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Tools

Tools

Practitioner tools: for planners, and the civic servants who work alongside them, the book’s working tools, each in the book’s own words, with its figures and a way into the chapters.

Eight tools from the book

The Artist’s Method checklist

“The Artist’s Method equips public servants across all agencies with an operational framework rooted in the discipline of witness, the art of moral synthesis, the courage to test, and the quiet discipline of institutional memory, so that they can design cities that endure.”

Read in the Preface and Chapter 6

The Pilgrimage of the Citizen

“To comprehend the full weight of a wicked system, the civic servant cannot remain perched above the street, gazing down at the abstract geometry of color-coded land-use polygons and demographic heat maps. The planner must trace the actual pilgrimage of the citizen through the labyrinth of municipal neglect.”

Composite. The book’s own caption for the chapter’s photograph calls the teacher “a representative narrative” (Plate 7.2).

Read in Chapter 7

Wicked Systems, Not Tame Problems

“In the lexicon of systems theory, a tame problem possesses clear boundaries, an unambiguous cause, and an identifiable, definitive technical cure.”

Read in Chapter 7

Navigating Political Friction and Institutional Veto Points

“It is here that the modern planner must abandon all naive sentimentality.”

Read in Chapter 7

The Planner as Urban Thermostat: Designing Balancing Loops

“Once power is understood and navigated, the operational mandate of the planner shifts fundamentally: we must stop acting as passive recorders of urban decay and become active designers of urban equilibrium.”

Read in Chapter 7

The Living Test: De-risking the Public Imagination

“The practice of civic craft shatters this paralysis through the living test. A prototype in the public realm is not an artistic indulgence or a frivolous community festival.”

Read in Chapter 8

The Administrative Safe Harbor

“Yet to demand that municipal civil servants exhibit the courage to experiment without providing them institutional protection is an exercise in administrative cruelty.”

Read in Chapter 8

The Chalk-to-Capital Bridge

“The practitioner of civic craft understands that a prototype is not a destination; it is the opening argument for a capital reallocation.”

Read in Chapter 8

The figures

All six of the book’s figures, as accessible web graphics with the book’s captions and source lines, and a text equivalent under each.

A century of the American plan, 1879–1978Timeline of sixteen milestones in American city planning named in this book, from the 1879 dumbbell tenement design through the 1909 Plan of Chicago, the 1926 Euclid zoning case, the Housing Act of 1949 and the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, to California's Proposition 13 in 1978.1879Dumbbell tenementdesign wins anarchitecture prize1890Riis publishes How theOther Half Lives1893World's ColumbianExposition, Chicago1902McMillan Plan forWashington, D.C.1909Plan of Chicago; firstNational Conference onCity Planning1910Rochester conferencecements Olmsted'svision1917American City PlanningInstitute founded1926Village of Euclid v.Ambler Realty Co.1929Regional Plan of NewYork and Its Environs1949Housing Act of 1949,Title I: urban renewal1956Federal-Aid HighwayAct1965Davidoff: Advocacy andPluralism in Planning1966Model Cities Act;National HistoricPreservation Act1969National EnvironmentalPolicy Act1974Housing and CommunityDevelopment Act endsUrban Renewal1978California'sProposition 13 taxrevoltPART 1 · THE DREAM OF ORDER (CHS. 1–2)PART 2 · THE LOSS OF THE ART (CHS. 3–4)Events evenly spaced; not to scale
Figure 1: A century of the American plan. The milestones this book traces, from the tenement crisis and the City Beautiful to the specialized, federally driven profession of the 1970s. Dark markers fall in Part 1; blue markers in Part 2.

Based on Peterson (2009); Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co. (1926); Davidoff (1965); Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act (1966); National Historic Preservation Act (1966); National Environmental Policy Act (1969); Housing and Community Development Act (1974).

Text equivalent

Timeline of sixteen milestones in American city planning named in this book, from the 1879 dumbbell tenement design through the 1909 Plan of Chicago, the 1926 Euclid zoning case, the Housing Act of 1949 and the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, to California's Proposition 13 in 1978.

