Reclaiming the Plate: Urban Planning for a Healthy Food Future Beyond the Supermarket

The Supermarket Straitjacket

In the United States, for most urban dwellers, “food shopping” is synonymous with “supermarket.” These behemoth retailers, with their vast aisles and global supply chains, have come to utterly dominate our food distribution system. From farm to fork, supermarkets act as the gatekeepers, the single buyer-sellers, wielding immense power. And the consequences are stark. Supermarkets, driven by profit maximization, are able to dictate prices both to the farmers who grow our food (often squeezing their margins to the breaking point) and to the consumers who ultimately buy it (often paying inflated prices for food that has traveled thousands of miles). A huge cut of the profits – profits that should be going back to the farmers and accessible prices that should be available to consumers – is instead siphoned off by these massive corporate intermediaries. We’ve become trapped in a supermarket straitjacket, a food system that is increasingly unsustainable, inequitable, and disconnected from both the land and the people who produce our sustenance. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Urban planners have a crucial role to play in reclaiming the plate, in designing and fostering a healthy food future that moves beyond the supermarket and towards a more localized, resilient, and just food distribution system. What would such a system look like? How far would our food travel? How would it be collected and distributed? Who would own and operate the markets themselves? Let’s start to sketch a blueprint for a healthier food future.

Labor as Landscape: Exploring the Urban Planning Implications of Wages, Work, and Unions

Labor at the Heart of Urban Life

Urban planning is all about people—the vibrant communities they create, the economies they sustain, and the lives they lead. At the very core of this urban tapestry lies a simple truth: labor is the lifeblood of any city. The jobs we hold, the wages we earn, and the power we wield as workers aren't just economic metrics; they are the essence of urban planning. As we navigate the city’s arteries, the streets and neighborhoods where people live and work, we must recognize that labor issues are as crucial as infrastructure projects or zoning laws. By focusing on improving wages, addressing unemployment, and empowering workers through unions, urban planners can enhance the quality of life, bolster the economy, and foster equity. This blog post delves into how minimum wage, employment, and unionization are deeply interwoven with urban planning, highlighting their potential to shape cities that work for everyone.

Built to Last (Or Not): Why American Cities Are Losing the Longevity Game

Introduction: Setting the Scene - The Hanoi vs. Anywhere, USA Contrast

Having lived in Hanoi, Vietnam for a decade, I’ve come to appreciate something that’s often shockingly absent in the American urban landscape: longevity. Hanoi is a city that breathes history, a city that visibly carries the weight of a thousand years on its shoulders. Walk down its streets, and you are surrounded by buildings – homes, shops, public structures – built of solid concrete, brick, and stone, structures that feel like they’ve been there for centuries, and in many cases, have. Buildings erected today in Hanoi will likely still be standing, solid and functional, a century from now. Now contrast that with… well, almost any American city. The typical American home, built with light-wood frame construction, might struggle to last two decades without needing major renovations, starting with a roof replacement. Many commercial buildings, thrown up with concrete block and corrugated steel, feel almost… temporary, designed for a quick buck and a short lifespan. Why this stark difference? Why are American construction methods so seemingly short-sighted? Are we content to build cities that are essentially… disposable? What are the long-term consequences for the longevity of our cities, for our connection to our urban past, and for the very way we think about the places we inhabit? Let’s delve into the perplexing question of why American cities are losing the longevity game.

Rehoming Urban Planning: Beyond Architecture School, Towards a More Philosophical Foundation

The "Outdoor Architecture" Assumption

Walk across any university campus with an urban planning program, and chances are, you’ll find its departmental home nestled within the school of architecture. Or perhaps cheek-by-jowl with civil engineering. It’s a default assumption, an institutional habit passed down through generations of academics. But is it the right home? Does this conventional placement truly reflect the essence of urban planning in the 21st century? I’d argue, emphatically, no. This placement stems from a narrow, outdated view of urban planning – a view that reduces it to “outdoor architecture,” concerned primarily with the visual and physical form of the city, rather than its deeper social, economic, and environmental dynamics. If we are to acknowledge urban planning as fundamentally about people, quality of life, and navigating complex systems, then we need to re-evaluate where urban planning education truly belongs within the university ecosystem. It’s time to move beyond architecture school and towards a more robust, interdisciplinary, and yes, more philosophical foundation for the discipline.