By Dustin Tyler Joyce

MODULE TWO

S A COLLEGE STUDENT,

URBPL 5240 | WEDNESDAY, 23 MARCH 2005

a frequent icebreaker in conversations with others is, So, what are you

majoring in? People dont seem to know how to react when I answer, Urban planning and
French. I suppose thats for a couple of reasons. First, people seem to think that thats an odd

combination of majors; I explain to them, however, that it makes sense to me, hence the reason Im pursuing
both, and that usually keeps them quiet on the issue. The second is that people dont really know what urban
planning is. Ive been surprised to see how many people ask me, Is that something like civil engineering? I
explain that while civil engineering is an important part of building cities, urban planningat least my interest
in urban planningis different. Ill often rephrase it as city planning, and that sometimes clarifies a little, but I
still usually have to use some familiar example in Salt Lake to explain what I meananything from the
reconstruction of the malls downtown to the expansion of the TRAX system. Its perhaps not the best
explanation of the profession, but it seems to work, at least well enough for people to give up on the subject
and move on to the next with, Oh. Well, thats interesting. So.
Occasionally, however, I have the delight of finding someone who wants to pursue the issue even
deeper. I am impressed by how many people seem to have a genuine interest in cities, how theyre built, and
the issues facing them. With friends and complete strangers alike I have discussed, in depth, particular projects
going on in Salt Lake City, problems we have inherited from the past, and issues facing us in the future. We
have considered the issues surrounding urban planning in the United States as a whole, the direction of the
field from the postwar era through the twenty-first century, and broader, though related, issues ranging from
pollution and environment protection to traffic and transportation to social problems and crime. And though
I am in the major, others unprofessional but still qualified experience with cities often teaches me a lot on
what cities really are all about and what their actual inhabitants really expect of them.
These are complex and important issues because they are human issues. It would be one thing
perhaps a much simpler thingif cities, and therefore urban planning, really were all about streets, buildings,
parks, and the timing of traffic signals. But theyre not. Rather, cities, and therefore urban planning, are all
about people. A city wouldnt be a city without people, and urban planning wouldnt be a profession unless it
considered first and foremost the human inhabitants of the cities it shapes.

Context
The context of urban planning is the context of cities. While many things can be said about the context of
cities, ranging from their physical and social structures to their economic and financial standing, the following
three areas of context appear to be the foundation for these other characteristics:

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Politics. It would be hard to imagine anyone who is familiar with any city in any way denying that one
of its major contexts is politics. Walking through almost any city in the world one will see that the centers of
political powerthe Rathaus in a German city or the Gemeindehaus in a Swiss village, the htels de ville and
palais de justice of France, or the city halls and government centers of American cities and townsare almost
always at the geographic heart of a place. In time, one will see that they are at the heart, directly or indirectly,
of almost all other aspects of city life, too. Tune into the six oclock local news in almost any American city on
almost any given day and one will receive an update on the latest actions (or inactions) of the city council, the
planning commission, or the transportation departmentmaybe even all three. A federal system, such as that
of the United States, makes the importance of local government and politics even more pronounced. While
local municipalities are creations of the statesit is the legislatures power to carve new counties, create new
cities and towns and grant them charters, and approve certain actions of local governments1they and their
residents are, nevertheless, granted a great deal of autonomy in determining how services will be provided,
what local priorities and issues are, and the direction the municipality will take in the future. The business of
building and running a city is politics.
It is in this context that urban planners work. Aalborg, Denmark, the subject of Bent Flyvbergs
Rational and Power is no exception; in fact, its story as told in the book is a particularly good case in point of
the political context of cities. For example, the Technical Department, the city agency charged with the
responsibility of creating and implementing the Aalborg Plan, was overseen by an alderman, essentially a city
councilman publicly elected through the political process. In fact, the process was already highly politicized
from its inception because it was directed by the citys political leaders; the process further politicized through
input, feedback, and opposition from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Stiftstidende newspaper
and other media, and the public. In short, politics were not merely the context of the Aalborg Plan. The
Aalborg Plan itself became politics incarnate.
One can draw the conclusion both from Rationality and Power and from experience with cities that
politics are so much a part of the context of cities and urban planning that it moves from being contextual to
integralin other words, politics are part of the inherent nature of cities and the profession and hence become
part of the context of everything that is done in them.
History. In todays world, cities and towns are rarely built from scratch. There are notable historical

1. Another example of this is the fact that, with the exception of granting Congress the power to establish and govern a federal capital city, the
Constitution makes no mention of local forms of government. In fact, it delegates all powers not specifically given to the federal government to
the states. The states have created local governments for two reasons. One would appear to be history and traditionthe fact humans have
always settled that way; this ancient form of government was brought by immigrants from the Old World and cities, towns, and counties already
existed prior to independence and the ratification of the Constitution; and as Americas frontier stretched further westward, it was a form that
continued to be established across the continent. The other reason is the fact that local governments are the best suited to administering certain
functions of government such as police and fire protection, business licensing, education, parks and recreation, planning, and transportation,
whereas states cover too large a geographic area to administer these functions efficiently and effectively.

