Transcript exported from the video version of this episode - Note that it has not been copyedited

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:13
Mallory Baches
This was a retrofit of an existing main street that, as you can see, was not particularly conducive to walking and biking, shopping, enjoying that center of the city. And another another well-known urbanist design firm, Moule & Polyzoides provided what we would call a highway to a boulevard.

00:00:26:22 - 00:00:49:05
John Simmerman
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Podcast. I'm John Simmerman, and that is Mallory Baches, president of Seeing you, the Congress for the New Urbanism. And Mallory is going to share with all of you what seeing you is all about and the upcoming meeting that is going to be happening in Charlotte, North Carolina. So without further ado, let's get right to it with Mallory.

00:00:49:05 - 00:00:58:07
John Simmerman
Enjoy. Mallory, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.

00:00:58:22 - 00:01:01:18
Mallory Baches
John Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

00:01:01:18 - 00:01:06:21
John Simmerman
So Mallory, I love to have my guests just give a quick introduction. So who is Mallory?

00:01:08:02 - 00:01:36:09
Mallory Baches
You bet. So I'm Mallory Bachus. I'm the president of the new Congress for the New Urbanism. I just took the helm with my colleague Margaret Gattis, who's our executive director. We took the helm as of January, and so we're early into the role. I actually worked at San U for three years. From 2018 to 2021. I was the director of strategic development at the time.

00:01:36:09 - 00:02:02:01
Mallory Baches
So this is coming back to an organization that I know, but also building on my background. I have a degree in architecture and a master's in sustainable urban development. It really and 20 some years of urban design practice as well as a new urbanist. And so it's really sort of feels like a culmination of a lot of the experience that I've had leading up to this moment.

00:02:02:01 - 00:02:18:21
Mallory Baches
And now I'm excited to lead an organization that I was a dyed in the wool Northerners. I became a member as soon as I graduated from college. I started working at 20 players. I work and have been going to Congresses and a part of this movement ever since. So it feels like coming off.

00:02:19:09 - 00:02:30:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I remember the very first day that you and I, you know, had a chance to to meet out in, in your neck of the woods. And it was, I believe it was on this day.

00:02:31:18 - 00:02:36:07
Mallory Baches
I think that might have been I recall that day very clearly. Yep.

00:02:36:11 - 00:03:01:00
John Simmerman
That's me. Yeah, that's you. And obviously that's, that's Lynne. There are previous leader from a few years back and that was a very special day because that was the last time the Congress was, you know, there in the Carolinas, so to speak. It was actually in Savannah, Georgia, but we were in South Carolina at that moment.

00:03:01:09 - 00:03:20:04
Mallory Baches
Yeah, that's right. And I was actually living in South Carolina at the time that that photo is from a very early new urbanist. Greenfield development called Habersham in Buford, South Carolina, where I live for 16 years. And yeah, it was one of the. And there.

00:03:20:04 - 00:03:21:11
John Simmerman
We are. We're rolling in.

00:03:21:12 - 00:03:46:25
Mallory Baches
Yeah, yeah. It's a it's a beautiful place to live. It is both, you know, highly surrounded by nature has it has a you feel very connected to your your environmental surroundings there. But it also is this little bastion of density in in an otherwise pretty rural part of the country. So it was a great place to live. It was a great place.

00:03:46:25 - 00:04:14:09
Mallory Baches
I have a 17 year old daughter, a great place to raise her. And I remember that day exploring, touring and talking about all of the all of the lessons learned from Habersham. It was I think the charrette for that project was in 1996. So it was it was one of the early examples and and and then y'all did that amazing bike ride on into Savannah where I live now.

00:04:14:09 - 00:04:39:01
Mallory Baches
So yeah, that was a that was a great that was a great experience. I think one of the really interesting things to me about this part of the country and Charlotte represents this to some extent as well as that it's, it's an area that there's a lot of really interesting examples and precedents of what New Urbanism has learned from and then also what, you know, examples of an organism itself.

00:04:39:01 - 00:04:54:10
Mallory Baches
And so whether it was back in and seeing you 26 in Savannah or whether we're looking to see a new 31 in Charlotte here in a couple of months, I think it's a great place to learn about the principles that we all design around.

00:04:55:04 - 00:05:20:04
John Simmerman
So speaking of which, let's let's dive into, you know, kind of what see new is what these principles are. Regular listeners and viewers of the podcast here at Active Towns. Hear me talk about or mention seeing you in passing multiple times. And we've had, you know, Victor Dover on a couple of times. Lynne has been on the audio only version.

00:05:20:23 - 00:05:37:09
John Simmerman
You know, once Chuck Moran's been on the video podcast and multiple times and we we mentioned it in passing, but why don't you take this opportunity to kind of introduce to the listeners and the viewers alike as to what seeing you is?

