The Planner Behind the Parklets

As anyone who does city planning knows, even a popular program requires a great deal of effort and engagement - particularly within the government bureaucracy itself, says Power:

"It's incredibly difficult to get people to just say, 'this is how we're going to make it happen.' The culture has been changing and it's gotten much better, at least in a relative sense over the last number of years, but the culture's always been, 'no, you can't do it and this is why.' It's never been, 'This is what you want to do, let's figure out how we're going to make it happen.'"

Power believes that the "NIMBY" attitude is understandable:

"I think it's perfectly legitimate for people to not want something and I think that's just part of the way things are in a heterogeneous community. Generally speaking, most people want urban public spaces, most people want open space, most people want amenities, most people want bicycle infrastructure, most people want storm water improvements. So, it's not convincing people of the merits of that per se."

Read the extensive interview over at Streetsblog.