When CBS profiled the suburban community of Webster Park, outside of St. Louis, few in the neighborhood realized how their culture would appear to outside observers.
"On a late winter night [in 1966], CBS News held up a mirror to the prideful face of Webster Groves, Missouri -- 'six square miles of the American dream,' as the network proclaimed -- and very few people liked what they saw. Inexplicably, the passage of time has done little to diminish the anger and embarrassment."
"...CBS identified Webster Groves as the quintessential upper-middle-class slice of mid-America in which to delve into what sixteen-year-old high-school juniors really thought about their community, their school and their future. A nine-member crew shot twenty-eight hours of footage in order to unearth, as narrator Charles Kuralt...put it, 'youthful rebellion and dissatisfaction.'"
"What [CBS] found instead -- or what they chose to show after three months nestled amid the shaggy trees and century-old homes -- was a Babbitt-like conformity, rigid and overbearing parents, an insular and soulless class and a callous indifference to the minuscule number of 'negroes' in the community."
FULL STORY: 56 in Webster Groves
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.
The Tiny, Adorable $7,000 Car Turning Japan Onto EVs
The single seat Mibot charges from a regular plug as quickly as an iPad, and is about half the price of an average EV.
Trump Approves Futuristic Automated Texas-Mexico Cargo Corridor
The project could remove tens of thousands of commercial trucks from roadways.
Austin's First Single Stair Apartment Building is Officially Underway
Eliminating the requirement for two staircases in multi-story residential buildings lets developers use smaller lots and more flexible designs to create denser housing.
Atlanta Bus System Redesign Will Nearly Triple Access
MARTA's Next Gen Bus Network will retool over 100 bus routes, expand frequent service.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Smith Gee Studio
City of Charlotte
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
US High Speed Rail Association
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)