00:05:37:21 - 00:06:28:25
Mallory Baches
Yeah, absolutely. Well, for folks who don't know, we are a membership based, nonprofit, national scale. Our mission is to champion walkable, sustainable equity, supportive urbanism. And our membership represents a broad, a very diverse set of professional practitioners, folks from the development industry, from the policy, from the design industries. We have urban designers like my background, we have transportation engineers, we have policy directors, municipal staff members, folks who are actually our developers themselves really runs the gamut of people who are invested in creating more walkable, more sustainable, more equitable communities around in their hometown and across the country.

00:06:29:26 - 00:06:47:19
John Simmerman
Interesting. And I like to try to make a comparison because when we say the term new urbanism, people sometimes get a little confused because when they look at it, they look at these visuals that we see here and they're like, well, wait a minute. That that looks like the old stuff.

00:06:48:05 - 00:06:48:14
Mallory Baches
Yeah.

00:06:49:20 - 00:06:50:22
John Simmerman
Just a little bit.

00:06:51:04 - 00:07:50:04
Mallory Baches
How does that work? Yeah. So if you look back, the movement is as a as a collective where we're celebrating and seeing you as an organization is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, founded in 1993. But the movement really coalesce around the idea that that era in time development, real estate development was completely prioritizing automobile dependency and prioritizing single use land patterns and the the founders of our movement, the early participants in this movement, looked to historical examples of how cities had been built and were, as a result, more efficient, more walkable, more accessible, created a better quality of life, and said, How can we learn from those examples and then apply that to new

00:07:50:04 - 00:08:21:15
Mallory Baches
development and redevelopment in our cities and towns? And and what you see over the course of the last 30 years is both a focused advocacy towards reinvesting in our center cities and also retrofitting our our land, our auto dependent land use suburbs. And, you know, the challenges that we have taken on in 30 years, 30 plus years have changed over time.

00:08:21:15 - 00:08:40:10
Mallory Baches
There are there areas where New Urbanism has really been successful in in moving the status quo. But there are also areas where we have a lot of work to do and where we have a lot of contribution to make much broader challenges that cities are facing, that new urbanism has a voice and a stake in.

00:08:40:24 - 00:09:30:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, and you said the magic words there in terms of, you know, creating walkable, bikeable places, you know, building places that people love. And we see here in one of the articles that is, you know, actually highlighted on the landing page here at the website. And again, this website is seeing you dorji see New York and and, you know, quote unquote, debunking the 15 minute city conspiracy that just popped up, you know, primarily driven by something that was happening over in the U.K. But the point being is that, yeah, I mean, these are traditional land development, village city patterns that emerged prior to the development of the automobile and the automobile coming in into into

00:09:30:07 - 00:10:01:25
John Simmerman
into play and in other mobility things as well. You know, certainly, you know, streetcars and trains, you know, had had its impact on habitation as well. But yeah, this concept of, yeah, you should be able to meet your daily needs by, you know, being able to walk to meaningful destinations. And that's the way we built our villages and towns, you know, for literally thousands of years until the automobile came along and then that sort of mix things up.

00:10:01:25 - 00:10:13:25
John Simmerman
So, yeah, I like to say when I when I try to explain to somebody what I mean by New Urbanism, like, well, actually, you know, it's kind of like the way humans used to build villages, traditional development patterns.

00:10:14:02 - 00:10:37:10
Mallory Baches
That's right. That's right. Very true. Very true. We we we sometimes laugh that, you know, the the process of naming what this movement is about is very, very clear as to what we're attempting to to impact. And also sometimes leaves people a little confused as to what we're referencing. And so I appreciate the clarity.

00:10:37:23 - 00:10:50:14
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah. And the other thing that we do that adds some confusion is the organization is called the Congress for the New Urbanism. And when we get together, it's called a Congress and the Congress.

00:10:50:14 - 00:11:13:15
Mallory Baches
That's right. It is not a conference. It's a Congress. That is very true. And you know that for folks who have been to a Congress and particularly folks who are at many of the early Congresses, and it's common practice in our in our movement to talk about what was your first Congress, you know, sort of what was your indoctrination point?

00:11:13:15 - 00:11:18:03
Mallory Baches
Right. When did you tell your mind? When was your is John?

00:11:18:03 - 00:11:21:05
John Simmerman
I want to know. So mine was West Palm Beach.

00:11:21:18 - 00:11:23:16
Mallory Baches
Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

00:11:23:28 - 00:11:25:18
John Simmerman
That little over a decade ago.

00:11:25:18 - 00:11:49:25
Mallory Baches
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Mine was mine was San U9, which would have been New York City, which was sort of an outlier to have the Congress and, you know, one of the largest cities in the country. Right. We often find ourselves, you know, in an in cities like, you know, Savannah or Providence, Rhode Island, or.

00:11:50:22 - 00:11:53:00
John Simmerman
What we did and we did Detroit.

00:11:53:00 - 00:11:54:09
Mallory Baches
We did Detroit.

00:11:54:09 - 00:11:56:14
John Simmerman
We did Buffalo, too. So, you know.