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examples such as Washington, D.C., and Canberra, Australia. Some may also point to Paris in the late
nineteenth century, but that was merely a wholesale reconstruction of an existing city.2 Twentieth-century
examples are fewer, though major ones include Brasilia, Brazil, and Chandigarh, India. 3 Because of the simple
fact that most of the cities urban planners work with are old, history is a major component of the context of
cities and urban planning.
Urban planners must work with what is already there, both physically and culturally. Streets are rarely
closed, moved, and/or rerouted, while buildings meet their fate with a wrecking ball a little more frequently,
yet both of these and other physical structures of a city provide a context within which cities and their urban
planners must work. In turn, there are other intangible historical features, such as tradition, custom, culture,
and taste urban planners must deal with. As a city grows, the past not only shows where the city has been but
where the city is going.
Aalborg, once again, is an excellent example of this historical context. It is an old city, with settlement
in the area dating to the Middle Ages, if not even earlier. Initially concerns were raised both in and out of city
government over the protection of some of the citys historical fabric and older structures. (Remember the
debate over the placement of the bus terminal?) In his postscript, Flyvberg informs us that one of the reasons
the Aalborg Plan was finally disbanded in the early 1990s is because both city officials and the public had
viewed the Aalborg Project as being incapable ofpreserving the citys key aesthetic aspectsin other words,
project directors and city planners had an historical context in which they had to work. In fact, the city and the
public wanted this historical context to be preserved, and when the current course of action wasnt performing
that job well enough, another course of action was chosen.
Such are the implications of the historical context of our cities.
Humanity. The fact that it is humans who create cities cannot be overemphasized. Cities must be
designed and created for peoples sake, not for the sake of buildings, roads, and other physical elements. Cities
must be built as people would really live in them. The failure to do so has been among the chief failures of
cities both in the United States and abroad in the twentieth century. In our country there are the vacuous,
cataclysmic, and sterilein short, inhumanpublic housing projects constructed throughout the nation
during the period of Urban Renewal. Internationally, Brasilia and Chandigarh both are generally regarded as
failures in part because of their failure to address the human needs of their inhabitants. Brasilia and
Chandigarh each have excellent examples of architecture in the international and brutalist styles, yet these

2. Not only was Baron Haussmans plan for Paris merely a reconstruction of an existing city, it was also undertaken by a visionary (though some
would say illusionary) emperor, Napoleon III, who had delusions of grandeur for his French empire and for himself walking in his uncles
footsteps earlier in the century.
3. Other twentieth-century American examples of planned cities include Columbia, Maryland; Reston, Virginia; and Seaside and Celebration,
Florida. Other twentieth-century examples can be found around the world, including the garden cities and new towns of England and others
throughout Europe and other continents.

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styles emphasize the use of cold concrete, glass, and steel, a combination that creates buildings void of the
warmth and comfort people expect from the buildings they inhabit on a daily basis. Brasilia also has an odd
physical arrangement where everything is cordoned off into sectors: a government sector, a church sector, a
bank sector, and even a monument sector. Neither city represents how we really live our lives (do we really
sector our lives into separate categories like Brasilia does?), and hence both in the last ten to fifteen years has
undergone extensive reconstruction to make them, in a sense, inhabitable.
In Aalborg, this context of humanity found its fruition in the contest between rationality and power
that Flyvbergs study is all about. Rationality instructs the urban planner and politician alike to construct cities
in a manner hospitable to their human inhabitantsand, at that, as many of their human inhabitants as
possible, not just a select few. Power will focus on the unique needs of the select few who have it, or disregard
human necessities altogether in exchange for the most sweeping display of powers authority. The irony is that
while rationality is what focuses on human needs, human desires often tilt toward powera self-destructive
course, as was seen in the Aalborg Projects eventual demise.
Of these three areas of contextpolitics, history, and humanitythe most important of these is
humanity. First, it truly is the context and foundation for the other two. But more importantly, we dont build
cities because we like to play politician and historian, though thats what we do. Just as birds build nests
because theyre birds and thats what birds do,4 we build cities because were humans and thats what humans
do. In the end, humanity is the only real reason cities exist and is, therefore, the most important aspect of their
context.

