Planning Quote of the Day

in a Valley town everybody had two houses

“In a Valley town everybody had two houses: the house you lived in, your dwelling-place, in the Left Arm of the double-spiral-shaped town; and in the right Arm, our House, the heyimas. ... The heyimas was a center of worship, instruction, training, and study, a meetinghouse, a political forum, a workshop, a library, archive, and museum, a clearinghouse, an orphanage, hotel, hospice, refuge, resource center, and the principal center of economic control and management for the community ... In the smaller towns the heyimas was a large, five-sided, underground chamber, subdivided with partitions, with a low, four-sided, pyramidical roof showing aboveground.”

-- from Always Coming Home, by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Editor’s Note: Le Guin’s novel about the Kesh people, besides telling a fascinating story, offers many insights into the meaning of community and its physical form.

the most important asset of a city

"Cities are the world champions of walkability. It is the most important asset of a city and it must be protected."

-- Andres Duany, speaking in Newburgh, New York, as reported in The Upstate Planner (March 2007)

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the most sustainable community possible

"Eugene [Oregon] has a commitment to being the most sustainable community possible. We know that with finite resources and growing climate change challenges, we must scale up this commitment as a matter of both City policy and in the consciousness and actions of the larger community.

This past year, we hired the City's first sustainability manager and the members of the new Sustainability Commission have now been appointed. We will update our community greenhouse gas inventory in April. We know that over the last eight years, through the purchase of hybrids and biodiesel, City government has decreased its CO2 emissions by 10%. The methane we capture at our wastewater plant provides half the power it needs. Through LED lighting, recycling, wind power purchase, bus passes, bike programs, e-communications, and a whole range of other strategies, Eugene has taken strides toward carbon neutrality and zero waste. We still have a long way to go. Large reductions in building and transportation emissions are the only way we can seriously impact climate change."

-- from Eugene, Oregon, Mayor Kitty Piercy's State of the City Address (Jan. 7, 2008)

the wisdom of crowds

"... the wisdom of crowds is often exceptionally good. And collective intelligence is especially valuable when it comes to subjects like town and city planning and managing development, subjects where important information is not concentrated in the hands of a few people, but is diffused among myriad members of the community. If the job is ... to produce a far-sighted plan for balancing environmental, aesthetic, economic, and social concerns, you’re far more likely to end up with a good answer if you solicit and aggregate the judgments of those who live in the community, rather than rely on a more traditional, top-down planning process. ... Is there a catch to the wisdom of crowds? ...  it’s essential to make sure that the crowd is a diverse one, made up of people with different perspectives and different problem-solving tools."

-- James Surowiecki, from "Speaking of Place: The Wisdom of Communities," posted on the Orton Family Foundation web site (you can also access a video clip of Surowiecki's talk at last October's CommunityMatters Conference).

for planning to be meaningful

"For planning to be meaningful, citizens must be involved in the process. Planners, regardless of their personal talents and capabilities, working in isolation and apart from the clients of planning, will not be able to craft plans communities will embrace."

-- Michael Chandler, from "The 21st Century Plan" (Planning Commissioners Journal Issue #31)

note: Chandler's article is also available as part of our Basic Planning Tools reprint set.

from William Penn's 1683 plan

"From William Penn's 1683 plan for Philadelphia to the latest neo-traditional addition, the primary American town building motivation has been land speculation."

-- From "The Control of Land Subdivision," by Larry Gerckens, FAICP, in The Promise of America issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal (Spring 2000)

Note: this issue is available through the end of January at a specially discounted price using this link.

cities are machines

"Cities are machines for making collaboration easier."

