154 Selective Opportunism, the Surest Way 



things done, and have participated in the doing of them. They have been 

 done by getting the public sufficiently stirred up so that the politicians see 

 what they call mileage. If you persuade them that there is mileage in a 

 proposal, they will work with the planners and other people. One of the 

 most important things that was accomplished by Mayor Wagner in reor- 

 ganizing the government of the city of New York during this last four 

 years was to take planning out of the distant ethereal blue and tie it in to 

 the daily process of decision making. Every week when the Mayor's cab- 

 inet meets, the head planner participates. They don't always do what he 

 says, but his thinking gets woven into the programing. 



To make planning really effective you have to do several things at once. 

 You have to build up a greater understanding, so that there is mileage in 

 this. Then you have to overhaul the structure of organization so that the 

 men who have the ability and the time and the technical staffs behind them 

 to do the broader thinking can make their full contribution to the adminis- 

 trative decisions. In that way administrative decisions can be made in the 

 light of technical competence and planning. 



NOTE BY MR. WOLMAN I am not against planning. I am for 

 planning with high ingredients of realism, and planning that is conscious of 

 a stream of life now. 



