If there’s one thing I’ve become increasingly skeptical of, it’s the big-ticket purchase as “savior” of cities. Here’s an article from my vault that I think is even more applicable a  year later: 

Nethaniel M. Hood, in Better! Cities & Towns, writes: 

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” – Daniel Burnham

The next big idea is small.

Daniel Burnham’s plan for Chicago aimed at improving the lake front, rearranging a jumbled street grid, adding a regional transportation system and installing civic and cultural buildings along with parks (all of which were rare at the turn of the century). In some ways, Burnham’s plan was excellent. In other ways, not so much.

He continues to argue: 

This isn’t a call to end long-range comprehensive plans. In lots of circumstances, they are necessary. This is a call to consider that many small plans can be much more effective, and more risk-adverse than one large project. Large plans like Elk Run expose us to tremendous risk if they fail. The future of our plans need to be everything that Elk Run isn’t: small, numerous and nimble.

Burnham was right about a lot of thing, except that little plans “probably will not themselves be realized“. I think he’s wrong here, and it’s not just me. Tactical urbanism and the popularity of small area community plans are proving him wrong as I type. I’d contend that it’s our propensity to chase big, wild and exciting plans that has left us with intersections and bridges to nowhere and struggling municipal coffers.

It’s worth a full read.