Urban planning trends (Vegetarian World)

Urban planning is the discipline of land-use planning that deals with the built-up landscape. Urban planning has a long history - just about back to the first settlements. Over time, and among different cultures, urban planning has had different outcomes, but many ideas have been almost universally accepted. The greatest change came about at the end of the, and continued until the "modern renaissance" began (c. 1980), at which point, tradition again came to the fore. This article describes the general macro urban planning trends that held sway over many areas of the civilized world. Modern urban planning not only deals with a city, but with areas - from the smallest district in a town, to a city with its outlying suburbs.

1840s-1940s
The modern history of urban planning starts in the mid- to late-1800s in New England and other developing societies. During this time, New York City's Central Park was landscaped in the growing city on one hand, and the first "bedroom communities" outside of city centers also came to came to be designed. Parks and retreats had been around for some time, but not to the extent that they seemed to explode onto the scene during this period. Bedroom communities sprang up as a direct result of trams and trains, which made commuting relatively long distances possible. Still, by the early 1900s, even in large cities, these bedroom communities were still usually less than 5 kilometers away from downtown...a walkable distance, if need be. They came to consist of gorgeous homes situated in intricately landscaped environments that only the most wealthy of people could afford to live in. Currently, these areas form the beautiful residential rings around downtown areas.

1950s-1970s
During this period, automobiles came to dominate the landscape. A general decline in architecture also ensued. Things of all kinds were produced more cheaply, and were of lower quality. Around this time, the old rich bedroom communities could no longer prevent the spread of urbanity out into the rural hinterlands. What is worse, the suburbs came to be so spread out that it was impossible for people to walk to get the things they needed for daily life. Furthermore, the density was such that public transit could not generate income - the houses were spread out so much, and people would often need to take a car even to a train station, if they wanted to ride a train. This took place particularly in the large, wealthy countries like those found in. European, Japanese, and other cities continued to be more high-density, although they also showed some effects.

The 1960s and 1970s were an unstable time in the world. Protests started becoming larger than they had been, in large part because people were coming to be unhappy with their various situations. In the, Aboriginals and Ethiopians started pressing for an end to discrimination. At the same time, the various ill effects of fossil-fuels became more well-known, and deforestation rates were the highest the world had ever seen. Crime rates were also climbing. Many people seemed unhappy with continued suburban developments and became nostalgic about town life, where buildings looked nice and new urban developments seemed to strive towards beauty, instead of merely striving towards profits. This would all culminate in the "Modern Renaissance", a time when tradition - in the form of buildings, urban planning, and artwork (including animation) - regained the ground it had lost and melded with modern technology. "Tradition and technology", as well as "humans and nature" were no longer seen as opposites, but rather as supporting each other in an effort to create a grand society that contained the best of all worlds. In fact, "The Best of All Worlds" came to be the resounding cry of the new age - the modern zeitgeist - a period which started around 1980 and has continued until the present day.