Planning and the Art of Storytelling

By Jay Walljasper

We are fortunate to live in the Golden Age of Data, when people's understanding of nearly any topic can be enriched with statistical evidence. All fields are being transformed by our ability to offer detailed information at a scale and depth unimaginable 30 years ago.

By its very nature, planning focuses on the future. And it's never been easier to explore what a community might look like in two, 10, or 40 years thanks to the bounty of material generated and processed by computers, and all that can be discovered and disseminated via the internet.

Yet as we marvel at the possibilities of this 21st century miracle, it's crucial to remember data has its limits. As Albert Einstein once observed, "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted," (although a quick Google search tells me it was actually sociologist William Bruce Cameron, writing in 1963).

The biggest limit to big data appears to be humans' capacity to take in and integrate information. let's face it: Only a spoonful of facts and figures stick in our minds — the rest swirls past us in a tide of random numbers.

To truly connect with people in a way that informs, inspires, and instills them to take action still depends on an ancient form of communication: storytelling. The most enduring sources of knowledge in the world — ancient mythology, folktales of indigenous people, Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the Koran, Hindu and Buddhist texts — frequently embed their messages in seemingly simple tales that reveal intricate truths. Our minds appear to have far greater storage capacity for stories than for metrics.

"Data is important, but people really care less about the 'what' of data and more about the 'why' and 'how' a project is going to improve their communities and their lives, which is where stories come in," says Dan Burden, director of innovation for Blue Zones and former Florida bike and pedestrian coordinator who has worked in more than 3,500 communities across America over the past 40 years.

A well-told tale (either spoken at a meeting or written in a report) remains a powerful and often overlooked tool for planners — not just to help professionals capture a community's imagination, but for everyday citizens to improve a project by sharing their own experiences and ideas.

Illustration by Ross Macdonald.

Tales from the field

In an era when community engagement is increasingly central to how we plan our towns and cities, storytelling is more important than ever, as these testimonies from the field attest:

Ned Baier, AICP, senior project manager in the Tampa office of the Jacobs Group, remembers encountering a school crossing guard at a busy suburban intersection while conducting a walking tour as part of an active transportation workshop in Collier County, Florida. She wasn't part of the tour group, but her first-person account contributed greatly to the story of that area. "In talking about what happens there, she had five great ideas to make that intersection more safe. She later came to our public meeting, and the whole process benefited from the elements she talked about."

Another "aha" moment about the power of story came during Baier's seven years working on the Pinellas Trail, a rail trail from St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs. He was then a planner for Pinellas County, Florida. "Telling the history of the project motivated the public and local city councils to pursue it, and led to getting it funded," he notes. Interest in the trail perked up when people learned that passenger trains had run on this route as recently as the 1970s — and that one of the trail's most devoted advocates had lost his son in a bicycle crash on a local road, adding poignancy to the community's efforts to create paths separated from car traffic.

Pete Saunders, economic development coordinator for the Chicago suburb of Calumet City and a contributor to Forbes's Reinventing America blog, notes that stories resonate strongly with people in disadvantaged communities, who typically are less likely to turn out for community engagement events.

As a planner who worked for the city of Chicago on many South Side projects, he says, "I can assure you that focusing on data — especially return on investment — will make many people skeptical or cynical. They assume the economic benefits will not include them." Saunders notes that even the Barack Obama Presidential Library, slated for Chicago's South Side, has caused community tension about gentrification and dislocation.

"Using a story gets to the broader vision of the project," he notes. "Your goal should be helping people imagine what it will look like, and show their place in it. Otherwise, they often feel no one understands their concerns."

The essential value of storytelling struck me while writing The Great Neighborhood Book in collaboration with Project for Public Spaces. What we envisioned as a handy how-to manual quickly turned into a collection of stories chronicling places where people were doing remarkable things — because that was the most effective way to showcase practical lessons about strengthening communities.

While not trained as a planner, I have written about how to create better communities for the past 25 years, and now often find myself in front of an audience or leading a workshop with the mission of helping people improve the place they call home. While I am steeped in the work of Jane Jacobs, Jan Gehl, and John Nolen, I often find myself taking a page out of detective novels, fairy tales, favorite podcasts, Disney movies, or Garrison Keillor monologues to get my points across. A masterful narrative in any form easily translates to other subjects.

6 Strategies for Telling Memorable, Inspiring Stories

Illustration by Ross Macdonald.

You don't need a degree in comparative literature to spin a good yarn. In fact, you've probably already honed the most important narrative techniques by sharing day-to-day epiphanies with friends, composing social media posts, or telling bedtime stories to your kids. All you need to do is consciously channel these skills into your professional life.

