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A lot of the topics mentioned int he final paragraph are covered in my programme. Not as in-depth as they could be, but this is a pretty big list for someone to master in a whole career, let along four years. Perhaps what we need is cities to take the funding of their planning departments seriously (Toronto’s planning department is grossly under-staffed, having over 60 vacant positions they cannot afford to fill). So they can get back to planning, rather than spending their days worrying about OMB hearings and development applications. To quote Cllr. Adam Vaugh, “We don’t do planning any more in Toronto, we do statutory hearings”. I don’t want to get too wild with my suggestions here, but maybe planning could even be done by planners*, not the mayor’s brother.
Has urban planning, as Design Observer frets, lost its allure?
