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==Civic leader==

==Civic leader==

[[File:The_Foundation_of_American_Government_Hy_Hintermeister.jpg|thumbnail|center|300px|Reproduction of painting of [[George Washington]], [[Benjamin Franklin]] and others signing the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Henry Hintermeister.]]

[[File:The_Foundation_of_American_Government_Hy_Hintermeister.jpg|thumbnail|right|300px|Reproduction of painting of [[George Washington]], [[Benjamin Franklin]] and others signing the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Henry Hintermeister.]]

Franklin became Philadelphia's leading citizen, founding and leading many civic organizations.  He was the founder of the American tradition of boosterism, as well as a systematic thinker who analyzed urban problems in the context of rapid population growth.  Franklin's understanding of and solution for the urban problems of a growing Philadelphia shaped his later ideas about city-country relationships and his pessimism regarding the future of the United States. Beginning in the 1730s, Franklin actively and publicly addressed such issues as the link between the environment and disease, fire prevention, pollution from tanneries, and restoring the water system in the center of the city (called the Dock) through various engineering projects. Franklin helped improve fire safety and waste handling by mid-century, but manufacturing interests could not be controlled. Franklin believed America would eventually exhaust its vast supply of open, unpopulated land and become increasingly urbanized and demographically imbalanced, thereby making Philadelphia's problems the nation's.<ref>A. Michal McMahon, "'Small Matters': Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, and the 'Progress of Cities.'" ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 1992 116(2): 157-182. 0031-4587</ref>  

Franklin became Philadelphia's leading citizen, founding and leading many civic organizations.  He was the founder of the American tradition of boosterism, as well as a systematic thinker who analyzed urban problems in the context of rapid population growth.  Franklin's understanding of and solution for the urban problems of a growing Philadelphia shaped his later ideas about city-country relationships and his pessimism regarding the future of the United States. Beginning in the 1730s, Franklin actively and publicly addressed such issues as the link between the environment and disease, fire prevention, pollution from tanneries, and restoring the water system in the center of the city (called the Dock) through various engineering projects. Franklin helped improve fire safety and waste handling by mid-century, but manufacturing interests could not be controlled. Franklin believed America would eventually exhaust its vast supply of open, unpopulated land and become increasingly urbanized and demographically imbalanced, thereby making Philadelphia's problems the nation's.<ref>A. Michal McMahon, "'Small Matters': Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, and the 'Progress of Cities.'" ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 1992 116(2): 157-182. 0031-4587</ref>