Quote Originally Posted by Bham1982 View Post
I also think that Huggybear's response post was spot-on. The actions of "city planners" back then seem crazy at face value, but when you look at the timeframe and specific context, I think their decisionmaking can be defended, even when so much was lost.
I think the post-World War II planners knew exactly what they were doing. Cities had existed for thousands of years--and most of them grew in a similar fashion for that entire duration. As educated people, the planners would have known this.

These folks, having just come back from winning WWII, thought they could establish a technocracy, where only bean-counting and number-crunching mattered. They thought they could impose military-style demolish-and-conquer techniques to the urban environment. Need a road to move lots of people? No problem--plow down this neighborhood that no one will miss. Need a base of operations? Clear out an area over here. And, most importantly--get it all done QUICKLY before anyone asks questions.

It was good enough thinking to defeat Hitler. It was good enough to defeat our own cities too. Sadly, the places we paid to rebuild in Europe are far more functional and attractive.