Want to Invigorate Community Engagement? Break out the Building Blocks.

From 2005 to 2008, I worked as a city planner and urban designer for the City of Los Angeles. When I scan through memories of my post-community-meeting drives home during those years, the recurring theme is a feeling of acute hopelessness. In one instance, I was driving down the I-10 freeway back from Venice after making a presentation, in the gym of a community center, on a new design overlay for one of the ugliest streets in the United States, Lincoln Boulevard. We had put together a thoughtful presentation on, among other topics, urban design principles regarding street-width-to-building-height ratios that make for a more satisfying pedestrian experience; on zoning and how it affects building uses and heights; and on the concept of mixed-use buildings (retail on the ground floor, housing up top).