One of the longest standing debates in community economic development is between “place-based” and “people-based” approaches to combating poverty, housing affordability, chronic unemployment, and community decline. Should help go to distressed places or distressed people? The question was the focus of a session at the joint congress of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Association of European Schools of Planning in Chicago last month, which also featured Lincoln Institute-sponsored panels on urbanization in China and the evaluation of smart growth programs in the U.S. The people-or-place discussion was led by Lincoln Institute visiting fellow Randall Crane, who also wrote an article on the subject in the July issue of Land Lines. Whatever the choice, community development and the future of American cities are the biggest issues not being adequately addressed in the presidential campaign, writes Crane, professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, in Planetizen.