Considering the great difficulty of rebuild a new city on an old, fully occupied site, Ebenezer Howard proposes an alternative way to make this long needed reconstruction of London happen naturally. As it happens in the major cities in the world, London attracts a great number of new citizens to its inner area every year in a constant flow of people to an already overcrowded area. As a consequence of this movement, the land prices rise, the unemployment rates grow, slums are created and the infrastructure cannot accommodate all the citizens properly.
Howard proposes the creation of Garden Cities on the surrounding areas of the great cities where the land prices will be lower, the employment rates will be greater and the infrastructure will accommodate everyone as a way to revert the flow of people, stimulating them to leave the overcrowded city to live a better quality life in these new cities. To support his view, Howard argues that it is easier to create a new city in a new area than rebuild an existing city in an old area. Furthermore, he argues that this movement would eliminate the slums of London since the people who use to live there would have a better opportunity to get new jobs and move to better areas when part of the people leave to the new surrounding cities.
It is true that the major cities in the world are overcrowded and have huge difficulties to provide infrastructure for all those who live there and it is also true that some kind of reformulation is necessary to improve the life in this cities. The Garden Cities proposed by Howard seems at least in theory to be a good starting point to change the current scenario. However, it is impossible to predict if these new planned cities will work as expected, if there will be people willing to be the first to move out of an stablished city with a stablished market to a completely unknown situation. Despite all the economic benefits proposed by Howard for these new garden cities, the uncertainty feeling surround it could be a barrier for it.
Howard, E 2007, Garden Cities of To-Morrow, Routledge Ltd, Abingdon, Oxon. Available from: Dawsonera. [12 January 2015].
Howard proposes the creation of Garden Cities on the surrounding areas of the great cities where the land prices will be lower, the employment rates will be greater and the infrastructure will accommodate everyone as a way to revert the flow of people, stimulating them to leave the overcrowded city to live a better quality life in these new cities. To support his view, Howard argues that it is easier to create a new city in a new area than rebuild an existing city in an old area. Furthermore, he argues that this movement would eliminate the slums of London since the people who use to live there would have a better opportunity to get new jobs and move to better areas when part of the people leave to the new surrounding cities.
It is true that the major cities in the world are overcrowded and have huge difficulties to provide infrastructure for all those who live there and it is also true that some kind of reformulation is necessary to improve the life in this cities. The Garden Cities proposed by Howard seems at least in theory to be a good starting point to change the current scenario. However, it is impossible to predict if these new planned cities will work as expected, if there will be people willing to be the first to move out of an stablished city with a stablished market to a completely unknown situation. Despite all the economic benefits proposed by Howard for these new garden cities, the uncertainty feeling surround it could be a barrier for it.
Howard, E 2007, Garden Cities of To-Morrow, Routledge Ltd, Abingdon, Oxon. Available from: Dawsonera. [12 January 2015].