This post is second in a series: 5 Key Elements of Great Cities

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A Vision For The Future

Every city needs a vision for the future. Much of urban planning is about seeking to understand what that unified vision is, what the people, institutions and businesses seek to become collectively and then working backwards from that to achieve it. We need to understand where we are going in order to get there. Here are four ingredients to consider related cities with vision:

• Aspire to push the envelope: Great cities and nations are bold in their visions of what is possible, they “make no small plans.” They are constantly questioning status quo, and see challenges as opportunities. They seek excellence, believe they are worthy, and compete to maintain it. Throughout history, great cities have been the drivers of human civilization, socially, politically, economically and physically. (See Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser for more on that.)
• Inspire a generation about what is possible: The ultimate example of this is the Futurama exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair by Norman Bel Geddes for GM. The 1939 World’s Fair promised to show people the world of tomorrow, and it did that at the end of the Great Depression in spectacular fashion. It has been credited with inserting into the American Psyche a vision of the future so powerful and compelling that we then spent the last half of the century after the war creating it on a grand scale. What people saw at the Fair was a vision they wanted to become their reality, public policy further empowered it, and it in turn powered our economy until now. But what was sold to the American people was a vision they thought they wanted, or marketers thought the public thought they wanted. This is where education comes in.
• Educate on the science of cities: What people or businesses believe is individually rational according to their self-interest, may be contrary to the long-term public interest – this is the definition of the tragedy of the commons. There is a reason why there is an urban planning profession- ultimately we are the protectors of the public interest. We exist in part to facilitate public discourse and thinking about our social, political, economic and physical environment, but also to educate the people, institutions and businesses of our cities on how every choice has risks, interdependencies, externalities that have major implications on the long-term public interest. Those interdependencies and externalities, or even the basic characteristics of cities of lasting value are no secret to urban planners, but it is not always obvious to everyone else. It is our job to convey that multidisciplinary understanding to the public in an intuitive approachable manner, so that we can together create a vision for the future that truly maximizes the community’s potential and serves everyone.
• Be flexible: It is one thing to be deliberate in creating a vision for the future and trying to live up to it, but it is also critical to be flexible, adaptable, and aware of change. Great cities that become too rigid fail. Those that succeed in the long-term understand that cities are not static and they are not museums. Dynamic cities recognize when something is not working, embrace change and feed off contrast. Great cities measure their value not only by where they have been and what they achieved in the past, but where they are going and what they are about to do.

Now, step back and ask yourself where Detroit has been in the past few decades on the vision spectrum if we view it through the lens of these four things: aspring to push the envelope, inspiring a generation on what is possible, educating on the science of cities, and being flexible. I believe a focus on these four items could make Detroit a highly visionary city again, and that it is well on it’s way already – exemplified in no small part with the high quality work of the DetroitWorks Project.

Up Next: A Mindset for Greatness