Experts: Detroit's real estate options appealing

[mwilbert]

Most cities and counties have a council-manager type of government where the pols actually hire experts to run the day-to-day operations.

Even with a council-manager government, the managers tend to be chosen for skills other than planning, which only makes sense because most of their job is day-to-day operations, as you say. In any case, they wouldn't have much control over planning, because that almost always ends up being politicized. We just don't live in a country where planning is respected enough to give planners much influence.

[Hermod]

Even with a council-manager government, the managers tend to be chosen for skills other than planning, which only makes sense because most of their job is day-to-day operations, as you say. In any case, they wouldn't have much control over planning, because that almost always ends up being politicized. We just don't live in a country where planning is respected enough to give planners much influence.

The best municipal managers come up through the city engineer ranks and are P.E.

Some come up through the "urban studies" or "urban planner" route and generally mismanage the place because they are long on "ideas" and short on practicality.

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