ABSTRACT
The real decisions about land use, economic development, environmental protection, and our collective responsibilities to each other are now made through an increasingly complex web of intergovernmental, international, and interorganizational networks. In this chapter, the author wants to offer five vignettes—two at the local level, two at the state level, and one at the national level—that illustrate the transitions he have noted. Each is meant to highlight a key difference between the "old" and the "new" thinking about planning. The author thinks that many have missed these transformations and are, therefore, bemoaning a kind of a planning practice that is no longer relevant. The first vignette concerns a land-use dispute, while the second is a transportation-planning problem in a rapidly growing urban area. The third focuses on a high-stakes political battle over a state-managed health care program, and the fourth considers an environmental planning problem. The fifth and final vignette looks at the national push for sustainable development.
