The helpful Planning Advisory Service Reports published by the American Planning Association and its predecessors have been a part of just about every planning department library in the United States since 1949. Every month, the APA places a "new" historic PAS Report on their web site, free for all visitors to view and download. If you read only one, make it the political incorrect No. 15: Self-Service Gasoline Stations from 1950, packed full of mid-century sexism and site planning advice that would make a modern planner recoil in horror. Or fall to the floor in laughter. ...

OfficialPlanner writes:

The Community Development Block Grant program was reduced by 11 percent for a total funding level for FY 2012 of $2.98 billion, which is a 25 percent cut in just two years. The funding level is slightly higher than the $2.85 billion proposed by the Senate bill, but is sharply lower than the $3.5 billion proposed by the House. In a victory for local governments, the agreement does not include language from the House bill that would have reduced the CDBG cap on administration and planning expenses from its current level of 20 percent to 10 percent. A reduction of the cap would have had a major impact on local planning budgets.

See the responses here. ...

By Perry Norton FAICP

I have some knowledge of the historical roles of central cities, but what is the role today, if any? The central city is certainly not the hub of transportation anymore, nor is it the commercial/retail center. There is very little manufacturing in the center. In Detroit, General Motors Tech is out on the 8 Mile Road, isn't it?

So, what's left? Well, the City and County Complex is probably downtown, and the courts, thus offices full of lawyers. There may be a theater or two, but there are theaters elsewhere - outside the centers of cities, in Overland Park KS, for example..

In the August 1992 issue of Planning magazine (APA) there was an article titled "Is downtown worth saving?" It didn't strike me that the answer contained therein was a resounding "yes". Oh there were some contributors to the article who used poetic language about the downtown being the essence of ethnic diversity, and the intellectual village of the 21st century. They thought, as to be expected, that downtown was worth saving, but they didn't, in my opinion, contribute much to the question: for what? ...