Challenges and Responsibilities

Because the task of designing, building, and maintaining cities is so important, so vast, and so complex, the
challenges and responsibilities of the task are manifold.
Working within the context of cities. Perhaps the foremost challenge of urban planning is working
within the political, historical, and human contexts of cities as discussed above. While these aspects frequently
present roadblocks to urban planners and attempts to improve cities, an effective urban planner can take these
and mold them into the tools through which the impetus and mechanism to create change will come. In
Aalborg, these contexts dragged down the plan for nearly two decades; in the early 90s, however, a changed
plan utilized these correctly as guiding principles and led to the citys reception of the EUs European Planning
Prize.
Maintaining personal responsibility and accountability. The design and construction of cities, especially
large cities, involves a considerable amount of power. All too often humans are wont to take the smallest bit of
4. The same can be said of ants and ant hills, beavers and dams, prairie dogs and burrowsthe list goes on and on.

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authority and given to them and exploit it to the fullest extent. Throughout history examples of such a wanton
use of power have frequently been disastrous. Perhaps the exploitation of power in cities cant be described as
disastrous, but it is, at least, damaging. In the mid-twentieth century, entire sections and neighborhoods of
American cities were annihilated under the guise of slum clearance and Urban Renewalentire vibrant, vital
communities wiped off the map and their inhabitants swept into the inhuman public housing projects
described above. These projects were destined to become government-built and subsidized slums, and
American cities to this day are still recovering from the damage inflicted upon them during this era. In New
York City, Robert Moses amassed and exploited so much powerhis agencies, such as the Triborough Bridge
Authority, were autonomous and he himself accountable to no onethat he almost single-handedly reshaped
the face of Americas largest city, in the process destroying much of it physically, socially, and economically.
The chief example of this is the Cross-Bronx Expressway, a huge swath of destruction that remains a scar
through the center of the citys northernmost borough. In Aalborg, too, those who had the power became
heavy-handed with it. There was the mayor and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce; contention between
these forces and others concerning the plan whittled it down through a series of eight reductions. This final
round of reductions was described as an all-out decimation of the entire plan; it could also be described as
an example of the exploitation of power and the failure to maintain personal responsibility and accountability.
Overcoming years of destructive urban planning. The twentieth century left American cities in an
historical context of suburbanization, sprawl, and automobile dependence. Yet the challenge to urban planners
today is not merely reconstructing the physical fabric of our cities. The postwar pattern of development
created a culture which almost wholeheartedly accepts suburbanization and the car culture as the only suitable
way to live and build cities. Thus, while the physical structure altered the cultural paradigm, the cultural
paradigm today continues to build and promote a destructive and ultimately unacceptable infrastructure. The
challenge to urban planners and cities therefore becomes the reconstruction of an entire culturea much more
overwhelming and difficult task than even the physical reconstruction of cities. And yet if our cities are to be
reconstructed in a proper mannerone that will afford respect to the past, be economic and efficient in the
present, and keep a keen eye on the futurethis culture must be changed. Aalborgs planners surely knew the
daunting task they faced when they first proposed the Aalborg Project. And it was perhaps in changing the
citys culturewhich by the early 1970s had become car-centered and unsustainablethat any potential
success in the two-decade-long plan can be found. While the citys residents and civic and business leaders may
have disagreed with many aspects of the original plan, it did nevertheless prove the important role of urban
planning in shaping and improving cities and the lives of those who live in them. Evidence of this change can,
again, be seen in the citys reception of the European Planning Prize in March 1995.

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Formulating a new approach. In the end, perhaps the greatest challenge and responsibility urban
planners face today is the creation of a new approach to cities and urban planning. The world of the twentyfirst century is very different than that of centuries past, even of the twentieth century. These changes will
continue to shape and mold our lives and our cities at an ever-increasing rate. This new world will also be
more dependent on cities than it has ever been; such a reality requires a new approach to the way things are
done. The success of our nations and our culture will depend upon the success of our cities. If we fail, we fail
not only at the important task of creating citiesimportant because, as stated above, thats what humans do
we fail at the much broader role of maintaining and improving our society for the benefit of those who
follow.

