Quote

Our cities need to change, fast. Tactical Urbanism is a guided tour of solutions created when local people decide they can't wait for politics to catch up before they improve their neighborhoods. This weathervane book deserves a place on any urbanist's bookshelf.

Alex Steffen

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alex Steffen
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: January 1
Environmentalist
Writer
Oakland
California
People
Cities
Catch
Tactical
Politics
Improve
Neighborhoods
Waiting
Decide
Guided
Place
Fast
Deserves
Change
Solutions
Tour
Book
Wait
Locals
Urbanism
Need
Deserve
Neighborhood
Bookshelf
Needs
Created
Local
Bookshelves

More quotes by Alex Steffen

Image
I think there's a gigantic generation gap in terms of how people understand the Internet and how much they think technology is an important factor in social change.
Alex Steffen
Image
Copenhagen has done a remarkable job creating streets that are focused on bicycles and pedestrians.
Alex Steffen
Image
By looking at climate change as a clean energy generation problem, we're setting ourselves up not to solve it.
Alex Steffen
Image
Urban retrofitting: creating different sorts of spaces and uses out of places that are already there.
Alex Steffen
Image
Optimism is a political act. Those who benefit from the status quo are perfectly happy for us to think nothing is going to get any better. In fact, these days, cynicism is obedience.
Alex Steffen
Image
You don't change the world by hiding in the woods, wearing a hair shirt, or buying indulgences in the form of 'Save the Earth' bumper stickers. You do it by articulating a vision for the future and pursuing it with all the ingenuity humanity can muster.
Alex Steffen
Image
We get so little news about the developing world that we often forget that there are literally millions of people out there struggling to change things to be fairer, freer, more democratic, less corrupt.
Alex Steffen
Image
Powerful people doing bad things LIKE cynical, despairing citizens.
Alex Steffen
Image
There's no law of physics that says we have to be an unsustainable society - in fact, quite the opposite. The planet's ready to work with us if we're ready to think differently, but we do have to make that jump and start to do things in new ways.
Alex Steffen
Image
By fundamentally changing how we design the places and systems that enable our daily lives, we can slash emissions way beyond the immediate carbon savings - because our own personal emissions are just the tip of a vast iceberg of energy and resources consumed far from our view.
Alex Steffen
Image
In almost all city governments in America, the small group of people who don't want change are able to block change.
Alex Steffen
Image
We have to craft new political realities, not only in places like India, Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, but here at home as well. Another world is possible.
Alex Steffen
Image
The denser places get, the lower the amount of energy people use to get around it.
Alex Steffen
Image
There’s more to being an environmentalist than occasionally signing an online petition and mailing your check to the Sierra Club. Really the most effective environmental actions you can take have to do with crafting your home and surroundings, your workplace decisions and your investment habits.
Alex Steffen
Image
I think we're going to start to see a new model of civic advocacy where people get together once in a while to protest, but it's more about an ongoing, sustained engagement in issues, networks and communities about which people care.
Alex Steffen
Image
At its very heart, Worldchanging is about using the best of people's new ideas, bringing them together and applying them to the massive problems that we all face.
Alex Steffen
Image
Clean air and water, a diversity of animal and plant species, soil and mineral resources, and predictable weather are annuities that will pay dividends for as long as the human race survives – and may even extend our stay on Earth.
Alex Steffen
Image
Carbon zero simply means that the emissions you are releasing either are zero or balance out to zero.
Alex Steffen
Image
Deep walkability describes a city that is built in such a way that you can move from one area to another on foot, on bicycle, on transit and have an experience that remains a pleasant one, that you feel you are welcome not just in the neighborhood but moving between neighborhoods.
Alex Steffen
Image
It's not just enough to survive. We've got to make something better than what we've got.
Alex Steffen