It's time for citizens to take back urban planning | Nick Williamson | TEDxChristchurch

A few years ago, urban planner Nick Williamson came up with a transformative experiment: working with ordinary citizens and using rapid iteration to experiment with the design of their city. The result was more than he could have imagined, and paved the way for a whole new approach to urban design.
For the last 20 years, Nick Williamson has forged his career working at the intersection of Planning, Surveying, Law, and Spatial Science. Much of that time has been spent in and around local government, although he spends a lot of time talking to ‘ordinary people’ as well. His specialist area has been acting as interpreter where lay people and technocrats collide. His current interest areas and passion are best described as #opengov #agile #civichacking #GOV2.0 #opendata #startup #crowdsourcing #tacticalurbanism #bigdata #geodesign #placemaking #GIS #storytelling #indigenous #socialmedia #DataVIZ #crowdfunding #augmentedreality #public #entrepreneurship #infographics #placerace #LoveItHere!
mashmatix.com
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@enzodantas4072]

Insanely talented public speaker and GREAT ideas. Completely underrated talk.

[@temitopefolasayosaliu6055]

Nice talk, am inspired to get on my feet to the cause of urban and rural planning. But i think government should give urban planning/planner much consideration and the profession should look for a way of selling its importance to the people.

[@EricRHowell]

Implement participatory budgeting within the participatory planning process!

[@benjaminniyomugabo881]

ITs nice i wish to become like you in my future because this can help to change the situation of today

[@kingcheesemus6307]

I love, you are the 'they' in they should do something about that. Absolutely spot on

[@briansieve]

That was my book at age 10 as well!

[@MitchAzNorPho]

I wish I could double like this..

[@Trailblazers323]

How is this not common sense?

[@Lov2WatchSweetVidz]

Urban planners would never allow public input, because the way most people that inhabit/work in cities would want to improve transport around them is to make it easier to drive. People love their cars and the freedom the cars allow them and urban planners have not just irrational hatred for the car, but outright malice towards drivers.

[@danapayne2654]

It's not really irrational. Cars are terrible for public health and safety. If you're trying to plan with those in mind cars are awful. Not to mention the amount of space required to store them at various places, because it's not just one parking spot per car in a city it's dozens per car.

[@Lov2WatchSweetVidz]

Fried chicken is terrible for public health and safety, there are better alternatives available like fresh kale and apples, why not mandate those for every meal?
The freedom of owning a car is awesome, there is no public transportation system that can match what the car can provide which is why people love them and basically can never be fully discouraged from owning and using one if it's at all possible. Build some sort of emissions free public aero-pod that flies around the city that I can smoke cigarettes and eat my smelly lunch in and goes from exactly where I am to exactly where I'm going and then we can talk.

[@cizelita]

sure cars are awesome but the dependency we have because of them is destroying our cities. building an electric car can solve some problems but it's not the solution

[@Lov2WatchSweetVidz]

How are cars "destroying our cities"? I'm not asking as an internet troll wanting to score an own I'm seriously curious.
I always got this holier than thou attitude from urban planner types that seems elitist and classist but I'm sure people who studied this stuff for years are aware of things I'm not

[@leonefoscolo]

@@Lov2WatchSweetVidz I'll suggest you listen to the podcast "life-sized city" especially the episode titled "bicycle urbanism by design". It approaches the subject from a bike perspective but it goes through a little bit of history of the car and the road in general.
It is a very interesting topic.
You understand how things were different even in city like amsterdam, that We now think of it as a very bike friendly city. Did you know that they were serious plans to build an highway in the downtown?

[@biggiesmalll]

This could revolutionize the whole country. Unfortunately our culture has a religious-like belief in govt. solving all our problems.