Last year, the Planning Commission created a YouTube video, "Hello City Planner, " quoting directly from the planning code.

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Mr. Wu, the former city planner, says he expects the renovation trend to expand to other historic buildings in Shanghai.

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And meanwhile the mayor's most visible hire after the storm, Ed Blakely, a city planner, has faded into the background.

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Boston views the trucks as business incubators, said Lauren Shurtleff, a senior planner for the city.

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Carl Richards, a financial planner in Park City, Utah, has a knack for taking complex financial concepts down to their simplest form.

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But others, such as Denise Beauregard, a 53-year-old event planner from the city's Rosedale Park neighborhood, said she was so dismayed by the prospect of an emergency manager that she would put her tax payments into escrow until the manager leaves the city.

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"All over the country there are signs that say 'Central Business District, '" reported Alexander Garvin, an urban planner who is a former commissioner on the New York City Planning Commission.

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According to congressional aides briefed by the inspector general's office, the IRS did not formally seek competitive bids for the city where the agency's 2010 conference was held, for the event planner who assisted the agency, or for the speakers.

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