An Institute for Urban Studies: a Preliminary Proposal

Abstract

No metropolitan area in the state is equipped with an instrument for continuing and comprehensive study of the multitude of problems confronting urban communities. Other urban areas of the nation have long had the services of "bureaus" or "institutes" financed and staffed for extensive research activities. Most such units are academically based and many are constituted as states agencies associated with public institutions of higher education. Their contributions in the form of basic research, data compilation, training, and information services have been of significant value in the search for effective solutions to urban problems. The Dallas - Fort Worth metropolitan region with its mushrooming population confronting all the problems associated with urban growth is a logical candidate for Texas' first institute for urban studies. The research efforts of an adequately financed and staffed agency strategically based near the geographic center of the state's largest population concentration could be of inestimable value. The 51 municipalities of Dallas and Tarrant Counties provide excellent laboratories for research in the full range of urban problems. (Also included is the Proposed Critique of Material Relating to an Institute of Urban Affairs).