For most of us at JLF, city planners are the problem not the solution.  Like many professionals, they believe their “superior” education empowers them to tell the rest of us how to live.  The recent revision of the Raleigh Comprehensive Plan is just one example. 
Raleigh’s city planners want to force new development in to crowded
housing developments where residents will be forced to ride rail
transit because the city’s “traffic calming” efforts have increased
auto congestion making it impossible to get around Raleigh. 

 This US News article “Best Careers of 2009” recommends city planning,  but some of the comments on the article by working city planners tell a different story.  A sample: 

Planning as one of the
best jobs for 2009–hilarious. The colossal amount of BS you have to
put up with, from public agency management and your latest edition of
bozo councilpersons, makes for the most inane, soul-numbing career
ever. I no longer wonder why veteran public planners all look like
they’re dead inside; its obvious. And as far as private practice…
good luck on staying in business. Maybe when the housing market starts
back up you can compete with all the other thousand laid-off planners
for those hip positions espousing New Suburbanism (remember that?) or
some such garbage.

Planning as a “profession” is a joke. Most planners are either
technicians or bureaucrats. The ones who like their job and who
encourage others to do it are the planning directors making six figures
a year. Unfortunately, only a select few have the ability to claw their
way through the local government planning office, waiting 15 years for
the next senior planner to retire so they can finally achieve their
dream of having their own office and pushing more paper around. Yay.
What a career!

All I can say is, kids, DON’T BELIEVE WHAT THEY TELL YOU IN PLANNING SCHOOLS.

Another comment

Get REAL!!!!!!

As an urban planner with a Master’s in
City and Regional Planning with a BA in Social Science, emphasis in
Sociology & Political Science with a minor in Urban Planning and 13
years of experience I am SHOCKED that this profession is listed
anywhere except on a list indicating the stupidest job choice in the
WORLD!!!!

HT to Cathy Heath