Two influential urban thinkers passed away in the last few days. Donald Shoup, a professor of urban studies at UCLA, was an ardent critic of free parking. His 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, delineated the negative impacts of parking and served as inspiration for policymakers in multiple cities to change their local regulations and policies to improve environmental conditions and quality of life for urban residents. Meanwhile, Dickson Despommier inspired vibrant debates about the relationship between agriculture and cities by promoting the notion of vertical farming. A professor at Columbia University’s School of Public Health, his 2010 book, The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, spurred venture capitalists to fund multiple high-tech urban farms over the last decade (many of which failed). Interestingly, neither Shoup nor Despommier had formal training in an urban discipline. Shoup had a PhD in economics but mainly focused on cities while Despommier was a microbiologist who got involved in urban food issues by chance. Both will be missed.
Andrew Karvonen 