1 Bring your story to life with vivid details.

Ernest Hemingway said one of the cardinal rules of storytelling is to always describe "how the weather was" — which confers authenticity and credibility at the same time as helping folks conjure a picture in their minds of what you're talking about. Telling details — "a boarded-up yellow-brick bungalow" ... "a teenager in a too-small letter jacket" ... and "clumps of grayish snow littered the yard" — snare people's attention and lodge in their memories.

Pete Saunders notes how one of his most discussed blogs (http://bit.ly/2H2uYpH) pinpoints particular elements of his wife's life. She grew up near Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood — now ground-zero for hipster redevelopment — when the neighborhood was still home to Latinos, Polish immigrants, and African Americans. Saunders describes a reunion of her high school friends, mostly African American and many living in the suburbs, who were startled at the trendy transformation of their old neighborhood. They wondered out loud why the fountain in Wicker Park, a Chicago Park District park, never worked when they lived there.

This adds a fresh, revealing angle to the familiar debate about gentrification.

2 Energize your verbiage.

The old advice from freshman composition class still holds true: Use active verbs. Indeed, you should deploy active verbs, scatter active verbs, unleash active verbs! Vivid language animates your stories, making them more memorable and engaging. Study sports writing for inspiration. Why say "got a hit" when you can exclaim "socked the ball"? But keep an eye out for overkill. You may not want to "detonate" active verbs.

3 Tap into people's aspirations.

Nothing succeeds like a success story — especially the scrappy underdogs who overcome daunting odds. That's been the recipe for almost every feel-good movie from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to Rocky to The Last Jedi.

One of my favorites is the story of Dudley Street, a corner of Boston's Roxbury district that was once a dump — literally, because garbage haulers had illegally dumped so much refuse in its vacant lots. You'd expect people living there to just give up on the place, quietly hatching their own individual plans to escape. But the multicultural Dudley Street neighbors banded together to weave a vision of an urban village — with a town square, new housing in the vacant lots that blended with the community's historical character, and a main street brimming with businesses.

With the help of a local foundation and a lot of hard work on the part of residents who came together as the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, that's what happened.

4 Make sure storytelling is a two-way street.

The power of storytelling should not mean those with power are the only ones telling stories. Pete Saunders points to a revitalization plan he worked on for Bronzeville — the heart of African-American Chicago since the early 20th century — which divided people now living in the neighborhood. Home owners generally supported the effort but those living in public housing buildings didn't.

"Long-time residents told stories about what Bronzeville used to be like — walkable with lots of jobs, places where you could shop and go out to entertainment right in the community." After hearing that the plan aimed to revive these elements, Saunders notes "many of the opponents said that's what they want too."

Stories coming from community voices actually carry more weight than those of elected officials, experts, or planners. Make time on your agenda and provide a welcoming environment for people to speak up about what they know and what they want — not just what they think about a particular proposal. After all, they are the world's foremost authorities on the place where they live.

5 Employ a sense of drama, humor, and suspense.

Pay attention to what grabs your own imagination. "To tell a great story, take a close look at your own favorite authors — paying attention to how they use punch lines, narrative flow, and a sense of suspense," advises University of Pennsylvania architecture professor Stefan Al, whose research tracks the role of storytelling in the design of places like Las Vegas and fast-growing cities of China.

6 Highlight everyday people who make a difference in their community.

One of the most popular stories in The Great Neighborhood Book stars Dave Marcucci, a resident of Mississauga, Ontario, who attended a Project for Public Spaces placemaking workshop. Excited about the idea of enlivening his community, he captivated the crowd by telling the story of a bench. His suburban neighbors were shocked, he explained, when he tore out a section of his front-yard fence to build it.

"Who's the bench for, Dave?" they asked. "For you," he answered, which baffled them even more. But right from the start, Dave's bench was a popular spot in neighborhood, beginning with older folks, who could venture out on longer walks knowing there was a place to rest, and kids who loved to play on it. Soon, other benches sprouted on the lawns of Dave's skeptical neighbors, creating a more convivial atmosphere for the subdivision.

Having told this story many times, I spotted an old park bench at a yard sale in my Minneapolis neighborhood and without hesitation forked over 25 bucks and lugged it home to my own front yard, where it's become a hangout for neighborhood kids riding the school bus in the morning and parents waiting for them in the afternoon.

Jay Walljasper writes, speaks, and consults about how to create better communities. Author of The Great Neighborhood Book and America's Walking Renaissance , he is urban writer in residence at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.

Resources

The Great Neighborhood Book, a do-it- yourself guide to placemaking that chronicles stories of people around North America who have made their communities safer, greener, more vital and interesting through grassroots initiatives: www.pps.org/product/the-great-neighborhood-book.

City Lab (citylab.com) and Next City (nextcity.org), two websites that often employ storytelling to explore planning and other issues affecting communities today.

Edens Lost and Found, a book and documentary film showcasing ecological and social restoration projects in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle: http://bit.ly/2HrwEs4.