The Plan's the Thing
Gatekeeper: And on earth you were . . ?
New Arrival: I was a planner.
GK: You were a planner. What did you plan?
NA: Cities, I planned cities.
GK: I see. That city over there . . . the one under the pinkish yellowish grayish cloud . . . that's where you came from, isn't it?
NA: Yes, that's it, good old . . .
GK: Did you plan that?
NA: That's where I came from, all right. I was the head planner there, but no, I didn't exactly plan it.
GK: I don't understand. You were the head planner. But you didn't plan the city?
NA: Well, no. You see, a planner doesn't exactly plan cities. He makes plans for cities.
GK: Maybe I'm a little rusty . . . all these languages, you just wouldn't believe it. Anyway, I thought a plan meant you say this is how we are going to do it. Then you go ahead and do it. Like the Great Fellow had a plan for sparrows, and butterflies and the like.
NA: Well, yes and no to your definition. A plan is like saying, "This is how we are going to do it," all right. Only we don't do it.
GK: I'm afraid I don't . . .
NA: You see, it's this way. Planning is a process, it's continuing, it's ongoing. You have to keep updating the comprehensive plan . . .
GK: Comprehensive plan?
NA: Maybe you heard it called the Master Plan.
GK: Master Plan?
NA: Well, yes. The General Plan. Once you've made it, you've got to revise it, because things change. You can't beat change, can you? You've got to accommodate to change.
GK: So you make a master plan, or a comprehensive plan, or a general plan. Then you fix it up a little, erase a line here, add a line there . .
NA: It's not quite that simple. First you make a plan in, say, 1980. You start it in 1980, that is, and finish it in, say, 1985. But by 1985 things are out of date, and your data is obsolete.
GK: Then you make changes?
NA: No, it's very technical. In 1985 you start to prepare another plan. You have to start more or less from scratch.
GK: Then nothing is worth saving?
NA: If you had a good base map, you don't have to do that all over. Don't stint on the base map, I always say.
GK: So you start a new plan in 1980, and another in 1985, and a completely new one in 1990.
NA: Except for the base map. Unless, of course, you are going to a computerized base map. I was just getting started on that when I had to leave. I expected to have a new Master Plan ready by 1992 or 93, with data files and simulation modeling and all those new techniques. I wouldn't be surprised if we could have had a new Plan every year before long.
GK: A new one every year? Did the city get rebuilt according to the plan each year?
NA: Oh, no, you don't seem to understand. You see, a plan is an ideal. You never expect the city to look like the plan. You aren't supposed to achieve it, but just use it as a guide to what the city would look like if you followed it. Then in a few years you start all, since there have been a lot of changes in the city.
GK: Well, I think I begin to see how you came here. You meant well, didn't you, even though your plans weren't implemented?
NA: Oh, yes, my intentions were good.
GK: You did a first-rate paving job.
NA: Paving . . . ?
GK: The road to hell . . .
NA: . . . is paved with good intentions! So that's where I am. I thought . . .
CURTAIN
(from American Society of Planning Officials Newsletter editorial, August 1967, by Dennis O'Harrow)
