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Prior to the 20th century, urban planning was centered around beautification and social reform. But as the century progressed, planning began to embrace the whole range of human geography – physical, social, economic, political and environmental.

civic center plazaA significant urban event in the 20th century was the rapid rise of the private automobile as the most popular form of personal transportation in the developed countries of the world. In the 1920s, cities and towns across the United States embarked on major road-building programs, while perfectly functional urban transit systems were bought up by the new oil and auto industries and dismantled.

Urban history in 1923 ground was broken on the planned community of Mariemont; planned by John Nolan the community boasted many concepts (small blocks, mixed uses, mixed owner/rental units) that are now the foundation of what is considered new urbanism.

Shortly thereafter, in 1925, Cincinnati was recognized as being the first major American city to endorse a comprehensive plan. This plan was revolutionary for American cities and was primarily drafted by Ladislas Segoe and Alfred Bettman. This plan outlined park corridors throughout the city, systems of grand boulevards, complimented the Park Plan of 1907, and included the now requisite transportation component of modern comprehensive plans
 

The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a U.S. federal agency that, between April 1935 and December 1936, relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. The RA was the brainchild of Rexford G. Tugwell, an economics professor at Columbia University, who became an advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt during the latter's successful campaign for the presidency in 1932 and then held positions in the United States Department of Agriculture. Roosevelt established the RA under Executive Order 7027, and Tugwell became its first and only head. In the face of Congressional criticism, in January 1937 it was folded into a new body, the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which operated until 1942.

Initially created as the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.

The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of sharecroppers, tenants, and very poor landowning farmers, and a program to p

The National Housing Act of 1934 was passed during the Great Depression in order to make housing and home mortgages more affordable. It created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation.

It was designed to stop the tide of bank foreclosures on family homes. Both the FHA and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation worked to create the backbone of the mortgage and home-building industries. Some unintended consequences were that it did little to improve inner city housing, it intensified segregation of races, and further promoted the single family detached dwelling as the prevailing mode of housing, which furthered the phenomenon of suburban sprawl.

After the war started and there were millions of unfilled factory jobs in the cities, there was no need for FSA. In late 1942 Roosevelt moved the housing programs to the National Housing Agency, and in 1943, Congress greatly reduced FSA's activities.

The United States Housing Authority, or USHA, was an agency created during 1937 as part of the New Deal.

From 1933-37, the Public Works Administration under Harold Ickes razed 10,000 slum units and built 22,000 new units, with the primary goal of providing construction jobs. Ickes was a strong friend of blacks and reserved half the units for them. The courts ruled the PWA lacked eminent domain power to condemn slums, so the Wagner-Steagall bill, the Housing Act of 1937, envisioned a long term federal role under the new agency, the United States Housing Authority.

It was designed to lend money to the states or communities for low-cost construction. Units for about 650,000 low-income people but mostly homeless were started. Progressives early in the 20th century had argued that improving the physical environment of poorer citizens would improve their quality of life and chances for success and cause better social behavior.

The United States Public Works Administration, a New Deal government agency headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 during the Great Depression. It allowed $3.3 billion to be spent on the construction of public works to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, improve public welfare, and contribute to a revival of American industry. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved industry toward war production and abandoned his opposition to deficit spending, the PWA became irrelevant and was abolished in June 1941.

Finally in 1946 all the social reformers had left and FSA was replaced by a new agency, the Farmers Home Administration, which had the goal of helping finance farm purchases by tenants--and especially by war veterans--with no personal oversight by experts. It became part of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s, with a greatly expanded budget to facilitate loans to low-income rural families and cooperatives, injecting $4.2 billion into rural America.
 
Local governments employ about 68 percent of urban and regional planners. Urban and regional planners develop long- and short-term plans for the use of land and the growth and revitalization of urban, suburban, and rural communities and the region in which they are located. They help local officials alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems by recommending locations for roads, schools, and other infrastructure and suggesting zoning regulations for private property. This work includes forecasting the future needs of the population. Because local governments employ the majority of urban and regional planners, they often are referred to as community or city planners.
 
The National Park concept has been described as "America's best idea." Many countries around the world look to the United States as a leader in park and protected area management. At the same time, the National Park Service often learns about innovative practices from other countries' park agencies.  In addition, international cooperation is required to preserve numerous species of migratory wildlife that spend only a part of their lives within the boundaries of U.S. national parks, and likewise to help protect park resources from threats that may originate from outside park (and U.S.) borders -- air and water pollution and invasive species, for example. For these reasons, the National Park Service has an Office of International Affairs that for over 40 years has worked to facilitate cooperation between the U.S. National Park Service and counterpart agencies around the globe.

The 'national park idea' spawned and nurtured with the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, has contributed to the creation of over 1,200 national parks and equivalent reserves worldwide. They have been referred to as 'Yellowstone's children.' It is not surprising then that many nations turn to the U.S. for advice and assistance on park planning and management and that park staff from around the world come in a regular flow to observe park operations in the U.S.  it is reportedly impossible for the National Park Service to keep up with the demand for American expertise."

http://www.nps.gov/oia/




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