Answer to a Question for Your Consideration

 

“From your years of experience, what do you believe is the most overlooked principle in designing cities that genuinely serve the people who live in them?”

We do not understand the relationship between shelter capacity, intensity, activity, and revenue on and from every parcel throughout a city. These parcels produce revenue per acre whose average must equal the total expense per acre a city needs to sustain a desired quality of life also referred to as “beneficial context”. These parcels are cells in an anatomy that do not grow from divine direction. We are expected to lead them to form a symbiotic presence with their source of life.

This leadership direction cannot be accomplished without public investment in data correlation, mathematical translation, and mapping that permits daily evaluation and adjustment planning focused on beneficial physical, social, and economic context that some call urban design. The bottom line is political support for an effort that will not show immediate results. The focus must first concentrate on increased knowledge. It is not an easy "sell”.

Walter M. Hosack, October 2026

Image credit: Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chan