An organic system is rarely the sum of its parts. Nothing demonstrates this as clearly as sinking your teeth into a store-bought tomato, writes Ben Brown.
Brown's essay on tomato growing has lessons for effective city planning:
"By redesigning tomatoes to optimize a particular shape and hue, then contorting the growing process for the convenience of transport and just-in-time delivery, the South Florida tomato industry engineered the value out of the product, drained humanity out of the process and wed themselves to an unsustainable business model."
"Sound familiar? Compared to human settlement patterns, shelter needs and the architecture of community, tomato production is a piece of cake. Yet we've allowed similar approaches to dominate the 'industries' of designing and building the places where we live, work and play."
"What's missing is an appreciation of the way tomatoes - and other real world entities - work. Ours is a universe of constantly emerging interactions. Push on one thing, lots of other stuff starts moving around. For decision-making convenience, we yearn for simple. We are genetically programmed for simple. But we are embedded in complexity."
Thanks to Hazel Borys
Read the full story: Ta-may-toe, Ta-mah-toe: Lessons in complexity from a fruit
Lessons to Guide Future Equitable Development Planning
How did recent projects in Baton Rouge, Dallas, and South Florida fare?
Lessons from the Pandemic: Housing, Retail, Broadband
Second in a series of conversations about what comes next in local government policies and processes, this time between Geoff Koski and Ben Brown on housing, retail, and broadband
After the Plague: Go Big or Go Backwards?
Among unwelcome lessons of COVID-19 is growing evidence of what was already broken in politics and business. Ben Brown looks at making bold changes in order to improve the lives of the left out and left behind.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Chicago voters approve permanent festival grounds, penalty for vacant property owners
Currently, major summer and fall festivals take over public parks for weeks at a time, drawing criticism from nearby residents
NYC votes to cut outdoor dining red tape, speed up permitting
New York City also voted to allow the Department of Transportation to begin work on urgent projects before notifying elected officials.
California appears to reject Prop. 45
The proposition would have expanded the projects that qualify for a streamlined environmental review, effectively paring down the California Environmental Quality Act.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority