Six Principles For City Building

A few ideas that have guided my career as an urban planner for more than a dozen years.

Photo by Olivia Hutcherson on Unsplash

I’m fast approaching the 13th anniversary of starting my career as an urban planner. That milestone, coupled with the disruptions and changes to daily life we’ve experienced over the past year-plus, has me getting introspective about what city building could be all about in a post-pandemic world.

Below are six principles that have shaped and guided my work. I believe they can be helpful starting points for figuring out how to move forward and build communities that make people’s lives better.

Know who you’re planning for

Is it cliché for an urban planner to quote Jane Jacobs? Yes, it absolutely is. Am I going to do it anyways? Yes, I absolutely am.

The godmother of modern urban planning said, “…the best way to plan for downtown is to see how people use it today; to look for its strengths and to exploit and reinforce them. There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans…” (emphasis mine)

And that should be the north star of everything we do as city builders. It shouldn’t be about what Ms. Urban Designer or Mr…