In other words, the immediate current needs and long-range goals of city planning are communicated to audiences ranging in size from five to five hundred.
In the second situation, the planner is presenting general information on city planning to groups such as the parent-teacher's organization, service and civic associations, or high school students. The planning director must often make this type of presentation to his own planning commission, which, although perhaps much more informal than the general audience, can be quite large, particularly in the newer metropolitan agencies. In the first case, he talks before a group only once to discuss an urgent community problem, such as a zoning change, an urban renewal project, or the selection of a site for an expressway interchange. In these talks he is involved in communicating with groups in two broad types of situations. On Monday evening the planner may be called upon to speak before a session of the city council, and Tuesday at noon he is the key speaker at a civic club luncheon. A personal account at close range will never be replaced by any other method of conveying ideas, particularly when the audience must be convinced as well as informed.įortunately, many communities seem to consider the planning agency to be a speakers' bureau. The primary tool, however, and the most effective as far as the individual citizen is concerned, remains the public appearance. Brochures on specific projects, including the comprehensive plan itself, and a periodic newsletter published by the planning agency and dealing with its progress, problems and goals, can reach a selective audience. Radio and television can provide excellent outlets, particularly on panel-type public affairs programs. A lively meeting with the planning board may well result in publicity. Feature stories on the problems of planning, its basic goals and philosophy, or on the planners themselves, may come as an occasional publicity bonus. News stories can be expected when plans are finalized or some concrete action is taken.
The press media can be tapped in three ways. What are the tools available to the planner in achieving this goal? None are new, and yet a list of them is longer than one would expect. At the risk of trotting out a paradox, I hasten to add that he sells himself by selling his plans or perhaps more accurately by selling his planning - bit by bit, stage by stage. before a planner can sell his plans he has got to sell himself.
Like the established movie star, he needs publicity between films to maintain his box office draw. The journalist is reluctant, even opposed, to writing frequent feature stories on the lengthy research necessary prior to the compilation of a comprehensive plan, and yet the planner must keep his name, his goals, his ideas and his activities before the public during this period. The planner cannot deliver this type of news day after day, year after year. But news to the journalist involves something both new and concrete. 1Ĭertainly planning frequently involves matters which a journalist would call news. It isn't news as much as it is advertising or just plain communication. How do the people get that story? It is a complicated thing, difficult to explain. The great part of the planner's story is in the philosophy of long range planning. Membership for Allied Professionals & Citizensġ313 EAST 60TH STREET - CHICAGO 37 ILLINOIS