Reflecting on ‘Agents of Urbanism’

This morning, while reading on the subway, I came across a quote that speaks to the ocean in which I am swimming, figuratively that is.

Theory is not written for entertainment, yet when it is a successful and succinct explanation of the inner workings of a formerly confusing phenomenon, it is by its nature absorbing to read - difficult, perhaps, but unforgettable once grasped. Think only of Darwin’s central ideas, or the fundamental laws of mechanics. That urban theory is so boring is more than discouraging. It must be a sign of deeper difficulties.
- Kevin Lynch, A Theory of Good City Form

[Image: Skyline logos from city blogs owned by Gothamist. Courtesy of City of Sound.]

This blog is concerned with cities, which sounds simple and clearly defined. In fact, as we all know, this is quite complicated and contains a large subset of issues, any of which could occupy someone full-time depending on their own biases. Thus, I will use the quote above as an opportunity to reflect upon the biases of this blog.

Despite the tender, young age of this blog, I don’t consider it frivolous to reflect upon the work so far. In fact, I think it is helpful to repeatedly evaluate your goals and the trajectory for achieving them.

Now, to the quote, and its revelation on the boring complex nature of urban theory…

The first manner in which this blog reveals this undercurrent is through a comparison of the projected and actual course of the content. I spent time before taking the blog ‘live’ to prepare opening content and future content. This involved developing ideas for different ongoing threads that would serve as talking points for the urban landscape.

[Image: Screen shot of the blog entry, An Agent’s Guide to Mapping.]

The first of these was mapping. I even called it an ‘Agent’s Guide to Mapping.’ Cheesy, perhaps, but I liked it at the time. Then, as I saw my blog evolve I decided to shift away from it as a primary focus. This decision was made in spite of the fact that one of my most popular posts, Intervalography - Photographic Mapping, came out of this thread. Besides, there are plenty of excellent blogs out there dedicated to mapping. Thus, I have relegated mapping to a category of interest that will appear as a topic when it applies to the content.

[Image: Example of intervalography from the blog entry, Intervalography - Photographic Mapping.]

Secondly, I had also planned to write a series of essays on the city, stemming from the manner in which I read cities as superposed layers of information. These layers are derived from organizational, cultural, economic, and ecological among other constructs. Thus, it was my intention to investigate 10 ‘layers’ I had defined to begin an intellectual discussion on the form and formation of cities.

As you can see, this has not appeared on the blog so far. It may still materialize as content some day, but so far I have found better ways to discuss what I consider to be the framework of a city. These are often speculative pieces that arise from both my own conjecture, and as reactions to other online content.

[Image: Before and after photo from the blog entry, Is the Next National Grand Vision Color by Number?]

My three favorite speculative posts thus far…

• Infrastructure is the New Bilbao
• Is the Next National Grand Vision Color by Number?
• Can Urban Sprawl Improve Public Health?

It was primarily through these three posts that I discovered how to incorporate my understanding of cities without using the blatant essay method described above. Furthermore, I think this approach begins to move the topic of urbanism from boring to entertaining. I’ll let you be the judge of that, but I consider them a success because they have re-energized my academic pursuits.

Finally, the last characteristic of this blog that is quickly becoming part of its identity is the economic focus. As I mention in Econ-Archi-Landscape Urbanist, the first component of my background is in economics. Fundamentally, this means I consider aspects of supply and demand for a particular situation relative to the incentives involved.

In a nuts and bolts sense, this development helped spawn another popular blog post, End the Architect’s Complex, Pay Your Interns. In it, I discuss reasons for architects to pay their interns and interns to demand compensation.

In a more nuanced manner, I think these considerations were most fruitful in the series titled, The Sustainable City Race. Economic sustainability was one aspect in which the cities were evaluated, dealing with initial costs, long-term costs, and building a system for sustaining economic growth.

Performing these assessments is something I particularly enjoy, because I think it adds a necessary consideration to most debates. Economics is not purely about the flow of money, we call that finance. Instead, as I have clarified many times, economics broadly concerns itself with supply and demand in relation to incentives. Thus, I am trying to bring a translation of economic issues to the discussion for those less fluent in its intricacies.

Furthermore, these issues, and those of policy, most often come from economists, not architects. Rightly so, but architects and urbanists need to be versed in these issues if they want to fight for their own agendas more effectively. This is where I believe I have an opportunity to add value.

[Image: Cartoon from the blog post, It’s Time to be Diversified.]

If we go back now, and look at the blog as a whole, I am actually very intrigued by a notion of this blog reflecting ‘the city.’ A city is constantly in flux, whether it is expanding, contracting, adapting, or redefining itself. Yet, cities maintain a certain level of consistency that can be traced through their evolution. Perhaps, then, the very subject of this blog becomes a model for its own development.

If we get a little crazy and continue this stream of thought, does it then become possible to create a feedback loop with the city. Can a blog, or multiple blogs, on the city begin to inform and/or shape cities? This requires a leap in thought (possibly faith, as well) to imagine a social web that powerful, but then again, moneybombs have changed the political landscape.

Perhaps a simpler way to consider this relationship and understand the potential for this mutual influence comes from Thomas Bender, of NYU….

Critics are essential to both the making and consuming of art; they make demands upon the artists—at once holding them to standards and pushing them to reach farther. And they educate the consumers, making them into an audience … A knowledgeable and demanding audience – not merely a consuming audience – is crucial to the making of art.

So, hopefully I’m helping some of you out there become an ‘audience’ of the arts, and therefore the city.

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