Screengrab of the Just City video via Ford Foundation
On July 14th, a conference on the “Just City” was held in honor of the Ford Foundation’s 75th year, bringing together national and global experts in urban development. Set to “discover a new geography of possibility,” the day included a diverse range of panels to discuss challenges and solutions for urban regions. Some of the most influential panelists included Alejandro Echeverri, Former Director of Urban Project Medellín, Colombia; Kasim Reed, Honorable Mayor of Atlanta; Bruce Katz, VP of the Brookings Institution; John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado; Shaun Donovan, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary; Van Jones, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress; Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts; and Jean Quan, Honorable Mayor of Oakland. With a mixed crowd of policy analysts, elected officials and technologists, the room was filled with a sense of dynamic energy about what cities and systems can do for the future, what problems the future will hold, and how we can all get involved.
“We’ve got to connect the Macro to the Metro. We have to commit to making things again. We can’t rely on ideas industries to save cities.”
—Bruce KatzA NEW VISION OF METROPOLITAN OPPORTUNITY
equity, race, inclusion, economics, technology and participation
The first panel kicked off with an uptempo conversation on how cities have long been engines of opportunity, creativity and vitality. As global economies rapidly shift towards cities, how will metropolitan regions continue to connect all citizens to opportunity and ensure economic growth? What is the new urban vision — and how can we break through old assumptions to make it a reality? Panelists Robin Willner of IBM’s Global Community Initiatives, Bruce Katz (@bruce_katz), Mayor Kasim Reed (@KasimReed) and Alejandro Echeverri responded. Angela Glover (@policylink), Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, moderated the panel. Delving deep into the challenges today’s cities face and what their futures hold, the discussion was optimistic. The panelists moved beyond the frequently cited statistic that 75% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, taking care to describe real world scenarios, share best practices and bring global lessons to the stage.
“We’ve got to connect the Macro to the Metro,” Katz said. “We have to commit to making things again. We can’t rely on ideas industries to save cities.” Meanwhile, Echeverri’s vision for an urban future would require solving inequality first. Mayor Reed of Atlanta drove this point home, drawing on the disconnect between policy and language: “We have to get comfortable talking about poor people and working people! We have to re-frame the way we address economic opportunity so that the dialogue includes working people, not just middle class and up.” Robin Willner chimed in with IBM’s perspective on opportunities for future cities. Calling cities “a system of systems,” Willner described the complexity of urban centers and the need for the use of technology not just in developed cities, but in the large, developing cities across the world.
Katz then emphasized the untenable state of the American economy: “This country needs 20 million jobs right now. Last month only 17,000 were created.” Tying the conversation back to equity, he stressed the need to consider who will be employed, and how new jobs can be used to lend help to our already disadvantaged communities. Mayor Quan of Oakland California (a later panelist) raised a point about the need for regionally-based manufacturing — what is made in Silicon Valley doesn’t necessarily make sense in Atlanta — and how that could be encouraged through national policy. As the leaders in the room closed a conversation on challenges and needs, the stage was set to discuss solutions.
Panorama of San Diego / Tijuana, Mexico Border | Image via Political Equator 3
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
successful cities, scarcity, collaboration and local movements
Discussion moved toward opportunities and innovations in cities today. Teddy Cruz, architect and founder of UCSD’s Center for Urban Ecologies, presented a video showcasing his research on the San-Diego/Tijuana border to spark debate on how solutions are met. The US/Mexican border lies between a manicured San Diego suburb and, just meters away, Tijuana’s 80,000 person shantytown. Cruz and his team designed affordable housing for Tijuana using a broad, citizen-based design process that successfully linked urban design and public participation to provide livable and affordable housing for residents.
“We have to get comfortable talking about poor people and working people.”
—Mayor Reed The next panel connected economic vitality and equity to the equation for a successful city. Moderator Andrea Bernstein, Director of Transportation National, appropriately requested that panelists limit their use of development jargon to reach a broader audience than the present room. UCSC Professor Manuel Pastor Jr. unveiled findings that support a connection between equity and economics: “When you have less racial segregation, you have more economic growth.” Other panelists offered specific examples of cities that have achieved local success. John Hickenlopper, Governor of Colorado, called “collaboration the new competition” when describing how Denver successfully raised taxes (by vote) to develop better transportation infrastructure. MarySue Barrett, President of the Metropolitan Planning Council, explained the economic profitability of improving workers’ quality of life and their working environment.
Bernstein then asked the panel: what is the “special sauce” necessary for successful, sustainable and locally-motivated cities? Ben Hecht, President and CEO of Living Cities called for good and responsible leadership, strategic philanthropy and community-based collaboration, specifically pointing to the need for greater government accountability: “Too many cities say we’ll non-profit or private-sector our way out of it.” Pastor’s “special sauce” lies within social movements organizing around working families. Governor Hickenlooper felt that municipalities need to run more like high-yield businesses. If and when governments meet frequently and get things done, bureaucracy can function more like a business and less like a dysfunctional system.
