PRIVATE CHOICES New-Town Planning and Lifestyles in Three Nations

Can the character of urban life and social interaction be decisively shaped by physical and social planning? This paper examines new towns in Britain, the United States, and the USSR, and finds that, although Soviet and western planners seek differing patterns of urban life, even the most comprehensive plans have failed to foster distinctive lifestyles. Assumptions and biases of both planning approaches are analyzed, as are the contribu-tions of new-town governance and "admissions policies " to the social outcomes of urban planning. Urban life is a rich mosaic of behavior patterns. Can it be deci-sively reshaped through comprehensive planning?’ To weigh the effects of planning on urban life we must study cases which clearly represent attempts to improve urban life through comprehensive planning. The ideals sought must be clear in each case and must be varied enough to allow compara-tive analysis. A real test of the efficacy of comprehensive plan-ning must allow authorities a free hand in planning and imple-mentation