Journey With Purpose

The bid process was new, but the boomerang project was the type of high risk and high reward Avery was trained to tackle. Caution was prudent, but sometimes boredom pushes us to extremes.

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Alexa Gonzalez shifts urban design from placemaking to placekeeping, emphasizing community voices and long-term engagement to reshape public spaces in ways that truly reflect and benefit those who use them.

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Cities are sites of aspirations and identities, and ‘play’ can be a means for fostering community engagement. Architect and urbanist Joanne Cheung critiques the prevailing forms of community engagement, suggesting that they are often paternalistic and fail to adequately consider the agency of individuals and communities.

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1. Distinction between Placemaking and Placekeeping: Alexa emphasizes the importance of “placekeeping” over “placemaking,” arguing that the latter often disregards existing community values and can act as a vehicle for gentrification.

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• Hive Public Space & Instagram

Alexa Gonzalez is a Colombian-American urban designer, placemaker, and Spatial Justice Advocate. She is the Founding Principal of Hive Public Space, an urban design and placemaking/placekeeping studio based in New York City. She brings over a decade of experience designing and transforming public spaces into socially and culturally inclusive environments. 

She believes in the power of public spaces and strives for her work to create memories and connections while evolving each community’s identity and sense of belonging. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and holds a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University in New York. Alexandra is an Obama Leader, a core organizer for Design as Protest. a member of the board of the Association of Community Design (ACD), a member of the Alliance for Public Space Leadership (APSL), and a Design Fellow at the Design Trust for Public Spaces.

“Our approach is truly about placekeeping. It’s about finding, amplifying, and really, keeping the local artists, the local business, the local stories. And that is really what defines a place. And that’s what we’re trying to bring in with our work. Because Very often we understand also that placemaking is seen as a Trojan horse for gentrification. that’s why often why there’s issues with trust And it becomes purely about aesthetic and it doesn’t connect with people. We really want to honing on the place keeping again and encouraging this idea of multi generational activity of sharing knowledge, sharing ideas, and sometimes even sharing the bad things, right?”

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Avery, a newcomer at the Highland Bureau, tackles the challenge of redesigning street-side collection boxes amidst a backdrop of technological advancements and bureaucratic hurdles. Navigating the complexities of off-chain operations and environmental sustainability, the boundaries of legality and technology blur, within the backdrop of isolating workplace politics.

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Audrey: [00:00:00] Entry.

one fourteen two point five one.

The Drop Box

Avery was new at the Highland Bureau, having secured the spot from a family connection. The quarters were new as the assigned detatchment from the Bureau was preparing construction of the new District. New didn’t mean luxurious, but the quarters in Barracks nine nine were private if bare, and came with a tiny plant of unknown origin. The mess hall was some distance away, but that kept the odors down enough for the in-room filter to keep up with the round the clock service.

Doing the best job possible was all was asked, even if this didn’t feel like a life calling.

At least the sunlight glare was limited at the assigned workstation.

The first assignment was to redesign the street side collection boxes. These were for the new district to provide inter district letter service.

Someone thought this should [00:01:00] include sending digital assets as part of the requirements. NFT’s were so last decade.

The commissioner was stuck in the past, and didn’t realize that people were operating off-chain. While technically illegal, working this way reduced this sector’s power usage so in practice everyone worked this way.

Avery hoped these initial ideas would be approved, but knew that every design which responded to the requirements were too bulky and big for the new District. Independent power supplies had continued to reduce in size, with thermocouples taking advantage of the Seebeck effect. Though strontium-90 continued to be widely available, it’s presence on the controlled list was only mitigated by the recent development of an Algae-based remediation system.

Hopefully the requirements document would be updated based on this work, but that was not up to Avery.

[00:02:00] Vocalized by Audrey AI program one.

End of Entry.

For more entries enter in your Control Panel

jwp.news/avery

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Zoning has transformed everything from historic skylines to modern living, steering the growth of cities like New York and shaping the places we call home. Discover the hidden impact of zoning on your daily life: from the skyscrapers to the suburbs, learn how invisible lines shape our cities.

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• Marchetti’s constant:  the average time spent by a person for commuting each day

• Zoning is the codification of land use, grouping land into categories like residential, commercial, and manufacturing, to dictate what can be built and where.

[00:00:00] Before you hit fast forward or close out your podcast player. Just stop and think about this. Probably live in a town or city. That town or city has a municipal government. And it has rules about what you can build and where you can build it. And those rules affect how you live and move about your city. So sit back, we’re talking about zoning.

