Why all-ages urbanism makes for better cities
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most revolutionary. What if you design a city for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old? Turns out, it will work pretty well for everyone in between. Urbanist Gil Penalosa heads an organization aiming to steer cities away from designing cities that mostly only work for 20- and 30-somethings. If you’re thinking that’s relevant for your business, too, you’re right. But here’s why it matters for the future of cities.
Matt Carmichael: What are some of the characteristics of the cities that we all agree on?
Gil Penalosa: Well, one is cities for people. People are social beings. For thousands of years people have gone to cities because they want to be with others. When you go to a neighborhood and you see people of all ages and backgrounds, usually it’s a good sign. Cities that are walkable, bikeable, have public transit and good public places are good cities. A good city is where we have proximity, where we can actually walk to all the basic needs that we have.
Carmichael: Can you have proximity without density?
Penalosa: No. Impossible. But people have a misconception of density. When people talk about density, they think about Manhattan. When people talk about “no density,” they think about Houston. There are better options than Manhattan or than Houston.
Somewhere in the middle. For example, people are doing 40-, 50-, 80-story buildings. Once you go above certain floors you start having more in common with birds and planes than with people. We can have the same density in five- or six-story buildings next to each other like Paris or like Copenhagen or Barcelona.
Carmichael: What does density enable?
Penalosa: You can have public transit. For public transit to work, you need to have frequency and you need to have connectivity, and it needs to be fast. You cannot have any of those if you don’t have the density. So you are going to lose lots and lots of money, and people are not going to use it. Then people are going to say, “Oh, no, we love cars.” Well, you haven’t given them any other option. That’s what they’re using the car. But if you gave them the option to walk or bike or use public transit, then people might use it.
Carmichael: In order for cities to work for 8- and 80-year-olds, they must be affordable. How do we do that?
Penalosa: Half of the homes that will be around within the life of today’s children have not been built yet. Today we have about 3.5 billion people living in cities. In 40 years, we’re going to double the amount of people living in cities. Some people think it’s only Africa or Latin America or Asia. No. The U.S. is going to build like 50 million homes in the next 40 years. We have a huge opportunity to do it right. It is also a huge responsibility because whatever we do or don’t do is going to be there for hundreds of years.
“Half of the homes that will be around within the life of today’s children have not been built yet. Today we have about 3.5 billion people living in cities. In 40 years, we’re going to double the amount of people living in cities.”
Carmichael: How do we get there?
Penalosa: We need to engage everybody: sociologists, anthropologists, dentists, lawyers, people with no education. We need to ask the children what do they want? We need to ask the older people. City making is not really just for planners. The successful planners are the ones that honestly listen to as many people as possible.
Carmichael: How is hybrid work changing cities?
Penalosa: The reality is that today, anyone that is good at anything can live anywhere. If you are good at making coffee or you are good at repairing cars, or a good engineer or reporter or nurse or teacher or doctor, you can live anywhere in the world. So where would you live? Well, you are going to live wherever you have the best quality of life. That is something that city leaders in the private and public sector must be thinking about.
Carmichael: As someone who lives in the suburbs, how do we make cities work better for parents of 8-year-olds?
Penalosa: I hear of parents referred to as soccer moms or dads. I think that’s, by definition, a bad community. In a civilized world, a 10-, 12-, 14-year-old should be able to go from anywhere to anywhere on their own. I love when parents go see their children play or do music or perform concert because they want to be with the children, not because they are their driver.
Carmichael: If you were an employer with a large office downtown, what would you be advocating for?
Penalosa: A city that would be safe and enjoyable, where my workers can actually walk to the places where they live or bike there, or to take public transit where they would have parks and trees, where there would be equity there. And we need to solve homelessness.
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