In preparations on the 1st Van Nuys planning summit, we will post video clips from experts on sustainability, urban design, planning and community activism prior to the planning summit on March 26. The first speaker is Ed McMahon (not Johnny Carson’s sidekick), a senior analyst for Urban Land Institute. He is a nationally renowned authority on sustainable development, land conservation. and urban design. He is currently a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute.
He talks about the power of uniqueness in places that give communities distinctiveness. He describes a place as a unique collection of qualities and characteristics–visual, cultural, social, environmental–that provide meaning to a location. Sense of place is what makes one city or town different from another, but it is also what makes our physical surroundings worth caring about.