Welcome to journey with purpose episode 20. This is your host, Randy Plemel. We are going to talk about zoning. It’s our zoning primer episode. So zoning is a huge topic and we’re going to have to leave some out today. We’re going to have a bibliography in the show notes and other links for you to connect to. But really this is a first step in us helping explain things and to connect to other issues that you’ll find on the podcast.

So what is zoning? So a bit of innovation in air quotes of zoning was the codification of land [00:01:00] use. How you can use your land. And what you could do on it.

Zoning groups land in different types of use with different rules about what you could do and build in each zone. And most zoning rules segregate that usage into rigid zones. Generally you find different categories of zoning. You can have residential zones where people are supposed to live. Commercial zones where people are supposed to work and buy things. Manufacturing zones where people make things. And special purpose zones like harbors, airports, whatever.

So, this is a really new thing. For most of human existence, we worked in lived and made things in a very small area.

Marchetti’s constan shotws that across time, people really only wanted to commute. A maximum of 30 minutes or so each way. So for most of our time is people when we lived in cities, that meant it was pretty low rise because. Material science kept it pretty low and people really didn’t want to walk up lots of stairs. [00:02:00] Then the combination of high quality fireproof structures, which includes cast iron and steel allowed us to build safer and taller. The safety elevator allowed people to not have to walk up a bunch of steps. The stock corporation allowed a bunch of different investors, too combine into one larger company. And financing allowed people to build taller and more diverse set of buildings.

Now there’s many reasons why zoning came about, but most of them are fairly reactionary or the reasons are pretty antiquated and outdated. But almost everywhere in the U S has some form of rules on what you can build.

First a little bit about the ins and outs of zoning. We’re going to start with New York city because that’s where I live. That’s where I’ve done the most work on zoning. We have residential commercial manufacturing, special zones. We also have a bunch of special overlay zones and districts where it gets more [00:03:00] complicated, which allows different types of usage. And then for each zoning district. We have further details.

So in residential zones we have 10 district types. From R-1 to R-10 districts. R-1, R-2, R-3 are various flavors of single-family homes. R4 and five districts are generally row homes and lower apartment buildings. R-6, R-7, R-8 are mid-rise apartment buildings. And R-9 and R-10 districts are tall apartment buildings. We also have eight commercial zones, which are primarily focused on commercial activities, such as offices and bodegas and stores and such like that. But many commercials zones also allow residential usage. So you can see how this gets complicated, fast, and also we have manufacturing districts which allow everything from storage, a heavy industry, but again, in some manufacturing distric...

Upon detecting an anomalous narrowband signal at 2296.481481 MHz the DSS tracking station supervisor initiated a comprehensive investigation. Collaborative analysis with White Sands Station and Guam confirmed the signal’s non-terrestrial origin. The transmission was decoded with a narrator describing a mysterious entity referred to as ‘The Box.’ This report encapsulates the findings and ongoing inquiries into this unprecedented cosmic phenomenon, urging the scientific community to explore the intricate tapestry of space-time signals.

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Unknown Transmission: [00:00:00] Transcript entry from DSS tracking Station Network on the big loop. Zero five hundred hours, ten minutes zulu.

Entry.

Network Control Center: Wait.

What was that? Dave, are you getting a repeating signal interference?

It’s coming in on TDRSS-1.

Interference Confirmed.

It’s like the Wow signal from Big Ear in 77.

Let’s confirm if the Sands have this too.

White Sands, this is NCC. Come in on the small loop.

We’re picking up a a strong narrowband signal on TDRSS-1. Do you confirm, over?

White Sands Station: Listen – we’re getting it again!

NCC this is White Sands. We confirm signal.

Standby for modulation status. Over.

Network Control Center: Sands, NCC. Roger, standby. Signal Interference Confirmed from Guam station. Over.

White Sands Station: NCC, Sands. Roger. Confirmed on both TDRSS and DSS.

Turn the x-axis 32 degrees north-east for [00:01:00] signal computation.

Signal’s intensity readback is “6 E Q U J 5.” Over.

Network Control Center: Sands, NCC. We’ve isolated the signal. There’s modulation. Standby.

Analysis shows signal is at frequency two two nine six decimal four eight one four eight one. Wait. This can’t be right. Check again.

Sands. NCC. Can you confirm frequency? Over.

White Sands Station: NCC, Sands. Readback frequency of two two nine six decimal four eight one four eight one. Over.

Network Control Center: Sands, NCC. Good readback.

White Sands Station: NCC, Sands. Standby. Frequency Confirmed.

