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)
The U.S. Has An Affordable Housing Problem. Are Dead Shopping Malls the Solution?
Time to Tear Down L.A. Freeways?
Small Towns are Dying. Can They Be Saved?
A Divided America Is Experiencing Very Different Pandemics
If the revolution came to your town, would people know where to go?
Can a High-Speed Rail Network Electrify the U.S. Economy?
Dam Shame
Smart Cities: "Are we creating solutions looking for problems?"
Is Your City Willing to Be Flexible So Small Businesses Can Survive?
COVID-19 Is Teaching Us How to Fix Our Traffic Problem. Are We Listening?
What Types of Places Might See a Post-Pandemic Renaissance? It Won't Be the Suburbs.
When Will Your City Feel the Fiscal Impact of COVID-19?
What Happens When a Third of U.S. Tenants Don’t Pay Rent?
“The Worst Possible Thing We Can Do With This Money”
Bicycles Shine During a Pandemic
How the Coronavirus Is Exposing the Fragility of Our Economy
"The Worst Planning Mistake in Minneapolis History"
Will Kansas City Actually Offer Free Transit? Should It?
Why Housing Is “The Wickedest of Wicked Problems”
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