Author: Boting (Bo) Zhang
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Social Conscience in Columbus, OH
What counts as a thoughtful effort in a gentrifying neighborhood? In Columbus, I set out to investigate a few different takes on socially conscientious development. I learned something about how hard it can be to write hopefully and pragmatically at the same time….
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The Hierarchy of Nobel-Prize-worthiness
Why is it so hard to find developer success stories in combating gentrification? In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith explored the cultural milieu that produces our sense of right and wrong. In this work, which laid the groundwork for The Wealth of Nations, Smith notes that it’s human nature to seek praise and praise-worthiness. This basic tendency, he supposes, forms…
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Tim McDonald, Onion Flats—Philadelphia, PA
Can a single design- and environmentally-conscious developer influence others? Tim McDonald runs Onion Flats with his three partners. Trained as an architect, Tim co-founded the Philadelphia-based alongside his brother. “As a developer,” he says, “every project I’ve ever done has been an opportunity to explore something. I’m a design-driven developer, and I come at it from…
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Machinebrain & Gardenbrain
What the heck is development culture, anyway? And why are we so interested in it? I was quite excited to see Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau list The Gardens of Democracy as one of his two favorite nonfiction titles. This under-sung little book has deeply influenced how Brian and I think about urban development, using a concept called “Gardenbrain”.…
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How to encourage collaborative development, organically
This was once posted on Crosscut. Since that link is now broken, this is the full post. Neighborhood development is fascinating work. The people who choose to spend their lives making places for people can be motivated by many factors beyond simple financial advancement. Yet planning policy provides only numerical parameters for good behavior, creating a…
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In support of inefficiency
This was once posted on Crosscut, but I’m posting here as that link is now broken. This reposted essay ends somewhat abruptly, as I truncated the ending, which transitioned into amplifying Crosscut’s fundraising campaign in 2014. In discussing the merits of urban growth, we sometimes forget to distinguish between two very different kinds of density:…