ON THE SCENE | My 5 Big Takeaways from CNU31

As the movement changes and expands, story is more important than ever.

May 01, 2024

Written By Zoe Tishaev

At the end of May, I had the opportunity to attend CNU31 in Charlotte, North Carolina, with my two colleagues from Duke, Zoë and Kyle, representing Southern Urbanism. Here are the things that stuck with me most.

“Urbanism” comes in many shapes, colors, and strains.
From the outside, urbanism presents itself as a unified front. But the term “urbanism” is laden with nuances and contradictions. In a given room, city planners, transportation experts, political officials, advocates, and architects might clash on priorities. When deciding where to spend money on making spaces more livable, what should come first? Traffic calming? Retrofitting old stroads with new amenities? Running more buses? Tackling the problems of suburbia left by prior generations is a chicken-and-egg problem, and everyone in the room has an opinion.
In one session, I witnessed Andrés Duany, one of the founders of CNU, contend with a fellow planner who was leading a conversation focused on the importance of independent ownership of places and the financial workings of a downtown. The two—Duany at the back of the room—sparred for 10 minutes on what it meant to be financially solvent in a newly developed urban area as housing was just taking root. It was spontaneous, and, for me, completely unexpected.
What unifies the conference is one shared, broad philosophy: a want for better cities. But the road to get there is unpaved, filled with forks and intersections that we must come together to negotiate.
There is a tension between old versus young urbanism
“The position, ‘planner,’” one attendee was explaining to me at a happy hour after the conference, “is a contradiction. We are working against the practices and dogma that we thought, 40 years ago, were the right ones. The occupation has an identity crisis.”
That identity crisis, although lessened now, still has not fully disappeared. The most tangible tension at CNU was around age. The average CNU31 attendant was, by my rough estimation, mid-40s, white, and male. Where do we leave room for the next generation to take on the leadership of designing the next urban paradises?
Strong towns come to life through stories.
It’s easy, in today’s era of blocky buildings, glass panels, and modern, playgroundless fast food chains to create cookie-cutter “urban” spaces that feel devoid of life. You could travel to any city in the country and find the same colorful adirondack chairs stacked on turf fields. There’s nothing inherently wrong with such spaces, but places are not just characterized by their physicality—they are characterized by their people, culture, and memories.
Nowhere did this stick out to me more than in my conversations with Jacob Hyman, a civil engineer living in the small town of Steubenville, Ohio (population: 18,161 as of 2020). A Rust Belt town on the bank of the Ohio River, 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh, Steubenville is a blip on the map that few but its residents would have heard of. But as Jacob explained to me the revitalization that the town has had in the last few years, the “First Fridays” street celebrations, and the rich, historic culture of the city, I too began to fall in love with little Stuebenville.
Then I talked to two economic development specialists from Groton, Connecticut (population: 38,411 as of 2020), related how they had recently encouraged an artist to create a mural on an area of a park that was never used. They watched as the mural suddenly activated the space: public art transformed what had been nothing more than a piece of grass into a veritable place where people could go. Now, they could work on building up the area as another full-fledged part of the park.
It is these small towns that are turning ideals into reality, creating walkability and showing how grassroots organizing can make our cities built by the people. These are many of the same ideas preached by Strong Towns, but hearing these firsthand glimpses of different places where I have never been, and will likely never go, had a different impact. It was something truly special.
Story is a vital way to make people feel involved and invested.
In a similar vein, I attended two sessions that focused on “storytelling” through environmental design. Their lessons stuck with me throughout the conference. One session, “The Power of Story in Placemaking,” featured leaders from Trillith Studios and the nearby Town of Trilith, the site of many scenes from the past few years’ most breathtaking blockbusters. The session focused on how scenemaking was adjacent to urban design. A theme park is built to make attendees feel like they are not just watching a story but are a part of the story. Often subconscious in their effect, every archway, every building, and every open room makes people feel a certain way. How can we harness these same ideas in citybuilding and placemaking to make people feel like a part of something larger?
A second session, “STORY: It’s what makes a space a place,” featured the cofounders of First+Main films discussing the power of moviemaking in capturing the memories and history of small towns. They discussed how every small town has its own unique history as well as special people who make that history worth telling. Empowering communities to share their story is a part of making people feel like they have ownership of and a real stake in their town.
New Urbanism has entered a new phase.
Between the various offshoots of what it means to be an urbanist, arguments between planners, age discrepancies, and new philosophies, my biggest takeaway from CNU31 is that the world of “urbanism” is much bigger, broader, and messier than I had previously thought. But all that means is that the tent has broadened. There is more room for disagreement as well as compromise. Sometimes, in a world where NIMBYism dominates headlines and inundates Facebook comments, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and underappreciated. Being among like-minded people from all corners of the country, and seeing how each person took away their own highlights from the conference, made me rest assured that many of the themes of urbanism are gaining traction and becoming more mainstream. There are allies to the cause in every part of the US—whether we see them or not.

Zoe Tishaev is the Spring 2023 Duke Initiative for Urban Studies Fellow on Transportation Alternatives and University Development.