Public sector planning in the United States is in trouble. Planning agencies across the United States have closed or reduced their staffs, attendance at professional conferences has declined, and academic planning programs have closed or been combined with other departments. The current state of the profession is due in part to the impact of the Great Recession on government revenues and the effectiveness of a sophisticated and well-funded attack on government intervention in the market. However, it also reflects a fundamental weakness in the profession’s ability to attract popular support in hard times. 

This presentation shows that the profession’s current state is partially the result of its failure to recognize five inconvenient truths about planning. It then draws on emerging views of planning to suggest five strategies, which recognize these realities and provide the foundations for more effective planning.