Cities were the major source of the environmental movement. Here was the largest membership in environmental organizations and the greatest expression of environmental values. Almost every foray into the dynamics of environmental affairs takes one back to the urban experience.

Since the mid-nineteenth century the city had been mainly a manufacturing center in which the needs of industry were uppermost, and its environmental effect on the urban community was considered to be an essential price to pay for material progress. There were few public efforts to reduce that impact. Some sought to work in factories and live elsewhere, but the cost of transportation confined most industrial workers to homes “in the shadow of the mills.” The more affluent found residences upwind from factory smoke or lived outside the city and commuted to and from their jobs by rail.

Opportunities to escape the city grew with the electric trolley and the automobile. By the close of World War II a majority of urbanites could establish home and community in truly residential areas, often in the suburbs. It was even possible to travel to still more attractive natural environments for weekends of recreation. The resulting experience of contrast between the city and the land beyond it lay behind much of the environmental movement.

There were also attempts to improve the urban environment from within. These were often limited to ideas and plans drawn up by landscape architects and fostered by civic leaders rather than the public.