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Ben Brown

September 22, 2016 | 7:40 am

There Goes the Neighborhood: Oh no, not Burning Man!

Reprising: “Can’t we all just get along?”

Answer: Probably not. And we should be thinking about why and how that informs what we do to help neighborhoods and cities adapt to change.

Let’s pick an example unlikely to trigger the usual arguments over race, ethnicity and inequality, yet one that might be more helpful because of the absence of those factors. I give you Burning Man, the annual event in the Nevada desert where some 70,000 folks gather to test the limits of art, collaborative culture and diversity. On that last count, the one about tolerance for differences, a line was apparently crossed a few weeks back when one set of Burners decided others didn’t belong in the neighborhood.

Category Community Development, Economic Development, Experience, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Public Policy, Resilience1 CommentTags Ben Brown, Burning Man

August 23, 2016 | 3:05 pm

Unpredictable, High Risk, High Cost: Planning for the worst is the worst

So here we go again.

Flood waters rise in southern Louisiana, displacing tens of thousands — some temporarily, others permanently — and potentially costing billions.

The familiar narrative cycle has cranked up. Right now we’re emerging from the stage where we celebrate the heroism of citizens, volunteers and emergency responders and question the competency of the feds. Next comes the rough accounting of damages and the fights over funding, then the agonizing slog towards a recovery unlikely to ever be complete. Finally will come a lessons-learned wrap-up that could be copied and pasted from reports post-Camille, post-Andrew, post-Katrina, post-Sandy and post a bunch of other recent calamities without a name.

Category Environment | Sustainability, Public Policy, Resilience1 CommentTags Ben Brown

July 26, 2016 | 4:15 pm

Word Eating Time: Here’s today’s menu

Whatever skills I developed in manipulating language were shaped by two decades on the staffs of newspapers and magazines. In my first interview for a newspaper job, a managing editor lectured me on the transition I should be prepared for. I could forget all that fancy writing stuff I may have learned in college. I was about to become a reporter serving customers with middle school reading skills and a lot of impatience with nuance.

Bottom line: Get to the friggin point, preferably no later than the second paragraph. So here it is: The broader you try to apply that advice, the worse it makes things.

Category Community Development, Planning and Design, Theory and Practice3 CommentsTags Ben Brown

July 19, 2016 | 11:17 am

The Fear Freak-Out: Now in neighborhoods near you

The times, shall we say, are not ideal for that conversation we keep talking about.

You know, the conversation we feel we need whenever something scary happens. That ever-elusive, rational talk that includes everyone and ends with, if not a group hug, then at least a group understanding.

Category Community Development, Economic Development, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Public Policy, ResilienceLeave a CommentTags Ben Brown, City Observatory, fear, gentrification

May 24, 2016 | 12:01 am

Equity, Engagement, Community: Empathy ain’t enough

So you’ve finally aligned the stars to get something important done in your community. Maybe it’s a corridor plan that nods to the needs of pedestrians, bikers and transit riders, as well as car drivers. Maybe it’s an ambitious mixed-use master plan for your downtown. Or a revamped zoning code to enable the development and redevelopment everybody seems to want.

Category Public Engagement, Theory and Practice4 CommentsTags Ben Brown, community engagement, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

April 19, 2016 | 4:37 pm

From Ideas to Action: Cheaply, quickly, fairly

Last week, in the Congress for the New Urbanism’s “Public Square” blog, sociologist David Brain outlined strategies for a Lean charrette, which is a work-in-progress concept designed to match up with Lean Urbanism strategies. Opportunist that I am, I welcome that as an excuse to try Part 2 of the charrette discussion I offered here.

Category Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Public Policy1 CommentTags Ben Brown, David Brain, Lean Urbanism, National Charrette Institute

April 5, 2016 | 4:06 pm

It’s the Complexity, Stupid! (Try ‘splainin’ that in an elevator)

I’m writing this as Wisconsin voters appear poised, if we’re to believe the hyperventilating pundits, to push the reset button on the 2016 presidential primary season. All bets are off from here on.

Not the smart money, though. That’s because the presidential campaign is likely to play out within boundaries shaped by what we voters tend to agree on most of the time:

The future we most believe in is the past we wish were true and are convinced we deserve.

Category Community Development, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Theory and PracticeLeave a CommentTags affordable housing, Ben Brown, comprehensive planning, government policy, political will

March 15, 2016 | 12:51 pm

The Next Frontier for Compact Walkability? It’s gotta be the burbs

This weekend in Miami, the Congress for the New Urbanism is staging one of the periodic Councils it uses to focus perspectives and best practices on topics of growing concern to CNU members and fellow travelers. This one is all about building “a Better Burb.”

The idea, says CNU CEO Lynn Richards, is “to leverage the momentum from the revival of the city.”

Local and regional governments in outlying areas, says Richards, are beginning to recognize the advantages of reversing sprawl — and the risks of not acting. “And they’re asking for tools and strategies to start or accelerate their suburban transformation. That’s what we’ll be focusing on this weekend.”

Category Demographics, Development, Economic Development, Planning and Design, Public Policy, Theory and PracticeLeave a CommentTags Ben Brown, Home Builders, Sprawl Repair, suburban retrofit, Urban Land Institute

February 23, 2016 | 1:32 pm

Smart Design = Smart Policy:
Eezy-Peezy? Not so fast

See if this sounds familiar:

The city planning staff, maybe working with an expert team of design consultants, comes up with what they think is a no-brainer solution to a high-profile problem. Say, a proposal for much-needed multifamily development to address workforce housing demand. Or a plan to fix a blighted block with a mixed-use project that checks all the Smart Growth boxes. Or perhaps a senior-friendly cottage court adjacent to an existing single-family neighborhood of larger lots and homes.

Let’s say the proposal earns staff support and gets planning and zoning commission okays for whatever changes are required in local codes. It heads to city council for final approval, where everything hits the fan.

Category Community Development, Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Theory and Practice10 CommentsTags Ben Brown, charrette, community engagement, National Charrette Institute

February 2, 2016 | 9:56 am

Filling in the ‘Missing Middle’: No new wheels, please

For lots of reasons, including the ones PlaceMakers’ Scott Doyon explains here, Seaside, on the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast, makes a great place to talk about the appeal of small-scale dwellings in small-lot neighborhoods. Certainly, hanging out in a place where the real estate market has bid up the price for small wooden houses without lawns or garages to six and seven figures makes it harder to argue that nobody will pay for the privilege.

Location, then, partially explains why some 30 prospective developers — and Bandit, the dog — arrived over the weekend to drill down on how-to topics related to just such places.

Category Development, Financing, Planning and Design6 CommentsTags Ben Brown, Boot Camp, Bruce Tolar, John Anderson, Monte Anderson, Seaside Florida, Small Developers

There Goes the Neighborhood: Oh no, not Burning Man!

Unpredictable, High Risk, High Cost: Planning for the worst is the worst

Word Eating Time: Here’s today’s menu

The Fear Freak-Out: Now in neighborhoods near you

Equity, Engagement, Community: Empathy ain’t enough

From Ideas to Action: Cheaply, quickly, fairly

It’s the Complexity, Stupid! (Try ‘splainin’ that in an elevator)

The Next Frontier for Compact Walkability? It’s gotta be the burbs

Smart Design = Smart Policy:
Eezy-Peezy? Not so fast

Filling in the ‘Missing Middle’: No new wheels, please

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