Download Figure 1 as a PNG · Figure 1 as an SVG

The rational comprehensive planning modelFlow diagram of the rational comprehensive planning model described in Chapter 2: five linear steps, from collecting and analyzing data, identifying problems and setting goals, generating alternative plans and evaluating them quantitatively, to selecting the single optimal plan; a note records that the model devalued any knowledge not based on quantifiable data.STEP 1Collect and analyzedataPopulation, economy, housingstock, transportation systemsSTEP 2Identify problems andset goalsRational, comprehensive goalsfor every facet of physicaldevelopmentSTEP 3Generate alternativeplansA wide range of alternativesolutionsSTEP 4Evaluate eachalternativeCost-benefit analysis andother quantitative toolspredict consequencesSTEP 5Select the optimalplanThe single plan held to bemost efficient and effectiveWHAT THE MODEL LEFT OUTAny way of knowing that was not based on quantifiable data, including the stories of the tenement that had driven the reformers.
Figure 2: The ideal of the rational plan. The linear, step-by-step method of the City Practical planners, as this chapter describes it, and the blind spot the book identifies in it.

Text equivalent

Flow diagram of the rational comprehensive planning model described in Chapter 2: five linear steps, from collecting and analyzing data, identifying problems and setting goals, generating alternative plans and evaluating them quantitatively, to selecting the single optimal plan; a note records that the model devalued any knowledge not based on quantifiable data.

Download Figure 2 as a PNG · Figure 2 as an SVG

Urban renewal by the numbers, 1949–1968Chart and schematic for Chapter 3. Between 1949 and 1968 the homes of more than a million people were demolished in the name of urban renewal; 425,000 housing units were demolished and only 122,000 replaced, shown as two horizontal bars. A schematic, not to scale, shows a grid of city blocks before and after an expressway is routed through its center.1 million+people whose homes were demolished inthe name of urban renewal, 1949–1968HOUSING UNITS UNDER URBAN RENEWAL, 1949–19680100k200k300k400kDemolished425,000Replaced122,000The vast majority of new units were high-priced luxury apartments,far beyond the reach of the families displaced.SEVERANCE · SCHEMATIC, NOT TO SCALEBefore: a continuousneighborhoodAfter: an expressway routedthrough its heart, blocksclearedFederal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: thousands of miles of urbanexpressways
Figure 3: The human cost of the cure. The scale of displacement under Title I and the parallel severance of neighborhoods by urban expressways, using the figures given in this chapter. The schematic is illustrative, not a map.

Based on Biles (2000).

Text equivalent

Chart and schematic for Chapter 3. Between 1949 and 1968 the homes of more than a million people were demolished in the name of urban renewal; 425,000 housing units were demolished and only 122,000 replaced, shown as two horizontal bars. A schematic, not to scale, shows a grid of city blocks before and after an expressway is routed through its center.

Download Figure 3 as a PNG · Figure 3 as an SVG

The fracturing of the planning professionTree diagram for Chapter 4 showing how the once-unified City Practical planner fractured into six groups of specialties: Foundational (urban design; land use and code enforcement), Megastructure (transportation; economic development), Human Scale (housing; community development), Protectors (parks and recreation; historic preservation), Guardians (environmental; community activism and empowerment) and Managers (planning management and finance), each with the law or event the chapter links to it.THE ONCE-UNIFIED CITY PRACTICAL PLANNERFOUNDATIONALUrban DesignHeir to the CityBeautifulLand Use & CodeEnforcementZoning upheld in Euclid,1926MEGASTRUCTURETransportationFederal-Aid HighwayActs, 1956 and 1962EconomicDevelopmentPublic Works andEconomic DevelopmentAct, 1965HUMAN SCALEHousingPresident's Committee onUrban Housing, 1968CommunityDevelopmentHousing and CommunityDevelopment Act, 1974PROTECTORSParks & RecreationLand and WaterConservation Fund Act,1965HistoricPreservationNational HistoricPreservation Act, 1966GUARDIANSEnvironmentalNational EnvironmentalPolicy Act, 1969Community Activism& EmpowermentBuilding capacity withinneighborhoodsMANAGERSPlanning Management& FinanceProposition 13, 1978;strategic plans, CIP,cost-benefitSpecialties as grouped in Chapter 4: Foundational Planners; Planners of the Megastructure; Planners of the Human Scale; the Protectors; the Guardians; the Managers.
Figure 4: A tower of Babel. How the post-renewal profession fractured into specialties, each tied to the federal law or local event this chapter credits with creating it.

