Delusions and Diffusions of City Planning in the United States

Abstract

A number of concepts and conditions in current city planning are questioned: the grand master plan delusion; planning after the fact; intermittent master planning; the illusion of complete study; avoiding the critical problems; trying to do everything; sematic confusion; conflicts of role and organization; unrealistic derivation of goals and objectives; failure of city planning in the general public interest; deficiencies of planning personnel; inadequacies of theory and research; underestimating fundamental difficulties of the city planning endeavor.