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As a result of central city decay, both urban renewal and metropolitan area planning are emerging into the forefront of local politics. Realistic politicians are eyeing the vote-getting appeal of planning. Planners are increasingly abandoning their aloof role of unloved civic vestal virgins and entering the civic arena. Plans are ceasing to be the civic New Year's resolution and embalmed work of art of the old master-plan days and becoming the action programs of a problem-solving community. This is clear gain for the quality of local public life and promises to make planning a vital political process rather than an esoteric activity of a professional elite.
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Norton E. Long (1959) studied this question.
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