A note about greener, healthier communities — and about writing — from Kaid
I’ve been fortunate to have had a long career in the environmental field, with the last quarter-century or so spent studying cities and working on policies and practices that can make them function better for both people and the planet. Along the way, there has been an evolution in the way environmentalists think about this issue: We used to think of cities as a source of environmental problems, but I have come to see them also as a source of environmental solutions, enabling living patterns that reduce pollution and consumption. They also support efficient commerce and, at their best, nurture the human spirit. But how do we maximize cities’ endless potential to support greener, healthier living?
No question fascinates me more. I’ve always included writing in my work, and I’ve written a lot about many facets of making human settlement as good as possible. But cultivating great, sustainable people habitat is far from a simple matter. I hope those interested in this fascinating set of issues will join me in considering some of their more difficult aspects, the ones where the answers aren’t so clear.
While I will always say exactly what I think – or believe I am learning – about these subjects, polemic writing and thinking don’t interest me. The nooks and crannies do. We live in a world of questions as much as answers. That said, I’ve come to believe in certain tenets of sustainable placemaking, and I’m going to share some of their stories in a small sample of my published work here:
Six Essentials for Greener, Healthier Communities
What I enjoy most in my professional life is keeping up with the environmental and town-design research and sharing what I have learned over the years about green and healthy places. I am fortunate in that I get to do exactly that at meetings and conferences, and sometimes in the media. In 2020, an interviewer encouraged me to talk about six principles that I had emphasized in a talk to a conference he had attended: six essentials, if you will, for greener, healthier communities.
I’m going to share the six points here, but I want to preface them with some important premises. First, everything we do in the business of making better communities must be done with keen attention to equity. . . (read more)
The Importance of a Sense of Place
Great cities and great neighborhoods have a distinctiveness about them: when we’re in Paris or New York, we know we’re in Paris or New York. Within those cities, if we’re in the Marais district of Paris or East Harlem in New York, the character and public spaces of those neighborhoods remind us where we are. Unfortunately, there are too many places in America, particularly in newer suburbs, where every place looks more or less like every other place.
In the 1930s, Gertrude Stein famously said of Oakland, California, “there is no ‘there’ there.” Was she saying that Oakland had no anchor, no soul, no raison d’être, no identity? Stein, who was around 60 when she wrote the well-known sentence. . . (read more)
Making ‘Smart Growth’ More Appealing and Sustainable
While on my way to a dental appointment last week — not my favorite activity, truth be told — I had the distinct pleasure of walking through Georgetown, Washington’s oldest neighborhood and one of its most lovely. As I ambled through the historic, tree-lined residential streets, I was reminded of how our older neighborhoods so often embody the characteristics that we now ascribe to “smart growth,” the kind of urban and compact suburban development that many of us advocate as preferable to expansive, automobile-dependent suburban sprawl.
In particular, Georgetown has a walkable urban density; well-connected streets and sidewalks that make it notably pedestrian-friendly; a central, convenient location just a mile or so from the heart of downtown; good transit service; many shops, restaurants and civic amenities mixed in with, or a ridiculously easy walk from, the neighborhood’s homes. There are also somewhat larger apartment and commercial buildings (including some newer ones), places of worship, parks, and schools, including a major university and world-class hospital. . . (read more)
The Ecology of People Habitat
The book People Habitat was born from my imagined impressions of cities before I actually experienced them, from my measure of cities against that imagination, and from my imagination yet again, as I consider how real cities might reach our best aspirations for them as habitat for people.
The title borrows the word “habitat” from the field of wildlife ecology but evokes a different sort of ecology, one centered on humans. The parallels are strong. Nature works best when it is in balance, and that leads me to a guiding principle: like the natural environment when operating at its best, the built environment created by us humans should achieve harmony among its various parts and with the larger world upon which it depends. . . (read more)
To find more of Kaid’s many articles and essays on green and healthy places, go here.