Last fall I moderated a panel on the city of tomorrow at Propmodo’s Building the Future event that was part of NYC Real Estate Tech Week. Propmodo is a trade publication focused on the proptech industry. Proptech is heavily concentrated in a few cities like NYC. But if you are in the real estate business, following the proptech world in Propmodo or elsewhere helps give you a sense of the profound change in the real estate business being driven by technology.
In the panel we talk about the disconnect between the radically different urban futures envisioned in the past vs. the more incremental change we’ve experienced, how to design with unknown future changes in mind, and how to bring the digital to the physical. Panelists included Andrea Lamberti, a principal with Rafael Viñoly Architects; John Macomber, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School; and Michael Hendrix, who runs state and local policy for the Manhattan Institute. If the video doesn’t display for you, click over to watch on Youtube.
I really enjoyed watching this, especially Michael Hendrix of the Manhattan Institute, who is extremely articulate. A number of interesting points, including how to get the “grid” right, either at the building or the city level, to allow for growth; creating new buildings systems that allow for change, such as basements that flood as global warming increases; and the democratization of data, such as users monitoring their own air quality. The most thought-provoking comment came from Aaron, who questioned how we make institutions more responsive to change. That latter isn’t a question such much of what they do but of how they act.
Significant changes in the administration, infrastructure, and organization of cities won’t happen until a majority of a city’s residents support it, or at least stop opposing it. They have to see something in it for them. Otherwise, they will exercise one of the few levers of power they have in the globalized economy, the nimby power to veto things in their local governments. None of this discussion matters until voters and property owners allow local governments to do them. It’s not a lack of vision, it’s a lack of democratic political legitimacy in local governments.