Norm Van Eeden Petersman  0:06  

Hey folks, welcome to Bottom-Up Shorts. I'm Norm with Strong Towns, and I'm so excited to be able to connect members with each other and to share the stories and the experiences of so many people within our Strong Towns movement. One of the things that stands out to me is the way in which so many people are engaged in this work of building strong communities. With me today is Santa Fe, New Mexico's Metropolitan Planning Organization Director, Erick Aune. I met Erick during a new member orientation session, I think, almost a couple of years ago now. He, along with several of his colleagues at the MPO, were able to sign up as Strong Towns members and dive deep into Strong Towns content and really take to heart many of the things that are needed in their places. Erick, together with others within the Santa Fe community, are working together on Strong Town Santa Fe, a Local Conversation there, and they do a ton within the state with the folks in Albuquerque and other places in the state as well. Erick is able to straddle that line between serving as a professional within the MPO and, as a strong citizen, making things happen for the good of the people who live within the community. Erick, welcome to Bottom-Up Shorts

Erick Aune  1:20  

Oh, thanks. It's a privilege, and I really appreciate it.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  1:22  

Erick, can you share the good news or the exciting progress that's being made with the plans for transportation in your community as you've begun to help bring a shift in the culture and planning mindset?

Erick Aune  1:39  

Oh yeah, I'd be happy to. The metropolitan transportation plan for the Santa Fe region includes the city, the state, the county, and the Pueblo of Tesuque area. It's a regional effort. I've been able to lead these planning initiatives with consultants for almost 10 years now. This particular adoption, or plan if you want to call it that, is really pivotal. What we've been doing, incrementally and systemically, is looking at the assumptions of traditional transportation planning tools and questioning with empathy. "Where did they come from? How are they used today? How can they be used to better transform a road network to something much safer and better?" We're in the weeds, examining our basic assumptions, such as design speed, such as level of service, functional classification. We are, for example, in charge of the travel demand model that our agencies use and consultants use, we're even challenging on its face how the travel demand model has been somewhat biased and automobile oriented, and we are changing directions on how that can be used to really change substantively the outcome of the transportation network. To get in the weeds took a lot of work, but we realized that it wasn't that difficult to challenge on its face with respect and empathy. I'll give you a very specific example, the use of the 85th percentile for design speed in posted speed limit. We've been given an understanding of how it ought to be for years, and we've now respectfully challenged it and are looking through a new lens for design speed and posted speed. With the city, of course, respectfully. It's transformative. Yes, it's going to take some time. We've come so far in almost two generations that it's extraordinarily difficult to change. This is the change that we believe needs to happen. What's really fascinating is that it's also bottom up. We are aligning these assumptions and changes that have been largely committed to a small cohort of technocrats, if you want to call it that, to broaden the discussion to "How do you want to design your street in your neighborhood? Have you ever been asked about what the design speed of your street is and what your values are around that?" People are like, "No. Can we?" Yes, we can, and here are the trade offs.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  4:56  

It feels like that connects directly with the insights that emerge from things like a neighborhood walk. The element that sometimes can be missing is some of the technical material of what the actual design speed is or what the turning radii that's required is What stands out to me in the in the document -- and I'll try to make sure that there's a link to it, or else, definitely go and check out the Santa Fe Master Transportation Plan -- is the way in which it lays out, for example, turning radii. Outdated assumption: "intersections and driveways must provide free flow turning movements for the largest vehicle possible." Then the response: "No, we need to reduce radii, to reduce turning speeds and increase safety." And I'm like, yes, we've been saying this, we've been feeling that. Even like, "Whoa, that that is way too sweeping of a turn." Then the response right away to people that would raise questions like "How does a large vehicle get around?" It says, "Assume larger vehicles will require extra care and turning negotiations. Considering their size and their mass, we actually need that slowness to be a feature, not a bug, of the types of designs that we make in our streets. Just one more. "The mobility-productivity paradox is a traditional assumption. The error that it makes is that it assumes when mobility or vehicle miles traveled increases, that our productivity, the amount of activity taking place, our gross domestic product, also increases, not just in our city, but for the whole country." And I love this language: "Data shows the opposite or negative relationship between mobility, vehicles miles traveled, and productivity. This contradicts the common assumption that increasing driving is economically beneficial when it is actually harmful. Productivity tends to increase with urban traffic congestion." Laying it out, but bringing receipts. I think that's maybe where you're in a unique position within the MPO to have the data and have the studies and have that info. Can you share a little bit about what the turn looked like when you could say to the consultants that worked on this master plan project, as well as planners and engineers in your team, "We can be bold because we've actually set the stage for that boldness." What does it mean to be bold when it comes to reclaiming our streets in this way?

