A Profile of NYC's Major Urban Planner

My mother still wants me to quit being an economist and get a graduate degree in urban planning.  She had high hopes that I could be part of the solution in Newark, New Jersey as my ideas about the spatial distribution of roads, housing,industry and infrastructure would remake that city and improve its quality of life and raise the area's overall productivity.   As a friend of Hayek, I didn't think  that I had a bright future as a central planner.  But, now I've read this piece in the NY Times about Amanda Burden.  She has has an interesting social life and now she has a very important job as the director of the New York City Planning Department.    At the age of 46, it may be time for me to go "Back to School".