NCC. That’s channel 18. Are we picking up Voyager 1 somehow? Over.

Network Control Center: Sands, NCC on the big loop: We confirm Channel 18 interference, with modulation. Wave is symmetrical. NCC confirmed [00:02:00] no comms from Voyager 1 since…

Standby.

No comms since December 2023.

NCC confirms probable signal origination. Vector readback is one eight three degrees away from Voyager’s last known location.

Over.

White Sands Station: NCC, Sands on the big loop. Confirmed possible source vector not indicative of Voyager. Standby. We piped to the speaker. We’re picking something up. Put it on the big loop.

Unknown Transmission: Repeat transmission per program.

Entry.

two five six three point one five.

The Box.

Avery hated the box. It sat in the corner, always on, always waiting, and always a reminder of the Schism.

White Sands Station: NCC, Sands. I think we need Houston and Management on the loop. Over.

Unknown Transmission: Vocalized by Audrey AI program one.

Unknown Transmission: End of Entry.

For more entries enter in your Control [00:03:00] Panel

jwp.new/avery

end of control.

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From good fences, to good spaces, architect Peter Yi presents a reimagining of suburban space allowing people to customize their living and recreation space to meet their family’s needs. Single family zoning has been prevalent in 20th-century planning, shaping a large portion of the buildable land in the U.S. Peter Yi’s project, Courtyard Block, proposes a denser and community-focused urban design, integrating shared green spaces within residential areas.

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1. Zoning’s Impact: Zoning significantly influences city development and equity in neighborhoods, dictating what can be built and where.

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• Rebuild Collective & Instagram

De Peter Yi is the founder of the research and design practice Rebuild Collective, and an Assistant Professor in Architecture at the University of Cincinnati. He is a first-generation immigrant to the United States, where his experiences growing up in low-income and cooperative housing communities continue to inspire and inform his work. His research uncovers how individual acts of building scale to collective social and environmental impact through both top-down and bottom-up initiatives. His recent work includes writing, workshops, and design projects that engage the public with municipalities to advance material reuse, zoning reform, and new housing models. Previously, he was a co-founder and co-director of 1+1+Architects in Detroit, the Sanders Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, and a designer with Studio Gang Architects in Chicago. He is the author of Building Subjects, a book on resident-adapted collective housing typologies in China.

[00:00:00]Journey With Purpose: FAR, ADU, setbacks sidewalls, side yards. Height restrictions. No, it’s not some secret code. It’s zoning. Zoning are the rules and regulations, which constrain or allow you to build. Or not build. On your land. It’s a hidden force, which deeply impacts how we live in cities, how equitable our neighborhoods are and what we can even do in our own homes. Welcome to journey with purpose episode 19. I’m your host, Randy Plemel Today I speak with Peter Yi, an assistant professor of architecture at my Alma mater the university of Cincinnati. Peter’s work deals with my favorite quasi obsession building typologies and zoning.

Typologies are groupings of buildings, which are based on their characteristics, how they function or how they look. Peter has a new way of looking at the single family home. [00:01:00] Peter welcome to the pod. Please introduce yourself and where we are speaking to you from.

Peter Yi: I’m Peter Yi. I am calling from Cincinnati, Ohio, where I currently teach as assistant professor of architecture at UC

Journey With Purpose: Speaking to you today about zoning reform. And this can be a, nerdy type thing. The New York city zoning code is like a giant book. But it’s really important because it shapes our cities for people who don’t know what zoning is can you give us a thumbnail of what is zoning and why is it important to you and your colleagues?

Peter Yi: zoning is the underlying protocol that governs how our built environment is built. And I think most homeowners don’t encounter zoning code. It’s really the builders and the architects who read it, interpret it and determine what could be built on your lot and translate that [00:02:00] into design building and an architectural proposal.

For example, zoning code could include regulations such as setback requirements. Maximum building envelopes, maximum height density, even aspects such as the style of architecture and what it looks like.

Journey With Purpose: So it’s, seems like it’s the underlying rules and regulations that, help construct our city.

Peter Yi: Correct. And zoning also dictates what uses of program can go next to each other’s. So in the single family zoning research that I’m looking at, one of the main issues is it has. Restricted the type of housing construction and activity that can be utilized in a certain given area of.

Journey With Purpose: Talk to us about single family zoning. There’s a lot in the news around, Say California or Minneapolis or other localities getting rid of single family zoning. [00:03:00] So what does that mean to us who might not be, steeped in this day to day?

