A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

Abstract

The accounts usually given of the causes of the "urban crisis" are not satisfactory: congestion is decreasing, not increasing; the flight to the suburbs has not left the central cities on the verge of bankruptcy; the urban housing supply is on the whole much better than ever; "white racism" has long been on the wane, and blacks are making rapid income and other gains; and the fragmentation of local government does not account for its ineffectiveness. Changes in the state of the public mind are the main cause of the "crisis." Set in motion mainly by the ideas of philosophers, these are reflected in the attitudes of elites and of the middle class with respect to authority, the self, rational egotism, hedonism, egalitarianism, and consumerism. It follows that the "crisis" will not be ended by either government programs or by exhortation.