00:11:56:14 - 00:12:34:16
Mallory Baches
Yeah, Yeah. As an organization, we try to move around the country not just because it makes us more accessible to different audiences and because it gives us, you know, different learning experiences. But because I think the geographies of this country lend themselves to both very general challenges and also really specific challenges. And so I think, you know, it it it's a it's a benefit to going to different parts of the country and learning about what they're facing and, you know, trying to take those lessons home to wherever you live and work.

00:12:34:29 - 00:12:44:15
John Simmerman
Yeah. And we can see the pin marks here of the past Congress locations. And unfortunately, I missed it when it was here in in Austin.

00:12:44:20 - 00:12:46:22
Mallory Baches
In Austin. And I remember that one.

00:12:46:27 - 00:12:53:16
John Simmerman
It was pre prior to my my, my discovering it, it might have even been just like the year before.

00:12:53:23 - 00:13:12:02
Mallory Baches
I think it really was or right around there, because I was going to say that my daughter, I think that was her first Congress. She's now 17 years old but she she came to that. We were we were pushing her her baby carriage around the streets of Austin for that one.

00:13:12:02 - 00:13:46:07
John Simmerman
That's fantastic. And and and to highlight again how the locations get selected as an attendee, my sense is that it's it's a place where it may not be considered, quote, quote unquote, the perfect place. You know, we've got like Oklahoma City, last year's a Congress location is an example, but there's some sort of momentum. There's some sort of a local examples of being able to point to.

00:13:46:07 - 00:14:28:02
John Simmerman
So like in the case of Oklahoma City, I had the opportunity to to shadow a victor Dover doing a walking tour of the Wheeler district as a development that sort of looks at some of these concepts of yes, sometimes there's going to be a redevelopment, sometimes there's going to be a greenfield greenfield development, and there's an opportunity to try to build in some of this traditional development pattern in that location and hopefully keep our fingers crossed that it's within walking and biking distances to the the downtown area, which, by the way, the Wheeler district is walking by or it's not walk, it's biking distance messengers.

00:14:28:04 - 00:14:31:06
Mallory Baches
Sure, it's intrepid. You know. Oh yeah.

00:14:31:06 - 00:14:46:24
John Simmerman
If you're in traffic. Yeah. But yeah. So talk a little bit more about that sort of concept of, you know, these Congress locations being a nice platform for trying to exemplify and solidify what we're talking about in the Congress.

00:14:47:02 - 00:15:21:01
Mallory Baches
Yeah, absolutely. So and I'll talk about it in terms of Charlotte, our upcoming Congress, which is May 31st to June 3rd this year. And, you know, Charlotte is a really interesting city to study from an urban perspective. It's it's a city that, you know, as we have announced the Congress and begun talking about it, a lot of folks have said to us, a lot of folks from other parts of the country have said to us, wow, you know, I'm excited to go see Charlotte because I've been to the airport many, many times, passing through and I've never made it into the city.

00:15:21:21 - 00:15:46:05
Mallory Baches
Charlotte is the 15th largest city in the country. I think it's the third largest, third, fastest growing metro area in the country. But it also has. And so, you know, because of that, it has a lot of immediate examples of what is happening and how they are transforming that city. But it also has a great history of planning.

00:15:46:05 - 00:16:23:23
Mallory Baches
It has street car neighborhoods outside of its core downtown, immediately outside of its core downtown, designed by John Nolan, famous urban designer John Nolan. It has some Olmstead Brothers work examples that folks can take a look at. It also has some very some very early and sort of the continuation to the present examples of Norman US work. Vermillion is a greenfield neighborhood in Huntersville, which is North of the city and was a very early Donnie Clayton, cyber well-known Auburn US firm.

00:16:23:23 - 00:16:50:19
Mallory Baches
It's a very early Deepsea Greenfield development design and Birkdale Village is again north of the city. It's a it's a town center, a new town center that's that's been designed and developed. Now, all of these places are going to be part of the tours that we offer during the Congress so folks can go out and, you know, really kick the tires on on these different examples, whether they're long term historic examples or more recent urbanist examples.

00:16:50:28 - 00:17:23:16
Mallory Baches
But it also is a city that's working very hard on its immediate sort of reinvestment. And I'd love to talk about the theme of this Congress. We have a theme. We're reinstating a theme for the Congresses. This is something that happened many years in the past, and we're bringing it back because it gives us an opportunity to sort of focus on a problem space that many cities have and one that's, you know, very immediate in our in our local host city.

00:17:23:28 - 00:18:17:08
Mallory Baches
And so Charlotte's theme is corridors. And if you know Charlotte, it has these these orthogonal boulevards, north, south, east and west boulevards that extend out from the center of the city and and sort of a longstanding regional design pattern around corridors, corridors of movement, corridors of investment, corridors of of transportation. And for us, it's an opportunity to look at that particular design element or that particular urban condition and focus on all of the multidisciplinary ways that our work touches corridors and the ways that we can we can innovate in order to improve how corridors are developed and redeveloped.

