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The Evolution of the Urban
Infias~ucture In the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries
doe] A. Tarr
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the origins and development of the urban
capital infrastructure in the United States since 1790. Urban in-
frastructure is defined as the "sinews" of the city: its road, bridge,
and transit networks; its water and sewer lines and waste disposal
facilities; its power systems; its public buildings; and its parks and
recreation areas.) In developing an analysis, the chapter draws on
history in three ways: to furnish perspectives on the evolution of
the urban infrastructure over time; to point to critical stages, par-
adigm shifts, and key turning points in history; and to provide
analogies between the contemporary so-called crisis of the infra-
structure and similar events in the past (see Stearns and Tarr,
19821. The chapter is structured around questions concerning the
demand for public works; the factors affecting their supply; the
character of the provider (public, public-private, or private); and
the relationship of urban infrastructure to financial, political, tech-
nological, spatial, public health, social, and demographic consid-
erations.
~ There is no comprehensive study of the history of the urban infrastructure, although
Armstrong et al. (1976) supply much of the important background. For an annotated
bibliography of works in the field, see Hoy and Robinson (1982); see also Moehring (1982)
and Aldrich (1980). Throughout the paper, the terms urban public works and capital
infrastructure are used interchangeably.
4
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EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
5
The model of the city used in this chapter views cities and ur-
banization as arising from the interaction of technology and society.
Cities develop because technology, in coordination with other social,
cultural, political, and economic factors, makes possible the pro-
duction of surpluses. Surpluses were primarily of two kinds: agri-
cultural products that permitter! survival in an urban environment
and manufactured goods produced in the city for local consumption
and for export. In addition, cities also supplied services, and these
often depended on technologies of different forms. Over time, city
growth and the evolution of urbanized areas were closely related
to a process of technological innovation and implementation that
producer! strong multiplier effects throughout the society. Hence,
in the United States and Western Europe, a predominantly agri-
cultural society was replaced in the nineteenth century by an urban
industrial society, which in turn has been recently succeeded by a
postindustrial society more dependent on technology, communica-
tions, and specialized knowledge than at any time in the past (Berry,
1981).
Capital infrastructure played a vital role in these major societal
changes. Economic development and urbanization could not have
occurred without infrastructure creation (Aldrich, 1980; Dunn, 1980;
Pred, 1966:13-851. A rigid technological determinism or a simplistic
demand model, however, distorts the pattern of the evolution of
infrastructure. While infrastructure construction patterns do relate
closely to swings in the development process and to city building
cycles, government has also used public works for countercyclical,
employment, and political patronage purposes. The preferences and
perceptions of different actors such as business leaders, politicians,
and professionals in a particular city at a particular time may be
more important in the city building process than a generalized set
of forces that relate to all cities.2
For purposes of analysis, this chapter uses four historical stages
of infrastructure development related to the process of urban charge: 3
· Urban Networks ant! Walking Cities: A Period of Foundations,
1790-1855
2 Cases illustrating the important role of individuals in shaping public works decisions
are presented in Caro (1974) and Kahrl (1982).
3 The rationale for the periodization is as follows: 1855 is the date of the construction
of the first sewerage system (Brooklyn); 1910 marks (approximately) the beginning of
the automobile era; and 1956 is the date of the passage of the Interstate Highway Act.
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6
.
PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
· Constructing the Core Infrastructure in the Central Cities, 1865-
1910
The Domination of the Automobile and the Enlargement of the
Federal Role, 1910-1956
· The Rise of the Outer City and Recent Trends Influencing Ur-
ban Infrastructure, 1956-1982
History, of course, does not fall into neat compartments. Any
scheme of this type risks oversimplification, for there were often
important lags in different sectors with regard to adoption of new
technology. This is especially true of infrastructure. Its elements
have often been extremely slow to change, imposing restraints on
the freedom with which economic forces or public policy can reshape
the city (Martin and Willeke, 1978:29-581. Infrastructure has thus
served both as a force for development in one period and as a barrier
to change in another.
URBAN NETWORKS AND WALKING CITIES:
A PERIOD OF FOUNDATIONS, 1790-1855
During the years from 1790 to 1860, the urban population of the
United States grew from approximately 202,000 to over 6 million.
