By someone who doesn’t particularly like rules. Photo Credit: Kirk Voclain Ask a stranger in the grocery store what they know about their city’s Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code, and you will likely get a blank stare. Hand them a zoning ordinance, and you may be met with confusion or even suspicion. In an effort to explain our profession to others, urban planners sometimes describe Planning as a practice of writing rules. We create or change rules that shape how n

Urban land is often spoken for long before people arrive. Through policy, speculation, and deeply embedded systems of ownership, land in the city is managed in ways that reflect and reinforce social and economic hierarchies. Within this context, the practice of growing food can appear incidental.  2025 Inspire Project | Minneola Chester Street Community Garden More than a decade ago, I wrote my dissertation on the potential of urban agriculture not only to grow food, but to r

Inspire is proud to announce that Jeel Patel’s submittal for Tactical Urbanism NOW! 2025  has been selected as a finalist. We invite you to take a moment to learn more about the important work our employees are doing, both inside and outside the office. As part of a collaborative entry for the Tactical Urbanism NOW  competition by Terraviva, Jeel's team developed The Living Threshold , a project reimagining the vulnerable boundary of Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai. Th