Is It Me? Reflections on Public Discontent

This past decade has seen increasingly tumultuous discourse related to planning issues of all types –housing, mobility, equity, sustainability, zoning, and development – including public discontent at a breadth and scale not previously experienced in many communities. This is occurring throughout the country. Our interactive session will begin with a short presentation on public discourse in the United States and research on root causes of communication issues that are impacting community conversations. Following the presentation, our team of experts will present four scenarios featuring real world examples from across the country (names changes to protect the innocent/guilty) that demonstrate the challenges that all planners face today. Participants will be asked to evaluate each scenario and provide potential solutions to deal with the presented issues. We will facilitate this discussion and wrap up each scenario with how the real situation was resolved and then discuss takeaways and best practices. The conclusion of this session will be attendee participation to share their own experiences and scenarios to get feedback from our speakers and the audience. This will be a hands-on session where attendees are participants and come away with techniques and approaches they can apply in their own communities.

Access this session with closed captions (Wordly)