Urban planning YouTube has a HUGE problem. | NTH CITY

Come check out my first episode of Nth City on how YOU CAN BE AN ACTIVIST IN YOUR CITY! Like and subscribe, too! youtube.com/@thenthcity ALSO: I AM AWARE OF THE MUSIC, YOU DON'T NEED TO REPLY ABOUT THE MUSIC lol.

The problem with saying "Go to your local council meetings" is that 9/10 they happen when people are at work. NIMBYs can go to every meeting because they're old and retired or rich or both.

My city is Sydney, Australia and we have an urbanist Youtuber, Building Beautifully, who recently made an appearance at a parliamentary inquiry into public transport in Western Sydney, a region that is comparatively underserved

The biggest misconception I hate from urbanist youtube is that planners are empowered to improve their communities. A planner's urbanist vision is only as strong as the political willpower of their planning commission and city council. Showing up to those meetings and providing public comments to projects and policy proposals is the best thing you can do. In my local subreddit, I like to share upcoming city council meeting agendas when there is an item that should have more attention. NIMBYs involve themselves in the political process why shouldn't we as well?

Immediately after watching this video, I went on to my city's website to look at the 2024 budget. I found they were doing a survey to find out what people wanted prioritized in the budget. I took the survey. Thank you for prompting me in the right direction!

You've articulated many of the issues with online planning circles that I've been frustrated with for awhile. I find most videos boring and annoying by others now especially when they're like "wow America bad, car lanes bad, Europe so good" I don't always do it, but generally I try to send people off of my videos into a direction where they can make their voices heard, or link to a local advocacy group. But you did hit the nail on the head when you said that this shit is boring, it's hard in the first place to get people/algorithms to pay attention. Sometimes I bite the bullet and make a video about the boring topics, but I know are important politically (Cincinnati Southern Railway for example). NJBs (Jason) I find to be the most frustrating, his content noticeably got dumber after the doomer tweets, and because I criticized him for it he has cut off all communication with me. Disappointing is an understatement.

This is the kind of critique that comes from a place of love. A couple asks, if it isn't too much... 1) Please point folks in the direction of people you see doing this right (if you see this at all). 2) Please continue making content like this. It was a breath of fresh air.

Well said. I attend my neighborhood meetings in my city which usually only have 20 people attend, mostly retirees. But thanks to Urbanist YouTube, there are more fellow millennials attending. Since these meetings are poorly attended, it doesn’t even take that many people change things. I’ve been at meetings where out of nowhere 15 yimbys show up to vote and were able to eliminate parking minimums.

I like the overall point. One thing that I want to emphasize for people who haven't yet crossed from YouTube urbanist rabbit hole to real world Council meetings and politics is that you don't need to know everything about historical context and zoning documents in order to start attending meetings, speaking or otherwise engaging. If you are going to a public meeting, you can just give your opinion as a member of the public. You can say "I saw that Edmonton eliminated parking minimums and wondered if we had thought about that here." Or "I wondered why there isn't a sidewalk here." It can be good to have some research, but "I think that this is a good neighbourhood for low-rise apartments," is legitimate feedback even if you don't know what zoning code that would fall under. It's the job of the planner to take that feedback and use their expertise to evaluate what is possible, how it fits with everyone else's feedback and, of course, the budget. Just be open to feedback and you can learn as you go. The biggest goal is to create a political environment where these things become more possible because planners and councillors hear that people want them. I assure you that most NIMBYs don't know the zoning code or historical context of the area and they aren't shy about speaking up! As for advocacy-focused YouTube content, I agree that the topic can be a bit dry (although it is surprising how spicy meetings can get sometimes). We'll keep working on it. Video editing and graphics are much harder skills to pick up than speaking at meetings.

Here's what I love about Urbanist YouTube: the explosive growth recently is a sign that the audience is getting bigger, or as Strong Towns would say: a bottom up approach. The biggest reason why I ultimately decided to not pursue municipal city planning is because I no longer believe top down is the best way to do things. Instead, I run a bike repair shop out of my garage. By helping more people get on bikes, the cycling infrastructure will have to follow. More people being aware of the problems is good, especially when they start making their voices be heard.

As an organizer of a local group in Austin TX (Rethink35), we have gotten many volunteers from City Beautiful & NJB videos mentioning us. Their work is very important and has led to meaningful change within our campaign. Also, this video is inspiring me to make some more TikTok content about policy and how to be politically involved to get urbanist wins! :)

I think the main takeaway from any urbanist channel should be to educate their viewers on WHY things need to change instead of simply contacting local government. The thing about Strong Towns, Alan Fisher, CityNerd, and many other urbanist channels is that they take the time to explain why something is bad and back it up with statistics and logical reasoning. Urban sprawl is a bad thing not just from a public health perspective but from an economic perspective too which is sadly what many local governments care about more, and these channels encourage viewers to think about these sort of things rather than just regurgitate "car bad, train good!" I think it mainly comes down to us to make the effort after looking at this information and deciding for ourselves if we want to go full force and that reasoning could help when it comes to making the decision to get active in local government. I guess there is the idea that they could do more, but how do you really direct people to get involved with these sorts of things when everyone has different processes, and those processes are notoriously slow to change? I think the purpose of these channels is to open the door to the viewer to make the choice to get active by giving them the information they need to accurately describe what the problem is in their community- by that I mean identifying what the problem is weather that's a "strode" or a lack of density or a city not investing in infrastructure to accommodate development whether that's transit or pedestrian-oriented infrastructure.