In 1790 there were no cities with a population of more than 50,000;
in 1860 there were six, with two having a population of over 500,000
and one over ~ million (Bureau of the Census, 1975:Pt. 1, 11-12~.
The first cities were sited on good port locations along the Atlantic
Coast, providing key linkages for the transshipment of raw mate-
rials from the continental interior to Europe. These cities were
primarily commercial and break-of-bulk locations that developed
substantial manufacturing functions only in midcentury. The ini-
tial urban network consisted of a line of Atlantic Coast cities, but
by the IS20s a second urban frontier of interior cities had developed
along inland waterways, such as the Ohio and Mississippi rivers
and the Great Lakes. This latter network largely focused on internal
rather than external markets. In several of these interior cities,
such as Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, local industries developed to
take advantage of strategic location, access to raw materials, and
nearby markets. In addition, a number of more specialized indus-
trial mill towns grew along water power sites in the New England
and Middle Atlantic regions (Pred, 1966:143-1961.
To a large extent, cities during this period were walking cities.
That is, even the largest cities had relatively compact spatial areas,
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EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
7
dense population and land use densities, mixed patterns of land
use, and no large separation, if at all, between workplaces and
residences. Usually the means of public transportation were min-
imal. Horse-drawn buses called omnibuses appeared in a few cities,
such as Philadelphia and Baltimore, in the 1820s and 1830s; com-
muter railroads first carried passengers in Boston in the 1830s; and
the street railway, with horses as the means of motive power, re-
ceived its initial systematic development in New York in 1852. Only
a relatively small number of urban inhabitants, however, utilized
these relatively expensive and often slow forms of transport (Taylor,
1966:Summer, 35-50; Autumn, 31-541.
Government on many levels - federal, state, county, and city-
constructed parts of the infrastructure in this period, stimulating
urbanization and economic development. Federal efforts were rel-
atively minor compared with those of states and cities, with the
federal government financing the construction of roads, light-
houses, and river and harbor improvements and supporting canal
and railroad projects through land grants, stock subscriptions, and
federal subsidies. One author has estimated that total federal ex-
penditures on internal improvements from 1820 to IS40, not count-
ing subsidies to state and private projects, probably amounted to
about 11 percent of the federal budget (Aldrich, 1980:F.~.
The most innovative policies with regard to infrastructure de-
velopment took place on the state level. State aid to public works
projects increased after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825,
stimulated by trade competition between states and cities and ne-
cessitated by private capital shortages. Economic historians have
calculated that of the total investment of $188 million in canal
construction in six states between 1815 and 1860, approximately
73 percent was financed by state and municipal governments
(Bruchey, 1965:128-1331. Most of the sum was raised by the sale of
bonds to investors, a high proportion of whom were foreign. The
aim of the investment was to use transportation improvements such
as canals, roads, and railroads in a developmental mode: to escape
the tyranny of topography, to form efficient links between the var-
ious urban nodes and regions for the movement of goods and people,
and to provide for penetration of the fertile western territories.
Many of these projects were directed by private-public "mixed" boards,
with government acting as "planner, promoter, investor, and reg-
ulator" (Lively, 1955:~-951. Faced by the need for development,
state government thus acted to reduce risk, provide investment,
and supply an institutional structure for further private activity.
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8
PERSPECTIVES ON UItBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
State investment in transportation infrastructure contracted
sharply after the depression of 1837, with a second wave of con-
traction after the depression of 1857. State constitutional restric-
tions passed after the depressions forced many states to a pay-as-
you-go basis and to severely restrict new projects.
Municipalities and counties, however, convinced that they were
doomed economically without access to a railroad line or a canal,
filled the infrastructure investment gap. State legislatures passed
hundreds of laws permitting the granting of local aid. In 1843,
municipal debt was approximately $27.5 million and federal and
state debt $231 million (Figure 1-1~. By 1860, however, municipal
debt had reached over $200 million, almost as large as state debt
(HilIhouse, 1936:32-341. Cities such as Baltimore, Cincinnati, Mil-
waukee, and Pittsburgh bought railroad stock, purchased railroad
bonds, guaranteed the credit of railway companies, and even made
outright gifts. By the 1850s, however, many cities were disiTIu-
sioned with the policies of the railroads and questioner! the wisdom
of public subscription to railroad corporation stocks and bonds. Con
,30
,20
Rio
loo
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
,8 40 ,850 ,~60 ,870 ,880
- Local
___ State
/
/
-
-
-
1890 1902 1912 1922 1932
YEAR
FIGURE 1-1 Per capita state and municipal debt, 1840-1932. SOURCE: Based on data
from A. M. Hillhouse, 1936, Municipal Bonds: A Century of Experience. New York:
Prentice-Hall.
