Michael Bayer

Who creates bike lanes, plans transit routes and tells developers where to put the mail boxes in new housing developments? Who plans the placement of police stations, plazas and pizzerias? Urban planners do.

Becoming an Urban Planner describes the history of urban planning as a profession in the United States and explains what planners currently do in government, for non-profits and as consultants. The book also explains the process of becoming an urban planner and the many different educational backgrounds that contribute to a professional education in this field. Urban planners interviewed for this book include sociologists, economists, political scientists, engineers, lawyers, architects and environmental scientists who have become planners.

The interviews with professional planners make up the majority of the book. The authors have done a good job of selecting a wide range of planners, from generalists to many of the subspecialists such as historic preservation planners and transportation planners, to talk about their career paths. The planners describe necessary skills—most reiterating the need for public speaking and the ability to read and process information efficiently—and what they like best and least about their jobs. This information will help readers narrow their choices down to the subspecialty they would like to pursue in planning, though most of the interviewees seem to agree that a generalist background and then a subspecialty will help with finding initial employment in the field.

Becoming an Urban Planner is part of a series of books from Wiley written by professionals from related fields. Other titles in the series include, Becoming an Architect, Becoming a Graphic Designer, Becoming a Digital Designer and Becoming a Product Designer.… (meer)