TTR | Twitter Talk Radio Hosts Daniel Foster
The voice of New American Planning argues for a great industry reset.
Written By Kyle MacLellan
Daniel Foster is a public planner operating in the American Northwest, mostly in private practice, and engages with his followers at New American Planning and on Twitter. Providing a voice from the inside of an industry that is rarely publicly critical of itself, he combats the problematic attitude within the profession that, in his view, negatively impacts our cities.
While engineers and policymakers are often condemned for the poor zoning that restricts urban development, city planners are far from blameless. In this episode of Southern Urbanism’s Twitter Talk Radio, Foster describes zoning as a “body of regulation written by extreme exceptions,” with a focus on specific things to avoid rather than general wants and needs.
He blames a negative “inertia in the profession”—specifically, planners' functioning acceptance of these zoning rules—for the persistent lack of regulatory change.
Urbanist and creative entrepreneur Carmen Mays was also brought into the conversation, advocating for the importance of walkable cities to creative development and entrepreneurship.
“A well-planned city has a direct correlation with the quality and quantity of the creative activity and entrepreneurship that we get,” she said.
While cities are great at identifying problems, Foster and Mays believe it’s necessary to have a mechanism to measure their success in actually solving them. According to them, accountability measures are as necessary for public planning services as they are for private companies.
Accountability, they argued, may come from public involvement in these typically closed-door processes. “What if the public had as much say over what happens in the right of way as they do over what happens on their neighbors' property?”
In these discussions, language matters. The guests believe that buzzwords such as “impact,” “access,” and “character” gatekeep decision criteria from the general public. Foster makes the point that if public voices were able to have their say on changes to roadways as they do on private property rezoning, it would be much more difficult to pass massive expansions.
Foster is hopeful that if we can get past the “high school drama” and straight to the facts, positive urban change will be more realistic than we might think.
Listen to the entire conversation here.
“Build Better Cities on Twitter Talk Radio” is hosted by Southern Urbanism Media Director Andy Boenau. Follow us on Twitter for announcements on schedule and upcoming guests.
Kyle MacLellan is Southern Urbanism’s Journalism Fellow for Summer 2023.