I’m thrilled to contribute to a booklet honoring the career of urban planning Professor Susan Fainstein, an influencer extraordinare and pioneer of the Just City framework. I had the honor of taking classes with her at Columbia and we’ve remained friends ever since. The booklet is more than a celebration of her career but also a wide-ranging discussion about planning over the past fifty years. She has greatly influenced the trajectory of the field by teaching thousands of students, advising on at least 40 PhD dissertations, as well as researched and written influential books and articles. The video interview that accompanies the booklet is an urban nerdists delight. A sampling of my contribution:
“Of course Susan’s intellectual gravitas, body of work, extensive travels and encyclopedic knowledge form the foundation of her illustrious career, but what I most appreciated—particularly as a journalist with a deep interest in politics and economic development as they relate to planning—was her pragmatic and balanced presentation of ideological camps and battles that have engulfed the planning profession over the decades. Her presentation of the literature was always fair, and her criticisms were always based in fact, and often delivered with a wry sense of humor.”
Booklet is here fainstein-fragmented-states-and-pragmatic-improvements