12/12/2018 5 steps to making better cities

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Any city can push itself to be be er, but theySubscribe
usually go through this learning curve first.

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BY B R E N T TO D E R I A N
6 MINUTE READ

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12/12/2018 5 steps to making better cities

One of the most common questions I get asked is “what are the best cities in the world?” I have a
few different answers, but I usually look to shift the conversation to a question I think is more
interesting: Which cities out there are doing remarkable things to get much better right now?

Since most of my work around the world advising cities on what I call “advanced urbanism” is in its
simplest sense about helping cities get better, inspiring examples of recent successful urban change
can be worth their weight in gold. On the other hand, cities that have been great for a really long time
can ironically be less helpful as examples, as they can be too easy for cynics to write off. How often
have you heard this one: “Come on, [insert great city here] has always been like that! We could never
be like [insert great city here]!”

Plus let’s be honest: Great cities can easily rest on their laurels, coasting on smart decisions made
decades or even hundreds of years ago. Think New York before Mayor Bloomberg, or Paris before
Mayors Delanoë and Hidalgo. Or maybe your own city comes to mind. But the cities out there that
are currently doing bold, creative things to get better–whether they’re currently great or not–those
are inspiring, and hard for any city to ignore.

Every city in the world is going through a learning curve, working hard to improve, albeit from very
different starting points. It’s true that “better” is open to opinion and debate (including answering the
really important question, “better for whom?”), and even when the difference between better and
worse is well proven, some cities sadly are still doubling down on the wrong path (more freeways,
anyone?). But I find even those cities with clear visions of what better means can easily struggle with
the “how” part, and the fact that the path to success is often not a straight line.

Over many years working with cities at all points in that learning curve, I’ve developed a simple
conversation starter that I call the “five steps toward better cities.” I’ve found it can help break the
ice around how to improve, if people are really honest about where they’re starting from.

Dallas freeways  [Photo: kanonsky/iStock]

STEP 1: DOING THE WRONG THINGS

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Sadly, many cities still exhibit plenty of evidence of being stuck in this step: Picture every city out
there, from Dallas to Melbourne, that’s still building new freeways in and through cities; widening
already too wide roads; or building more low-density, car-dependent subdivisions and retail power
centers. There’s ample evidence of the costs and consequences of continuing these wrongheaded
practices, but decision-makers keep doing them anyway, often due to wrong-headed rules and
policies, market momentum, silo thinking, or just poor leadership. Really achieving better cities
requires that we not only start doing the right things, but also stop doing the wrong things–which
can often be harder.

“We don’t need to fund transit because we’ll all be riding in driverless cars in a few years.” [Photo: Flickr user Roman
Boed]

STEP 2: DOING THE WRONG THINGS “BETTER”

This one usually generates the most interesting discussions, both in and outside city halls. Cities can
put remarkable energy and effort into avoiding having to change what they’ve been doing, so it can
be seductively easy to pat ourselves on the back for finding ways to do those wrong things better. A
favorite example is electric and driverless cars–in other words, “better cars”–when the right answer
is fewer cars. Or by extension, Elon Musk’s initial pitch to build better tunnels with a better borer in
order to move better (and many more) cars underneath our cities. I’ve had too many mayors insist to
me that they don’t need to fund transit because we’ll “all be riding in driverless cars in a few years”
(we won’t).

Other examples in a city design context include wide arterial “car sewers” with lovely landscaped
medians, or huge surface parking lots with guidelines that insist on nicer landscaping between cars
(I myself fought for these while working in Calgary, because at the time I wasn’t able to achieve the
right answer: much less parking). High-profile protagonists like Musk can be powerful feeders of this
“wrong thing better” narrative, distracting decision-makers from the right fundamental solutions, like
better land-use decisions and smart investments in multimodal infrastructure.