Erick Aune  7:22  

Yeah, I think it's important to note when being bold not to be obnoxious. Bold is strategic but at the same time, the need to be bold strategically is a deep dive into where these assumptions and criteria are coming from, how they were used in the past, and then having the conversation. The success that I think we've seen is a conversation about all of these things that has been within a small cohort of technical individuals and leadership. Broadening the conversation. One of my favorites is minimum parking standards, it's on here too. But the mobility-productivity paradox, when you start to distill it down and have a conversation with folks who aren't necessarily in the mix of this, they get it right away. Then you're able to leverage those conversations to help change the policy and then get support for the policy. I can't underscore enough that this is not easy to do. It takes a lot of patience. But as I maybe described earlier, when we get to a point of policy decision making, you can see where the light bulbs are going on in your constituents minds. Secondly, when you work with your consultant team and your staff, and they get it too, then there's the synergy of change. I call it the punch through, right? It's the punch through through policy. It's the punch through for a narrative, for a new cultural approach to how we design cities. Few and far between, we're still working on it. It's a lot of hard work, but the the rewards when you get to that point, what I call the punch through, or the aha moment if you want, it makes the policy and then the standards and the criteria a lot easier to change.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  9:22  

I think there's also a layer to this we just chatted about just before this, about the time that it has taken for all of the pieces to come together. Can you share a little bit about, the decisions that were made in 1944 and then 1948 to adopt standards and plans and formulations of what a successful community building project would look like in this new era, and how all of those decisions continue to linger into the present? But as that that shift occurs, one of the things you were counseling was patience, even in a time of generous boldness.

Erick Aune  10:00  

Yeah, I also do some work with the New Mexico Main Street Program, and have for my career around the state. The pivotal date is right around 1950. When you drive, walk, or bike through any town that goes way back hundreds of years in New Mexico -- which I really love about this state, the history and the cultural context -- you can literally see the tipping point of the standards and assumptions and zoning that all promulgated around the same decade, 1950 to 1960. The results that you see across the state and in Santa Fe are significant. The distinction between Old Town or historic Santa Fe and then the quasi suburban is extraordinary in terms of walkability, in terms of context. It changed dramatically. Here's where empathy comes in, Norm. With an understanding that the goal in 1950 and '60 was to get more tourism, was to get more automobiles to downtown. So we built that, and we did it successfully. That's where I reflect on the experiment. Now the experiment has shed light on safety and what we've compromised by doing that decade after decade. These tools that we've been using, and still do today, have compromised quality of life, safety and the context of our communities dramatically. When it's stated that way, it's not that difficult to get constituents and policymakers on board, but actually making the changes is really difficult. But here we are.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  11:55  

So what guidance do you have for people that want to influence the transportation planning in their city? You mentioned in Santa Fe there's a lot of active groups that are really taking up the torch on a whole range of social issues and needs, but especially around safety and transportation. And that pressure has been building, or the opportunity has been emerging, but some people are maybe a little bit earlier in that process. Do you have any suggestions on how to step well into that ongoing discussion in order to drive the types of change that we want to see?

