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| Mitchell Silver: Redesigning the way we live | Mitchell Silver: Redesigning the way we live |
| (3 months later) | |
| Midway through his term as president of the American Planning Association (APA), Mitchell Silver's evangelism gripped an LA audience with a message that has particular resonance in England. "I don't want to hear again that planners do not make a difference," he said. "America needs to fall in love with planning again." | Midway through his term as president of the American Planning Association (APA), Mitchell Silver's evangelism gripped an LA audience with a message that has particular resonance in England. "I don't want to hear again that planners do not make a difference," he said. "America needs to fall in love with planning again." |
| Back across the Atlantic, a deflated planning profession is on the defensive in the face of a relentless attack from ministers bent on creating a light-touch system. | Back across the Atlantic, a deflated planning profession is on the defensive in the face of a relentless attack from ministers bent on creating a light-touch system. |
| Last month, at a centenary congress of the International Federation of Housing and Planning in London, Silver effectively called for a reborn planning system with people at its heart and equity as the watchword. "I use the three 'E's' – the environment, economy and equity – and equity is the one that's given lip service, marginalised. It's now being called the 'quality of life'," he observes. "That's not the same as equity." | Last month, at a centenary congress of the International Federation of Housing and Planning in London, Silver effectively called for a reborn planning system with people at its heart and equity as the watchword. "I use the three 'E's' – the environment, economy and equity – and equity is the one that's given lip service, marginalised. It's now being called the 'quality of life'," he observes. "That's not the same as equity." |
| Rare passion | Rare passion |
| Silver, 52, talks with a passion that is rare in a profession characterised as unadventurous and obstructive. Planning, he insists, is about delivering equity for people in secure neighbourhoods. Who laid the foundations for clean air, water, safer and healthier neighbourhoods, job creation, better housing and stronger local economies, he asks rhetorically. Why, progressive planners. | Silver, 52, talks with a passion that is rare in a profession characterised as unadventurous and obstructive. Planning, he insists, is about delivering equity for people in secure neighbourhoods. Who laid the foundations for clean air, water, safer and healthier neighbourhoods, job creation, better housing and stronger local economies, he asks rhetorically. Why, progressive planners. |
| Why, then, has planning got such a bad name in England? Everyone, he says, is looking for a villain. "But what I understand is that there are tens of thousands of [planning] permissions out there yet to be developed. First question: why are they still on the books? Is it the planners or the lending institutions? Second, planners have to show their value, talk very differently about how they create jobs, the economy, and not just focus on the regulations." | Why, then, has planning got such a bad name in England? Everyone, he says, is looking for a villain. "But what I understand is that there are tens of thousands of [planning] permissions out there yet to be developed. First question: why are they still on the books? Is it the planners or the lending institutions? Second, planners have to show their value, talk very differently about how they create jobs, the economy, and not just focus on the regulations." |
| As director of planning in Raleigh, North Carolina – now with added responsibility for the local economy, housing, communities and much else – New York-born Silver believes his diverse city of 420,000 people might show the way forward. Under a city manager, he is given the freedom to plan – "Think big", as he puts it – in the widest sense. It helps that Raleigh (53% white, 29% black, 11% Hispanic, with Asian and other mixed races) is relatively affluent, with a median income of about $65,000 (£42,500). | As director of planning in Raleigh, North Carolina – now with added responsibility for the local economy, housing, communities and much else – New York-born Silver believes his diverse city of 420,000 people might show the way forward. Under a city manager, he is given the freedom to plan – "Think big", as he puts it – in the widest sense. It helps that Raleigh (53% white, 29% black, 11% Hispanic, with Asian and other mixed races) is relatively affluent, with a median income of about $65,000 (£42,500). |
| "We do not have a lot of segregation," he reflects. "We're unique in that we don't have neighbourhood schools, so when you buy a home you're not buying into an exclusive neighbourhood to get the good school … you will be assigned, within a range, what schools your children go to. That tends to stabilise neighbourhoods." | "We do not have a lot of segregation," he reflects. "We're unique in that we don't have neighbourhood schools, so when you buy a home you're not buying into an exclusive neighbourhood to get the good school … you will be assigned, within a range, what schools your children go to. That tends to stabilise neighbourhoods." |
| Silver, who has just ended a two-year stint as president of the APA, accepts that councillors often do not allow planners to be creative. "They always have the foot on their neck … 'Do what you are told, stay in place'. So you have to say, 'Are you giving your planning department the ability to be great, innovative, creative, or is it just permits, push it out the door?' If the latter is the case, you have created a whole institution, a profession, that sees a ceiling under which you can only do so much." | Silver, who has just ended a two-year stint as president of the APA, accepts that councillors often do not allow planners to be creative. "They always have the foot on their neck … 'Do what you are told, stay in place'. So you have to say, 'Are you giving your planning department the ability to be great, innovative, creative, or is it just permits, push it out the door?' If the latter is the case, you have created a whole institution, a profession, that sees a ceiling under which you can only do so much." |
