PHILADELPHIA Planning for a New Century: the Regional Agenda by Jonathan Barnett is a new book that brings together leading thinkers in the fields of planning, urban design, education, welfare and housing to consider ways to solve the problems facing many communities.

Barnett, professor of city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania, sees the current state of affairs in most cities as only getting worse. He believes gridlocked streets and highways are symptoms of problems created by our society dependence on cars and sprawl is the product of a complex interaction among government programs and private enterprise. He favors Smart Growth and Livable Communities as alternative plans.

Planning for a New Century brings together current academic research with public policy concerns. Several of Penn most outstanding faculty members have contributed chapters in their areas of expertise. For instance, Gary Hack, the dean of Penn Graduate School of Fine Arts, has written a chapter called "Planning Metropolitan Regions." Other colleagues of Barnett have contributed chapters such as "Social Equity and Metropolitan Growth," "Regional Design: Local Codes as Cause and Cure of Sprawl" and "Next Steps in Controlling Pollution."