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E VOL UTION OF THE URBAN INFRASTR UCTURE
9
troversy over the relationship between tax revenues and financial
obligations to railroad bonds created political conflict in cities such
as Pittsburgh and Milwaukee in the 1850s and 1860s (Booth,
1983:335-363; Holt, 1969:220-262; Olson, 1980:156-1601. In the post-
Civi! War period, amidst a severe financial downturn, municipal-
ities widely rejected the policy of financial subsidies to private cor-
porations.
The Development of Urban Infrastructure
While states, counties, and municipalities provided capital for
the construction of intercity and regional transportation infrastruc-
ture, city governments also began to assume many of the service
functions that are currently accepted as their chief responsibility.
This was a shift from the earlier pattern. While eighteenth-century
municipalities provided some infrastructure, such as street paving
and lighting, town wells, and docks, their chief concern was with
the regulation and protection of commercial activities. In addition,
many services that later became a municipal responsibility were
handled by volunteer groups or were an individual responsibility
(Goldfield and Brownell, 1979:83-86; Lane, 1967:6-~; Teaford, 19751.
These patterns changed gradually in the nineteenth century. By
the 1840s and 1850s, in the larger municipalities, functions such
as fire fighting had become the responsibility of professional fire
departments; organizer! police forces had taken the place of the
night watch and constables; and urban governments had enlarged
their activities in matters involving public health and sanitation
(Goldfield and Brownell, 1979:170-~80~. Diffusion of the more mod-
ern governmental forms through the urban network, however, took
place at a relatively slow pace, with the older and larger cities
making innovations first.
Structural changes in city government permitted the develop-
ment of the service orientation, as states granted municipalities
new charters and authorized the revision of old ones. A democratic
revolution that erased property qualifications for voting permitted
citizens to elect mayors and specialized officials instead of having
city councils appoint them. In many cities bicameral legislative
bodies and ward systems replaced unicameral councils chosen in
at-large elections. Governmental control in the larger cities began
to shift from the hands of a commercial/propertied leadership to a
new group of professional politicians who relied on appeals to the
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10
PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
urban masses for election (Gluck and Meister, 1979:43-464. In the
smaller and medium-sized cities, however, such as Houston, Texas,
and Springfield, Massachusetts, the commercial/propertied groups
continued to dominate until close to the end of the century (Frisch
1972:241-246; Platt, 1983:96-103).
Accompanying the political changes were governmental altera-
tions that related directly to the management of public works. Many
cities, for instance, introduced standing committees on their coun-
cils rather than operating out of the council as a whole. Pittsburgh,
for example, had nine standing committees in IS28 concerned with
finance, water, streets, paving, claims and accounts, assessments,
wooden buildings, canals, and wharves and public lands (Wade,
1959:2731. City council committees, however, often could not pro-
vide the uniform procedures required by growing infrastructure
construction. The solution was to create additional executive de-
partments, a move often resisted by city aldermen. New York City,
for instance, in the 1830s had a desperate need for more executive
departments, but the Common Council refused to respond, even
though the 1830 city charter called for their creation. The council-
men preferred to keep power over public works in their hands rather
than making them an executive responsibility (Moehring, 1981:55
56).
