3 ways we can redesign cities for equity and inclusion Vishaan Chakrabarti
[Applause]
give us your sense of what we’re
thinking about cities in terms of how
they are struggling and how they might
recover from both a health and an equity
crisis that we find ourselves in sure uh
well as you said she you know it’s
pleasure to be here and I really enjoyed
this conversation joy this conversation
with this community you know after 9/11
there are a lot of forecasts made about
what would happen with cities and people
said cities would be over skyscrapers
would be over and a lot of those
forecasts didn’t age very well and so I
think rather than forecasting about what
cities might be I think we should talk
about what cities should be coming out
of what are really these dual challenges
of pandemic on one hand and
long-standing structural racism on the
other hand that the black lives matter
movement has really made so clear to the
world and and if you think about those
two challenges they’re interrelated
because as one of the last questioners
alluded to the impacts of the pandemic
have not been equitable and communities
of color in particular have suffered
disproportionately from the pandemic and
so I think coming out of this in our
cities and I think our cities are
everything you described as these
engines of culture and commerce but I
think we need a new narrative a new
social contract for the way we think
about our cities and I think you know
right now people are going to naturally
tend towards this austerity model
they’re gonna say well we’re gonna go
broke from all of this and so we have to
pull back and investing in our people
and I think that’s exactly the wrong
thing to do
we need a new narrative of generosity
not austerity and I think we need to
focus on the equitable the sustainable
and the attainable prior to this crisis
and these crises that are in Pontus
right now
you know people that we now call
essential workers communities of color
we’re not having equal outcomes in our
cities our cities were working very well
for the prosperous and not working at
all for people in other parts of the
economy and really critical parts of our
world in our culture so if we wanted to
craft a new urban equity agenda what
would that look like what would it
entail and I think about three
components one is the idea of having
equitable health and housing and we can
talk about how those things are
interrelated sustainable urban mobility
and really changing the way in which we
move around our cities particularly as
it relates to climate change
70% of carbon emissions come from
buildings and cars often routed our
cities and so we can have an
extraordinary impacted scale in terms of
the environment and climate justice and
then finally the idea of attainable
social and cultural resources and I
think if we focused on those three
things equitable housing and health
sustainable urban mobility and
attainable social and cultural resources
as ideas for policy coming out of these
crises that we could craft a new urban
equity agenda excellent
um deshaun that that’s really it sounds
like you’re thinking on all cylinders
all about this but let’s just start with
housing because you know cities before
the pandemic were already really
challenged you know most people could
not afford to live in decent housing in
many of our major urban centers and
housing costs were skyrocketing and that
actually meant that the essential
workers that we now recognize we need to
have it mixed in with the entire city
fabric are living further and further
away
and there further from their jobs and I
just wonder from your point of view how
do we start to reset that balance sure
it’s a critical question obviously
everyone prior to these crises this this
dual crisis you know spoke about
gentrification and that became a concern
across cities globally as cities kind of
recovered from the industrial era of the
1970s became more attractive places to
live but then in turn became
unaffordable and I think we’re presented
with a false choice in terms of this
narrative that we are either the
impoverished cities of the 1970s where
we have no tax base and there’s horrible
crime or so forth or the cities that we
just experienced which are cities of
kind of bushwa banality where cities
have become so prosperous that the very
things that made them attractive became
monocultures and we were not only losing
the housing or essential workers and
communities of color as you mentioned
but also losing the spirit of what we
all love about cities in the first place
which is the diversity and the
inclusivity that makes cities
interesting and have positive social
friction so how do we get out of that
false choice and think about instead a
housing agenda that is about both equity
and attainability well I think first of
all we need to think about how could
housing policy change in the future
now if remote working becomes something
that is much more prevalent we may in
fact in many of our cities see a drop
and demand for office space and if that
occurs it could very well be that we
have a lot of older office buildings
that could through tax incentives and
policies and this has been done in other
places like in lower Manhattan where we
can convert older buildings into
affordable housing supportive home
housing for formerly huh
homeless people because what we need to
break out of is the fact that the
essential workers you’re talking about
what leads to homelessness is the fact
that make people in cities are rent
burden which means they’re spending more
than a third of their income on housing
costs and so we need an activist
government to intervene in that and to
be able to say well you know maybe some