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Denver’s new light rail–and extra-wide highway. [Photo: Flickr user David Wilson]

STEP 3: TRYING TO HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO

Cities in this step have started to invest in better things, like transit and biking infrastructure, and
putting in place the right policies, like smarter decisions on land use. But at the same time they
continue to do the wrong things, and usually bigger. A favorite example is Denver’s decision to build
a new light rail line, while at the same time widening the highway beside it and requiring massive
parking structures at LRT stations. How about Brisbane, Australia, investing in bus rapid transit and
a bike-lane “freeway” under their elevated waterfront expressway (which they really should tear
down), while still spending most of their transportation money trying to make it easier to drive. Cities
stuck in this step are often frustrated that they’re not seeing actual progress–like mode shift from
driving to transit ridership. But that really isn’t surprising, since they won’t make the hard choices
that lead to the kind of city they describe in their visions and plans.

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Is a bike lane that goes nowhere valuable? [Photo: Flickr user Ash Kyd]

STEP 4: DOING THE RIGHT THINGS BADLY

A step I’ve recently added, after countless conversations, is about whether initially doing something
that’s right badly is worse than not doing it at all. Think about those bike-lane or transit experiments
that were poorly designed, or didn’t really connect much with much. When they failed, or
underperformed, what did that do to the infrastructure conversations that came after? It’s true that if
something is done badly enough, it can easily set back the idea by years or even a generation.
(“See? I told you that was a horrible idea! We’ll never try that again!”) But it’s also true that smart,
strategic cities have found great success with well-orchestrated experiments and pilots, or just
learning from ordinary, everyday “competent failure” within a culture that embraces creative risk and
faster learning. Becoming nimble when it comes to learning and fixing things is a badly needed
culture change that many city halls need work on. In the meantime though, I’d rather have cities
doing the right thing badly (at first), than continuing to do the wrong thing better.

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The learning curve doesn’t end when you’re successful .[Photo: Aditya Chinchure/Unsplash]

STEP 5: DOING THE RIGHT THINGS WELL

Even when you finally get to the point when you’re doing the right things, and doing them well, the
learning curve doesn’t end there. A culture of continuous learning and improvement is needed. The
good news is that the ‘”seduction of success” is helpful: Just look at how many of the world cities
generally considered successful, like Barcelona, London, Vienna, Buenos Aires, New York,
Stockholm, Melbourne, Vancouver, and Copenhagen, are still working hard to outdo each other and
get even better. They love the results (and attention) that real improvement earns them, and they
want to go even further!

So where is your city on this learning curve? Before you answer, remember these steps aren’t
intended to be absolute descriptions of a city. A city can be sitting on all five simultaneously when
discussing different elements of city-making.

Every city can choose to make different decisions and can choose to transform itself. The first step
often involves a candid conversation about where it is, and where it’ll end up if it doesn’t change
course. I hope these five steps and the ensuing conversations help your city.

Brent Toderian is a global thought-leader on cities, an acclaimed city planner and urbanist with
Toderian UrbanWorks advising cities and progressive developers all over the world, and the former
chief city planner for Vancouver. Follow him on Twitter @BrentToderian.

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1 2 .1 2 .1 8 10:00 AM S EC R E T S O F T H E M OS T P RO D U C T I V E P EO P L E

This is what kind of music you should listen to at

work to be more productive
What kind of music helps you get things done, why we gravitate to certain songs, how to
match your music to your task, and why silence is still golden.

[Photo: Annie Spra /Unsplash]

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BY JA R E D L I N DZO N
4 MINUTE READ

Numerous studies have confirmed that listening to music can improve productivity, but new research
suggests that some genres are more motivating than others.

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The most popular music for improving productivity, according to a study by CloudCover Music, is
classic rock, followed by alternative and pop. On the other hand, hip-hop, heavy metal, EDM, and
country were considered the most distracting.

“It really is up to an individual’s preference,” says Meg Piedmont, a project manager for CloudCover
Music, who helped put the study together. “It’s about creating your own workspace, personalized to
what will allow you to do the best work you can do.”

Piedmont points to hip-hop to demonstrate how subjective the impact of music can be on the
individual listener. While 21.1% labeled the genre “productive,” making it the fifth favorite in the
workplace, 37.7% of respondents said it was “distracting,” making it simultaneously the most
detested.

One thing most respondents agreed on is that music is preferred over any other background noise in
the workplace, with 94% of respondents saying they listen to music at work, compared with 42%
that listen to radio, 35% that listen to podcasts, 25% that listen to news, and 15% that listen to
audiobooks and sports.