Based on Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co. (1926); Public Works and Economic Development Act (1965); Land and Water Conservation Fund Act (1965); National Historic Preservation Act (1966); Kaiser et al. (1968); National Environmental Policy Act (1969); Housing and Community Development Act (1974).

Text equivalent

Tree diagram for Chapter 4 showing how the once-unified City Practical planner fractured into six groups of specialties: Foundational (urban design; land use and code enforcement), Megastructure (transportation; economic development), Human Scale (housing; community development), Protectors (parks and recreation; historic preservation), Guardians (environmental; community activism and empowerment) and Managers (planning management and finance), each with the law or event the chapter links to it.

Download Figure 4 as a PNG · Figure 4 as an SVG

ApproachEra (as dated in text)The planner asStarts fromLimit this book identifiesCh.
City Beautiful1893–1909Designer of a grand, comprehensive civic visionThe physical form of the cityTop-down and expert-led, with little to no public input1
City Practical (the rational plan)From 1910Technician; an urban engineerExhaustive data collection and analysisDevalued any way of knowing not based on quantifiable data2
Advocacy and community activismFrom 1965Advocate for interest groups; facilitator and organizerPlural plans; the community’s own processTurned the planner from a creator of products into a manager of process4
New UrbanismLate 20th centuryCity-builder againDesign and the physical contextNarrowly focused on livability; limited attention to equity5
The Artist’s MethodTodayCivic artist practicing civic craftWitness, moral synthesis, the courage to test, critiqueThe book’s proposal, set out in Chapters 6–86–8
Figure 5: Five ways of planning the city. The approaches this book follows, in its own terms; the shaded row is the method it proposes.

Based on Davidoff (1965); Berke (2002).

Download Figure 5 as a PNG

From chalk to capital: the transit case studyFour-step flow for the Chapter 8 transit case study: witness, moral synthesis, a living test on a five-mile corridor with a temporary red-paint bus lane, and the chalk-to-capital bridge that turns operating savings into a municipal bond and permanent capital works. Results of the illustrative case after four months: bus speeds up 22 percent, on-time performance from 61 to 88 percent, operator assault incidents down to zero.1WitnessRide the system at all hours; thebarrier is the uncoordinated transfer,not the fare2Moral synthesisLink riders’ experience to the hiddenbalance sheet: breakdowns, overtimetowing, compensation claims3Living testFive-mile corridor: temporary red-paintbus lane and all-door boarding, underan administrative safe harbor4Chalk-to-capital bridgeOperational savings fund a municipalbond; red paint becomes permanentconcrete in the Capital ImprovementProgramRESULTS OF THE LIVING TEST, WITHIN FOUR MONTHS (ILLUSTRATIVE CASE)+22%bus operating speeds on the corridorOn-time performanceBefore61%After88%0operator assault incidents
Figure 6: From chalk to capital. The four moves of the civic artist in this chapter’s transit case study, and the results the case reports. The case is an illustrative scenario in the text, not data from a named city.

Text equivalent

Four-step flow for the Chapter 8 transit case study: witness, moral synthesis, a living test on a five-mile corridor with a temporary red-paint bus lane, and the chalk-to-capital bridge that turns operating savings into a municipal bond and permanent capital works. Results of the illustrative case after four months: bus speeds up 22 percent, on-time performance from 61 to 88 percent, operator assault incidents down to zero.

Download Figure 6 as a PNG · Figure 6 as an SVG

Content needed

Reading guide

A chapter-by-chapter guide to the book (what each chapter covers, and who it is for) will stand here. It is the Institute’s to write; the Contents on the Book page is the guide until then.

Take the book with you

Download the PDF The Book: contents and citations