What would the RPAA do?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The legacy and vision of the RPAA is very familiar to us: a diverse group of talented urban reformers wanted to restructure social and economic systems to create decentralized, interconnected clusters of contained settlements in the form of garden cities protected by open space, with healthy, nearby industry providing ample employment opportunities. Regions would be linked by geography, culture, and climatic unity. The problem of great cities would be approached ‘not from within but from without’. In this paper, I consider three urban issues currently dominating our urban discourse a century after the RPAA was formed – the pandemic and its impact on urban life, gentrification and displacement, and climate change – and conjecture about what the RPAA might have thought or done if confronted with such challenges. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the RPAA, what can we surmise about a likely response from this influential group of urban and regional reformers?