00:18:17:17 - 00:18:41:20
Mallory Baches
And so that that opportunity to address a challenge that Norman as practitioners face in a local host city, is part of how we select where we're going to and part of how we frame the content that we're bringing to the Congress and the sort of discussions and sessions and workshops and experiences that we're providing folks that come to the Congress.

00:18:42:12 - 00:18:53:24
John Simmerman
Great, great. And for folks who might be wondering where the heck is Charlotte? So what we're looking at here, you're there in Savannah and we're going to be a.

00:18:53:24 - 00:18:55:00
Mallory Baches
Little better.

00:18:55:04 - 00:19:11:00
John Simmerman
Zooming in right here. And this is Charlotte. And yes, so super excited about seeing this. This will be my first visit to Charlotte. This will be my first visit, I believe, to the state of North Carolina. So.

00:19:11:00 - 00:19:47:21
Mallory Baches
Oh, really? Well, I'm excited to have you have you join us? I'm excited for any of your listeners that are joining us in Charlotte. This is we're obviously four for my colleague Margaret and myself. This is a really exciting opportunity. It's our first Congress to to lead the movement through. And we've put a lot of heart into making this not just your typical, you know, panels and talking heads and and listening until you get tired and have to leave the hotel conference center sort of experience.

00:19:47:21 - 00:20:26:09
Mallory Baches
But really making it something where people leave the Congress feeling like they've been a part of exploring innovations, exploring solutions, exploring new toolkits that they can work on in their own practice, or that they can partner with folks that they network with at the Congress in order to expand their practice. All of that sense of collaboration and creative problem solving where we're putting an incredible amount of of of investment into and bringing this Congress back to what many of the many of our founders and and fellows and early participants in the movement describe.

00:20:26:09 - 00:20:43:29
Mallory Baches
It's just an incredible experi sense of of excitement and feeling like you're a part of making change. And that's really something that's fundamental to being in our business, is trying to change our cities for the better. So the Congress is our big first experience to be able to do that.

00:20:44:15 - 00:21:15:00
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah. And in getting back to the theme this year, of course, cause I think it's important to, to, to point out that, yes, I mean, whenever we're talking about human habitation and creating places, mobility is an issue. And the fact that we've mentioned earlier that, you know, building on a car centric pattern really, you know, kind of influence not only like where we were quote unquote, building or habitation, but also what the habitation looked like.

00:21:15:00 - 00:21:24:03
John Simmerman
So in looking putting a visual to a corridor situation, we use this this particular image. I think this is Lancaster, Is that correct?

00:21:24:03 - 00:22:09:11
Mallory Baches
It's Lancaster, California. That's right. This was a retrofit of an existing main street that, as you can see, was not particularly particularly conducive to walking, biking, shopping, enjoying that center of the city. And another another well-known urbanist design firm, Mullen Poly. So it is provided this what we would call a highway to boulevard. It's a it's a conversion of a car centric environment into a multimodal into a more pedestrian friendly, into a more enjoyable space to serve as the center of this town.

00:22:09:26 - 00:22:18:00
John Simmerman
Yeah. And I would even go so far as to say that this is you mentioned highway. I would even go so far as to say this was a strode convention.

00:22:18:15 - 00:23:06:25
Mallory Baches
Yes. Yes. So, yes, that for for folks that don't know a strode is is when you have what should be a street, which is an urban condition that should allow for walking and biking and and as well as vehicular movement. But all of the modalities because it's in an urban context and a road being out in a rural context where, you know, the main movement is going to be higher speed vehicular movement when those come together in a very Frankenstein fashion, or even as we like to call those roads in in somewhat cheeky appreciation for the fact that it may be the right thing somewhere else, but it's not the right thing in the middle

00:23:06:25 - 00:23:07:16
Mallory Baches
of the city.

00:23:07:29 - 00:23:25:15
John Simmerman
Yeah. You know, when when Chuck coined the term strode, he called it the the hybrid, the mashup of the road, the high spree. That highway a design pattern with the street which should be the platform for for building wealth. And it ends up becoming the futon of transportation.

00:23:26:04 - 00:23:27:07
Mallory Baches
Yeah exactly.

00:23:27:24 - 00:23:52:02
John Simmerman
Doesn't work well at all because you can't go fast really effectively It's it's not efficient ineffective that way. And it certainly undermines the ability to create a sense of place being able to provide that walkable, bikeable, all platform for vibrancy and vitality that we're trying to create here. Yeah, that's.

00:23:52:02 - 00:23:52:27
Mallory Baches
Right. That's right. Yeah.

00:23:54:06 - 00:24:03:27
John Simmerman
When you look at the challenge that the organization has, you know, it's looking forward, What are some of the things that you are thinking about?

00:24:04:12 - 00:24:35:19
Mallory Baches
Yeah, absolutely. Well, when when Margaret and I took the helm, our board empowered us to implement the strategic plan. That's Q currently has. And a little background on that is that I was at the venue, as was Margaret when the strategic plan was was drafted. It was voted on by the board. I believe the date, the exact date is March 13th of 2020.

