The Professional Urban Planner

Abstract The public image of the planner depicts him as an artist; as the master planner who intuitively prepares the best plans for the community. Planners, through their professional organizations, try to maintain an image of comprehensiveness. Neither image provides an adequate description of the planning profession. Neither explains why the plans prepared by the urban planner fail to gain real social commitment. What urban planners do and why they do it becomes more understandable when they are seen as governmental functionaries. A description of government's role, which is to order and regulate things, becomes a description of the planners' role. A description of the government the planner is subordinated to can serve to define the practical limitations of the plans urban planners prepare.