Planning for the Unplanned

Lempel explains the reasons she believes cities need to let go of current ideas of property ownership and economics and get more flexible:

"One need not look further than the foreclosed, overbuilt sprawl in America's sunbelt, or the massive disinvestment of rustbelt cities that banked on the future of a single industry, to understand the profound implications of a single, totalizing, growth-oriented narrative. We could imagine what it may mean for shrinking and growing to be dynamic components of the same process of change. Many current urban practices, such as urban agriculture or greenway reclamation, can be seen as a new narrative that embraces economic cycles as a productive tool for sustainability and livability."