Regional Visionaries and Metropolitan Boosters: Decentralization, Regional Planning, and Parkways During the Interwar Years

This book is an examination of two conflicting regional planning ideologies and the impact of this conflict on the development of two regional parkways. I hypothesize that regional parkways of the 1920s and 1930s emerged out of these two visions of regional planning - regionalism and metropolitanism. The regional view coalesced around the work of Benton MacKaye, Lewis Mumford, and the Regional Planning Association of America. The metropolitan viewpoint, while less definable, grew out of the market-oriented economic boosterism efforts associated with early twentieth century planning. This view found literal and philosophical support with Thomas Adams and the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs. In an effort to flesh out the competing theories and the development of the regional parkway, I discuss the history of the Skyline Drive and the proposed Green Mountain Parkway. In addition to supplementing the planning history and theory literature, I try to inform on issues important to the contemporary planning profession. The regional visionaries viewed their regional work as a social reform effort. The metropolitanists wanted to tweak the market so as to provide for a minimized congestion and economic hardship for the greatest number of citizens. This "vision versus reality" still troubles the profession today, especially in the areas of sustainable development, growth management, and "smart growth. " Matthew Dalbey Jackson, Mississippi March 2002 Chapter 1 Decentralization and Regional Planning Practical and Ideological Problems 1. Read more