City Nestmaking
By Beth Sanders
City NestmakingJul 19, 2022
E48 How much ballast?
A “just right” amount of ballast provides steadiness so people can choose where they want to go—and choose a course to get there.
Images in this episode can be found in this blog post.
Reflection:
- In what ways do you feel out of ballast? How are you susceptible to capsizing, unable to steer, bogged down or moving through life inefficiently?
- What do you need to release to not feel pulled down?
- What do you need to do to feel more grounded or centered?
- What small action can you take to be the best sailor you can be?
You can leave a comment here.
E47 Speaking From (vs talking about)
It feels good to fight and argue, but when there’s no pressure to convince others or be convinced, we listen in ways that allow us to improve our communities.
Images for this episode can be found in this blog post.
Reflection
About what subjects do you “talk about” what you know rather than “speak from” your experience?
Under what circumstances do you take center stage—and what reward to you get for taking center stage?
Where do you have space in your life to explore ideas and experiences without pressure to agree?
Where would you like to have space in your life to explore ideas and experiences without pressure to agree?
What might emerge for you with such a space?
What small step can you take to make such a space in your life?
You can leave a comment here.
E46 Housing as Community Social Enterprise
Beth Sanders and Yasushi Ohki explore how being a land developer can be good for a community’s well-being, rather than the maligned role many believe.
Yasushi innovates, pilots and demonstrates new housing forms with a dogged entrepreneurial spirit. He believes that building housing can be an opportunity to develop community well-being for individuals and the wider community. For over 22 years, Yasushi has worked in the land development industry, including greenfield development, infill residential construction and project management. He brings to his work a love of urban design and a keen eye for how people interact with architecture, combined with a sensitivity to the realities of building construction and maintenance. He continues his community development work by establishing a trio of sustainability-oriented organizations: the Green Violin Community Development Company, the Rose Cello Affordable Housing Society, and the Prairie Sky Property Management Corporation.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
The land development equation
How housing and neighbourhood connect
The struggles of innovation (read: struggles with city hall)
The roles of developers, city hall, community and citizens
Work as a calling to try new things
City making vs city building vs city caring
Here's what Yasushi says about himself: "A degree in Civil Engineering and a second one in Architecture allowed me to have a career in land development in my home city of Edmonton, where I moved to when I was a young child from Vancouver where I was born to Japanese parents. I am currently advocating, educating, and co-creating housing options for affordable housing in and around Edmonton through my non-profit community development company, Green Violin."
Reflection
- Yasushi is looking for language to replace the word "healthy" in the phrase "healthy community." What new language do you suggest?
- If your neighbourhood was an old pair of shoes, would you fix or build new, and why?
- How could your neighbourhood be improved to better serve you, your neighbours, and future neighbours?
E45 It's All in the Cards
City making, the weaving of city building and city caring, only happens when we have a social habitat in which we choose to weave these perspectives together.
Images for this episode can be found here.
E44 Community Learning
We only organize together if we are in the push and pull of conversation, wrestling with the action we feel we need to take. If not, we are being organized, passive participants in the status quo doing others’ bidding.
Images for this episode can be found here.
E43 Stepping Into Vulnerability
An impromptu check-in invited awe in self, others and a beautiful place.
Images for this episode can be found here.
E42 Radical Reflection
Receiving a big award made me notice how integrity and values shape my life and work, from the scale of me to the scale of communities, neighbourhoods, and cities.
Images for this episode can be found here.
A1 A Moment of Quiet
Think about an activation like a guided meditation. You can listen to them in order or in response to your intuition--which one catches your eye?
In listening to the activations, you'll get a few benefits: Calm. When we spend time connecting ourselves to our place and our work, we cultivate a sense of calm. Clarity. When we settle into the ground and center ourselves, we create the conditions for clarity to emerge. Coherence. When layers of clarity take form, we find a sense of coherence, a more clear sense of direction that pulls us forward.
Find a quiet place to sit, stand or lay down where you won't have any interruptions. Follow along with the "instructions" in the activations, and simply relax. That's all you need to do. Listen to the activations at any time. Relax and enjoy!
E41 Do it Scared
Is it possible that being more honest about what I don't know and what I don't know how to do makes me feel less scared? It looks like radical honesty with my ski patrol colleagues makes me feel less scared. And more capable, too.