of that older office stock could become
housing and also most cities have
brownfield sites railyards other places
where we could build mixed income
affordable attainable housing and that
will lead to better public health
outcomes because housing is health you
cannot have a healthy society if people
are under housing stress or have
homelessness going on and so those two
things are just joined at the hip right
Bashan I mean I think you were talking
about something that we are all very
keen to figure out in our in our world
but it comes down to something that if
you are speaking about a new urban
acquitting agenda are you also speaking
about a different kind of budget
allocation like how does that get done
and how do we avoid that well I think we
have to talk you know fanciers talk
about equity and debt and I think we
need to talk about social equity and
social debt and you know we’ve seen what
happens when there is an economic crisis
that leads tost arity and austerity
often just leads to more cycles of
hardship more economic ruination and
that is not the path we should take here
so we probably will need to borrow some
more money and actually put debt to good
use to build the kind of infrastructure
of opportunity that I’m talking about
but we also need to acknowledge that our
cities are wealthy places when I was
Manhattan planning director New York
City’s budget was about forty three
billion dollars the budget we passed
last year in New York City was almost
double that and that’s been pretty much
of a global phenomena and so if you look
at whether it’s London breed in San
Francisco or Anne Hidalgo in Paris the
mayor’s around the world are
understanding you have to invest in your
people you cannot have a massive
retraction at a time of social need and
so we’re gonna have to find the way to
pay for it both through you know some
deficit spending as well as looking at
the industries that are thriving and
saying whether we can pay higher taxes
for some people I know I could pay
higher taxes in order to have a more
equitable world that I’d gladly do so
okay I wanted to actually switch to the
topic of transportation because that is
so much a part of our infrastructure is
also obviously so much part of what our
cities are driven by whether it’s the
amount of pavement we have now on our
streets the accessibility we have to
public transportation I wonder though in
the context of all of that are we going
to see the rise in the use of the
private car because I people going to be
fearful or cautious about about being in
in that public of space well uh this is
a great question it’s a big concern many
people are concerned that as certain
cities recover we’re gonna see
widespread sheeps widespread use of
private automobiles and you know mass
transit was not the problem here and I
think both density and mass transit have
been painted with a rather negative
brush when it comes to the Cova dub
situation because you know we just heard
from Singapore there are places that are
quite dense that have survived the
Kovach crisis much better than a lot of
the cities in the West have despite the
use of mass transit and so mass transit
can be made to be safe but I think what
we really need to do is step back and
look at what happened which is you know
most of our cities have about 30 percent
a full one-third of their roadbed assume
you have their land committed to roads
right it’s a it’s a staggering figure to
think of a third of Tokyo or a third of
New York being committed to roads and
then the majority of that road space is
used by private vehicles today and I
think we need to complete
we rethink that equation and again in
the spirit of equity and ecology we use
that public space in terms of express
buses that can be spaced so that you had
more social distancing on buses while
you needed them because you had many
more of them walking and biking has
proved to be a very effective means of
transport in the kovat environment as
long as people are keeping their
distance and I think you know in terms
of both the ecology in terms of urban
human connectedness all of that is so
much more possible if we stop using
roads solely for cars and especially
private cars because the problem here is
not a technological problem it’s a
spatial problem if you look at how much
space a person in the car takes up
versus a bicycle or a pedestrian I don’t
care whether the car is autonomous or
electric or whatever it is it just takes
up too much space per person and that’s
what we need we have the space in our
cities to move around in a much more
efficient ecological timely manner and
in a way that’s much more pleasant for
people in terms of quality of life if we
simply give more of our streets over to
people as opposed to cars right right
and we do we do see that happen and I
believe Helen is here with some
questions from our community ok the
first question I want to bring up is
from Kira Kira gold from our community
can we bring that up how might the long
term fracturing on families in urban
cities especially for black families
given higher rates of unemployment
sickness the impacts of the gig economy
and even the lack of property ownership
and the dominance of women headed
households need to be written into a new
equity agenda it’s a great question Kara
thank you for asking it I really believe
that well we need to go directly to
people in communities and ask them what
their needs are you know for too long
we’ve been you know in architecture we
talked to the Truvia San Leonardo drew
the Vitruvian Man which was you know the
man and circle on the square and then
look Corbusier drew the modular man
there was always about the man right and
it was always about this kind of eye
Eli’s idea of what the human being that