Peter Yi: Single family zoning is a land use regulation that I would say has dominated a majority of 20th century planning and construction. In fact, large quantity of buildable land in the United States it’s currently still used for a single family zoning. And when we talk about getting rid of single family zoning, it’s not as black and white as just simply outlawing it or erasing it. It’s more of an incremental series of changes that cities have undertaken to rewrite or ameliorate some of the harms that single family zoning only land has inflicted upon our built environment.

Journey With Purpose: according to the census in 2021 70% of all housing units in America were single family homes, [00:04:00] almost 90 million homes. Peter, can you share with us what the downside of single family zoning might be?

Peter Yi: So the downsides of single family zoning range from social to ecological questions. On the social side, there’s restrictive covenants redlining, and exclusionary zoning, which has exasperated some of the social equity concerns around housing and housing affordability that we still face today.

And then on the environmental side, single family zoning is often associated with suburban sprawl, which has perpetuated a car dependent form of living that has also led to other environmental issues.

Journey With Purpose: I always remind people that getting rid of single family detached zoning isn’t about getting rid of single family homes. But rather giving people more freedom to build diffe...

Avery was about to finish the Bureau exam, when the image popped up. And a new evolution would occur. A new place. A new set of onboarding docs and starting over.

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 Entry.

one twelve zero point six three.

The Exam.

Avery was about to finish the Bureau exam, when the image popped up.

Avery instantly remembered this from years of study. It seemed all there was of life was a never-ending amount of study.

Caste had privileges of not being in the fields. Of being with books. Of being inside away from the sun.

Avery snapped back to the problem at hand.

The photo showed an ornate subway entrance from the auteur Zeno Bianchi, deep in their Neo-Rococo phase, who was known for their unique and nostalgic take on subway entrances.

While Bianchi’s vision did not align with the tastes of the general public, they went on to create a number of other futuristic structures that were both functional and visually stunning.

Built three generations ago, these entrances were immensely polarizing. Zeno wanted to create structures that would be both modern and practical, with a nod to the bold, futuristic designs of the past. Well, now the deep past.

But it was Avery’s past too. This station was near where the family home was, before the schooling had begun.

With a sigh, Avery noted the designer, the intent, and why it was important into the exam.

The AI seemed to accept the input with a slight ping.

Avery noted that the Exam was almost over.

And a new evolution would occur. A new place. A new set of onboarding docs and starting over.

Avery hoped that the assigned district was peaceful. Somewhere seaside in the upper latitudes would offer both cooling from the sun, and a chance to practice sailing.

The AI gave it’s last ping, a green light flashed.

And just like that. The Exam was over.

Vocalized by Audrey AI program one.

End of Entry.

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We explore the introduction of Link5G towers in NYC and the resulting public outcry. Learn about the technological advancements promised by 5G, the city’s rationale for these 35-foot structures, and the concerns over their impact on historic neighborhoods and the urban landscape. Engage with the complex interplay between progress and preservation in the city’s streets.

We talk to Matt Butcher a licensed electrical engineer in the telecom space, Andrew Berman the Executive Director of Village Preservation, from Carnegie Hill Neighbors Executive Director Joanna Cawley, and historical preservationist Simeon Bankoff.

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• Typology.city – where our bodies meet public policy

• Colin Kelly – Better Bin

• Introduction of Link5G Towers: The episode discusses the introduction of Link5G towers in New York City, larger cousins to the existing Link NYC kiosks, intended to enhance 5G connectivity across the city.

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Principal of Sublight Engineering, has over 30 years of experience as an electrical engineer with practice areas of radio frequency (RF), electrical, and computer engineering. His RF work includes human exposure assessment; wireless network design; and interference assessment and mitigation.

Measuring, modeling, providing guidance on, and developing standards related to human exposure to RF is a primary focus of Sublight Engineering. Since 2000 Mr. Butcher has been working with industry, government, workers, and the public on this topic.

As a Senior Member of the IEEE and the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) Mr. Butcher helps develop the C95 standards for the safe use of electromagnetic energy. He is the co-chair of (SC1) Techniques, Procedures, & Instrumentation, responsible for C95.3 – IEEE Recommended Practice for Measurements and Computations of Electric, Magnetic, and Electromagnetic Fields with Respect to Human Exposure to Such Fields, 0 Hz to 300 GHz.

Executive Director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Andrew is a lifelong New Yorker, born and raised in the Bronx, where he attended New York City public schools and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Wesleyan University, and has lived and worked on the West Side and in Lower Manhattan for more than twenty years.