-- Edward Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard and director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at the Kennedy School of Government (from "How Should We Be Thinking About Urbanization?," NY Times Freakonomics Blog, Dec. 11, 2007)

the pests that come with warmer weather

"Temperature patterns in New Hampshire are predicted to eventually mirror that of North Carolina. [Keene, New Hampshire] Assistant City Manager Med Kopsinski says that means buildings may need stronger rooftops to handle wetter, heavier snow and ice. And building codes may have to change to manage the pests that come with warmer temperatures. 'One of the things we pay very little attention to in New Hampshire for example is termites and as the temperature does rise we will eventually face dealing with termites and that's going to be a very big change in how we build buildings in New Hampshire.' "

-- From "Keene Plans to Adapt to Climate Change," by Amy Quinton, reporting on New Hampshire Public Radio (Dec. 27, 2007)

substitute order for disorder

"What is the Chicago Plan? It is a plan to direct the future growth of the city in an orderly, systematic way. What is its object? To make Chicago a real, centralized city instead of a group of overcrowded, overgrown villages? What does it mean? That by properly solving Chicago's problems of transportation, street congestion, recreation and public health, the city may grow indefinitely in wealth and commerce ...

We are to make the PLAN our ideal and to put it before us and dare to recognize it and to BELIEVE in it and to build for it. We are to forecast the time when it will seem as extraordinary not to have an official plan toward which to direct the growth of our city as it now seems that Chicago was ever allowed to be worked out like an ill-patched crazy quilt. ... It requires only sufficient local patriotism to substitute order for disorder, and reason, common sense and action for negligence, indifference and interita."

-- from "Chicago's Greatest Issue: An Official Plan," prepared by the Chicago Plan Commission (1911).

we will give strength to our comprehensive plan

"There is no question that the challenges we face as a community will be difficult to solve. And yet, I am absolutely convinced in our city’s ability to overcome any challenge in our way.

• Together, we will give strength to our comprehensive plan, by creating a modern, form-based zoning code.

• We will fully implement our Retiree Health Care solution, by having the will to make the difficult decisions and the respect to reach out to those most directly affected.

• We will honor our community’s most sacred responsibility - eliminating sewer overflows into Lake Superior, by aggressively investing in our aging sewer infrastructure. ..."

-- Duluth, Minnesota, Mayor Don Ness' State of the City address (Jan. 8, 2008)

Note: first time I ever saw zoning listed as the very first priority in a Mayor's state of the city address, let alone "form-based" zoning. See also the implementation section (pdf file) of Duluth's comprehensive plan, adopted in 2006.

definition: sleeping policeman

"During the last three years there have been 17 accidents between the Wigan North Western bridge and Library Street – three quarters of them involving pedestrians. The Metro's controversial solution involves banning cars between King Street and King Street West although buses and taxis will still be allowed. ... But some angry traders claim the move will drive them out of business. ... 'We firmly believe that they can do something about it without closing the road off. We want them to take a new look at things like the introduction of a 20mph area or introducing sleeping policeman.' "

-- from "Firms hit out in road war," on Wigan.net web site (Nov. 21, 2007)

Note: For origins of the phrase "sleeping policeman," see Language Log: Beware of Sleeping Idioms (on how the phrase came to describe speed humps or bumps). While the phrase is more often used in Great Britain, it is also sometimes used in the U.S. Of course, it can also be used in its more literal sense! For example, see this posting on Mayor Sam's blog: "But in Compton, sleeping policemen are not speed bumps. They are school district policemen, asleep, on the job, even at the wheel."

the municipal reform movement

"Adoption of a comprehensive plan and a capital budget, both now common municipal practice, helped to remove the corrupt boss politician and his cronies from the capital expenditure process, taking away one important source of their power. Planners can thus take credit for making a major contribution to the municipal reform movement that significantly cleaned up American politics in the first half of the twentieth century."

-- From "The Abolition of Corrupt 'Boss' Governments," by Larry Gerckens, FAICP, in The Promise of America issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal (Spring 2000).

Note: this issue is available through the end of January at a specially discounted price.

