By Anna Krane
What creates a community? Why does a person choose to live, work, visit, or leave a place? These are complicated questions with many different answers--especially today, in the age of a pandemic.
Communities are made up of systems. Connections and overlapping elements that work together, or sometimes against each other to create a type of place. The built environment and physical appearance, the economic environment, the natural environment, the government and policy environment, all make up elements of the system.
I like to walk to restaurants, the grocery store, and friends’ houses. I like to see people on the sidewalks and pass neighbors when getting into my car. By contrast, I have family members who would prefer to walk around their property and never see evidence of any neighbor.
As a planner, I recognize that creating thriving communities can look very different each time. Each community has different goals, priorities, and visions of the future. A constant is the idea of a system behind the community. Recognizing the system and how choices are made allows planners to create, promote, or maintain a sense of place.
Many local governments are set up with departments or people in charge of one element or “environment” of a system. The Building Department, the Economic Development Department, the Administration Department, the Parks Department, etc. Each department and employee have responsibilities to enforce regulations, promote and develop programs, or make decisions to support their element of the larger system. Decisions have widespread and overlapping impacts, even when made within a department silo.
Let’s use a downtown mainstreet as an example. The character and design of private buildings is often overseen by the Building Department, but directly influences the public realm. How close is the building to the sidewalk? How do people enter and exit buildings? The public realm is often managed by the Public Works Department. Is there street parking, street trees, outdoor seating in front of businesses? The Economic Development Department comes into play with the different types of businesses allowed, policies that support business growth and development. All of these elements and decisions come together to create the sense of place for the street, and ultimately the larger community.
COVID-19 has forced people and governments to change behaviors. Today, people long for public human interaction--interactions that look different than they did before. What elements of a community can change within the system to support the interactions people desire, in a safe way that meets the behaviors of the future?
Using systems thinking to recognize the bigger picture, planners and cities can see which departments have influence on public spaces and social interaction opportunities. How can the departments work together to create larger areas for social interactions? Where can people be safely? How can businesses adapt to survive and continue without the traditional consumer behaviors?
Expanding outdoor dining areas, for example, allows restaurants to potentially serve more people, while allowing greater distance between people and groups. This strategy would incorporate the Economic Development Department, the Public Works Department, and the Planning Department. Again, systems thinking finds the connections and allows communities to approach issues and decisions holistically and efficiently.
Beyond gathering and interactions, current circumstances are causing people to think about why they live where they do. If more people can work from home, how does that impact communities? What happens to the system when businesses allow more employees to work remotely? Where will people choose to live if that decision is no longer dictated by their job?
Systems thinking is important to understanding how a sense of place or a community is shaped, supported, or changed. This way of thinking will allow communities to adapt as needed in the future to continue to provide and create the environments that people desire to live in, work in, or visit. With systems thinking, responsibilities and decisions are not siloed into departments. Potential overlapping impacts are identified and connections between departments and policies are understood.
Systems allow for efficient problem solving and proactive decisions. Systems thinking will allow planners to tackle the ever changing and unknown future.