Berkeley Planning Journal

Most planning students are required to take courses on Land Use Law and Planning History, and many also take courses on Urban Development and Urban Theory. In their coursework, they learn about the legal basis for planning, the process of city decision-making, the controversies and history of urban revitalization strategies, and the theory and outcomes of urban politics and socioeconomic structure. Few planning courses combine these topics plus the legal basis for the existence of cities, within a pragmatic legal framework for understanding why cities pursue certain policies and not others. In their current book, City Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation, co-authors, Gerald E. Frug and David J. Baron make this link in an eye-opening and easy to understand analysis of state laws and city policies in major U.S. cities in seven different states; Boston, MA Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Seattle, WA, Denver, CO, New York, NY, and San Francisco, CA.