NOTE: You can find a video of the chair lift ride mentioned in this episode in this article.
E40 The Inconceivable Inconceivable
There are two kinds of inconceivable: 1) the one I tell myself isn’t possible and 2) the one I can’t imagine. In this episode, Beth reveals a 35-year-old wish that came true and where that wish fulfilled is taking her.
There are great images that accompany this episode; they can be found here.
E39 Change as a Verb
Beth has landed in perimenopause, asking herself the question she asks others everywhere she goes: How do I make my way through this transition with care and compassion? The answer is in thinking not of The Change but of changing. Change as a verb.
Images for this episode can be found here.
E38 Intersectionality, GBA+ and City Making
What on earth are intersectionality and GBA+? And what do they have to do with city making? Beth Sanders and Soni Dasmohapatra explore intersectionality and Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in their work as city makers; they land on this understanding: GBA+ is a means to be in a conversation about improvement.
In this episode, you'll hear about the ABCDEs of GBA+ work and the five questions Soni asks while working with communities and clients:
- What ASSUMPTIONS are being made?
- Who is being left BEHIND?
- What are the COSTS?
- What is the DATA we are looking for?
- What is the criteria/process for EQUITY?
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Soni Dasmohapatra is a consultant who works with individuals, groups, public service institutions, and community agencies to facilitate the development of tools that focus on building inclusive platforms that incorporate strategy, design, wellness, and art for transformative change. Visit www.sonidasmohapatra.com.
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Here are two resources you may find of interest:
- Book: On Intersectionality: The Essential Writings of Kimberlé Crenshaw, by Kimberlé Crenshaw
- Article in The Guardian: Kimberlé Crenshaw: the woman who revolutionized feminism--and landed at the heart of the culture wars, by Aamna Mohdin
E37 The Agony of Conversation
How do you design a public meeting when you believe that everyone has something to say, not just the vocal few?
Images for this episode can be found here.
E36 Transition-Making is Choosing Changing
When we avoid sharing opportunities to make meaning of our experiences and make choices from the meaning we've made, we avoid the challenges and brilliance of community. And the choice, in every moment, rests with each of us.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E35 Transition Bypassing
We want change to happen without changing ourselves, without having to do anything differently. Yet, choosing transition means choosing to participate in our changing.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E34 Community Bypassing
We level up our experience of community by growing beyond sharing an experience to shared choice-making.
Podcast episodes mentioned in this episode: connection bypassing, conversation bypassing, and relationship bypassing.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E33 Upper Mountain Relationships
An emotional upset and a ski trip helped me unearth two limiting beliefs about relationship skills.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E32 Relationship Bypassing
When we avoid accountability and responsibility, we become untrustworthy and bypass opportunities to be in relationship with each other—in both our personal and professional lives. In this episode: 2 symptoms of, and 7 antidotes to, relationship bypassing.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E31 Conversation Bypassing
Assuming that the expertise in the room is in one or a few people disables and minimizes the resilience of a community. In this episode: 4 symptoms of conversation bypassing and 5 antidotes.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E30 Connection Bypassing
Whether online or in-person, how we gather fosters connection between people only when we design in opportunities for people to make contact with each other. When we don’t, we engage in connection bypassing.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E29 Explicit Agreements
Agreements about how we’ll talk and relate to each other are a commitment to be responsible for the quality of our relationships.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
I invite you to explore the following resources for agreements about how a group can work together:
- The Circle Way at http://www.thecircleway.net
- Heather Plett and the Centre for Holding Space at https://centreforholdingspace.com
- The Art of Hosting at https://artofhosting.org
- Terry Patten and A New Republic of the Heart at https://newrepublicoftheheart.org
- Monica Sharma’s Radical Transformative Leadership at https://www.radicallytransform.org
Use this link to find a PDF of the Social Habitat Guidelines mentioned in this episode, or go to www.bethsanders.ca.
E28 I Said YES to Evolving Professionals
To participate in the evolution of our cities and communities, city planners can no longer work the way they’ve worked for decades. In addition to our content expertise, we need to cultivate our social habitat expertise by letting go of our heavy reliance on prescribe and control ways of operating and make space for enable and empower ways of being. In this post: 5 new competencies for planners and other professionals.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
E27 Transition Thinking to Enable Community (Itch #5)
Community has a vital role to play when emergencies arise: to enable transition from what was to what could be.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
This episode is the fifth in a series about the relationship between community and emergency:
- E23 Scales of Emergency Response (Itch #1). As the scale of emergency grows, the ability of a community to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE becomes imperative.
