Abstract

This article proposes basic changes in urban planning, municipal financing, and the role of local government to make American cities efficient for business and attractive for living. American city dweller schemes to escape the noise, dirt, and drabness of most large cities in the United States. Can European developers teach their colleagues in America how to plan, develop, and preserve cities which can be a source of pride to their citizens and the nation? Three general types of solutions have been proposed for the problem: 1. Structural reorganization of governmental units in metropolitan areas, involving such steps as area-wide unification through annexation, city-county consolidation. 2. Intergovernmental cooperation through joint operation of facilities. 3.The organization of metropolitan special districts as independent units of local government.