Urban Sun Investments

After reading Russell Preston’s essay: Civic Beauty , I was struck by a hidden nugget tucked among the call to urbanist action. (I recommend reading his essay to understand the context of this post.)

The nugget: “Public space is a platform for the life of a city to unfold.”

The Gatekeepers.  The city consists of the people and their aggregate contributions through evolving culture, government, systems, technologies, creations and decisions.  As cities become more complex, gatekeepers evolve in the form of experts and officials.  Rules, money, circles of trust keep information and power in the hands of a few.  (This has happened throughout history and across disciplines in religion, science, art, politics.. city planning.)  Out of necessity, the specialists have emerged.  Power has been condensed.  Decisions have been left to the appointed, elected or self-proclaimed experts and officials. 

Simplified complexities.  As the rules, systems and technologies have evolved, the gatekeepers strengthen their hold on power by simplifying the complexities to the masses. 

• “Wind up car. Car go vroom.” 
• “Make street bigger. Car go faster.” 
• “Do what you do best. Your neighbor’s got your back.  He’ll navigate the legal codes to keep you out of trouble. He’ll even keep track of all the time it takes.” 
• “Your newly elected mayor will make the best decision for the city. She was elected by the people and she’ll take it from there.”
• “Follow me on Twitter and you will learn how to get thousands more followers so you can teach your followers how to get thousands more followers.”

Specialists make decisions. Specialists are necessary for innovation and advancing ideas and technology.  But specialists have long held too much power.  Representative governments have been set up to give the people a say in who gets to make the decisions.  But the specialists still make the decisions.  The will of the people, the representatives, the officials are slaves to the experts — out of necessity, practicality and the complexity that can only be “understood” and “simplified” by the specialists.        

Web of relationships.   The experts have forgotten that the city exists as an ecosystem of people and their creations.  It is essentially a web of the people’s relationships with each other, their past and their future. 

In order for the city to be strong.  The web of relationships must be strong.  The formal relationships encompass the rules that govern and keep the city functioning as an ongoing entity.  These have been the playground of the specialists.  While the purpose of these rules should be to strengthen the relationships of the people amongst themselves, their past and their future… many of the rules have fallen victim to the specialist.

Design to strengthen relationships.  The built environment merely exists to support the needs of the people and their web of relationships.  If we design cities to strengthen relationships (with each other, our past and our future selves) – we think about culture, history, interaction, flexibility, environmental impact, emotional attachment (and people!).  This fosters community, sense of belonging, citizen engagement, knowledge and better understanding of the broader and long-term impacts of our decisions.

Community and Space. Russell Preston states “A living urbanism begins with community and space. It is the act of shaping this space that gives life to a place.” 

Lets think of our public spaces as a platform to strengthen relationships, engage citizens and support the needs of all people.   This means better places for interacting.  Flexible spaces that can evolve.  Spaces that enrich a sense of belonging and emotional attachment.  Streets that support safer, healthier, efficient modes of getting from place to place.  Considerations for impacts on the environment for our city’s future economy and health.  Natural food and clean water to keep us healthy. 

Let the city unfold.        
Public spaces were once a necessity.  When technology became more important than the people that the technology should have been helping – public spaces became less important.  Let’s make people important again. 

Urbanists, humanists, environmentalists please stand up… no gatekeepers allowed.