Livestream tomorrow (Sunday), 6pm ET/3pm PT. Gonna react to and discuss the “Urbanism YouTube Has a HUGE Problem” video that LOTS of my viewers have been telling me to watch. I’ve only watched a little, so this is going to be a bit of a high wire act!
Recommendation: go watch the actual video if you haven’t already! Decide for yourself. Also the comment section is amusing, from what I’ve seen so far https://youtu.be/bUs0ecnbOdo?si=-DiPWO8Oir2yE_Fk
@nerd4cities
In defence of @notjustbikes, I've literally started going to planning meetings and getting involved with the local Council because of NJB content.
What's ironic is that this chap moans about Urbanism YouTube not providing specific instructions on how to get involved, while also not providing any information himself! (Apologies if he has, but all I saw were game videos)
I am reasonably sure all my favourite Urbanism YouTube creators have at some point said, "get involved" and offered suggestions on how to. Yes, they don't say it in every video, and more of this information would be nice, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to get big clicks and pay the bills, and it's going to get boring quickly.
In defence of this guy, I do hear his frustration. I see a great guy who wants to see an make change. I hope he can do a series of videos now that explain how best to get involved.
@MrLee @notjustbikes yeah I think I even saw a comment (probably multiple) on the video along the lines of, “I used to like NJB and he really helped me understand and care about the issues, but I got tired of him never telling me how to get involved, but now I’m on my city’s planning commission” or something. Like…you’re SO close to getting it
@nerd4cities Watched it now. I found it very interesting, and obviously coming from a good place. I'm very glad to hear you take it seriously and will talk about it!
I haven't interacted enough with urbanism YT to say much on how correct or not he is, but it's an important conversation! And talking more about this can only be a good thing, I think.
@nerd4cities I have, though, been interacting with r/fuckcars some, and there I see this issue very clearly
Of course it's easier & more fun to post and comment on memes and moans. And those things are even important! But they don't get us far if that's all we do
I got on the team that edits the wiki for r/fuckcars. There I started on a page on activism, hoping others from the team would add to it. I don't think they have. Ideas for more things I can add is appreciated! https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/wiki/get-involved/
@nerd4cities I kinda get the message the video sends but as someone who lives in the US but is not a citizen: what the hell am I supposed to even do then?
Civic engagement is great but there's lots of people like me who move _to_ a place because it's a city with opportunity, but can't engage in civics for a lot of reasons.
IDK, maybe that's just the hand you get dealt. I know for a fact that purported "slacktivism" doesn't work, but there's entire generations of car-brain advocacy and disinformation out there, so is what urbanist youtube is doing useless? There's extreme value in messaging on its own merit, even if it's not the same explicit value that attending real meetings is.
@thatgeoguy @nerd4cities I appreciate this, I can imagine it's very frustrating. I think it also touches on a bigger issue, which is that local control is sometimes - often, even - made *deliberately* hard to access in terms of scheduling, even for those of us who are citizens.
@thatgeoguy @nerd4cities While some decisions may still need to be made locally, an idea that isn't discussed here in this video - possibly because CO is not a state where this is happening yet - is reducing the amount of local control and veto points that exist at all. Some of the points made about people only showing up if they're opposed aren't unique to urbanism: they're basic psychology (loss aversion > gain desire). Moses may have gone too far, but there is an excess of consultation now.
@nerd4cities somewhat on topic... most of the Los Angeles County supervisors are up for election on 5 March. LA County has more people than 40 states. Of course, housing and transportation are major issues.
@nerd4cities Thanks for your response video. I don’t think I could have watched that original video without your common sense remarks. I don’t see that advocacy education is necessarily the role of current urbanism ytubers. Why should we expect it from current people or say that you all are the problem?? You each saw a gap and thought you could address it in your own way. Same for the gap of educating people how to take action. Anyone can take that up, but what works varies a LOT.
@nerd4cities I had the impression that he doesn’t really understand: 1) how adults learn, 2) that every location has its particular hurdles and open doorways. The only way forward is to ask questions and figure out strategies for your own project/community. 3) Speaking of community, that was missing too: working together for a common goal - more effective.