Seeing the Better City: A Discussion with Chuck Wolfe

Creating cities that work for everyone means seeing them from different perspectives — literally. In “Seeing the Better City,” urbanist writer, photographer and land-use attorney Charles R. Wolfe takes urban observation beyond design review and zoning codes, charting a future where all city-dwellers can contribute to the improvement of their city. Wolfe presents a comprehensive toolkit for cataloging the influences of neighborhood dynamics, public transportation, urban form and other elements that impact day-to-day life in a city. Wolfe calls this the “urban diary” approach and emphasizes how the perspective of the observer — including their cultural identity and past social experiences — are key to understanding the dynamics of urban space.

Join Next City and Island Press for this exclusive webinar featuring Chuck and Next City President, CEO & Publisher Tom Dallessio. Next City readers who support our spring membership campaign at the $60 level may receive a copy of “Seeing the Better City” along with a 30 percent discount on Island Press’ entire catalog.

To participate, please register.

About Charles Wolfe
Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe provides a unique perspective about cities as both a long-time writer about urbanism worldwide and as an attorney in Seattle, where he focuses on land use and environmental law. He is also principal advisor at the Seeing Better Cities Group and an affiliate associate professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where he teaches land-use law at the graduate level. Wolfe is an avid traveler, photographer and writer, and contributes on urban development topics to several publications, including CityLab, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Grist.org, seattlepi.com and Crosscut.com. He blogs at myurbanist.com. His first book, “Urbanism Without Effort,” was published in electronic form by Island Press in 2013.