The forces underlying the changes in city government, especially
increased infrastructure construction, were more complex than sim-
ple economic models suggest. It is always hazardous to generalize
about the causation of large-scale change, especially in a situation
involving a host of cities ranging in size and location, but some
tentative observations are possible. First, it is clear that much in-
frastructure construction and municipal delivery of urban services
was related to commerce and development (Goldfield and Brownell,
1979:168-170; Moehring, 19811. In this regard, government was
serving the same role as it did in providing support for internal
improvements; that is, it acted to aid the private economy, espe-
cially business interests and real estate developers. Second, a set
of forces driving change stemmed from considerations that related
not only to development but also to concerns about the public order
and the public health (i.e., preventing the spread of epidemic dis-
ease). The actors who reflected this set of views included a number
of commercial elites, professionals, and sanitarians (Warner,1968:99-
1601. Third, the 1840s and 1850s saw the rise of a new type of urban
political professional who based his career on appeals to the recently
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EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
11
enlarged electorate. In this context, the delivery of public works
improvements and of services was often a response to voting con-
stituencies or the needs of specific interest groups (Gluck and Meis-
ter, 1979:45-524.
The interaction of the various forces driving infrastructure con-
struction is clearly illustrated with regard to three areas of impor-
tance in the walking city: streets, water supply, and sewers.
Because they were sensitive to the constituencies interested in
the streets, city council members considered questions involving
streets approximately half to two-thirds of their time. These debates
revolved around matters of financing, the timing of openings, and
whether private companies or the public authorities would do the
most effective job of street cleaning and maintenance (GoIcIfield and
Brownell, 1979:170-1711.
Generally, city councils responded quickly to requests for street
openings or improvements that served commerce and related to the
flow of business in and out of town and in the principal business
section. Downtown streets were usually paved first, while most
secondary streets were unpaved. Cobblestone had been utilized ex-
tensively for paving since colonial days, but was generally unsat-
isfactory because it resulted in noise, collected filth, and broke under
heavy traffic. I:n the 1830s, cities began searching for smoother
pavements and experimented with wood, stone blocks, bricks, and
planks. It was not until the chemical and technological advances
of the late nineteenth century that more satisfactory improved as-
phalt and concrete materials became widely available (Armstrong
et al., 1976:66-67; McShane, 1979:279-2811.
Residential neighborhoods had different requirements. Abutters
decided when and how streets would be paved by petitioning the
municipal government. Normally, whenever residents holding two-
thirds of the front footage on a block petitioned the council, the
municipality would arrange for paving ant! collect special assess-
ments from all abutters. If assessments were not fully paicT, costs
had to be covered by the general tax func! (McShane, 1979:2841. Not
surprisingly, paving was more common in wealthy neighborhoods
and less common in the poorer areas. Since the city government
was responsible for maintenance, residents often preferred cheaper
forms of paving. Grave] (macadam) was most widely used, followed
by cobblestone. According to historian Clay McShane, the limited
amount of paving in residential areas reflected not only citizen
reluctance to assume the financial costs but also a desire to protect
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12
PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
the social functions of streets, common in the walking city, from
disruptive traffic (McShane, 1979:285-2904. Changes in values as
well as technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies altered these preferences.
Once constructed, streets required maintenance and cleaning if
they were to serve as proper circulatory mechanisms for commerce,
people, and the removal of wastes. These functions were largely a
municipal responsibility, and their proper delivery was contingent
on funding availability and adequate administrative procedures. In
a period of municipal change, the result was a seesaw between the
demand for service and the demand for economy and between the
private contract system and the municipal scavenging corps. In
small cities especially, fiscally conservative governments resisted
the public assumption of service responsibilities longer than did
large cities. In all communities, however, the normal pattern was
clear priorities were largely determined by commercial needs, by
wealth, and by status. Few streets in the cities of this period, how-
ever, were ever clear of horse manure and other forms of filth.
Street networks served not only for the supply and circulation of
the various goods required for urban life but also played an im-
portant role with regard to other vital elements of the city's me-
tabolism the supply of water and the removal of human wastes,
contaminated water, and garbage. Theoretically, all these materials
could be transported to places of disposal along street surfaces, but
only at very high financial and nuisance costs. The two most critical
elements relating to the urban metabolism were water supply and
human waste removal. It was in these two areas that the greatest
technological advances both using the subsurface r'ather than the
surface of streets were made during the period of the walking city.