Ken Snyder (@kennysnyder), President and CEO of PlaceMatters, closed with a film on an interactive mapping project in Nairobi’s formerly unmapped slum Kibera. Home to thousands, this informal settlement was a blank spot on official maps. PlaceMatters used local residents and the OpenStreetMap platform to hold government accountable to a community and space invisible on paper. (See the fascinating project here.) Ending on a note that called for accountable governance combined with hope for smarter, publicly sourced solutions, discussion moved to a global scale over lunch.
URBAN LEADERSHIP ON THE GLOBAL STAGE
regionalism, social capital and targeted resources
Lunch was spent with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan (@HUDNews) and UNHABITAT’s Joan Clos i Matheu. Donovan, like many panelists of the day, advocated for the need to rebuild social capital in cities. Matheu identified significant problems with developing governments’ failure to take advantage of potential economic agglomeration by not building densely. Secretary Donovan emphasized the need for regional planning and regional urban policy, and asserted that resources in blighted cities must be applied strategically — that the “spreading the peanut butter” approach, loosely applying resources over an entire city, doesn’t work. Instead, we should look at cities like Detroit that are focusing on small, targeted areas (areas with the most promise) to revitalize economic and urban growth. Both Donovan and Matheu advocated for strategies of strategic investment, densification and regionalism, applied at the global and national scale.
GETTING CONCRETE: URBAN INNOVATIONS THAT WORK:
economic justice and citizen government
Solutions exist — so how do you find them? How can we create prosperous, equitable and sustainable metropolitan regions? The third session on urban innovations answered this question, featuring discussion with Professor john a. powell, executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity; Ellen Dunham-Jones, architect and professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Van Jones (@VanJones68), senior fellow at the Center for American Progress; Madeline Janis, co-founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy; and Daniel T. Kildee, co-founder and president of the Center for Community Progress; moderated by Carol Coletta, director of ArtPlace.
“It’s about conceptualizing the government as ‘us’ and then advocating for change.”
—Madeline Janis Van Jones spoke on the need for making an economic case for justice — at one point it cost the same to send a child to Yale as it did to send him to jail. Ellen Dunham-Jones urged a re-framing of the American Dream, from suburbs and single-family homes to denser, smarter living. Dunham-Jones pointed out that, despite the fact that living in cities costs less, when you consider transportation and living costs, people still choose to live in the suburbs (a subject she touches on in her latest book Retrofitting Suburbia, which explores how community-based retrofits are reclaiming lost suburban spaces). Lastly, Madeline Janis spoke up on the need for citizen government: “In order to collaborate to solve problems on the local level, there must be a combination of ideas and government — looking at it as ‘our’ government. It’s about conceptualizing the government as ‘us’ and then advocating for change.”
Just City Upon A Hill panelists | Photo by Martin Dixon, courtesy of Ford Foundation
A JUST CITY UPON A HILL
future, investment and reclamation
The final panel of the day touched on governance and policy with Isabel Wilkerson, journalist and author (@IsabelWilkerson); Jean Quan, Mayor of Oakland, California (@JeanQuan); Christine Todd Whitman, president of The Whitman Strategy Group; and Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick (@DevalPatrick); moderated by E.J. Dionne Jr., columnist for The Washington Post. Asked to discuss what cities will look like 25 years from now, Governor Patrick drew on the need for investment in social capital: today there is a great sense of longing for community. Mayor Quan felt that tomorrow’s adults need help today: “Children who have adequate resources do amazing things. Children who don’t have resources struggle to succeed.”
The discussion moved from goals for the future to how cities can balance social justice and economic opportunity. The panel reached somewhat of a consensus around the need for quality of life in cities — that a great concern for the future success of cities falls on a disinvested public. Touching on gentrification, Wilkerson suggested it was a force neither good nor bad, and Governor Patrick felt that city renewal relies on a multi-pronged effort that includes education, transportation and housing, not just small business investment. Regional planning and connecting transportation to healthy neighborhoods are key: “Every place a train has ever stopped has been economically viable.”
Metropolitan regions are the centers of today’s global economies and governments. The Ford Foundation’s Just City conference provided a forum for reflection on what that means for their futures. A room full of decision-makers and advocates is valuable in itself. Sharing best-practices between global movers and shakers shifts leadership out from behind closed doors and towards transparency and accountability. Calling for conversation and rumination on equity, the day encouraged us to find solutions for our cities and economies in regionalism, transparency, strategic investment, local movements and public participation.
For more on the event, see in-depth coverage from the Ford Foundation’s official live-blogging here; on Twitter, check out the hashtag #JustCity and tweets from @johncary and @buttermilk1; for another recap of the event, see Sarah Goodyear’s piece at Grist.org.
Ford Foundation Atrium | Photo by Alicia Rouault
Alicia Rouault is an assistant editor at Urban Omnibus. When away from her UO desk she spends her time working for the City of Newark’s Division of Planning and Economic Development assisting Waterfront Planner Damon Rich. She is currently a Masters Candidate in City and Regional Planning at the Pratt Institute with an interest in urban waterfronts, data visualization, community advocacy, graphic design, and mapping.
