Christopher Perry's Code Word For Social Uniformity
“Self-contained” was Perry’s code word for social homogeneity, where social uniformity was most evident. He propagated his “Five Block Plan”, which incorporated the standard ingredients of the suburban version of the neighborhood unit plan: residential space for 1,000 families; recreation space; provision of neighborhood facilities such as local shops, a school, and a gymnasium; and separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic [Christopher Silver, 2007]. Perry’s intentions were calibrated to walk distances, narrow streets and a mix of uses and included a fairly connected network of streets, not the automobile, since his plan conceptualized prior to an automobile-based society. His plan was based on the following basic principles: 1) Major
traffic routes should not pass through residential areas. Streets should provide the neighborhood boundaries. 2) Interior streets should be designed to encourage a safe, low volume traffic movement, preserving the residential atmosphere, 3) The population of the neighborhood should be such that which is necessary to support the neighborhoods elementary school, 4) The neighborhood elementary school should be centrally located so that children could walk to school, 5) The radius of the neighborhood should be a maximum of one quarter mile, thus preventing a walk of more than that distance for any elementary school child, 6) Local shopping areas should be on the edges or boundaries of the neighborhood, restricting the nonlocal traffic from intruding the neighborhood, 7) Dedicating at least 10% of the neighborhood area to parks and open spaces. Undeveloped tracts surrounding large cities proved to be the most amenable to his plan for creating ”superblocks,” separating vehicular and pedestrian circulation, providing ample open spaces, and developing community life around the neighborhood school. He never dwelled on the relationship of the neighborhood unit to slum removal, implementation of his main recommendations in built-up areas of the city made a substantial amount of clearance necessary. Exclusion was a goal, not merely a byproduct, of the neighborhood unit plan. He argued that neighborhood planning not only would protect directly “the great mass who can afford better residential conditions” but also, through its example, would engender moral uplift for the poor [Christopher Silver, 2007].
traffic routes should not pass through residential areas. Streets should provide the neighborhood boundaries. 2) Interior streets should be designed to encourage a safe, low volume traffic movement, preserving the residential atmosphere, 3) The population of the neighborhood should be such that which is necessary to support the neighborhoods elementary school, 4) The neighborhood elementary school should be centrally located so that children could walk to school, 5) The radius of the neighborhood should be a maximum of one quarter mile, thus preventing a walk of more than that distance for any elementary school child, 6) Local shopping areas should be on the edges or boundaries of the neighborhood, restricting the nonlocal traffic from intruding the neighborhood, 7) Dedicating at least 10% of the neighborhood area to parks and open spaces. Undeveloped tracts surrounding large cities proved to be the most amenable to his plan for creating ”superblocks,” separating vehicular and pedestrian circulation, providing ample open spaces, and developing community life around the neighborhood school. He never dwelled on the relationship of the neighborhood unit to slum removal, implementation of his main recommendations in built-up areas of the city made a substantial amount of clearance necessary. Exclusion was a goal, not merely a byproduct, of the neighborhood unit plan. He argued that neighborhood planning not only would protect directly “the great mass who can afford better residential conditions” but also, through its example, would engender moral uplift for the poor [Christopher Silver, 2007].