Water came first. Until the last quarter of the nineteenth century,
most American urbanites depended on local sources for water sup-
ply. Householders usually dug their own private wells or used water
from neighborhood ponds, streams, and springs. In cities such as
New OrIeans, where poor groundwater quality restricted the use
of wells, cisterns caught and preserved rainwater. Vendors also
carried casks of water from private streams and peddled water on
the streets. As early as the eighteenth century, there were both
private and public water suppliers. In Philadelphia, for instance,
entrepreneurs who built wells on public property to sell water to
the public paid a rental fee for the site. In the mid-1750s, the city
purchased private pumps and assessed nearby residents for their
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EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
13
use; by 1771, Philadelphia owned 120 of a town total of 498 pumps.
In New York City in the late 1780s and 1790s, the town encourages}
new well construction with subsidies and provided funds for repair,
cleaning, and construction from a statewide tax (Blake, 1956:3-171.
In spite of municipal involvement, local supplies were inadequate
to provide for the needs of growing cities. Wells ant} ponds became
visibly polluter} and groundwater levels receded. The desire of ur-
banites for more copious and cleaner water supplies, concern over
threats to the public health from polluted local sources and inad-
equate water to flush filthy streets, and the insufficiency of water
supplies to control the fires that frequently raged through ante-
bellum cities led to a search for nonlocal sources of supply. As cities
became more industrialized, industrialists joined to demand a pure
and abundant supply of water for their various processes (Moehring,
1981:32-374. Water supply, therefore, represents a situation in which
a number of interests- business and industries, homeowners, fire
insurance companies, and those concerned with the public health-
joined to demand the construction of large public works in order to
secure more adequate supplies. City boosters considered water-
works as crucial in the competition between municipalities for pop-
ulation, trade, and industry and emphasizer} their possession in
touting their cities.
The first large city to construct a municipal water supply system
was Philadelphia, which acted in 1798 because of a yellow fever
epidemic. Cincinnati installed a water system in the 1820s, New
York opened the Croton Aqueduct in 1841, and Boston the Cochit-
uate Aqueduct in 1848. By 1860, the nation's 16 largest cities had
waterworks, with a total of 136 systems 57 public, 79 private
(Armstrong et al., 1976:217-2221. The larger cities were more likely
to have publicly owned waterworks and the smaller cities to have
privately owned, many with relatively few users. The large capital
requirements of the systems and frequent inadequacies of the pri-
vate companies necessitated public ownership. Cities that began
with private water supply companies, such as New York and Chi-
cago, shifted to public ownership because the private companies
refused to provide adequate water for civic purposes such as street
flushing and fire hydrants, to eliminate pollution, to enlarge their
works in anticipation of population growth, or to service distant
districts (Anderson,.1980:119-124; Galishoff, 1980:361. In some large
cities, however, such as Denver and Kansas City, water systems
remained private until the twentieth century.
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14
PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
The provision of water supply, therefore, especially in large cities,
presents a triumph of technology and administration in the con-
struction of large public works for a needed service. A capital-in-
tensive and centralized technological system replaced a decentral-
ized and labor-intensive method of delivery. Progress, however, was
far from uniform, and municipalities encountered many problems
in the process of development and construction. In Baltimore and
New York, for example, vested interests in the existing privately
owned systems and the high costs of purchase caused city councils
to resist assuming the water supply functions for a number of years
(Moehring, 1981:23-32; Olson, 1980:~. In addition to these delays,
city councils debated endlessly over property rights and the rec-
ommendations of various engineering reports before they could agree
on the source of water or the character and technology of the dis-
tribution system. Cities often functioned with inadequate supplies
at a high cost in fire damage and disease long after the technological
capability for improved water systems existed (Blake, 1956:100-
247).
Other difficulties arose from the uneven distribution of water
supplies. In cities with private companies, such as Baltimore until
1854, water supply was class structured. The affluent residential
districts and the central business district received the piped water
of a private corporation for an annual fee, while the working class
districts continued to depend on shallow polluted wells supplied by
city pumps (Olson, 1980:132-1331. In New York City, after con-
struction of the Croton Aqueduct, the picture was more varied, and
all of the city's lower wards, rich and poor, American and foreign,
enjoyed Croton water. City councilmen responded to petitions from
residents unable to afford household connections by providing
hundreds of free hydrants. In uptown Mahattan, however, the mains
only extended to clusters of middle-class or upper-class homes. Ac-
cording to the leading historian of nineteenth-century New York
public works, a range of elements, including economic, class, and
political factors, as well as the influence of the real estate devel-
opers, affected the distribution of water mains (Moehring, 1981:37-
51).
