Edmund N. Bacon, city planner, dies at 95

Bacon was a pretty aggressive planner who had few qualms about advocating major urban redevelopment in Philadelphia, even when it required knocking down a lot of existing buildings. These days people with ambitious plans like that encounter organized preservationists who are determined to keep the old buildings because of their alleged historical significance or because they are deemed essential to the identity existing neighborhoods. Or something.

PHILADELPHIA --Edmund N. Bacon, a renowned city planner whose vision transformed postwar Philadelphia and whose influence continued to shape the look and feel of the nation's fifth-largest city, died Friday. He was 95. Bacon, whose children include actor Kevin Bacon, died of natural causes at his home in Philadelphia, according to a statement from the family.