Building new communities
The term ‘city planning’ usually refers to attempts to improve existing communities. But it can also mean the development of entirely new communities. New cities and towns differ from each other in location and in the degree to which they are self-supporting. Planners of new cities try to ensure that the communities have enough facilities and job opportunities for all the residents. Thus, new cities can be built far from existing cities. In the mid-1900’s, The Brazilian government built Brazil’s new capital, Brasilia, far from the country’s population center. New cities are extremely costly projects, and Brasilia and Canberra, Australia, are among the few ever completed.
The United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries rank among the leaders in the development of new towns. The governments of these nations provide aid for new town development, including money and the authority to purchase the needed land. In the United States, private business is the major source of funds for new town development.
Criticism of city planning
Although most people favor the goals of city planning, some criticize the methods used to achieve those goals. Major criticisms include the length of time needed to implement plans, the high cost of planning, government control of city planning, and what opponents feel is a wrong emphasis on certain goals. Some critics complain that city planners put too much emphasis on the future of cities and towns and not enough on present problems. Some people believe that changes made for a community sometimes increase the social problems. For example, a loss of low-cost housing results in luxury apartments replacing run-down buildings.
Careers in city planning
A
professional city planner needs certain personal and educational
qualifications. City planners have a special interest in design,
social planning, and economic development. Most planning positions
are available only to people who have a master’s degree in city
planning. People with a master’s degree in city planning may have a
bachelor’s degree in architecture, computer programming, economics,
engineering, finance, law, political science, statistics, and
sociology.
2 Reading
2.1 Scanning. Look through the text and define whether your hypothesis is right. Compare the information from the text with your notes (1.1).
2.2 Skimming. Find in the text the answers to the questions you failed to respond before reading. Add the missing answers to the table (1.3).
Grammar. State the sense relations between words of the marked sentences by using the proposed algorithm in the Tips.
Lexis
Tick in the list (1.4) the words and expressions you realized after reading the text without dictionary. Write down their translation in the table and calculate the percentage of your ability to guess the meaning of the words from the context.
Find in the dictionary the words you could not translate. Write down their translation in the table (1.4) and calculate the percentage of new words you should learn.
Abstracting. Write an abstract using the algorithm proposed in the Tips.
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