Until 1860, water systems diffused through the urban network
at a relatively slow rate. This pattern suggests that local supplies
remained adequate for most needs in small- and medium-sized cit-
ies, making private entrepreneurs reluctant to invest; that infor-
mation and skills concerning waterworks technology were rela
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56
PERSPECTIVES ON URBANINFRASTRUCTURE
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Weingold, Marilyn
PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
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DISCUSSION
Randy Hamilton
A historical view of urban public facilities should focus on tools,
skills, materials, and sources of power. These themes allow cohesion
· ~
in ana .ysls.
In discussing the financing of infrastructure, we should perhaps
say that cities invested rather than spent; the returns on this in-
vestment have been great. Compared with private investments,
defaults have been rare. This is a remarkably good performance.
In analyzing the financing of urban facilities, it would also be help-
ful to place some of the numbers in perspective, comparing them
with total city budgets.
Having looked at the walking city, the transit city, and the au-
tomobile city, we now need to speculate on the next kind of city,
perhaps the "wired" city, and the changes in infrastructure it will
require.
Finally, we should give some attention to how we train public
works professionals.
Wilfred Owen
Tarr's analysis suggests ways in which history repeats itself. It
also identifies some things we should not allow history to repeat.
The major issue raised by tracing urban evolution is the kind of
o.it.v t.h~t. oomph next the snace-a~e city the city concerned with
~ i, ~ _ . ~ ~ ~ ,,
both inner and outer space.
We have moved in a short time from cesspools and cisterns to
microcomputers, lasers, and fiber optics as important elements of
urban infrastructure. These new technologies will make vast dif-
ferences in the character and functions of urban America and pro-
duce, in turn, revolutionary changes in supporting infrastructure.
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EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
Two principal conclusions can be drawn:
61
1. We should be alert to history to anticipate but not simply to
accept changes, to understand and influence them in the na-
tional interest.
2. Just as history can be a guide, so can geography. We frequently
ignore both.
One impressive fact in our public works history is how much we
learned from Europe in the early days. Its experts were welcomed
to our cities. Any current research program should emphasize tech-
nology transfer, combining our awareness of history with more care-
fu} analysis of infrastructure solutions in other parts of the world.
There is too little comparative analysis. This is important in several
respects, particularly in the (levelopment of large cities and in the
organization of the suburbs. Large urban areas are the culmination
of complex approaches to urban development. Some countries are
beginning to use large transportation systems to organize such large-
scale development. Japan, for instance, connects major urban con-
centrations by high-speed rail lines. Singapore has redeveloped it-
self and a series of major satellites and in the process has achieved
a high standard of living. We need a much better understancling of
how these places have developed and the role of their public works
systems in how they took shape and how they function as cities.
Tarr's paper reminds us that our legacy of public works stays
with us. The depression-era facilities and those of more recent years
remain a most important part of today's infrastructure. They pro-
vide some important lessons for us, such as the need to include in
the design the people for whom they are built.
Concerning the pitfalls and possibilities of borrowing, some of
the most exciting projects in the world are being financed by de-
velopment banks, such as the World Bank and the Inter American
Development Bank. These banks guarantee loans made by private
bankers. We should have an internal U.S. development bank to
undertake needed projects at home.
Another lesson from history concerns pricing. Our rates for using
facilities have often been too low, whether for transit, commuter
railroads, or water systems. We have consistently underpriced the
highway system. It is now clear that we must not only pay to build
these systems, but we must also have an assured means of sup
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PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
porting their operation. Some financial trade-offs are necessary and
are being made. Of the 21 cents a mile it costs to drive a compact
car, for instance, only 1 cent supports the highway system. We need
to ask how we can make more energy-efficient vehicles and use the
savings in design and operating costs to pay for the facilities they
must use. Both pricing and regulations can reduce costs and de-
mand. The restriction of the extension of Route I-66, in the Virginia
suburbs of Washington, to high-occupancy vehicles during rush
hours is an illustration of the use of regulation to influence demand.
