About

Thinking in Cities, to me, is all about seeing our communities through the eyes of history, geography, politics, justice, infrastructure and, crucially, to imagine and advocate for a better world for all of us in the City.

Thinking in Cities should use the physical, built environment around us, understanding who made it this way and why, who it affects today and how, and then deciding how to improve our communities and neighborhoods into the future. These questions and thoughts should always be aimed at providing a more Just city than we were born or moved into.

For me, Cities are a wonderous place! It’s where we can bring together lots of people together in a sort of community of communities. Here economies of scale can occur where many people benefit from infrastructure and planning. With communities built for walking, biking, and public transportation not only do we have chances to wave to our neighbors that we see at the corner store or on the bus, we can also cut down on greenhouse emissions that threaten life as we know it.

Sadly though, many of the urbanist dreams above are only accessible to a few people. Skyrocketing rent, loss of old job markets, and influxes of new types of jobs causing mass displacement and gentrification have and will threaten the livelihoods of people who have been here for decades. Many are being forced to the suburbs or into homelessness. This is heartbreaking to me, as all people deserve a guarantee for basic necessities like food, housing, internet, and more. We could provide it to them best in the joy of the City!

So it is clear to me that the only way forward is for a radically different view of the City - one that is democratically controlled by its inhabitants. All people deserve to be able to ride their bike or take the subway, drink a nice coffee in an atmospheric cafe, and have a roof over their heads. Only when workers, tenants, and everyone else collectively own the land they live on and the offices or factories they work in - not capital - can we have a Just vision of a greenhouse free future in the City.