- E24 Choices to Enable Our Emergency Response-Ability (Itch #2). 6 ideas and 8 suggestions to be response-ABLE at any scale of emergency.
- E25 Rescue is Not Resilience (Itch #3). Rescue embodies resilience only when the rescuer takes action the rescued can't do for themselves (and wants).
- E26 Resilience Requires Transition (Itch #4). When busy rescuing others or looking for others to rescue us, we miss the opportunity to renew ourselves.
- E27 Transition Thinking Enables Community (Itch #5). Community has a vital role to play when emergencies arise: to enable transition from what was to what could be.
E26 Resilience Requires Transition (Itch #4)
When busy rescuing others or looking for others to rescue us, we miss the opportunity to renew ourselves, to engage and embrace the transition from one way of thinking, making and doing, to another. A healthy relationship with transition is necessary for resilience.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
This episode is the fourth in a series about the relationship between community and emergency:
- E23 Scales of Emergency Response (Itch #1). As the scale of emergency grows, the ability of a community to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE becomes imperative.
- E24 Choices to Enable Our Emergency Response-Ability (Itch #2). 6 ideas and 8 suggestions to be response-ABLE at any scale of emergency.
- E25 Rescue is Not Resilience (Itch #3). Rescue embodies resilience only when the rescuer takes action the rescued can't do for themselves (and wants).
- E26 Resilience Requires Transition (Itch #4). When busy rescuing others or looking for others to rescue us, we miss the opportunity to renew ourselves.
E25 Rescue is Not Resilience (Itch #3)
Rescue embodies resilience only when the rescuer takes action the rescued can't do for themselves (and wants). Whatever the scale of emergency (E23), we have choices to make about how to respond (E24)--and the language we use reflects the choices we make, the roles we play, and the actions we take.
Images created for this episode can be found here.
This episode is the third in a series about the relationship between community and emergency:
- E23 Scales of Emergency Response (Itch #1). As the scale of emergency grows, the ability of a community to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE becomes imperative.
- E24 Choices to Enable Our Emergency Response-Ability (Itch #2). 6 ideas and 8 suggestions to be response-ABLE at any scale of emergency.
- E25 Rescue is Not Resilience (Itch #3). Rescue embodies resilience only when the rescuer takes action the rescued can't do for themselves (and wants).
E24 Choices to Enable Our Emergency Response-Ability (Itch #2)
In this episode, six ideas and eight suggestions to be response-ABLE at any scale of emergency.
As the scale of emergency grows (E23), the ability of a community to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE becomes imperative. As the scale of crisis grows from a sprint rescue event to an ultramarathon season, including sprint rescues, it is also imperative to differentiate between the different kinds of work we do to ensure our communities and cities serve us well. It is necessary for citizens to serve our communities well.
Illustrations created for this episode can be found here.
This episode is the second in a series about the relationship between community and emergency:
- E23 Scales of Emergency Response (Itch #1). As the scale of emergency grows, the ability of a community to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE becomes imperative.
- E24 Choices to Enable Our Emergency Response-Ability (Itch #2). 6 ideas and 8 suggestions to be response-ABLE at any scale of emergency.
E23 Scales of Emergency Response (Itch #1)
I had an “allergic reaction” this summer to some language people around me are using to invite climate action: “be a first responder.” And so, I sit and write as a means to scratch the itch. What I found: As the scale of emergency grows, the ability of community to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE becomes imperative.
Illustrations created for this episode can be found here.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Wendy and her fire lookout work (E2 Disrupt the Story of the Land)
- The Guardian's photo essay about Lytton, British Columbia, Canada
E22 Transportation Infrastructure Privileges People With Power
Beth Sanders and Luis Patricio discuss bicycles to explore mobility and privilege in cities. With his first realization in Brazil that a bicycle IS a means to move around the city, Luis started advocating for a bike-to-work program at work. Bicycling has become a part of his identity and a full part of his paid and unpaid work to improve cities. Some simple questions to unpack mobility privilege: Who owns cars in our city? Who owns bicycles in our city? And who has access to bicycle infrastructure?
