Harvard Urban Experts Meet To Share Ideas With Mexico

Seven urban planning specialists from the Harvard faculty will present papers and share ideas in a conference on urban development problems in Mexico.

The colloquium is being held from November 8 to 12 in Mexico City and also involves officials of the Mexican government.

The Harvard team was organized by Maurice Kilbridge, dean of the Graduate School of Design, in response to a request made to President Bok by the Mexican government when he was in Mexico this summer to return Mexican artifacts previously on display in the Peabody Museum.

Some of the Harvard participants are Brian Berry, Williams Professor of City and Regional Planning, William Alonso, director of the Center of Population Studies, and William Doebele, curator of the Loeb Foundation in Advanced Environmental Studies.

The format of the conference will include presentations of formal papers written by both Harvard and Mexican specialists.

The papers and subsequent discussion will analyze topics such as coordinating local and national urban planning efforts, population consideration, and economic factors, Alonso said yesterday.

Roundtable

"But three-fourths of the conference will probably be general roundtable discussion," He said.

Urban development has been a traditional concern in Mexico. The Mexican government recently passed a 'Law on Human Settlement" to alleviate some of the nation's problems of local regional and national development plans.

This conference is not expected to solve the nation's problems, but rather to share concerns and discuss similar situations in other countries, Alonso said.