Planning and Civic Success

Here’s the premise, in a five-step argument:

1. For many places, success in the 21^st century is different than their visions of 20^th- or 19^th-century civic success.
2. 21^st-century places – whether cities, metropolitan areas, counties, towns, or regions that span multiple local governments – have the capacity to succeed.
3. Cities, towns, regions and other places can succeed when they can make the choices that are right for success.
4. For success to occur, these places must be empowered to act on their choices.
5. Good planning can lead to good choices.

“Civic success” is a pretty wide-ranging term (never mind the fact that I may have just invented this term). Every place will define its success in a different fashion. Some will focus on economic indicators, others may focus on social or quality-of-life indicators, some places will focus on natural resources or environmental indicators, and others will define their success in completely different terms. That’s okay. The underlying assumption is that a community’s civic success is defined in a way that is measurable and that reflects what is important to that community.