Cities are among humanity’s most durable artifacts, and they are more than the sum of their buildings — they are tapestries of human lives and social networks that, at their best, tap the power of place and evoke the heart and soul of a particular geography. Too often, we have not created cities that reflect this devotion to place, community identity and nature, so we need to radically re-think how we design and build cities. I was fortunate enough to give the opening remarks at the recent Gaining Ground conference in Vancouver. The following is an edited version of that address.
 
It’s an honor for me to moderate and gently steer this 6th edition of the Gaining Ground Conference — all the more so because it is being convened in Vancouver, the Green Capital — a city I love and lived in for many years; a city that knows it’s time to upgrade; time to stand on the shoulders of the giants that are previous innovations and achievements in urban design; time to stretch beyond what conventional or received wisdom says is possible. Time to proclaim that we are looking at a dramatically altered city, country and world in the next 20 years and the status quo just isn’t going to cut it.

I might add that in thinking of how we upgrade, we should feel energized by Elinor Ostrom's recent acceptance of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Her work on human interactions with ecosystems, and in particular, the novel institutional arrangements for managing natural resources and avoiding ecosystem collapse is both a beacon in the realm of ecological economics, and an exemplar of the kind of thinking we need more of to forge truly resilient societies.

This edition of Gaining Ground can be likened to a river of intellectual thought that this year weaves the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics and Smart Growth B.C. into the mix, as well as a staggering array of shoulder events that got underway yesterday and continues in adjacent venues throughout the week. Add in extensive media involvement and the space for networking and you have the platform for a rich and, dare I say it, more resilient conversation than any of the individual players might have if gathered independently. My friends, our task is a sacred one — creating resilient cities liberated from fear and greed.

That we are here today in such number is a reflection of our shared curiosity and passion for the subject of resilient cities, but it is also, I think, an explicit recognition of at least three things: (1) that we are at a hinge point of history — economically, socially, ecologically, and culturally; (2) the pace of systemic change, what Buzz Holling calls panarchy, is beyond what many of us imagined and is outstripping the ability of incumbent institutions to address; and (3) cities, which embody the best and the worst in our modern world, can nonetheless be — must change to be — crucial units of leverage in sustainability policy and action.

The Gaining Ground Conference themes are an acknowledgement of two planet-shifting trends: (1) accelerating climate change and (2) diminishing cheap oil. And so it is that over the next three days we will examine innovations in sustainability governance and practices for creating and managing sustainable urban systems; opportunities in the green economy (or is that green opportunities in the economy?); and strategies for building widespread sustainability collaborations that engage the community at all levels. Indeed, the central conference idea is that it’s time to upgrade; resilience, the ability of a city to effectively operate and provide services under conditions of stress, cannot be achieved or sustained without strong collaboration between key urban constituents: community, business, learning institutions, and civic leadership – we in this room have our hands on the levers that can affect change. We are the future we have been waiting for and we must ask ourselves: what will we be proud to say happened on our watch? How can we stretch ourselves and others to plan cities and design buildings (and rescue existing cities and buildings) such that they are not only ecologically and economically more viable and resilient, but also better places to live, work and play. My friends, we need to leave our polite, transactional conversations behind and fully embrace the urgency of transformation – a transformation in our conception of cities that truly honors the rhythms of nature, culture and community.

These themes provide a platform from which I can return to the narrative I started a moment ago about a hinge point in history. The American scholar, John Schaar – echoing Erwin Lazlo — has described the future in a way that frames much of what I want to share with you in the remainder of my opening remarks. He said:

The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created - created first in mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.

Those words remind me that we have an opportunity, an obligation, to create something, as opposed to simply reacting to what is presented to us. And the act of creating requires courage — courage to use both the head and the heart to identify possibilities and to divine new ways of being. Schaar’s good words also remind me of what I hold to be a fundamental truth: Sustainability is not a problem to be solved; it is a future to be created.

So, what will we create together? What will sustainable prosperity in our cities look like 10 years from now, or 100 years from now? What does competitiveness look like in a low (or lower) carbon economic future? And how will Vancouver, or the cities we call home, fare in such a future?

Might it be possible that the balance shifts irrevocably in favor of truly sustainable, low carbon community-based solutions? Solutions that increase the resilience of cities to the combined future impacts of climate change, peak oil, and population migration? Many of us might think so, or hope so, but how do we combine our talents in new ways to get there — while preserving or enhancing quality of life? And our engagement has to be global; our ability to avoid collapse must be based on an ability to shift the trajectory of all cities, not just those here in the Pacific Northwest or those showcase cities and urban design projects from elsewhere in North America. While we revel in the learning from these places, let us also think of Sao Paulo, Seoul, Manila, Lagos and so many others. What we talk about here should also be in service of them. For that matter, what about the rural and hinterland regions that feed and support all cities?

And while you’re thinking about that, let’s remember that the pattern of city growth, especially in North America, has followed the now tired model of outward expansion of predominantly single-family homes connected by a vast and expensive network of roads, pipelines and other services that have masked the true environmental and social costs of our lifestyle — and that are not, by the way, economically sustainable in a world of increasingly scarce, and expensive, oil. Why is it that lifestyle aspirations and choices in our cities too often run against nature? Why is it okay to leave an empty Lincoln Navigator — the antithesis of fuel-efficiency, by the way — idling at the curb while the kids are dropped off at school? Have we failed to get the price signals right? Yes, but I suspect there are other, more complex forces at play. Despite much rhetoric, we have not made the connections between environmental quality and social or economic well being meaningful to a sufficiently large number of people in our cities.

In the face of the twin challenges of climate change and dwindling cheap oil, that most eloquent and trenchant urban critic, James Kunstler, has asked if we should continue to invest in what he sees as a futureless life — “the whole smoking, creaking, hopeless, futureless machine of suburban sprawl”, or whether it is time to start behaving differently?

This is a question that matters, one without an easy answer, but one that we nonetheless know in our bones demands our attention. We must overcome the poverty of imagination that would otherwise prevent us from reinventing or resetting the industrial age economy. This unique conference is a forum to help us get started on this work. Think of this room and the associated workshop and salon spaces as homes for innovation, unexpected collaboration, and deep conversation about things that matter — what the "rights and responsibilities of urban citizenship" confer upon citizens, and how we might change the lens through which citizens see those rights and responsibilities; what it means for our cities if they are our primary "physical narrative of place" and "the place" also has rights that should be placed into an equitable relationship with those of its citizens.

Think of these spaces and the extraordinary backdrop that is the city of Vancouver as vessels to help you hone your skills at seeing systems; collaborating across boundaries; and moving easily from problem solving to creating. Most of all, think of all you hear and see over the next three days as a potent reminder that saving our cities and our planet is not a spectator sport — the bell has rung and we need to answer it; we need to lead. And leading has nothing to do with position or formal authority, but rather, the capacity of individuals and human communities to shape futures that people truly desire. This, ultimately, is why we’re here. It’s the best kind of work and it should excite and challenge all of us. More than that, it should ignite us to do things differently than we’ve done them before, better than we’ve done them before.

Rob Abbott, is Founder & CEO of ABBOTT STRATEGIES, and Senior Independent Advisor, Stratos Inc.

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