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From 1921 through 1968, the career of Ladislas Segoe (1894-1983) paralleled the evolution of professional planning. Frequently instrumental in the development and perfection of American planning practice, Segoe was involved in all levels and nearly all fields of planning. Through widespread and successful consulting work, publishing, and public speaking, Segoe was a tireless advocate of independent, professional planning. Through the Depression of the 1930s, World War II, the problems of urban renewal in the 1950s, and the civic unrest of the 1960s, he maintained a successful private practice. That success was due to the strength of his personality, the coherence of his vision of planning as an encompassing process, consistent and conscientious follow- through, and an insistence that planners be responsible, reasonable, and honest professionals. This article examines Segoe’s career within several discernible phases that parallel the development of American planning.

Among the recurrent concerns of urban planners and administrators is the institutionalization of an inclusive, equitable, and effective process of citizen participation. Such is required not only as matter of law but also as instrument of social cohesion. The great majority of urban conduct is a function of voluntarism, consensus, and accommodation. In earlier decades, informal social processes facilitated reconciliation. In more recent decades, formal processes of citizen participation have yielded frustration. For the present decade, both literature and practice suggest a shifting of citizen participation processes toward mediation alternatives. While increasingly popular, all mediation alternatives carry three troublesome concerns: definition of interested parties, openness to information, and role of the public mediator. Unless such alternatives are seen as more inclusive, equitable and effective, they will fail to win social acceptance, leading to increasing community distrust and frustrating the ability to effectively plan and govern urban communities.

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