you designed for or the family that you
designed for and I think we instead need
to go to communities and ask them what
their needs are you know in terms of
what their family structures are and and
how to then build for them and
understanding and resuscitating the idea
of public housing that works and public
housing that isn’t just top-down but
public housing that is bottom-up in
terms of understanding what what
people’s needs are and how we can
address those needs through investment
in our communities and building for our
communities excellent let’s move to
another question this one from Ian Firth
who says in your 2018 TED talk you
challenged us to conceive and planned
cities differently now with an urgent
focus on low-carbon and healthy public
spaces how can we quickly instigate
better urban transportation systems that
prioritize healthy and low emission
systems Ian wonderful to hear from you
you know I think it builds on the
question she asked me which is really
this you know I think there’s a moment
we have right now to leverage the
emptyness to the extent that we don’t
have congestion in our cities for the
first time like we have blue skies over
New Delhi it’s mind-blowing
and you know I think this is a moment
when we can leverage the emptiness and
say do we want to once we have a vaccine
or a treatment do we really want to go
back to those congested cities and I
think most people would say no and I
think that we then need to say is well
how can we achieve that and again it
just it’s it isn’t about rocket science
we know that walking biking low-emission
buses for people who are handicapped or
mobility challenged that you know we can
absolutely move people around in our
cities in a low-emission way and we have
the framework to do it cities started in
on this already London Stockholm other
cities Curitiba Brazil started in a lot
of these policies prior to these
pandemics and I think we just need to
build upon that
to kind of take this little silver
lining of a lack of congestion and less
air pollution and less carbon emissions
right now and see if we can give that as
a gift to the world going forward okay
one more and then I will jump out here
is a question from an otaku who asks as
a New Yorker I am curious how you do
school zoning and rezoning as a tool in
reducing inequality do you expect covin
and it’s aftermath to accelerate the
divide between those who can and cannot
afford good education I and as a fellow
New Yorker I certainly worry about that
and I think we especially need to worry
about we all know about the outcomes
that can be produced if people have good
early education and you know one of the
things that I’ve been thinking about is
we’re all talking about how retail is
transforming and we’re you know maybe
we’ll see fewer chain stores in cities
like New York and and maybe instead of
those chain stores we could use those
empty storefronts for educational or
social purposes pop-up libraries pop up
universal pre-k or classrooms you know
things that still give our street life
vibrancy and activation but not without
relying on chain stores and instead
relying on social infrastructure and
educational infrastructure that rather
than as your question talks about
schools owning that you know we bring
the mountain to Mohammed that we
actually distribute in a more diffuse
way around our cities the educational
infrastructure the people need in their
communities which includes by the way
things like vocational training and
senior education so we you know create a
kind of cradle to grave educational
system that’s a kind of Street
infrastructure across our cities I think
that’s possible in a world in which
we’re gonna see fewer chain stores
wonderful I will be back
thanks fun some that reminds me of
something that you’ve spoken about
before which is the sort of the more
locality like the idea that we see in
Paris right now we’re you know essential
NEADS and essential community needs are
not with you no not necessary for us to
travel across town or even you know have
to have to get on any public
transportation to to get our needs and I
know that that’s a model that you are
very enthusiastic about but could you
say more about how that would work in in
other cities outside of an enlightened
place like Paris well you know it’s
interesting because I think gee that
model begins in even small agrarian
villages like I think about farming
villages I visited in Japan or the one
my father was born in in India where
even a you know the farmers live at this
very intimate scale and then they go out
and and tend their fields and then they
come back to a community and that
community has shared infrastructure
shared social services and I think that
is a paradigm that can be replicated and
also kind of tailored to the individual
cultures and places and climates all
around the world and so to me this isn’t
just about Paris or or Tokyo or
Singapore it’s really I think the human
instinct of why do people live in
collectives to begin with and it isn’t
just out of economic circumstance we
know through the history of humanity
that people actually like being together
and that we’re seeing this test now as
we’re all working remotely but we all
miss each other right now I know I miss
giving you a hug and so we don’t you
know we don’t get to do that in person
anymore and I think it’s a basic human
need and so this idea that we can create
that kind of village living at a lot of
different scales for a lot of different
societies a lot of different cultures a
lot of different assignments is
absolutely possible its ecological it’s
fun it’s it’s joyous it’s part of our
cultural life in terms of how we create
culture so I think that’s possible at