I am the plubic works engineer for my county and I took my job because of what learned watching urbanist youtube. They were not my only resource of course but the reason we have an AT plan is because I called a meeting with the county planner and trails manager and wrote one. The reason we have been building out complete streets is because I designed them that way. I also had my doomerism time, it's a very normal place for those who care deeply to find themselves. I had to get miserable before I started working on making change and it was city beautiful, city nerd, and not just bikes that showed me how!

You put your finger on a really important point. And the guy at 13:00 is basically me, I'm guilty of being the one-note urbanist: just this week, I skipped a city meeting because there weren't any roads-related items on the agenda. I'm so glad you made this, please keep pulling on this string.

Thank you! As someone who has been thoroughly orange-pilled since before urban planning YouTube became much of a thing, I've always wondered what the step 2 is. It's great to know the history behind what happened to our cities, and I think there is a good use for convincing people otherwise on the fence (e.g. NIMBYs, actual city planners, etc.), but once enough people are convinced, what do you even do to transform a car-centric city into a more livable city? How do you turn a suburb of mcmansions on cul de sacs into the kind of community you want to see more of (preferrably without razing the entire city and starting all over)? What even is the plan moving forward? I worry at times that this whole movement could just turn into, sort of like you mentioned, people just spouting the same slogans into a system no one really understands, and nothing really being done-- or something is done, but it's one walkable neighborhood impossibly far from town where everything's crazy expensive (i.e. urbanism as a trend). Okay that was a bit rambly, but TL;DR I think urban planning YT is great for building awareness and convincing people, but we need more focus on what us average folk can actually do about it, aside from just moving to Europe, which is more difficult than it sounds (trust me, I've done it before)

I often get ‘why don’t I move somewhere else?’ But I say I’ve always replied with ‘my goal is to make my place better.’ I’m 17, but I’ve got my career in mind to become an Urban Planner. I’ve always loved maps and walking around exploring my city and my grade 2 teacher, before I even knew about Urbanist YT, said ‘you may like Urban Planning, it could be a cool thing for you’ that has stuck with me to now and discovering CS content and later RMTransit, City Beautiful, etc 4 years ago has affirmed that quote. I’ve met my local MP’s, I’m studying economics at school and I’ve spoke with urban planners in Australia (where I live). To conclude, thank you for this video, greatly appreciated.

Local Conversations and advocates are doing such important work in their communities. They’re running for office, coordinating with transportation professionals, organizing review panels to analyze unsafe streets, joining committees, attending meetings and so much more. We made a film about removing parking minimums in Fayetteville and the neighborhood revitalizing local developer scene in South Bend. Read the inspiring comments. The video you clipped footage from helped connect over 300 people to begin taking action. And yes, sometimes they’re meeting at Chipotle, because getting to know your neighbors—some very important people you’ll be working with while you build a strong town—is a powerful and accessible first step that anyone can take. We’re here to support them and celebrate their work, so we’re bummed to see it diminished this way. If demonstrating the effects of eliminating parking mandates in Fayetteville, AR isn’t "doing something," we don’t know what is. If painting crosswalks in Sioux Falls in partnership with other orgs and the city to demonstrate potential permanent improvements isn’t "doing something," we don’t know what is. If it isn't "doing something" when the the city administrators, mayors, and planners who we highlight fight to revitalize their downtowns, we don't know what is. We have serious admiration for these doers. And any non-cynic who has seen videos you reference will, too. Their results speak for themselves. We’re not mad you made this—we agree that people should be actually doing something. We’re just a bit disappointed you misrepresented the very impactful work of local conversations.

So, beyond anything else I work in govt and I really want to point out my respect for yours willingness to understand how slow and annoying the process of getting anything changed can be. Any asshole can paint a crappy bike lane into a road but I like anyone who at least is willing to admit how getting it permanently installed into an area is a challenge.

Excellent work!!!! As an urbanist civil engineer working in public transit, I deeply thank you for making this video. Attending public meetings can be kinda exciting, especially when you can research the new issues discussed, give feedback, and you can take new transit lines to get there!😁 I would love to see some kind of “public meeting survival guide” video‼️

Thanks for this video. As yet another urbanist YouTube channel 🙄I can appreciate your key points and they are a good reminder for me to continue profiling the people who are actually getting stuff done in their communities (advocates, activists, elected officials, and even city staff members.) And yeah, to your point, it's often pretty boring stuff, hehe I nearly spit up my coffee laughing with your clip on what it's like to actually attend city council (and other such) meetings. I sincerely appreciate the amazing content my fellow urbanist content creators are producing, as I do hear from new viewers and listeners (yes, mine is also an audio podcast) that they found their way to Active Towns because they are fans of those other channels. Thank you for rolling up your sleeves and doing what you can to make a difference in Colorado Springs. Keep up the good work. Cheers! John 😎