Contents – January 2024

CONTENTS – January 2024

Character towns, small and large, are planned, designed, built, managed and maintained by a variety of professionals using the many tools of their trade based on a systems analysis approach. Cities are systems of systems; treat them as such. A few systems-oriented tools that may be helpful with planning and designing towns with character follow in this Edition. 

THE “CITIES ARE SYSTEMS” EDITION

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IDEAS FOR HOW TO…

• “Systems Thinking, Remember the City is a System of Systems”…wck. 
• “Small City Dashboards…Small Cities Can Be Smart Cities”…wck. 
• “Critical Thinking, Attributes of Creative Thought”…wck. 
• “Classical Learning Systems” explained in The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman. 
• “Being Analytical, Tools to Get the Details Right”…wck. 
• “ ‘Wicked Problems’, Not Your Everyday Conundrums”…wck. 
• “Reverse Engineering, A Strategy”….wck. 
• “Model Based Design and BIM as City Planning Technological Tools”… wck with Brent Lacy, VHB, and Matt Allen, Foster Conant & Associates. 
• “Vision-Driven Strategy, A Circular Continuum”…wck. 
• “The Multiple Benefits of Co-Located Civic Venues”…wck. 

VIDOES…

• Video [00.45]…“Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals and the art of roughness”. 
• Video [18:04]…”Start with WHY”, A TED talk with Simon Sinek. 
• Video [10:51]…”Complexity Theory Overview” from Systems Innovation 2017. 

FROM THE PLANNERS’ BOOKSHELF…

• Thinking in Systems, A Primer, Donella H. Meadows, edited by Diane Wright, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, 2008. 
• Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works, A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass., 2013. 
• Working, Researching, Interviewing, Writing, Robert A. Caro, Alfred A. Knoff, NY, 2019. 
• Project Management for the Design Professional: A Handbook for Architects, Engineers, and Interior Designers, David Burstein (Author), Frank Stasiowski (Author), original copyright 1982, Whitney Library of Design, Billboard Publications, New York, new edition November 1, 1991. 
• Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, Steven Pinker, Viking, 2021. 
• Land Use Law in Florida, 1st Edition, W. Thomas Hawkins, Routledge, 2021. 
• SIMSOC, The Coordinator’s Manual, William A. Gamson With Larry G. Peppers, Simon & Schuster, 2000. 
• Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Crown Publishing Group, NY, 2015. 
• The Art of the Long View, Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World, Peter Schwartz, Currency Doubleday, 1991.