00:24:35:19 - 00:25:15:21
Mallory Baches
Most folks will remember that week pretty clearly because that was really the last week before the COVID 19 pandemic became a change in all of our lives catastrophically. And as a result, like many nonprofits, seeing you pivoted to a very different ways of delivering our Congress, delivering our programmatic work, delivering resources to our members. And as the organization has evolved since that point, we have found that the strategic plans three pillars are just as relevant today as they were on that day.

00:25:15:21 - 00:26:01:09
Mallory Baches
On that last old way of doing things in 2020, the three pillars are legalizing walkable places and designing for a changing climate and supporting complete neighborhoods. And those three areas or sort of focal points for seeing you as an organization remain consistent with the challenges that we see cities are facing. We know that cities have land use, regulation laws that inhibit the type of walkable, bikeable, sustainable equity, supportive urbanism that we're seeking and municipalities have been attempting to reform those policies.

00:26:01:09 - 00:26:34:09
Mallory Baches
But it's a big job. It's it's difficult to take all of these different regulations, coordinate them in a way that ensures that the results will be a built environment that is comprehensively supportive of quality urbanism. There's a lot of work left to do. Seeing you has a long history of working in this space and will continue to do so in advancing existing programs that we have, like the Project for Code Reform, which works directly with municipalities to provide incremental bite size code added.

00:26:34:16 - 00:27:11:10
Mallory Baches
That will help sort of solve the biggest problems quickly. We also have our Highways to Boulevards program, which our main flagship product is the freeways Without Futures report that we publish every two years. The the latest, the eighth edition of that will be coming out in April. And what that is for folks who don't know is a jury process of identifying existing urban freeways that are segregated or are underutilized are damaging to the immediate urban environment.

00:27:11:10 - 00:27:50:10
Mallory Baches
They separate neighborhoods, they separate economies, they separate cities by race in many cases. And the the jury process identifies those freeways with the most potential and the most need to come down. And so that's another programmatic area. That's another area of work that we will continue into the future. But there's there the other two pillars are areas we're seeing you is charting in some ways charting new territory, starting with climate.

00:27:50:29 - 00:28:25:19
Mallory Baches
Designing for a change in climate is both something that I would argue is embedded in the Charter of Urbanism. The our charter is our sort of foundational document of 27 principles that underscore what it means to be walkable, sustainable equity, support of urbanism. And as you read through the principles of the charter, you you see that the the idea of designing for environmental sustainability is very much embedded in those principles.

00:28:26:04 - 00:29:23:17
Mallory Baches
But most folks that think about climate change don't necessarily focus on the impact that the urban realm so comprehensively has on how environmentally sustainable wherever you live, however you travel, wherever you work might be, and so can you has opportunity to really hold a voice in the role that design can play in impacting our climate outcomes. That's, you know, that's something that we're starting to see at the federal level and in policy documentation that the decarbonization blueprint that the Biden-Harris administration released in January, sort of showing how the country can meet its its decarbonization goals, outlines the role that land use planning has in meeting those goals.

00:29:23:17 - 00:29:57:07
Mallory Baches
The very central role. And so plan use task is to build programmatic outcomes to to create tools and resources and support mechanisms to deliver the the climate relevancy of urbanism. That's a big task. And that's something that that Margaret and I will be putting a lot of focus towards with the help of many of our members who are so much more knowledgeable than I would be in this space and know what works and doesn't work.

00:29:59:04 - 00:30:37:11
Mallory Baches
Additionally, that the support of complete neighborhoods really taps into something that we see across in cities across the country, which is that they're the affordability and accessibility of different neighborhoods in cities across the country. Is is there a striking difference from one to the next? And what that really means in in plain words is that we need more housing, we need more housing closer to places people work or live or need services from.

00:30:37:28 - 00:31:24:03
Mallory Baches
We need to ensure that that housing is connected to means of transportation, that they aren't car reliant, that we aren't pushing affordable housing to the outskirts of urban areas. And while that, you know, the the housing in the center city, the cost skyrockets and is pricing out anyone who might otherwise work or want access to those to those neighborhoods and that being able to look at urbanism in a way that supports diversity of place, diversity of people, diversity of views, diversity of transportation, diversity of service, diversity of amenity, diversity of ages, diversity of ability.

00:31:24:14 - 00:31:59:21
Mallory Baches
All of that complexity is what makes highly effective, highly sustainable urbanism. And so another area of growth for San you will be to help develop more tools to demonstrate what that looks like in policy form, what it looks like in built form and and who have it gathering the folks who have the expertise to to help cities, help designers, help communities have a more diverse, more more complete neighborhoods.

00:32:00:12 - 00:32:22:12
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I want to come back to to this image here, which is actually as the Congress we actually do have a charter. You mentioned it earlier. And so 30 years ago, this charter came into place and it is a document. And in fact, there is a published document that goes into the details of the charter of the Congress.