NOTE to listeners: there’s a bit of “office noise” a few minutes into the episode. It doesn’t last long. (A bit later, there’s some kitchen noise, but it also doesn’t last long. Eeek)
Luis Patricio believes that our capacity to understand, shape and communicate urban experiences is key to creating the cities we want. Bicycles are one of the most powerful tools to develop that capacity—a capacity he calls Urban Literacy. Luis uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for collaboration and connection in his role as project manager for the SDG Cities project at Pillar Nonprofit Network in London, Canada. He is also the board chair of London Cycle Link, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to create a bike-friendly London through community building, education and advocacy. You can learn more about Luis at luispatricio.ca.
Here's the article Beth and Luis refer to in their conversation: Who Has A Right to the City?
RESOURCES
Here's a list of resources from Luis for further exploration:
- RideShark Unified Mobility: How Much Does Your Choice of Commute Really Cost?
- The Smart Prosperity Institute: Infographics: The costs of sprawl
- The Narwhal: Canada's oil and gas sector received $18 billion in subsidies, public financing during pandemic: report (April 15, 2021)
- Vox: Why free parking is bad for everyone (June 27, 2014)
- Vélo Canada Bikes: Track the Pedal Poll 2021 Count Data Feed
- Small Change: How cars waste space (January 28, 2020)
- Luis Patricio: Cycling Towards a City for People (January 2, 2021)
- Cities leading the charge: Utrecht, The Verge: I can't wrap my feeble American brain around this massive bike parking garage in the Netherlands; and Helsinki, The Green Optimistic: Helsinki to Go Car Free by 2050 (August 20, 2019)
- Cities trying out new things in Canada: cycling network (Vancouver; Edmonton), popup bike lanes (Brampton, Calgary), widespread bike parking (Montreal), bikeshare systems (Toronto), subsidies to buy bikes (Granby), normalize and elevate cycling for regular daily trips to work (Victoria) and school (Hamilton)
REFLECTION
- Think about the trips you make in your city or community—is movement by car a must or preferred? Is the infrastructure in place to provide you with other options?
- Which areas of your city are primarily centred on movement by car? Who are the people for whom this works well? Who are the people who are disadvantaged by this priority?
E21 I Never Imagined You'd Know So Little
6 questions to ask at any time in your career in Beth's address to the Master of City Planning graduates at the University of Manitoba, June 2021. Images created for this episode can be found here.
E20 Make People Visible to Each Other
When we use technology like Zoom, even with a panel presentation, when we choose to allow participants to see each other we are allowing the community that has gathered to see each other and make further contact with itself. We choose to enable, rather than disable, community agency. Illustrations created for this episode can be found here.
E19 Regenerative City Circles
The new diagrams we use to describe our economic, social and ecological habitats reveal connections and understanding. Images created for this episode can be found here.
Resources:
- Kate Raworths's book: Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist
- The course: Foundations of Doughnut Economics
- Discount code for the course: enter CORDON50 for a 50% scholarship or CORDON100 for a 100% scholarship
E18 Social Habitat Competencies
Let’s release the binary ways we define city planning practice and grow our relationship skills (for the official and unofficial planners out there). Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
E17 Cities and Citizens are Perpetually Unfinished
9 practices to see, acknowledge and respond to our uneasy world. Images created for this article can be found in this article.
E16 Fighting in Infectious
The choice at hand for each of us: Which infection do I choose to spread? The anger and frustration that comes with fight drama, or the generative possibility that comes with exploring conflict? Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
E15 The Older Person I Want To Be
As Mother’s Day approaches, I want to be more aware of how my behaviour erodes the growth of younger people in my life, especially when I am feeling challenged, hurt, or left behind. Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
For more information about Edward Kelly and The Third Act:
- Kelly, Edward. "Introducing the Third Act of Life." The Third Act. Accessed May 4, 2021. http://thethirdact.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/What-is-the-third-act_1.pdf
- Kelly, Edward. "The Third Act: When There is No One Left to Blame," Accessed May 4, 2021. http://thethirdact.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/The-Third-Act-No-one-left-to-blame.pdf
E14 The City (and Humans) as Nature
Beth Sanders and Dustin Bajer celebrate Earth Week with a conversation about how the city habitats we create for ourselves make ecological contributions to our planet, Earth. What happens when we think of cities as a part of nature or even a product of nature? What happens when we think about urban agriculture and food forests, and urban tree nurseries in the city?