| Undeniably, planning in England has become weighed down with development control functions, by design or accident. Consequently, the ideals of place-shapping embedded in the groundbreaking 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, which created the modern planning system have been forgotten. | Undeniably, planning in England has become weighed down with development control functions, by design or accident. Consequently, the ideals of place-shapping embedded in the groundbreaking 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, which created the modern planning system have been forgotten. |
| While the profession is on the back foot, with few innovative thinkers, it has not been helped by a disproportionate level of cuts, with the Audit Commission reporting that council planning departments have been hit substantially harder than elsewhere in town halls. According to Guardian research, councils are slashing as much as 58% from their planning budgets between 2012 and 2014. | While the profession is on the back foot, with few innovative thinkers, it has not been helped by a disproportionate level of cuts, with the Audit Commission reporting that council planning departments have been hit substantially harder than elsewhere in town halls. According to Guardian research, councils are slashing as much as 58% from their planning budgets between 2012 and 2014. |
| Ironically, Silver has found inspiration in the ideals of the English garden city movement – pioneered in the last century by the social and planning pioneer Ebenezer Howard – coupled with the green belt around cities. These have largely succeeded in eliminating the urban sprawl that characterises parts of the US. | Ironically, Silver has found inspiration in the ideals of the English garden city movement – pioneered in the last century by the social and planning pioneer Ebenezer Howard – coupled with the green belt around cities. These have largely succeeded in eliminating the urban sprawl that characterises parts of the US. |
| "We do appreciate the town and country, the green belt, the garden cities. We've adapted it over time," he says. "But the major challenge is that you have more of a nationally controlled planning system. We do not. Ours is both at the state and local level." | "We do appreciate the town and country, the green belt, the garden cities. We've adapted it over time," he says. "But the major challenge is that you have more of a nationally controlled planning system. We do not. Ours is both at the state and local level." |
| He adds that the other major difference between the two planning systems is that here there seems to be more of a separation of social and spatial planning in England. "It's a lot more integrated in the US. The democratic process allows for a lot more 'bottom-up' involvement". | He adds that the other major difference between the two planning systems is that here there seems to be more of a separation of social and spatial planning in England. "It's a lot more integrated in the US. The democratic process allows for a lot more 'bottom-up' involvement". |
| Silver, who describes himself as "mixed race – black and white", passionately believes that planners have to take the lead not only in creating more integrated neighbourhoods, across class and race, but also in meeting the challenges of an ageing population and immigration. | Silver, who describes himself as "mixed race – black and white", passionately believes that planners have to take the lead not only in creating more integrated neighbourhoods, across class and race, but also in meeting the challenges of an ageing population and immigration. |
| He says: "Those communities like mine [in Raleigh] are quite successful. What people perceive to be more diverse and what the reality is of being more diverse is quite different. You cannot stop people from having their biases. But, as planners, we're on the frontline: we cannot avoid this problem any longer." | He says: "Those communities like mine [in Raleigh] are quite successful. What people perceive to be more diverse and what the reality is of being more diverse is quite different. You cannot stop people from having their biases. But, as planners, we're on the frontline: we cannot avoid this problem any longer." |
| Curriculum vitae | Curriculum vitae |
| Age 52. | Age 52. |
| Home Raleigh, North Carolina, US. | Home Raleigh, North Carolina, US. |
| Family Married, three children. | Family Married, three children. |
| Education Midwood high school, Brooklyn, NY; bachelor of architecture, Pratt Institute; master of urban planning, Hunter College, NY. | Education Midwood high school, Brooklyn, NY; bachelor of architecture, Pratt Institute; master of urban planning, Hunter College, NY. |
| Career 2005-present: chief planning and development officer and planning director, Raleigh, NC; 2002-present: principal, Mitchell Silver and Associates; 2003-05: deputy director, Office of Planning District of Columbia; 2001-03: business administrator, township of Irvington, New Jersey; 1997-2001: principal, Abeles Phillips Preiss and Shapiro Inc; 1994-97: director, Northern Manhatten Office, Manhatten Borough; 1990-94: urban planning, design and policy specialist, Office of Manhatten Borough President; 1987-90: city planner, New York City department of city planning. | Career 2005-present: chief planning and development officer and planning director, Raleigh, NC; 2002-present: principal, Mitchell Silver and Associates; 2003-05: deputy director, Office of Planning District of Columbia; 2001-03: business administrator, township of Irvington, New Jersey; 1997-2001: principal, Abeles Phillips Preiss and Shapiro Inc; 1994-97: director, Northern Manhatten Office, Manhatten Borough; 1990-94: urban planning, design and policy specialist, Office of Manhatten Borough President; 1987-90: city planner, New York City department of city planning. |
| Public life 2011-13, president, Amercian Planning Association. | Public life 2011-13, president, Amercian Planning Association. |
| Interests Photography, spending time with the family. | Interests Photography, spending time with the family. |
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