You might think you can't, but I know you can

My not-so-easy challenge for 2024

Good neighborhood design seems like such a vanilla position, something everyone would nod and politely smile at. So why aren’t things like mixed-use neighborhoods and mobility freedom ubiquitous, or at the very least, common? One major factor is that we planners, engineers, and other types of urbanists have a communications problem. We get the storytelling process wrong, or the storytelling mindset wrong, or both.

This is totally understandable – even inevitable – when you consider that soldiers and factory workers were the expected product of the schooling system America adopted in the 20th century. School as we know it today was designed to create conformity. 

• Sit in a chair listening to an adult at the front of the room for a whole bunch of hours.

• Believe the person in the front of the room is the smartest person in the room.

• Memorize the same material in the same amount of time as everyone your age.

• Take the same tests as everyone your age to prove you’re the same as everyone else and be rewarded with an advancement to another grade where you do it all over again. 

Storytelling goes against our school training. Storytelling is designed to make someone stop and notice. 

If you want to win more contracts, or get more policy changed, or motivate elderly neighbors to try an electric bicycle, you’ll need to learn to be comfortable on the edges. It’s not easy. Biologists have plenty of examples of how being in the center of a group is safe, while being on the edge is dangerous. 

For example, a school of fish looks like a giant shimmery blob in the eyes of a predator. The strong fish stay in the center and the fringe is bait. Nature’s lesson to fish: avoid the fringe!

But you’re not a fish. It’s ok to embrace your non-fishyness and practice doing something at the fringe. One thing you can try in the new year is writing simple stories about your experiences in the built environment. 

You might aim small, like post one anecdote in 2024 about why you agree or disagree with zoning abolition.

Or you might aim big, like Mark Brown, and publish a personal quest. (I’m a third of the way into his book. It’s so encouraging to hear firsthand accounts about the barriers and workarounds to a car-lite or car-free lifestyle.)

Part of me wants to say “no pressure,” but most of me does want to pressure you. In the friendliest possible way, I want to nudge you to write, publish, repeat even the littlest anecdotes. The more comfortable you get sharing your outlook on the built environment, the more conversations you’ll have with people who may have had no clue how important issues like land use planning and traffic engineering are in their everyday life.