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The significance of growing urban congestion, decay, and obsolescence to his business and to him personally is all too evident to the businessman. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the departmental reorganization in a local authority as well as the establishment of the Norwich City Planning Department in England. The Policy Advisory Committee have made reports regarding the feasibility of such initiatives to be implemented in the city. Significantly, the report concluded that: (1) rapid pace of change may pose problems in town planning; (2) town planning is a combination of civil engineering, architecture, landscaping, sociology, traffic control, economics, and valuation; (3) responsibilities of the Civil Engineer are very heavy, and some alleviation is desirable; (4) expenditures would be entailed by a separate department; and (5) the city's road pattern should be addressed by the Planning Department.

The recent wave of voluntary retirements by mayors of American cities suggests that pressing problems are found not alone in the largest cities but in many cities of all sizes. But the problems of the largest cities-the megacentropolises-strike us with particular impact. First, and most obvious, these problems involve many people. The five largest cities of the United States-New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit-contain well over 17 million people, a substantial portion of the urbanized population of the country. Second, because these cities are so large, they are newsworthy, and things which happen in them are of great interest to the rest of the nation. Third, the fact that the largest cities are also the homes of such things as cultural complexes, major league athletic teams, and unique facilities again draws attention to them and to events occurring within them. Finally, the largest cities are centers of considerable political weight and influence. The proposals for substantive change rest upon the position that megacentropolitan governments need to do something for their citizens in the way of new services and protective measures.

The article informs that Samuel Milton Jones, mayor of Toledo from 1897 to 1904 and the first of the Civic Revivalists, was born in Wales in 1846. His family immigrated to America when he was three years old and settled in western New York. His ideas, turned into issues by his attempt to apply them to specific conditions, were to be the fundamental ones in Toledo for almost another decade. Out of his reflections upon certain of his experiences he had already constructed a fairly definite social philosophy. His political theory was not yet definitely formulated, but the events of his first term would crystallize into a political philosophy attitudes which were already a part of his personality. In order to bring the men into closer relations with each other and with himself Jones had low cost meals served in a dining room operated by the company. He insisted that making men was as important a part of the company's work as making money. He wanted the citizens of Toledo to be members of a family that owned the things necessary for its life, and that did things for its members. In the city-family of which he dreamed, no members would make money at the expense of others, and all members would contribute something more to the city's life than their mere presence and the payment of taxes.