00:32:22:12 - 00:32:51:17
John Simmerman
And so individuals can access that online, I believe, as well, and be able to to understand what these tenants are that are part of the Congress and part of the charter. And we also see you were kind of walking through quite a few, you know, aspects of of the challenge that is ahead. And and part of the challenge is that we've had decades of, you know, doing this.

00:32:52:05 - 00:33:25:06
Mallory Baches
Yeah. The the the sprawl has not ceased despite the fact that New Urbanism has been, you know, shouting from the rafters. That sprawling development is a problem for over 30 years. The sprawl continues. You can look at any high growth city around the country, and I'm here in the southeast. The southeast is booming and a lot of it is sprawling development just like this.

00:33:25:11 - 00:34:00:14
Mallory Baches
And, you know, I like to I like to refer people to the introduction of the preamble of the charter that was, you know, like I said, we're coming on 30 years of gathering around these principles. And the preamble begins. The charter for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of faceless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of societies built heritage as one interrelated community building challenge.

00:34:01:07 - 00:34:36:10
Mallory Baches
Those words are just as significant. 30 years later, despite the success, the incredible legacy that the New Urbanist practitioners have been able to produce, and in built example, there are still so many ways that cities are not meeting the the needs of their of their communities and are not you know, the problems persist. And so our work as an organization is to build off the legacy of successes that that our predecessors gave us.

00:34:36:19 - 00:34:50:21
Mallory Baches
But to chart new territory that will make bigger impact, build more capacity for change, and implement a much broader level of reform than what we've seen today.

00:34:51:11 - 00:34:59:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, and build more of this still, this hellscape. Oh my gosh.

00:34:59:15 - 00:35:05:23
Mallory Baches
It's very hard. It's very hard to to understand why people wouldn't want to build more of this.

00:35:08:02 - 00:35:37:02
John Simmerman
Or this and more a more modern interpretation of of of what we're talking about. And in in here in Seaside, in Florida, a community that is built around these tenants and and you had mentioned it before is dealing with the Paula C's that make it illegal to do many of these things. And this is in Pasadena there in the Los Angeles area.

00:35:37:02 - 00:36:14:09
John Simmerman
And also mentioned being close to meaningful destinations, being close to and being able to access transit and regional transit. You get on the gold mine right here in Pasadena and you're down in downtown Los Angeles in a heartbeat. And and really, they Los Angeles is a great example of rebuilding and reestablishing what had been in place prior to the World War two and prior to, you know, in the 1920s, it was thriving in terms of a streetcar rail network.

00:36:14:09 - 00:36:39:10
John Simmerman
And communities such as Pasadena, which, you know, developed as a bedroom community. And you had the ability to have walkable neighborhoods and and I would say bikeable too, because, by the way, they had a bike highway that, you know, was had been planned from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles, but it was never really came to fruition.

00:36:39:10 - 00:36:41:13
Mallory Baches
But that was a great he's.

00:36:41:13 - 00:36:42:06
John Simmerman
A great idea.

00:36:43:05 - 00:37:30:21
Mallory Baches
And one of those examples that, you know, nervous is as practitioners like to reach to to say, look, this these are ideas that that people have had for a long time and that are practical and practicable. And so being able to to show those examples and argue for them in, you know, current real time with the same problems existing in cities and the same needs for accessibility for for diverse accessibility, diverse modalities, diverse mobility, you know, we like to do our homework where we're we're a group of folks that loves to uncover, you know, some example that's 100 years old, but shows exactly the type of of of quality urbanism that we're promoting.

00:37:30:21 - 00:37:38:27
Mallory Baches
And you know, somebody somebody else had a great idea. We're just going to borrow it and we're going to show that it can happen in the here and now.

00:37:39:10 - 00:38:12:11
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes people question me and say, well, John, you're you're this public health guy who's really thinking about health and the built environment. What's the connection for you with we see in you And I tell them I say it's really all about that concept of reestablishing a development pattern that is inherently walkable and bikeable and embraces, you know, this you know, this concept of we should be able to get around and meet our daily needs under our own steam, in our own power.

00:38:12:18 - 00:38:54:13
John Simmerman
So even though in the early days I was one of the only public health guys attending, I've really found a home there. And and, you know, I've sort of infiltrated maybe, you know, into the scene. And I am leading fun runs in the mornings of the Congress each year. And and do what I can to turn my lens around with the camera to try to celebrate some of the wonderful things that each of the Congress host cities is is pulling, you know, bringing forth and really trying to tell that message and tell that story here on the Active Towns channel in.

00:38:54:13 - 00:39:11:19
John Simmerman
And so that's it that's that's the reason why I'm so fascinated and obsessed with seeing you as a concept and as an organization and and as a meeting, an annual meeting. And it's my honor to do this every year for the Congress.

00:39:12:05 - 00:39:49:17
Mallory Baches
We love it, John. It's It as you know and your your listeners might not the the new urbanism is a is a rapt audience for for you know the actively experiencing in cities we have we are a group of practitioners that like to impact the the built environment the design of the built environment. But we're also people who really like to experience it and, and we're people who make personal choices that relate to that, that desire to experience cities in a in an active, meaningful way.