Roles
Perhaps part of my challenge in describing my chosen future profession to others is the fact that urban
planners wear a wide variety of hatsamong the greatest variety of any profession out there. While bankers
will be found working in banks and surgeons working in hospitals, urban planners are among those
professionals who, like lawyers or engineers, can be found working for a variety of organizations in a variety
of situations in a variety of locations around the world. One is likely to run into urban planners at large
corporations with vast real estate holdings, in private firms or in consulting positions, and at all levels of
government in cities large and small. And as cities become even more important in our culture and our nation
and others become more serious about improving cities and the quality of life they provide their residents, the
possibilities are endless.
Yet any role an urban planner plays in any sort of organization anywhere in the world will come
down to two thingsinterdependence and complexity. It is for these two reasons that cities and the profession
even exist in the first place.
Interdependence. The individual parts of a city are interdependent on each othernone is more
important than another and each needs the others in order to survive and the city needs them all in order to
exist. The individual inhabitants of a city are also interdependent on each other. Occasionally these parts
ironically seem to conflict with each otherthe needs of one city agency appear to override another or
factions of citizens debate and contend against each other in making decisions about a common future. It is
the urban planners role to promote, remind others of, and maintain this interdependence between a citys
moving parts, even in times of little conflict, and much more so in times of great debate and contention. The
failure of Aalborgs city planners in relation to interdependence among the citys partsthe mayor, the bus
company, the Technical Department, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the business community, the

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media, the public, and the citys physical infrastructure, to name a fewwas one of the chief causes of the
failure of the Aalborg plan.
Complexity. Cities, especially large ones, are complex organisms. The number of interdependent parts
listed above helps to prove that. It is the urban planners responsibility to assess all the parts of a city, to
determine their role and their needs, to break them down into manageable unitsmanageable by both the
urban planners and others in city government but most importantly by the publicand ensure that these
complex parts stay in place or are put back into place when all is said and done. The fact that Aalborgs city
planners allowed the plan to be decimated through a series of eight rounds of reductions is evidence that
they had lost sight of the citys complexity. As with interdependence, this failure on their part to retain
complexity in a complex city and situation led to the failure of the entire plan.

Tools, Tactics, and Strategies

When a surgeon operates on a patient, he uses a wide variety of tools to perform the procedure. He does
something for the patient that the patient cannot do for himself. (At least, one would hope; when one
undertakes surgery on oneself, that person usually ends up on the news.) It takes years of specialized training
to prepare the surgeon to perform even the simplest of procedures, and if one without the proper
qualifications attempts a medical operation, he usually has to answer to the state medical board and potentially
to the courts for his actions and the injury he could have caused.
Such an approach the antithesis of the approach the urban planner should take. Certainly the urban
planner has a wide variety of tools to use, from GIS to private developers to public funds, and I personally am
certainly going through years of training to receive a degree so I can call myself an urban planner, the real
business of building cities requires no such tools or training. Again, its humans that create citiesall humans
who live in them, not just urban planners, architects, contractors, and transportation specialists. Regardless of
professional training, an individuals unique experience in and with a city qualifies him as an expert on life in
the city and what can be done to improve it. Though an urban planner may be paid to do it, the real task of
building and improving cities rests with all those who live in it.
Hence, an urban planners primary role is in helping others understand the paramount role they play
in the life of the city. It is the planners responsibility to get people to speak up about what they feel should be
done in the city, to listen to all points of view and mediate among them, and then take the lead among the
citys residents to put a plan into action. It is something he cannot do alone, but must have a citys hundreds
of thousands or even millions of residents involved in.
At the outset of the Aalborg Project, the citys planners decided not to involve the citys inhabitants
but rather to create and implement the entire plan themselves, alone. It couldnt be done. In Chapter 11,

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Flyvberg describes two factors that led to the early failure of the plan. The second of these was that
informationto the publichas been very limited. So, not only was the public not familiar with the
changes that had been made during the initial implementation of the project, the public had had very little
input into what the project would look like when finisheddespite the fact that all of the citys inhabitants
would have to live and deal with the final result. In the books Postscript, Flyvberg quotes an Aalborg city
planner who criticizes the citys receipt of the European Planning Prize. The planner states, I do not agree
with the jury that this is Europes best planning document, since it does not contain any planning! ... Has the
process been democratic? Has the process been democratic? In other words, were the people allowed to make
their own decisions about their own future and then implement those decisions themselves? Once again, a city
does not consist only in its government or developers or whoever; a city consists only in those who inhabit it,
and real improvement in the quality of any city must be created from the bottom up, not from the top down
or simply at the top.

