Living On The Edge
The Edge... There's no way to explain it. The only people who really know where it is are the ones who've already gone over. Living on the edge, we're at a low point in history in how we'll shape our cities. That's a hot topic these days. There's a global debate about making cities look the same. That same argument is pushing the idea of what modern is and what development means. There's pressure to order and organize chaotic streets and communities that is undermining emergent creativity. It's top-down architecture to the detriment of places and communities. At least, that's the way it's been. But now it seems that policymakers and thinkers have changed their minds and entered a new philosophical cycle that's reassessing the old idea of the city.
There's great demand for places that people want to be in. The population is shifting. The Census Bureau finds the USA's urban core is getting denser. There's a lot more to the urban core now than 20 years ago. Why? If a system becomes too homogenous, it becomes vulnerable to environmental shifts. If one form is dominant, and that form no longer works in the new environment, the entire system is at risk. Realizing that authentic and unique places will succeed in the future, the nation had to learn how to build cities a second time.
City governments, investors and developers spent a generation building less disruptive mass transit and figuring out how to create more appealing spaces. That was no simple task. Innovation has always been a primary challenge to leadership. But they decided to adapt and to create-to innovate. It's changing the world, collective innovation, culture change and community creativity, I mean . . . it's out there. Change in meaning. Every change, every burst of creativity, begins with a problem that somebody finds meaningful. Organizations and people are not machines. Moving into a living systems paradigm, organizational change is not a problem. It actually is possible to create organizations filled with people who are adaptable. This new world of continuous change requires new ways of understanding, of experimenting.
We are our only hope for creating a future worth working for. But we can't go it alone, we can't get there without each other. The only path to creating more innovative workplaces and communities is by depending on one another. People want to help. People want to contribute. Everyone wants to feel creative and hopeful again.