Dustin Bajer works to improve his city by examining the patterns of ecology found in urban environments. Dustin is an educator, master gardener, beekeeper, and tree farmer and is passionate about nature in the city. For the past year, Dustin has been mapping heritage trees with support from the Edmonton Heritage Council. He is presently creating a tree subscription service.
You can find Dustin on Twitter at @dustinbajer. And if you’re keen to learn more about Dustin’s work or to learn with him, visit dustinbajer.com.
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NOTE: The book mentioned by Dustin, Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution, is written by Menno Schilthuizen.
E13 Eight Ways I Engage in City Life
When it comes to improving our cities, we do not each need to be everywhere at once. We do not even need to have the same priorities because we benefit, individually and collectively, from simultaneously addressing multiple challenges. In this episode, I describe 8 choices I see for myself about how I participate in city life, from being oblivious, a spectator, or an active part of efforts to improve our experience of the city.
Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
E12 A Welcoming City has Transportation Choices
Making room for equitable transportation choices involves being open to meeting the movement needs of many. Photos, and images created for this episode, can be found in this article.
E11 Care Out in the Open
The opposite of lockdown behaviour, which has us operating from fear and insecurity, is connection and relationship. Instead of withdrawing from community life, we contribute; we care out in the open.Protection feeds my fear of other humans. Being neighbourly feeds my desire to connect with other humans. Images for this episode can be found in this article.
E10 Cities: A Practice of Mutual Agency
Mutual agency fosters sovereignty in self and others because it means actively looking to work with others who have different views. Mutual agency enables a generosity that seeds our regenerative future. Images for this episode can be found in this article.
E9 Identities Shape City Planners
Beth Sanders and Jason Syvixay investigate how their locational, gender, sexual orientation, age and racial identities shape their experience of cities, their work as city planners and implications for the planning profession. (Note: you don’t have to be a city planner to enjoy this conversation!)
Jason Syvixay believes that cities need to foster a culture that balances the voices of the loudest and the quietest people in the city. He works as a planner at the City of Edmonton, focusing on infill development, zoning, and equity while working on his Ph.D. in urban and regional planning. Jason prioritizes engagement between builders, developers, architects and impacted residents. And he encourages the city’s decision-makers to dive into urban debate and discussion, not shy away from them.
Through various media platforms, Jason convenes dialogue around pressing urban issues, allowing for a thoughtful exchange of ideas to occur across geography, gender, generational, and racial transects. You will enjoy Jason’s Twitter feed: @DowntownJason
E8 Prescribe and Enable
In my quest to figure out how planners and everyone else in the city can work better together, I’ve learned the magic of finding the minimal critical structure that enables new possibilities. Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
E7 Stories of the City
Soni Dasmohapatra builds inclusive platforms for transformative change. She works with individuals, public service institutions and community agencies to develop tools that incorporate strategy, design, wellness and art. You can find Soni at www.sonidasmohapatra.com. And you should check out her Instagram feed: @YEGsthan.
The Skirts Afire exhibit Soni spoke about in this episode can be found at skirtsafire.com. The 25-minute film—a visual art exhibit—is available until March 31, 2021.
E6 Let's Exercise Our Inquiry Muscles
Improving our cities requires us to be in a better relationship with ourselves: our intentions, actions, and the consequences of our actions. Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
E5 Down the Rabbit Hole #1
Beth Sanders and Hilary Van Welter explore Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter's Tea Party, only to understand that disruption and clarity co-exist. Hilary is CEO of the Ascentia Collaborative, a place of exploration, experimentation and enterprise. She believes that the clues to a wonderful future are hidden in plain sight. Hilary thrives at the intersections of disciplines as a designer and leader of city projects, be they outdoor space redesign, public policy or entrepreneurial programs. Her work always involves weaving together different perspectives and knowledge in ways that allow people to find enriching, inventive answers to the significant challenges of our tumultuous world.
E4 Choose a Direction for the City
The implementation of Edmonton’s city plan requires a culture change—inside and outside city hall. And it all hinges on how we handle accountability and shame. Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
E3 Think, Make, Do
E2 Disrupt the Story of the Land
I am part of the culture that propagates this old story: we settler people are better than Indigenous people. Images created for this episode can be found in this article.
E1 City Making With Women
How a speaking engagement shifted from city “building for” women to city “making with” women. Images created for this episode can be found in this article.