Moral and Political Hazards

The reason Im going into urban planning in the first place is because I believe it is among the most rewarding
fields that I could put my talents to use in. But the things that are most valuable in life also usually carry with
them the greatest risks. For example, while family relationships can be among the most joyful life has to offer,
they can also be the most challenging to maintain and can bring the greatest heartbreak when they fail.
Investors who make the most money have also usually put the most on the line. The same is true in the urban
planning profession and in the rewards it has to offer.
Urban planners, city leaders, and developers put their political and financial necks on the line with
almost every project they undertake. However, one kind of hazard I dont feel should be undertaken is a moral
hazard. Perhaps thats idealist and wishful thinking, but at this point in my experience with the profession, its
how I feel. Just because something is popular politically doesnt mean that its right; and the converse is true,
just because something is right doesnt mean that its popular politically. But right is right, and ultimately a
wrong or immoral decision is a bad decision, regardless of what it does for you in the short term. So, what
to do when faced with a politically repugnant decision? Do what you know to be right; it might be difficult
for you or any other party involved in the short term, but everyone, including entire cities, will be better off in
the long run as a result of your decision.

Why Bother?
I ask myself this question frequently. (Perhaps most frequently when I have a ten-page paper due in an urban
planning class.) I also have to answer this question to others when they inquire about my major and why I

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have chosen it. But repeated I find that my personal reasons are clear and important. I could, perhaps, write an
entire ten-page paper as to why I have chosen this profession, but the three reasons below suffice at present.
Its what I love. When I graduate with my B.A. or B.S. (I have decided which I should get yet; any
advice?) in urban planning, Ill be one of the privileged few in this country who will have the opportunity to
work in a field I truly love. This love for what youre doing is the first requirement in approaching an
encumbering challenge such as building a city. If that love is not present when you first embark on such a
project, it had better be there by the time you finish or one of two things will result: (1) you wont finish; or
(2) your finished product will be far less than what it could have been. However, with that drive and desire,
the potential is endless, and what you end up producing will be far more than your talents allowed you to
produce in and of themselves.
The results are rewarding and important. As Ive stated a few times in the course of this paper, cities are
becoming ever more important in our society and culture, yet many of our cities in America are in or are
approaching a state of crisis. Sprawl is exploding, pollution is increasing, open space and the natural
environment are being destroyed, costs are rising while budgets are shrinking, and people are becoming ever
more distant from each other. In short, our society and our world are changing. Some say that such change,
though dreaded, is inevitable. I say that not only is such change not inevitable, it can be reversed, and we are
the ones who have the power to reverse it. While the future of our nation rests in the hands of our cities, the
hands of our cities rest in our hands, and especially in the hands of skilled, creative, and caring urban planners
who can lead the way in improving how things are done and how we live. Finally, its not just an opportunity
we have to make a difference, its a responsibility, one that we owe to ourselves and to those who will come
after usin short, one that we owe to the whole world.
Its my service to humanity. Not only are people important to cities, they are to me personally. Because
cities are where most of the worlds people do and will live out their lives, the better those cities are, the better
those lives have the opportunity to be. At times when the challenge becomes cumbersome, perhaps too much
to handle, an urban planner must remember that he is not working for the street hes plotting, the apartment
building hes promoting, the physical environment hes creating, or even the paycheck (however small) he is
receiving. Rather, he is working for the people who will use that street, live in that apartment building, and
inhabit and benefit from that physical environment hes creating. He will probably never know them, and they
will never hear of his name, but theyll forever remember the fun they had walking down that street, the
memories they and their family made in that apartment, and the way that place made them feel. Its a form of
service that has the ability to touch so many peoples lives forever.
Thats why Im bothering with such an encumbered challenge.

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Conclusion: Finding Refuge

Once embarked upon this course, where or how (existentially) does one find refuge during those inevitable periods when
one is not up to the challenges and responsibilities?
The answer to this question should be obvious: in cities, of course! Im always surprised, and, admittedly, a
little saddened, when I hear people complain about cities or speak of how they dislike them. They regard the
stone, steel, brick, concrete, and glass to be cold and uninviting; the skyscrapers and canyons they create
overwhelming; and they feel completely alone on a sidewalk with thousands of strangers.
Thats not my experience with cities. On the contrary, I find cities to be the places when Im most
comfortable, sheltered by structures around me, enlivened by the many different people and kinds of people
who pass me on the street. Whether its facing the challenge of school, the pressures of everyday life, or more
difficult circumstances, I often find myself going into the city, either to be with others or to be completely
alone. Only in a city can you experience both at the same time. And if Im apart from other humans, I always
the buildings and streets with methey have their own personalities, and they always welcome me in.
(Unless, of course, the door is locked.)
I think some lyrics from the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Under the Bridge best describe how I feel
about the cities I live in:
Sometimes I feel
Like my only friend
Is the city I live in
I drive on her streets
cause shes my companion
I walk through her hills
cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
Cities are my refuge.

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