Speaker: Cities ‘can only move at the speed of trust’

City leaders can only effect change at the pace the community is willing to go. It helps when residents can see short-term successes. It also helps when cities work to preserve neighborhoods, which is often the soul of a city.

Those were two points made by Maurice Cox, former commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development and a former mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, at a “The Future American City Now” event held at the Clinton Presidential Center May 1. The event featured comments by Cox and other urban planners about issues related to community development, equity and environmental sustainability.

Cox was answering a question from Little Rock City Director Dean Kumpuris, who noted that six of the city’s 10 directors – a majority – were present. Kumpuris said the city is completing a nine-month planning process for its downtown and needs to implement what it has discovered. He asked how to rally and educate the community to get buy-in.

In response, Cox said, “I would just say that you can only move at the speed of trust.”

He said the planning process has built some trust, and the city needs to build on that trust. While effecting change is a long-term pursuit, cities should show short-term progress in implementing what they said they would do. He said that one of his city’s projects that involved only paint and astroturf was delivered in three months. The quick turnaround gave community members confidence that the planning was paying off.

“One of the things we learned – I think it was a lesson of covid, is that we need to act quickly. We need to demonstrate what’s possible, and then we get that many more people to come along with us for the mid-term and for the long-term journey,” he said.

Earlier in the panel discussion, Cox said the future of American cities must be equitable. He referenced urban planners’ destruction of the 9th Street neighborhood in Little Rock when I-630 was built through the middle of it.

“I would argue that the soul of any city resides in its neighborhoods, and if you lose your neighborhoods, you’ve lost your soul,” he said.

He said cities must build neighborhoods, plazas, parks and greenways. In one Detroit area, a sidewalk was expanded from eight to 24 feet. It became the city’s second most visited commercial corridor. Another Detroit project created a 27-mile greenway loop that connected 27 previously disconnected neighborhoods.

Another speaker was Gia Biagi, principal of urbanism & civic impact at the Studio Gang architecture and urban design practice. The former head of Chicago’s Department of Transportation said cities must create an architecture of engagement to have an ongoing conversation about improvements.

Biagi said the future of the American city requires adaptive thinking. A city is not a puzzle like a Rubik’s Cube, so every city’s problems can’t all be solved the same way. Adaptive thinking is needed for “adaptive challenges” like climate, poverty, homelessness and violence. Adaptive challenges can’t be solved by following the rules and by technical thinking. In the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, streets became restaurants, health clinics, galleries and churches.

Trinity Wagner, executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, said a future American city is “joyous for all.” A joyous city is playful, restorative, has beauty and wonder, and is inclusive. She said cities are often built around the movement of cars but at odds with being joyous places for humans. City leaders and designers need to listen to residents through community engagement. They need to translate a vision into action, then place the plan into action and communicate what they have done – a task government does not do well, she said.

She said plans require someone who works to make them a reality. The city of Boston created a Planning Advisory Council, a small office that can convene department heads to coordinate and help prioritize capital investments between departments. The office helps the city avoid silos and move things forward when they get stuck. The office also tells the city’s story back to the community.

Wagner said in a time of polarization, it’s critical for individual well-being and the well-being of American democracy that citizens trust that government will keep its word.

“We joke in mayor world that there is no Democrat or Republican way to fill a pothole,” she said. “To run for local office, you have to fundamentally believe that government can be a tool to improve people’s lives.”

Asked by moderator Peter MacKeith, dean and professor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, about the perennial challenge of city planning, Cox replied that it’s grating the power of design onto things people care about. People care about schools and neighborhoods but don’t necessarily see how design affects those things. City leaders must help them do that.

“It is a constant challenge to get people to see how design can be a tool to realize the goals that they have for their community,” he said.