"While there has been a lot of activity in older parts of the city, a large part of the growth has been from construction in more suburban parts of the city, " says Steven Lebofsky, an urban development specialist who works in Kansas City's Urban Planning Department.

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Mario Vianno, in charge of urban planning at Turin's City Hall, agrees.

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"Mega-blocks that are prime examples of bad urban planning" is the assessment of local City Councilmember Letitia James.

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Overcrowding and poor planning has turned this once quiet city into a noisy and chaotic urban sprawl.

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"All over the country there are signs that say 'Central Business District, '" reported Alexander Garvin, an urban planner who is a former commissioner on the New York City Planning Commission.

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And one way of doing that is to create what's called an infrastructure bank where at least a certain amount of infrastructure money, particularly for new projects, would be guided by some clear criteria, a lot of transparency, engineers and urban planners and city planners involved in the process so that we can also get some regional planning.

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It is constructed on a grid using a 1, 000-year-old urban planning technique, with a 7.5km north-to-south axis slicing through the city and marked by the impressive gate houses dotted symmetrical along the skyline.

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