Chuck Wolfe ponders a recommended subscription list of Substack urbanists and wonders — as have others — about the utility of the "urbanist" moniker.
In response to efforts to organize readership on the trendy media platform, Wolfe asks, “What does such a list, and its omissions, tell us about how 'urbanism' itself is being framed, and perhaps, confined?”
Noting that the list-- effectively organized by Diana Lind and Ryan Puziycki--is primarily focused on the energetic, often data-driven, and solution-oriented urbanism of YIMBYs, transportation advocates, and the Strong Towns movement, he advocates more attention to the lived experience of the city and more generic urban settlements. He suggests a skillset built around less dogma and more narrative, immersion, and understanding.
He argues for careful attention to an “urbanism of experience and a broader scope of concerns” written about by Kaid Benfield in Summer 2024:
As Benfield said, the use of the term “urbanist” needs to expand—or perhaps it should not be used at all. I say embrace the discomfort of the personal, the unquantifiable, the deeply felt. The actual work of sustaining place, I believe, lies in this more holistic approach.
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