The Silicon Valley start-up devoted to reinventing the city made a splashy hire this week.
"Y Combinator’s ambitious New Cities project has a new leader today as Ben Huh, former CEO of The Cheezburger Network, joins the effort," reports John Mannes.
Y Combinator announced the New Cities project back in June, aiming "to take a fresh, entrepreneurial approach to city building," according to Mannes. Here Mannes again addresses the elephant in the room, regarding this start-up's approach to the practice of planning:
While the aim of the New Cities effort was almost certainly to inspire, the project’s announcement earlier this summer was met with criticism from many who poked fun at the initiative for trivializing the work of urban planners, whose job is to manage land use and plan next-generation infrastructure.
Y Combinator's decision to hire the former CEO of "a company that facilitated the creation and sharing of internet memes," has only fueled those criticisms.
No background in anything related to cities. Sounds promising! https://t.co/BlEXF3MoDz
— Market Urbanism (@MarketUrbanism) October 25, 2016
Spent years creating and sharing internet memes and so is uniquely qualified to build a city from scratch https://t.co/WavxTejnPi
— Allison Arieff (@aarieff) October 26, 2016
FULL STORY: Challenges face former Cheezburger CEO joining Y Combinator’s New Cities project
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