Urban planning: The key is collaboration

Larry Susskind's The Consensus Building Approach blog has a new post about collaboration and urban planning, two intertwined issues relevant to all the planning that is being done for our urban neighborhood. An excerpt:

"Urban planning fails whenever designs, policies and programs are imposed on unwilling or unsuspecting stakeholders. And, phony commitments to participation or consultation don't fooled anyone. Decide-announce-defend has been the mantra for far too long (and it still is) in a many urban planning settings. Serious consultation requires that problems be defined jointly, options be considered together (in light of information collected in concert), decisions be made transparently and accountably; and monitoring, adjustments and learning be truly collaborative"