While discussing the nation-wide absence of urban planner jobs, I received a very interesting complement.

"There's an advertisement for one position nearby, but I wasn't going to mention it to you," my Project Manager said.  "I didn't want you leaving."

I told him it was the nicest compliment I had received in weeks.

But where have the jobs gone?  Unfortunately, quite a few planning departments are losing staff.  But this is only the latest round.  We are four years into this insane economy, and planning agencies, including premiere ones, have been feeling diminishing property taxes for some time.''

Maybe the field is narrowing.  With growth policy on hold in many parts of this country, there is little need for a bunch of expensive specialists telling houses where to be built.  I have never particularly felt like a trusted member of municipal government.  The field is one that can't point to snow removal or cashed checks to explain what we do.  Our benefits are somewhere down the road, maybe.  We planners are an easy bunch to put on the chopping block.

Or maybe planners are expanding.  Instead of sitting behind dilapidated steel desks with our "DENIED" stamps at the ready, maybe we're starting to appear in other, less regular, environments.   It would be hard to be labeled as planners in those situations, but there could be some telltale signs.

And that's what we will look at here.  Who are today's planners?  Where did they go?  What are they doing?  Plus some other good stuff which I will bring up when the time comes.