I couldn't sleep one night

"'I couldn't sleep one night," said Mr. Swearer, who was dean of the [Parsons New School for Design] until 2004, "and once the dawn broke, I just thought 'I've got to get out of this apartment.' So I walked to work, and I saw all of this amazing stuff: delivery trucks unloading weird junk, phenomenal light plays on the buildings, fabulous wall postings and graffiti, wonderfully eccentric people ... It was like going to the theater. So I started walking to work, and after a few months liked it so much that I walked home too, about eight miles total."

-- from "The Extreme Boulevardier," by Alex Marshall in The New York Times (Aug. 17, 2007)

we need to be part of the solution

"Climate change is real ... we need to be part of the solution ... that's a significant shift for us."

-- Nancy Gioia, Director of Sustainable Mobility Technologies and Hybrid Vehicle Program at Ford Motor Company (on Ford's attitude towards climate change; part of remarks Gioia made at a Conference on plug-in electric hybrid vehicles at the University of Vermont, Dec. 10, 2007).

Note: See the related post on our PlannersWeb blog today, Plug In Your Car & Save Dollars (and the Environment).

like looking at a rubber band

"Hannibal [Missouri], as I learned, subdivided itself according to degrees of affluence nearly as severely as it divided itself between affluence and poverty. Even as the doctors competed to claim the best custom-built house with the best view, salaried workers ... struggled to secure beachheads for their $120,000 trophy homes on the farthest frontiers of the town's westward expansion. ...

It was a little like looking at a rubber band that had gradually been stretched, then stretched some more, stretched beyond its normal tolerances, until holes had begun to appear and grow in the elongated fiber. More accurately still, it was like looking at a miniature model of an aging metropolis, its industries defunct and its central city vitiated by strip development and flight -- nearly all of it white -- toward its receding suburbs."

-- from Ron Powers' Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore: Childhood and Murder in the Heart of America (2001).

Note: I strongly recommend this fascinating book by journalist Ron Powers about a return visit to his boyhood hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Powers is also author of Flag of Our Fathers and White Town Drowsing.

you can't visualize a 250 row spreadsheet

"Making data available in a spreadsheet is nice, but you can't visualize a 250 row spreadsheet like you can a map."

-- Richmond, Virginia, resident Ross Catrow on the benefits of geographically mapped crime data and vacant property information (in correspondence with Planning Comm'rs Journal editor Wayne Senville).

Note: for more detail on the remarkable online, real time, maps available through RichmondCrime and Vacant Richmond, see the post on our PlannersWeb blog, Real Time, Real Value.

Sunbelt cities will dry up and blow away

"Our colossal metroplexes will not be sustainable in a post-oil future -- and despite the wishes and yearnings of many people, the truth is that no combination of alternative fuels will permit us to continue living at this scale. Some of our cities will not make it. Phoenix, Tucson, and other Sunbelt cities will dry up and blow away. In Las Vegas, the excitement will be over. Other mega-cities will have to downscale or face extreme dysfunction. ... The skyscraper will not be a viable building type in our energy-scarce future. Six or seven stories must be the practical limit in a new age when electric supply is not necessarily as reliable as it has been in our time. Cities overburdened with mega-structures will have a severe liability. ... The suburbs, for the most part, are toast. They have three possible outcomes in in the twenty-first century: as slums, salvage yards, or ruins."

-- James Howard Kunstler, part of his response to question posed by New York Times columnist Stephen J. Dubner ("This year marked the first time in human history that more people lived in cities than in rural areas. What problems and opportunities does this present? What effects has it had on our local and global culture? Economy? Health?) in "How Should We Be Thinking About Urbanization?" (NY Times Freakonomics Blog, Dec. 11, 2007).

Note: for more on Kunstler's dark prognosis for the future, see his book The Long Emergency (2006).

with 566 municipalities and skyrocketing property taxes

"To make a real difference, we need to make deep fundamental changes in the way we operate. Specifically we need a strong commitment to shared services, and we need a strong commitment to smart growth and redevelopment. ... I believe that City governments across the State will have a very different look by the end of my term. With 566 municipalities and skyrocketing property taxes, communities are going to have to band together to provide services to their residents.

