To combat the blight and deterioration, it has developed a course
of action which has been named "urban renewal. " The first effects
of its program for slum clearance and redevelopment are visible now
in the area surrounding the Fifth Regiment Armory, in which our
new State Office Building stands as a pinnacle, and in the sections
which have been rebuilt around the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The
boldest of all of Baltimore's renewal schemes is the Charles Center
Project, in which the city has undertaken to rehabilitate 22 acres in
the core of its downtown business district. It might be of some sat-
isfaction to us if we could recline in the knowledge that blight and
slums are problems for the big cities and are of little concern to
those of us who live outside them. But such is not the case. Even
now we hear reports about suburban slums and how blight spreads
to suburban areas before they are fully developed.

Some time ago, Fortune magazine published an article describing
what it called the "urban sprawl. " The kind of progress we are ex-
periencing, it said, will produce "the paradox of prosperity lowering
our standard of living. " The whole metropolitan area of the future
could be ruined by the unplanned, hit-or-miss type of development
that we sometimes see in today's suburbia. Sprawl, as the author of
the article calls it, is bad esthetics and bad economics. To quote the
magazine further: "Five acres are being made to do the work of one,
and do it very poorly. This is bad for the farmers, it is bad for com-
munities, it is bad for industry, it is bad for utilities, it is bad for
for the recreation groups, it is bad even for the developers. "

Good planning, let me emphasize, is a prime requisite of good gov-
ernment, and it is of particular importance to local governments
dealing with the problems I have outlined. It is not too late for us
to do something about the problems now, but the opportunities to
solve them will become scarcer as times goes by. Certainly, I believe
that we still have time to lay down sensible guide lines for commun-
ities of the future. A step in the right direction has been taken, hi
my opinion, by the Legislative Council of the General Assembly in
its proposal to amend the Constitution to extend urban renewal and
redevelopment powers to counties and municipalities of the State.
As you know, Baltimore City now is the only political subdivision
of the State which has the authority to engage in this program of
clearance and redevelopment with federal subsidization.

I am advised that other counties and municipalities would wel-
come the opportunity to share in this program. I can see no reason
why they should be deprived of this opportunity.

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