Livability Lessons from Gainesville

Lyons emphasizes walkability and neighborhood scale in this Q&A from Fast Co. Design.

"David Green: We hear all the time that government is too cumbersome. ‘Simple innovation' sounds like it might be an answer. But now what? What are you doing to actually change Gainesville?

Anthony Lyons: First, we posed a simple question, "What kind of city do we want to be?" It sounds stupid, right? At some level it is actually more stupid than it sounds, but very few communities ask fundamental questions because their problems have already gotten so complex. For example, in a lot of cities you get planners asking questions like, "How can we shorten commutes?" But without knowing what you want to be, at the most basic level, it is impossible to know where to start."