ABSTRACT
Some future observer may well look back at the 30 years from 1965 to 1995 as a golden age of American planning. For planning as an activity recognized and supported by public funds, one must also look to two important trends. The first trend was the increase of environmental concerns and public awareness, which gave rise in the 1960s to key national and state legislation for environmental protection. A second, closely related trend was a shift in relative power between local citizens, on one hand, and developers and local governments, on the other. With the long-term fall in the rate of productivity growth after 1973, and the growing inequality of incomes, low-skill populations have done poorly in the U. S. labor market. The direct contribution of planning as a field to the research and debate has been surprisingly small. The fortunes of planning have long been associated closely with those of development.