Erick Aune  12:29  

What we've been able to do, somewhat successfully I believe, is that understanding that, on its face, transportation planning or transportation issues are not that sexy and don't really drive the populace. Only if they're negatively effected, then we get sort of the NIMBY or the yimby component. We know that there are hot-button issues, like affordable housing can't be underscored enough with Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then stretch that across this country. So there's a lot of energy and initiatives around affordable housing. So what we've been able to do is broaden the conversation about affordable living and the impact of where housing is and how our streets and parking requirements are actually contributing factors to the affordable housing crisis. By being able to dovetail that, we do two things. We've broadened our audience. We've brought them into the conversation, albeit maybe not their passion. Then we can leverage that for the change that we want to see.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  13:39  

I think that's fantastic. Can you share a little bit with our audience, just who you are that this has become part of your life's pursuit, and also something that you were prepared to do and step into in order to show leadership at a time like this?

Erick Aune  13:54  

That's a really cool question. You know, who am I? I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, so the irony of what I do today is really deep. I grew up driving. I grew up speeding. I was a typical teenager. What happened? I don't know exactly, but I think it could be characterized that I also had, while growing up in Michigan, the experience of walking to a downtown safely, the experience of having independency, and I would argue agency, as a young person that I don't see for my children or the children today. I think that's more of a psychological thing that's been driving me to be motivated for this change. We're losing so much by driving everywhere. I see that when I drive my kids to school because it's not safe. I think that would characterize my motivation in some ways. There's a lot more over the decades of work. Then seeing the potential, I think. The potential of taking what we've built over the last 70 years and just visualizing it differently is exciting. Actually, then, it's even small wins and small changes. I'll give you an example. I saw a trail and a sidewalk that a developer was building, and they didn't make the connection. We called the developer. We had an empathetic conversation. The developer agreed, "Yes, let's make that tiny connection." 20 feet. Small incremental wins, huge impact.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  15:39  

I think that's powerful. I think what you're describing even of your own upbringing and being able to experience something. I think at times people get trapped where we have a fear of loss, and that leads us to take action, especially when it doesn't have a positive vision that goes with it. But the remembrance of loss is different, because the remembrance of loss, especially when it's together with a sense of "I know what we have lost in terms of safety or sociability or cultural cohesiveness. How do we cultivate that?" How do we how do we bring that into our places, instead of just "fear the change, stop the loss" thinking. I'm really mindful of that. It leads into the question that I have for you: What is it that gives you hope as you continue to carry on in your work?

Erick Aune  16:29  

Oh, yeah, hope. Two major things. The hope is just being part of the national change, the initiative. A lot of what Strong Towns and other organizations are doing have really catapulted the whole hope to a new level for me. Knowing that we may make some incremental changes, we make a little difference here, but we're part of a bigger and a much broader initiative that we hope can contribute to that. Secondly, the hope is just working with and having a social experience with my neighbors, my colleagues and whoever in Santa Fe may listen to this. Sharing that hope together, where you're not so lonely in such work, keeps me going.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  17:31  

I love that. Thank you, Erick, this has been great. Really appreciated having you on Bottom-Up Shorts. I want to mention that I'll be taking more of a look at the specific details of the transportation plan in an article that I hope to have coming up on the Strong Towns blog. So definitely look for that if this has whet your appetite and you want to dive deeper into these things. Eric shared that he had done deep dives into functional classification of roadways. These are the types of things that Strong Towns members and advocates certainly end up doing in your time learning these things and then learning how they impact the way in which we see our communities. Erick, thank you for being on Bottom-Up Shorts today.

Erick Aune  18:10  

It's been a pleasure. Thank you.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  18:12  

To everybody that's listening, go forth and take care and take care of your places.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman  18:19  

This episode was produced by Strong Towns, a nonprofit movement for building financially resilient communities. If what you heard today matters to you, deepen your connection by becoming a Strong Towns member at strongtowns.org/membership.