00:39:49:17 - 00:40:15:01
Mallory Baches
I when I mentioned moving from the the greenfield development of Habersham, which was itself very walkable and bikeable but also outside of the city of Buford and so was quite a long travel usually done by car to into town. When I moved to Savannah, I purposefully chose a neighborhood where my daughters walk to high school is six blocks.

00:40:15:10 - 00:40:37:07
Mallory Baches
And that was that was a personal choice, but also one that I realized as I was making it that to many of my friends it seemed somewhat radical that I was making a choice to live in a place so that I could say to my daughter, go back to school so that I could bike to essentially everything I want and need to do in this city.

00:40:38:14 - 00:41:13:19
Mallory Baches
And and it reminds me that despite the we sometimes talk about our founders as being radicals, because what they were talking about 30 years ago was completely new to the conversation of how cities should seed grow and expand. And then I think about my own personal experiences here in 2023 and the choices I make. And it still is a radical position to want to embrace cities from an active movement point of view and to really make your your own choices about how you experience cities in that way.

00:41:13:27 - 00:41:40:18
Mallory Baches
And I think the more people that are talking about not just the modalities, but the fact that the built environment informs the success of those modalities, the the more we're going to be able to impact change. And folks to, you know, from a public health perspective or taking walking and biking of city seriously, then the design of cities inherently matters to the ability to walk and bike those cities.

00:41:40:18 - 00:41:45:13
Mallory Baches
And so, you know, the interior minister here trying to to offer our expertise for that.

00:41:45:29 - 00:42:15:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. And it is it's it's it's a movement it's it's a meeting an annual gathering. And and and I and I should mention, too, you know, in looking at this, you know, snapshot from one of our our recent Congress meetings meet ups is that it's very multidisciplinary. It's it's not just all a meeting of planners or a meeting of transportation and mobility engineers or a meeting of public health officials.

00:42:15:29 - 00:42:46:06
John Simmerman
I mean, this is a that's what's to me makes it really, really special, is you see architects and designers and urban planners and and and transportation officials and city officials and advocates of it as well as, you know, people who are passionate about the environment, all mixing, you know, together. So it's all intertwined and it's also a membership based organization.

00:42:46:06 - 00:42:49:17
John Simmerman
So you can become a member as well.

00:42:49:17 - 00:42:53:05
Mallory Baches
You can we would welcome you to become a member of the NEA.

00:42:53:14 - 00:43:21:01
John Simmerman
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, and it's not ridiculously priced. I mean, an annual membership is just $195 per year. As an urbanist, there is a discount urbanist, you know, for available for government and nonprofit organization and professionals as well as let's get come back here. Come back. Don't go away too soon, as well as an opportunity for, you know, advocates as well as student membership as well.

00:43:21:01 - 00:43:37:17
John Simmerman
So there's they really the organization you all have really tried to reduce the barriers to entry encourage as many people as possible and make the tent is as broad and wide reaching as possible.

00:43:37:29 - 00:44:08:17
Mallory Baches
Yeah that's right. We we we we are only as strong as the energy and knowledge and excitement of our membership. And we recognize that and try to make as many inroads for folks to to experience the the knowledge sharing that that New Urbanists are so known for. You know thinking about the upcoming Congress we have on the Congress registration page for folks to the the cost of registration is prohibitive.

00:44:08:17 - 00:44:36:17
Mallory Baches
We have opportunity for scholarships that that we make available to make sure that folks who want to be a part of these conversations are able to access them. And, you know, as you flip through, we have our our online journal, which is public square, that is can be found on our website. It has a lot of amazing content, both written by our senior communications director, Rob Beautiful, who's been a part of the movement from the beginning.

00:44:37:16 - 00:45:07:06
Mallory Baches
But also from folks doing op ed, you know, talking about their work, talking about challenges they're facing as well. And then we do on the park bench, which is our our webinar series and the topics for that coming, you know, all across disciplines, all across experiences. And and those are those are accessible on the website as well. You can watch, you know, sign up for upcoming webinars and also watch past ones.

00:45:07:06 - 00:45:34:17
Mallory Baches
And so, you know, I think one of the one of the things I have heard from folks that are new to New Urbanism is that they find some point of entry that relates to either their local situation or their practice, their their work experience, their recreation experience, and, you know, some aspect of their life brings them to new urbanism.

00:45:34:26 - 00:45:58:16
Mallory Baches
But what it opens for them is a platform form of so many folks who share very similar values to them and bring all kinds of different expertise to those shared values. We we like to talk about the Congress as being the the the big, big, crazy family reunion. We many of us have known each other for a long time.

00:45:58:16 - 00:46:26:14
Mallory Baches
But we get really excited that the new energy, new voices, new experiences come to the table because that's how we all you know, I've I've heard some of these founders stories before, you know, that I love to hear someone who's explaining to me about an initiative they're working on to, you know, convert a rail trail into into a multi-modal path so that their their neighborhood has better access to resources.

