Abstract
This study focuses on whether sustainability plans, through their creation and implementation, affect urban sustainability outcomes in three Californian cities: Santa Monica, San Francisco, and San Jose. These early adopter cities address core tensions in planning theory and practice between environment, equity, and economy. I utilize cross-case synthesis techniques to examine the linkages between plans, implementation and outcomes in the three cities explored. To frame and guide these case studies, I consider findings from planning theory, policy implementation, and newer community organizing literature. Through the case studies, I identify the following key lessons: 1) What makes a sustainability plan strong is “The Three P’s:” people, programs, and purpose, 2) Operationalizing “The Three E’s” of environment, equity, and economy is crucial, and while all three take effort, equity is significantly the most difficult, 3) Urban Planning as a field and professional practice has been glaringly absent in the story of the development of these urban sustainability plans.