Power Rankings: Celebrity Advocates

Nothing helps an advocacy organization like name recognition. Brad Pitt, for instance.

3 minute read

April 1, 2016, 8:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

PAN Photo Agency / Shutterstock

Celebrity Advocates Power Ranking

1) Donald Trump – the potential Republican nominee for president has surprisingly progressive views on eminent domain. We have to wonder if a President Donald Trump would appoint Supreme Court justices that would uphold the decision of Kelo vs. New London.

2) Brad Pitt – Brad Pitt can do no wrong on movie screens. In post-Katrina New Orleansthat's up for debate.

3) Diane Keaton – When preservationists need something saved, they call Diane Keaton. She's like the William Baldwin in Backdraft of celebrity preservationist advocates.

4) Ryan Seacrest – a joint-use hero if ever there was one. Seacrest's foundation funded the construction of a multimedia broadcast studio on campuses of the Children's National Medical Center, allowing patients the opportunity to interact and participate with the studio.

5) Moby – Moby has a blog about Los Angeles architecture, so he has that going for him, which is nice. And he's also willing to have long, rambling conversations about his adopted city, which is also nice.

6) Flea – The word advocate might be stretch on this one, but at least Flea's pesky but doomed effort to build a music school in one of the most hipster-friendly neighborhoods in Los Angeles was for the kids. Music, for the kids. Right?

7) Alec Baldwin – Fighting for spatial justice on his bike, on the sidewalk, in New York. Pick your battles, Alec.

8) Kanye West – Likes to go to Harvard Graduate School of Design and talk about stuff. Also likes to go on the radio and kinda talk urban planning.

Celebrity Bureaucrat Power Ranking

1) Janette Sadik-Khan – Currently on a book tour in support of a new book, titled Streetfight, achieving Bernie Sanders-esque acclaim wherever she stops.

2) Jennifer Keesmaat – Toronto's Chief of Planning played along with our Matthew McConaughey April Fool's post last year, which scores points in our book. Keesmaat also took on the Mayor of Toronto over a highway removal project and has been pitching a major transit upgrade for the city in the past year.

3) Eric Garcetti – The Mayor of Los Angeles makes music videos when construction does the unthinkable and shuts down a Los Angeles-Area freeway.

Friday, April 1, 2016 in Planetizen April 1st Edition

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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