History and geography suggest a strategy for future research and
action that combines technology, large systems, jobs, and new meth-
ods of finance to determine the need for a national city-building
effort. City-building corporations using modern technology and en-
gineering might be created for both new development and rede-
velopment involving a joint public and private effort. This approach
would be better for the country, producing more efficient and sat-
isfying cities instead of stagnation and decay. This of course depends
on careful analysis of situations and what might be done better.
Abe! Wolman
Tarr provides us with a comprehensive clinical diagnosis of the
evolution of public works service to U.S. society. The record is a
rehearsal of ad hoc responsiveness to the demands of people, often
incoherent, for protection against fire, dirt, disease, and immobility.
His detailed account of these efforts makes clear that the evo-
Jution of infrastructure to provide service is "more complex than
simple economic models suggest." The progress was cyclical in na-
ture, reflecting economic depressions and recovery, the rise and fall
of"bossism," temporary reformism, and political ideology. Physical
obstacles to trade demanded correctives, which are described by
Tarr in colorful designations of the transition from the walking
city, to the streetcar city, to the automobile city, and, ~ might add
without plagiarizing, to the subway city.
For two centuries, contests and changes were marked by the
forces of public and private groups and governmental and voluntary
pressures. If there is a common thread of deliberate reasoning and
plan throughout these years of true progress and failures, it is that
the movement was essentially forward. The search for the moti-
vating grand plan was and still is elusive.
What are the implications for the present and the future of this
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EVOLUTIONOFTHEURBANINFRASTRUCTURE
63
past record of human endeavor? Tarr suggests five or six areas for
future research. All of them are significant markers to aid the future
worker in this field of high social impact. But they are too limited.
~ venture to suggest some additional therapies, largely reflective
of a lifetime of participation in and observation of the functions
here discussed. ~ am startled by the fact that my own span of life
covers almost half the period Tarr has so vividly traversed. My view
is colored by activities as a public official at all three levels of
government, as an educator, and as a consultant.
Some preliminary observations provide a setting. Accomplish-
ments by reformers have been episodic and of short duration. One
of their lauded gifts was in civil service protection, a device ~ have
found less than helpful. Too often, it too has succumbed to corruption
and has resulted in constraint of personnel change and in protection
of mediocrity. As to "bossism," one of our most progressive and
efficient mayors once nostalgically remarked that the old-time boss
provided more effective municipal service than modern checks and
balances have produced! The suggestion has much relevance to our
view of present policy making.
We live now in a stressful and exciting arena, reminiscent of a
few earlier situations. The compound of an economic recession, cou-
pled with a new set of ideologies regarding government interven-
tion, drives us toward new orientations in public works develop-
ment. While we rush toward correctives of the so-called welfare
state objectives of the 1930s Roosevelt programs, we are engaged
in again battling over work programs characteristic of those same
bygone days.
The New Federalism is a revival of the proposals of Franklin
Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. Simultaneously, environmental
groups press toward negativism. Public participation engenders
multiple pressure groups at all levels of governmental decision
making.
On this stage, old and new solutions press for prompt study,
evaluation, and implementation, and ~ add a few here.
What are the potentialities for survival of the weakened cities?
Will they continue to lose people and viability?
May cities be joint beneficiaries of wider-area taxes and cor-
responding services?
3. Increasing private corporate responsibility for many public
works is illustrated in water supply, sewerage, solid wastes,
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PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
bridges, and even schools. What protective measures are in-
dicated for the revival of these old contests?
4. New institutional structures, transcending political bounda-
ries, would be helpful. Political scientists have advocated these
for more than half a century. Can their delayed use be expe-
dited?
5. Are municipalities really bankrupt? Or do we mean their rev
ernments are, as distinct from their constituents?
6. Municinal it him" ~ 1 nr~ ~ ^ ~~r 1 1 · J
- Do,
~rC4ll~l=;~ love ~ 1ung- and successful history of local au-
tonomy and responsibility. These have been seriously eroded
by federal largesse and consequent transfer of decision making
to federal agencies. How best may responsibility be recaptured
in a disappearing long-time flood of federal and state money?
