deep or too shallow for the use to which they are put tend to produce subnormal development. The cure for these blighted tendencies is to plan in advance* a street system that will be most likely to serve best the use of the area. The cure for districts already blighted in this way is to widen narrow streets, break through dead-end streets, and cut new streets through the interior of thick blocks.** Planning in advance of development is the more effective and less expensive of the two processes. Happily in the case of existing blighted areas, property values are subnormal to the extent that the benefit of the improvement, if assessed on the property affected, often more than pays for the operation.*** The wholesome influence of public open spaces on city people and upon development near the open spaces is generally conceded. From the point of view of land values the public open space is a good investThe value of a well designed park increases with the passing of * Garden city developments are examples of such planning. ** Ralph Adams Cram, Chairman of the Boston City Planning Board (1918), is quoted as follows: "The general principle followed by the Board comes under three heads: (a) Opening of new streets, (b) Widening of old streets, and (c) Elimination of dead interior areas. "New streets and widenings have been considered, not only with regard to traffic requirements, but also as to their bearing on the splitting up of the big blocks and the opening up of the interiors to light and air. We have provided for one main thoroughfare connecting the North and South Station. This is imperatively necessary from a teaming standpoint, but the street also serves the purpose of bringing light and air into several bad blocks as well as eliminating certain centers of impossible congestion." ***In the case of the 12th St. widening in Chicago, the cost of the acquisition of land was three million dollars, half of which was assessed upon the property benefited, the area of assessment covering ten square miles. Before the work was completed the increase in assessed valuation of abutting property was two and one-half millions. time. This element of permanency is an important counter force to fight the downward trend of blight. Lack of adequate open spaces may be said to constitute a cause for blight inasmuch as land under such circumstances is handicapped in its development in competition with the areas fortunately possessing the amenities afforded by open spaces. The opportune provision of small parks and playgrounds may keep a threatened area from becoming blighted. The provision of open spaces in already blighted districts is one of the best means of curing the blight. There is now adequate legal machinery in most states for securing land in slum areas and for creating parks or playgrounds. The public use is unmistakable in this case so that the power of eminent domain may be used. A clear case can be made from the point of view of the health of the people. In New York City, Mulberry Bend, not far from the City Hall, was a center of disease and crime. It was cleared under authority of a special act of the Legislature in 1887 and replaced by a park. Several years later under authority of this same act another slum was destroyed, and Thomas Jefferson Park created on the site. In the same way Hamilton Fish Park was created on the site of the notorious "Bone Alley". A lack of proper transit facilities often has a depressing effect upon property values, but more striking effects have been brought about by the construction of elevated railways or street car lines before a comprehensive plan of the whole city is made. In St. Louis, for example, when street car facilities were provided, the people began to move out where they could have larger lots. The old houses were of excellent construction, but they were no longer fashionable. Fine houses, in a district one-half mile by two miles, first became boarding houses, and then deteriorated into tenements, five or more families living where one family had lived originally. Property values decreased to one-half or one-third the original amount. The remedy proposed in this case was to cut a boulevard through the center of the district. Such an improvement would have been prohibitively expensive if the property values had been normal. A similar situation was found in Minneapolis. Elevated railways depress the values of property along the streets through which they pass. They increase property values around stations, and depreciate values between stations. Subways do not injure values along their routes, and they bring about large increases in value of property near stations. They bring about a higher use of property in the center of the city, and distribute the population over a wider area, but there is liable to be a temporary decrease in property values pending a readjustment of certain districts. Changes in any of the customary and familiar means of transportation may have a similar effect. In St. Louis, the commission market district on the river front declined after the river transportation waned. In Philadelphia a large district overlooking Fairmount Park and the Schuylkill River was depreciated by the creation of a large railroad yard, with its attendant soft coal smoke. The attempt to develop a district before the necessary utilities are provided often leads to low rents and low property values to counteract the lack of conveniences. The low values, once established, tend to persist after the utilities are provided. Public utilities and the development of private property should both proceed together. The construction of utilities before they are needed exhausts the financial resources of a city. It also promotes a scattered development which tends to produce a large number of districts with a discernible taint of blight. The construction of utilities in the wrong place, or at the wrong time, may thus produce blighted districts, just as the lack of necessary utilities causes a blight. The cure is to develop the utilities in accordance with a comprehensive plan, which includes the zoning of the city, and at a rate which corresponds with the growth of the city, and no faster. The question of esthetics is important in the residential areas of a city. Beauty of architecture and landscape architecture* is a distinct *The case of Beacon Hill in Boston is an example worthy of careful study in this connection. It seems that fashion dictates here much in the same way as it does with the clothes we wear. Beacon Hill has had the unusual experience of completing a cycle of residential desirability. It is now well on its way toward regaining its former glory as a fashionable residential district. It is difficult to see how the "come back" could have been staged, however, without its nearness to the center of Boston, its high altitude, its views, its historical associations, and its unusually fine architecture. Ordinarily these districts never return to their former status. The beauty of the initial development made it possible in this instance. Louisburg Square, a private park, had its share in the redemption. advantage in living quarters. A lack of beauty imposed upon a district by unfortunate architecture, faulty engineering in public utilities, and carelessness in maintenance is sufficient to make an area predisposed to the downward movement. The cure is largely preventive. Good initial construction with careful repair and maintenance is essential. Good design in street decoration, street furniture and street planting is helpful. More radical operations such as the development of a monumental parkway or civic center may redeem a blighted district.* There is an element of social exploitation bearing upon the subject which can be controlled only by private restrictions. Low standards of living introduced into a district tend to pull down the tone of the district. The invasion of such low standards is the common experience where there are no private restrictions. Unsightliness born of poor maintenance, overcrowding, dilapidation, and headlong depression of property values follows the successive invasions until the slum is reached. The only safeguard against such invasions in a democracy is private restrictions which the Courts will recognize because they are of a contractual nature. Esthetic values as a reason for the application of the police power are not as yet recognized by the courts. Some such subterfuge as fire hazard, health or the like is ordinarily used. ZONING Literature on the subject of slums and blighted districts in this country is full of references to the dilapidation that occurs where a district is in a process of transition from one use to another. Where the future is uncertain, repairs are neglected, the best tenants move out, and rents decline, but buildings become overcrowded. If a single apartment house invades a single-family house district, the character of that district is spoiled. If there is a prospect of the district filling up *The Fairmount Parkway, in Philadelphia, which cuts through a blighted district, has already started an upward trend of property values. "The Mall" at Cleveland has influenced the surrounding district, and fine office buildings are springing up in the place of old dilapidated structures. The adoption of a Civic Center Plan at Columbus, Ohio, which will be on the river bank in a blighted district, has started an upward trend in prices, although the city has not proceeded beyond the purchase of the land. |