Photo by People Building Better Cities

There’s an important traveling exhibition making a stop at the Center for Architecture in NY until January 4, called People Building Better Cities. It’s well worth a visit, judging by the public forums. Presentations about creative inclusive planning techniques, such as Interboro Partners’ Holding Pattern at PS 1 MOMA and Candy Chang’s Before I Die, public bulletins for airing eons-old constants, struck a major chord with the audience.

The contrast with what resonates with people and the cities in which they live – at the very essence these are the expressions of their dreams, desires, aspirations, and wishes – seem oceans away from the policies and politics that govern cities, what with urban funding and financing regulations, rules for public right-of-way, and law. City-making, when it truly involves people, is messy, non-linear, subjective, and rooted in the abstract. But we should strive to connect what we believe are tangible reflections of such desires – so-and-so development with such-and-such public space, or a newly improved transit system – with those very desires. There’s a lot to be done to build this connection, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor with a great many aforementioned talents contributing to the collective effort.

To that end, Jarrett Walker is doing his part building this connection. Sign up early for his Human Transit Workshop on February 6 and 7 at the Centre for Social Innovation, APA credits available.