Art by AbelB available at www.redbubble.comI was wildly intimidated by the topic of housing for a very good reason. Of all of the planning topics, it doesn't get more personal than housing. Home is where the heart is. Home is essential. A good home can be revelatory or revolutionary.
And people will fight louder, longer and harder for home -- and they will fight with all their heart.
Planning for housing -- for home -- is, to me, daunting. Certainly quantity is an issue and, supplying adequate housing for residents is task enough. But quality housing is an ever-pressing concern and, what constitutes a good home is as varied as the people who live in them.
Do planners get it right every time? Probably not. Plans and planning process are living organisms susceptible to any number of bumps, bruises and viruses. And many different people bump into even the most solid of plans.
But I would wager that many a planner has laid awake at night thinking about the frantic man who wants to build a "granny flat" for his aging mom but his house isn't zoned for it -- or thinking about how to squeeze out a parcel of land or the funding for a much-needed park for a neighborhood with at-risk youth.
It is my humble belief that that sleepless planner will rise the next day and continue to work for heart and home.
Process:
So this presents a pretty idealized vision of planners but, I just wanted to get across that probably a lot of planners get into planning because the environment, the world, people matter to them. And of course I wanted to highlight the really personal nature of this topic.
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