all scales and in lots of different
places
I’m are they looking forward to all of
that
Ishod tell me what are you thinking now
in terms of how dramatically office life
will change do you feel like things will
ever be back to some version of what we
used to know or are we really setting a
course for something new well it’s a
great question a lot of people are
obviously concerned about this I mean
I’m again I’m trying to stay out of the
fortune-telling business but I do you
know what I can imagine is that you know
again after 9/11 people said office
space was dead and like you know it
never get built again and obviously that
didn’t turn out to be true I know that
as an architect and you know in my
studio we’re itching to get back to the
office we know that there’s an
opportunity cost to working this way but
at the same time you know there may be
people who have really difficult
commutes who you know they and their
CEOs might have kind of a lined bowl of
saying you know the employer says I
don’t really want to pay for that
cubicle and the employee says I don’t
really want it commute to that cubicle
every day and so I do imagine that over
the long term this is going to reduce
some of the commutation and so I think
it will be a mixed situation but I do
believe that a lot of industries we
still need that face to face
serendipitous contact that sparks
innovation and sparks creativity and so
I still fully believe in that and fully
believe that that will be part of why
cities recover from all of this but you
know I think the other thing to say
about that is that I’m in the middle of
writing my next book and there’s so much
interesting history associated with how
cities changed in the course of
pandemics sewer and water infrastructure
light and air standards from between you
know from tuberculosis cholera to the
bubonic plague and the Spanish flu it
all changed the form of our cities and
this will too but hopefully for the
better but also in a way that you know
builds upon our desire for human
connectedness absolutely I think we have
time for one
question from Helen indeed thank you so
much that was so beautiful I have a
question from Dred Scott who says I like
a lot of what you’re saying and
proposing but without addressing class
and how policy is created and by whom
these changes seem impossible how can
these changes actually be implemented
hi Dredd good to see you at least on
your little photograph on the screen uh
it’s a great question and I don’t
pretend to have all the answers to that
but I think we do know that unless there
is a different sense of representation
in terms of what our government is how
our government can can be reformed in
everything from criminal justice reform
in terms of how we police our streets
that that none of this can come to pass
that we need diversity or representation
and also again I think we need to
rethink our narratives and not
constantly fall in the trap of of you
know what we’ve been living in for the
last 50 years and instead think about
how do we get a much broader sense of
representation and have the the
self-governance that that you know that
our democracies promise us and I think
unless you have that you can’t institute
the kind of urban equity agenda that
we’ve been talking about thank you thank
you for Sean you know I know that you’re
not in the business of fortune-telling
but I think you are absolutely in the
business of building back better I think
that your ideas and your initiatives are
more more needed now than ever I have
just one more question for you which is
you are embarking on now your new role
as a Dean of an architecture school and
I wonder what is the pedagogy going to
look like how is it changing what are
your thoughts about where where even the
whole education of those people who
build our environments how will how will
that shift
it’s on my mind constantly obviously as
an incoming dean and this I think
relates back to the question we got from
Dred Scott because I have so much hope
when I see you know Berkeley is a big
public university in my undergraduate
body 41% of my students are
first-generation we have a lot of
diversity inclusion we’re going to get a
lot more diversity and inclusion I hope
in the coming years and those students
will go out and become our future
leaders and it’s in those students I
mean they asked me really tough
questions about how we’re gonna
diversify our faculty and diversify our
pedagogy and I think one of the big
questions that a lot of students have is
what’s their instrumentality in all of
this how do they take what they learn
and become urban planners landscape
architects architects who really change
the narrative and change how we
implement policy on the ground you know
Berkeley is obviously right next to
Oakland and there’s just so much to do
in terms of listening to that community
and working with that community our good
friend Walter Foote has been doing that
for decades and I just think that
Berkeley is one of these places as a big
public university that really gives me
hope because of the students and the
faculty and what what impassioned them
and I do think pedagogy will change as a
consequence of all of this because we
have to look at everything through this
frame of what is equitable what is
sustainable and what is attainable yeah
that’s that’s a lot of new thinking for
the architecture fields but we welcome
that Bashan Helen I’m just here to say
thank you thank you so much for sharing
your thoughts and wisdom with us today
it was amazing and I I wish you the best
of luck as you desert New York for the
west coast which is really I’ll be back
it was lovely to see you thank you as an
honor a privilege
thank you son thank you thank you