But, the experts told us......................

     There is a wistful myth that if only we had enough money to spend- the figure is usually put at a hundred billion dollars - we could wipe out all our slums in ten years, reverse decay in the great, dull, gray belts that were yesterday's and day-before-yesterday's suburbs, anchor the wandering middle class and its wandering tax money, and perhaps even solve the traffic problem.
     But look what we have built with the first several billions:  Low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism, and general social helplessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.  Middle-income housing projects which are truly marvels of dullness and regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life.  Luxury housing projects that mitigate their inanity, or try to, with a vapid vulgarity.  Cultural centers that are unable to support a good book store.  Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums, who have fewer choices of loitering place than others.  Commercial centers that are lackluster imitations of standardized suburban chain-store shopping.  Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders.  Expressways that eviscerate great cities.  This is not the rebuilding of cities.  This is the sacking of cities.

-Jane Jacobs,  The Death and Life Of Great American Cities (1961)