What Is The City But The People? 1969

Directed by John Peer Nugent

In 1969, The Department of City Planning in New York City developed a new city-wide plan. This documentary, produced and written by John Peer Nugent and narrated by notable urbanist William H. Whyte, was released on public television to provide a behind-the-scenes peek at the planning process. There's a lot that is gone from contemporary New York in this documentary: a gritty Hell's Kitchen, a robust Model Cities program, and acres of slums in Bedford-Stuyvesant. But there's a lot that, for better or worse, is still the same: poverty and prosperity, diversity and wealth, greed and good intentions.