00:46:26:14 - 00:46:38:04
Mallory Baches
The neighborhood over that's those are the kinds of stories that I get really excited about because it's the the practical implications of those 27 principles that that we all gather around.

00:46:38:04 - 00:46:43:23
John Simmerman
Yeah, you Yeah, I love it and I love it. Mallory Yeah. Final thoughts?

00:46:44:28 - 00:47:19:22
Mallory Baches
Well, I think I would. I just share with your listeners that, you know, one of the exciting things about my tenure coming to, to the helm of seeing you is I sort of learned at the, at the, you know, skirts, as they say, of of many of our founders. And so I, I have been talking about the fact that Margaret and I we are we are similar in age in our in our midlife mid-career we are the next generation of urbanists.

00:47:19:22 - 00:47:46:29
Mallory Baches
And so one of the things that really excites me is to find new, interesting audiences to connect this movement with. You know, as a designer by practice, I know the design field to some extent. I still have a lot to learn, but but I'm excited for new audiences and new energy and new interest and and where this movement is going to go in the next 30 years.

00:47:47:05 - 00:48:20:11
Mallory Baches
And so, you know, I think I would leave your your listeners with the the the invitation to come learn about new urbanism connect with me. You can literally find my email address right there on the website and reach out to me and tell me about what you are experiencing in the built environment and how seeing you could help make your active town a little, a little more accessible, a little better urbanism.

00:48:20:23 - 00:48:39:24
John Simmerman
Yeah. And I popped over to the staff page so that you could we could get a a visual here on Margaret as well. Margaret shout out from Margaret Margaret talk a little bit about that that co leadership structure that you guys have migrated and evolved into this past year.

00:48:40:14 - 00:49:12:06
Mallory Baches
You bet. So so seeing you has had a history of of folks at the helm and with this transition what the board acknowledged was that in order for the organization to really build capacity, we both need someone who is sort of an outward facing leader. And that would be me who, whose role it is to direct the vision of the organization and communicate about that vision to our audiences around the country.

00:49:12:17 - 00:49:54:10
Mallory Baches
And and likewise, in order to build capacity, we needed a an internal focused leader who would grow the capacity of the organization itself, grow our staff, grow our programs, grow our tools and and communication platforms in ways that can better serve our membership and better serve our chapters as well. I should note that we have chapters all across the country that do local work, gather locally, advocate for local initiatives, you know, network locally, support each other and each other's work.

00:49:54:10 - 00:50:24:26
Mallory Baches
And so the the dual leadership allows Margaret to focus on those internal aspects of growing the movement and allows me to focus on the external aspects of growing the movement. And you know, I, we, we work together previously. We are good friends. In addition to having extraordinary respect for each other, she has a wealth of background in nonprofit, in program management, and in nonprofit capacity building.

00:50:24:26 - 00:50:36:04
Mallory Baches
I bring the knowledge of having worked with a lot of northern us all over the country over the years, and so together we really complement each other and we have fun working together as well.

00:50:36:18 - 00:51:10:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I was telling her just the other day on the phone that, you know, it was it was so cool to see her help bring the Congress back last year because there was a couple of years of we had to have a pause because of the pandemic so Oklahoma City scene you 30. That was a huge accomplishment And and she really, you know, was instrumental in pulling that together along with obviously the the incredible team of the host city which is a big part of it.

00:51:10:15 - 00:51:27:02
John Simmerman
And again, I want to give a huge shout out and and really encourage everybody if you are able to attend this coming May 31st to June 3rd, please make this your first Congress. I promise it won't be your last.

00:51:27:12 - 00:51:34:12
Mallory Baches
That's right. That's right. It we we are known for having return customers, that's for sure. Yeah.

00:51:34:18 - 00:51:50:19
John Simmerman
Yeah. It's great. And come join me for a little fun run. We're actually going to do it on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This year. And then we'll be out on the bike doing some filming to Mallory. Thank you so very much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.

00:51:51:00 - 00:51:53:23
Mallory Baches
Thank you for having me, John. It's been a delight.

00:51:54:11 - 00:52:19:08
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Mallory, and if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend and hopefully you'll be able to attend. Seeing you. I'd love to see you there. Selby obviously shooting some video and leading some fun runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning and if you haven't already done so, please subscribe to the channels.

00:52:19:08 - 00:52:41:24
John Simmerman
Click on that subscription button down below. Be sure to ring the notifications bell right next to it so that you can customize your notification Preferences Preferences, Preferences, Preferences. Your notification preferences. Easy for me to say, and thank you all so much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. And if you are really enjoying this content, please consider becoming a patron.

00:52:42:12 - 00:53:02:05
John Simmerman
Helping support my efforts to bring this content to you each week. Again, thank you so much for tuning in. And until next time, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers. And again sending a huge thank you to all my active towns Ambassadors supporting the channel on Patron buy me a coffee YouTube super thanks.

00:53:02:12 - 00:53:21:01
John Simmerman
As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active town store, every little bit adds up. It's much appreciated. Thank you all so much.