Systems Problems in the City.

Peter L. Szanton

Expert InsightsPublished 1972

A look at the character of future urban research. Past attempts to make urban functions more efficient (1) fail to allow for the greater managerial skill required by more efficient methods and (2) tend to deal only with the visible part of a problem, leaving the bulk untouched. Present engineers or analysts tend to prescribe solutions to urban problems without learning which political mountains must be moved before the solutions can be adopted. Further, the legislative branches of city government grow suspicious, and hence resistant, when they sense the advantage in knowledge and power the executive branches acquire as the fruit of research. Future research teams examining urban problems, therefore, are likely to require a rich new mix of persons familiar with governmental and bureaucratic operation. They must mingle enough with the "politicians" to produce realistic recommendations, while remaining sufficiently independent to be rationally critical of city policies. 14 pp.

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Szanton, Peter L., Systems Problems in the City. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1972. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4821.html.
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