Urban designer David Green talks with Anthony Lyons, Director of the city of Gainesville's Community Redevelopment Agency, about his successes in the city and how other cities can become more livable.
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."
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Placer County
Mayors' Institute on City Design
City of Sunnyvale
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), the Department of City and Regional Planning (CRP)
Lehigh Valley Planning Commission
City of Portland, ME
Baton Rouge Area Foundation