7. Financing local public works has likewise a long record of
success. In a period of economic disability, orthodox formulas
appear less available. What innovations in local fiscal policy
are discernible or developable? Fortunately, serious ap-
proaches to new potentials of financing are being explored.
S. Delayed maintenance and operation have resulted in the wide-
spread deterioration of systems. The reasons for the imminent
collapse are not hard to find. More glamorous objectives have
held the stage over the past decades, and it has been easy to
cut budgets in less conspicuous, but life-supporting, necessi-
ties. Must one wait to avoid r~t~c!tr~r~h~ {~ I-:ll: a_ _r l is
from nonexistent sources? Some public works directors have
already moved forward in determining priorities, planning
correctives, and engaging in the "doable." What feasible im-
plementations are discernible, while waiting for a new mil-
lennium of federal largesse?
9. The advent of public participation is not new. Its extent and
militancy today are greater. What devices may be developed
to provide an early shift from adversarial to mediated reso-
Jution of highly important public issues? No formula is readily
at hand.
Underlying all I: have said is an issue of far broader implications
than for infrastructure alone. The participation of the public has
undoubtedly always been essential. In recent years its eDaboration
has been stimulated in no small degree by officialdom. The flow-
ering of pressure groups, including many of our own professions,
has resulted in some input of value. On the debit side, the phenom
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EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
65
enon has eroded the democratic process, wherein decision making
was once assigned to elected officials. Aided and abetted by public
polls, not distinguished by clear neutrality, the elected official keeps
an eye on the polls and on television. Pressure groups provide an
important source of information and ideas. They are often in conflict
and only infrequently do their desires result in sound public interest
decisions. More important, they are not responsible for the socio-
economic results of their implemented demands. This broader ques-
tion of public policy making deserves a place on our agenda for
research.
~ do not pretend that these opportunities for research exhaust the
list. They are illustrative of present challenges in public works
development. Inherent in them is an assumption that the day of
new works and rehabilitation of the old is not over. People multiply,
and their demands are rarely reduced. Tens of millions wait for
water supply, sewerage, solid wastes handling, transport, safety,
and health. The desires are not new. While we search for innovation,
the record is clear that the past discloses many markers for the
future. For this disclosure, ~ am forever indebted to the diligence
of Joe! Tarr.
SUMMARY
In theory perhaps some cities shouic3 be allowed to die, but there
is a human factor involved. The important question is: What options
are available for a city? We know from history that it is hard to
establish a rigid framework for such analysis. Politics, value changes,
and the rise of professionalism have all altered the course of events.
We know that cities will become more communications-intensive,
but people will still expect water from the tap. We will still need
streets and sewers. Thus, while some demands on facilities will
change and there may be new types of facilities, some traditional
parts of the infrastructure will remain important.
The distinctions between the use of public works for immediate
job creation and long-term investments were much clearer during
the New Deal period than they are today. Our dilemma is that our
cities are in a state of flux. It is not clear what will happen to older
cities. Incidentally, some of those thought to be dying in the 1930s
are back on the table for observation today. Their original reasons
for existence have disappeared; the question is whether they can
find a new reason. In this sense it is hard to approach spending for
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PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
public works by arguing that all that is needed is to take old plans
off the shelf and start building. Those plans often do not lend them-
seIves to current needs.
We really have not wrestled with the decision-making process.
We need to look hard at bosses versus professionals versus public
participation in public works decisions. This issue should be ex-
amined in terms of how we should set priorities and who should be
involved. We need to look at the contradictory benefits of each
system. The federal decision to put the interstate system through
cities instead of stopping at the beltways, for instance, was a critical
one that preempted other local choices. Federal mandates may cause
more problems than they are worth.
One federal official argued that local politicians will not focus on
the size and scope of infrastructure problems because of their re-
sponsiveness to political pressure. He suggested that government
could not be trusted to solve the problem and that the problem of
conflicting pressures could be resolved only if the private sector
takes more responsibility. This view was strongly contested; an-
other participant argued that the private sector would simply make
decisions that were in its own interest. The point was also made
that the political system was indeed responsive to its constituents,
in contrast with dealing with an abstract, normative mode] of what
"should" be done.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
water supply
