Do we really want our mayors to have a vision? This is the provocative question asked by Alain Bertaud in an article on The MIT Press Reader. Bertaud is a Senior Research Scholar at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management, an urban planner, and the author of the 2018 book Order without Design.
In his article, Bertaud writes that a mayor “convinced of the necessity of having a vision” is less inclined to support innovation welling up from the population and more inclined to impose his or her own vision.
A mayor with a vision needs to be followed, not questioned by people who lack one. Visionary leadership implies a top-down approach, in other words, but a city is mostly created from the bottom up.
Bertaud’s alternative?
Mayors and their municipal staff, including urban planners and economists, should be considered not visionaries or rulers, then, but a well-coordinated team (one hopes) of competent managers and janitors.
Bertaud’s article is the subject of this week’s Upzoned. In this episode, host Abby Kinney, an urban planner with Gould Evans in Kansas City, is joined by Strong Towns senior editor Daniel Herriges. They discuss visionary mayors, the role of city managers in creating good feedback loops, and how local governments can act as support systems for local innovation rather than gatekeepers.
Then in the Downzoned, Abby recommends a podcast that’s taking a hard look at the lucrative wellness industry. And Daniel recommends a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about North Vietnamese spy living in Los Angeles after the Fall of Saigon.
Show NotesDo We Really Want Our Mayors to Have a Vision?, by Alain Bertaud
Order without Design, by Alain Bertaud
Dongo Chang (Twitter)
The Dream Podcast
The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Daniel Herriges (Twitter)
Abby Kinney (Twitter)
Gould Evans Studio for City Design
Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom (Soundcloud)
Select Strong Towns articles on local government
Let's Make Public Hearings More Public, by Travis Parker
Learn from Peers but Think for Yourself, by Charles Marohn
Prototyping the City (podcast)
Beyond the Buzzword: Innovation and How it Can Help Local Government Create Meaningful Change (podcast)
Are Cars Here to Stay?
Process Versus Visible Outcomes
Can We Build Strong Towns from Scratch in the 21st Century?
Who Should Be Able to Veto New Housing Production?
Our Fragile System Runs on Cheap Oil
Can a Houstonian Approach to Homelessness Work in L.A.?
Blaming Drivers for the Mistakes of Traffic Engineers
Free (Rural) Land: Any Takers?
Where Does Cohousing Fit in the Housing Ecosystem?
Can Corporate Campuses Urbanize the Suburban Experience?
No Insurance for Wildfire-Prone California
Weaponizing Historic Preservation
Population Growth and the Housing Crisis
Disaster Relief for America‘s Housing Crisis
The Infrastructure Bill, Racial Equity, and Local Government: How Should the Money Be Spent?
The ”Bikelash” Phenomenon (and Why It Shouldn‘t Scare Local Leaders)
”Zillow Offers”...Homes to Investors, Not Homeowners
The Gathering ”Swarm” of Small-Scale Developers
Regulating by Use
The ”Great Supply Chain Disruption”
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