HOW HEADPHONES BECAME A STANDARD WORK ACCESSORY

According to Piedmont, there are a number of converging trends that are making headphones a
standard workplace accessory. Open-office layouts might help the real estate budget, but they also
result in a lot of noise pollution. In fact, 30% of respondents admitted to using headphones at work
primarily to cancel out background noise, while 46% said they used them to avoid conversation with
colleagues.

“Listening to music with headphones might help people keep focused and feeling like they have their
own space in an open workplace,” says Piedmont. “It’s also really easy to have access to music
these days—it’s usually right on your phone or right on your computer for free—and the easy access
might also be a reason why we’re seeing more people listening more frequently throughout the day.”

According to the study, 82.2% of respondents are permitted to listen to their personal music in the
workplace using headphones. Of those listening to some form of audio in the workplace, roughly
42% listen throughout the entire day, 39.5% listen a couple of times a day, and about 19% listen a
couple of times per week.

NOSTALGIA DRIVES LISTENING HABITS 

Music can help bring colleagues together, according to the study, but it can also push them apart.
Roughly 26% of respondents judged their coworkers for their music preference, but 59% of
employees and 65% of employers believe music helps them connect with their coworkers.

The difference often comes down to nostalgia and association, according to Teresa Lesiuk, the
director of the music therapy program at the University of Miami.

“There’s what we call an ‘associative memory network,’ so if you have memories with a piece of
music, that’s going to attach to memory nodes, to emotional nodes in the brain,” she says. “Music
that creates associations is very powerful.”

Lesiuk adds that perhaps the most popular genres in the workplace—such as classic rock,
alternative, and pop—are actually just the most nostalgic.

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“The music from your 20s, when you’re very active and are having an identity formation taking place,
that tends to be the most powerful to people,” she says. “It makes sense then that classic rock and
alternative and maybe now hip-hop are popular, as the population gets older.”

SILENCE IS STILL GOLDEN

Despite the trend toward more music at work, the best background noise for concentrating for
important workplace tasks is silence, according to author and researcher Josh Davis.

“In almost every circumstance where you’re trying to do knowledge work, where you need to be
focused, you’re better off with silence,” he says.

In Davis’s book, Two Awesome Hours, he explores ways to maximize the individual’s two most
productive hours of the day, explaining that environmental factors like noise can have a significant
impact on productivity.

“For the stuff that is really going to move your career forward, the stuff that’s really going to make
you successful, for that you really need to be at your best, so I would push for silence for your two
awesome hours,” says Davis, who has contributed to Fast Company. “For the rest of the day, put on
music that makes you feel most pleasant or productive, that makes it easier to get through the stuff
that might be less pleasant but has to get done.”

THE RIGHT PLAYLIST FOR THE RIGHT TASK

When silence isn’t an option, however, both Davis and Lesiuk suggest trying to match the genre with
the task at hand.

“There’s certain kinds of creative work where it’s not about focused attention, but being creative in
more of an artistic sense,” says Davis. “For that, having some background noise has been shown to
free people up from constraints, precisely because they are a little distracted.”

Lesiuk advises workers to consider several factors when choosing a playlist, including internal
factors like mood, personality type, and personal preferences, as well as external variables like the
nature of the task and the work environment.

“Let’s say it’s a boring task, but you’re highly stressed when you approach it; you have to take care
of that mood state first,” she says. “You could match the music to the state that you’re in first so that
you can reflect into the music, and then you might want to slowly choose music that will bring that
mood state toward being more relaxed.”

Lesiuk’s research has also found that music can be effective in combating drowsiness and a
generally negative affect, thus improving workplace performance.

“Whatever the genre you choose, find something that is a bit more up-tempo, something that has a
melody and rhythm that moves a lot, because those properties will make you more alert,” she says.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jared Lindzon is a freelance journalist born, raised and residing in Toronto, covering technology, entrepreneurship,
entertainment and more for a wide variety of publications in Canada, the United States and around the world. When

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he's not playing with gadgets, interviewing entrepreneurs or traveling to music festivals and tech conferences you can
usually find him diligently practicing his third-person bio writing skills. More

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