Summit has the chance to become a model for this creative collaboration. Before we hire, purchase, or contract, we should systematically ask. Can this be done in conjunction with another town, government agency or a public or private organization? If so, how; and if not, why not? Creating such a system is doable and, in my view, imperative. So let’s take the lead."

-- Union City, New Jersey, Mayor Jordan Glatt, "State of the City" address, Jan. 3, 2008

Note: Union City, population 21,000, is located in northern New Jersey.

transit is a catalyst

"Well-designed transit is a catalyst for economic development. According to Federal Transit Administration research, every $10 million invested in transit capital projects yields an estimated $30 million in business sales."

-- Federal Transit Administrator James Simpson (in interview published in Community Transportation Magazine, Fall 2006)

wave as you walk by

"Scattered about Greater Cleveland are footpaths -- public routes that give intimate views of the neighbors to pedestrians, bicyclists and others with muscles for motors. ... Many footpaths dwell in the inner suburbs. In Cleveland Heights, city historic preservation planner Kara O'Donnell says the suburb's several footpaths boost the community's unity. 'The people along these paths like to wave as you walk by,' O'Donnell says. 'Neighbors are looking out for one another.'

A popular route in Cleveland Heights has an obsolete name: 'the cinder path.' Some of the pupils who take it from Taylor Road to Canterbury School don't know what its name means, but they like the route. 'It's cool,' says Kyle Soca, 8. 'It cuts through houses, so it's easy to get to school.' ... Footpaths have ancestors in England, where they cut through hay fields for centuries."

-- from Cleveland area footpaths are roads well-traveled, posted on Cleveland.com (Nov. 18, 2007)

Led Zepplin through their electric toothbrushes

"CHAIRMAN HARRY GOMES opened the hearing at 7:40 P.M. in the Carthage Central School cafeteria ... The purpose of this emergency meeting of the board was the appeal by the Montpelier-based radio broadcaster WIKD of Carthage's Zoning Administrator Neil Cato's recent Notice of Violation re WIKD's broadcast racility ... Maryann Gingus interrupted the meeting to voice her opinion that the WIKD tower should be 'blown the heck up' and displayed a large photo of her little angel Stacey, who is in Boston's Children's Hospital awaiting a bone marrow transplant for acute myelocytic leukemia. Chairman Gomes asked her to please step down from the table lest she fall and break a leg and to wait for her turn to speak during the coming period of public comment, and order was restored. ...

Zoning Administrator Cato denied to Attorney Baines of WIKD that he coached Maryann Gingus and other town residents at a potluck meal at the home of his secretary as to the only possible legal avenues to get the CANCER TOWER torn down. Zoning Administrator Cato also denied he told any citizens of the Town of Carthage to write in their letters that they were picking up Led Zepplin through their electric toothbrushes and other home appliances. ..."

-- excerpted from "Unapproved Minutes of the Carthage, Vermont Zoning Board of Adjustment (As recorded by Town Secretary Betty Bradley)." Author Thomas Paine's "Unapproved Minutes ... " is included in his collection of short stories, Scar Vegas. The "Unapproved Minutes ... " was also reprinted in the Spring 2002 issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal.

definition: arabbers

"On the streets of Baltimore, it is getting harder and harder to hear the holler of arabbers. These street vendors, peddling produce and seafood on horse-drawn carriages, have been a part of Baltimore life for decades. But with less than a dozen arabbers on the street today, along with new city regulations on their horses and the potential loss of the stables they use, the cries of the arabber may be a thing of the past."

-- from The Wanderers' Songs: The Last of Baltimore's Arabbers -- Horse-and-Cart Vendors -- Are Fading Away (Preservation Online; Nov. 2, 2007)