Is Joel Kotkin The Anti-Planner?

"Increasingly, it seems that the only thing we can count on Kotkin for – in newspaper op-eds, anyway – is to disagree with the conventional wisdom, no matter what it is. In fact, as time goes on, Kotkin – ever the contrarian – seems to spend more and more time disagreeing with planners and commentators who mostly agree with him.

"In the last few years, he’s fallen deeper and deeper into the trap of being a contrarian for its own sake." In fact, what's happening in Los Angeles is exactly what Kotkin has called for repeatedly: the creation of a series of core areas and activity centers strung across the landscape.