Since 2002 he has been the Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has become the largest neighborhood preservation organization in New York City. During his tenure, GVSHP has secured groundbreaking landmarking and neighborhood zoning protections in the Meatpacking District, along the Greenwich Village waterfront, and in the South and East Village. He has helped lead the charge against development plans byDonald Trump and NYU.

Joanna Cawley is Executive Director at Carnegie Hill Neighbors (“CHN”), a historic preservation organization maintaining architectural integrity and historic character in Carnegie Hill, with volunteer help on preservation advocacy, quality of life programming, and work based training programs. A grassroots-style community leader, Joanna liaises with DOT, DPR, NYPD, DOHMH, DYCD, and SBS, to build capacity in Carnegie Hill, and along the abutting boundary with Yorkville on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Simeon Bankoff is a consultant specializing in historic preservation concerns and organizational strategies. He has been active in numerous community-based preservation activities in New York City and beyond. His clients have included Save Harlem Now!, the Center at West Park, Carnegie Hill Neighbors, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, the View Carre Property Owners and Residents Association among others. Mr. Bankoff previously served as the Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council (HDC), the citywide advocate for New York’s historic neighborhoods from 2000 through 2021.

“People will often react to the new and the foreign with fear or concern or sort of envisioning a worst case scenario. Sometimes there are reasonable concerns that are in there. That can be addressed and integrated into the planning, to actually make it better, , make it a more perfect, , system.”

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Memo Salazar from the Western Queens Community Land Trust discuss the formation and mission of the CLT, its role in combating gentrification, and the broader challenges of housing affordability in New York City. The conversation delves into the failed Amazon HQ2 project, the “City of Yes” rezoning initiative, and the importance of community engagement in urban development.

While we didn’t agree on everything, and differ on what we think is driving housing unaffordability, we agree that a wider set of housing options besides just market rate housing is needed to make NYC more affordable, and envisioning a positive future is imperative.

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• Western Queens Community Land Trust – Insta, Twitter,

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Memo is a Mexican-born filmmaker and writer living in Queens, NY. As a filmmaker, he has directed a Public Enemy music video, worked with homeless children & Elmo for Sesame Street, and collaborated with theoretical physicist Brian Greene on a Ted Talk. As an activist, he co-runs the Sunnyside CSA and is the co-chair of the Western Queens CLT. He is also a recipient of Arena’s Five Borough Future fellowship and of the 2019 Queens Latinx leadership award for community activism.

Spotlight: New York City’s Housing Supply Challenge

“New York City’s housing market is one of the priciest in the nation. The brisk growth in the city’s economy in the decade leading up to the pandemic was not accompanied by comparably rapid growth in the city’s housing stock. This has contributed to a growing problem of affordability for many residents as well as prospective residents wanting to move here. During the pandemic, as the city’s population slipped, indicators of affordability temporarily eased, but only briefly and predominantly for middle- and high-income residents. As the pandemic faded, jobs returned, many people who had left moved back, immigration renewed, and the increase in work-from-home led some to seek more residential space, the supply shortage became even more severe. This intensifying shortage of housing is not unique to New York City but instead ubiquitous across the nation – suggesting that national, state, and local solutions are all needed.”

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Adam Greenfield discusses Project Farevalue which aimed to solve an everyday problem transit riders face: confirm stored value on your transit card. The team produced a working prototype, but with a hazy patent landscape Greenfield decided to abandon Farevalue and his practice, to focus on showing what he believes the future should look like through teaching and writing.

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• Adam Greenfield is on Mastodon @adamgreenfield, has a Wikipedia entry (which is boss), check out Adam’s old blog Speedbird, and he has a Patreon

Adam Greenfield is a multifaceted professional with extensive experience in design, technology, politics, and culture, primarily focused on their intersection in urban contexts. After a stint at Nokia in Helsinki as the head of design direction, where he felt his impact was limited, Greenfield moved to New York to establish Urban Scale, a design studio aimed at enhancing networked cities and citizens. Residing in London for the past decade, he has written several books on technology and urban life, including an upcoming release scheduled for July 7th, 2024. Greenfield’s work is characterized by a deep understanding of the interplay between technology and urban governance, despite not having a formal technical background.

“I had to shut down the practice and it was the best thing in the world for me, because I got out of a space that I’m not constitutionally very well suited to, and was able to pursue inquiries that were really much closer to my heart. And that has been very generous to me in all the years since I thought I was one thing, I struggled to be that thing, I wasn’t very good at being that thing. The universe told me pretty clearly I was not that thing. And what I’ve turned out to be instead has made me much happier.”

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