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Civic Engagement

Jason Roberts: “People need to realize they can shape their cities»

By Jason Roberts | 2018

Jason Roberts has a very clear idea of what cities are: places where people gather to live, work, trade, etc. However, there is still a lack of community engagement, since we don’t see people coming together to help repair places: they assume that someone else will take care of the problems and fix their neighborhoods. To Jason, it is urgent for people to realize that they have the power to shape their spaces when they come together.

The willing to revert this situation in his hometown was the seed of what he later founded as the Better Block project, born to empower communities to reshape and reactivate built environments to promote the growth of healthy and vibrant neighborhoods. The public realm needs to be continually fought for and this is what the Better Block stands for. In this interview Jason explains how they changed laws and recreated the neighborhood they wanted: with bike lanes, cafes, green areas.  The greatest changes come from those that look at rules, realize they are wrong, stand up and change them.

About the authors

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Jason Roberts

Jason Roberts is the founder of the Oak Cliff Transit Authority, founder of the original Better Block Project, co-founder of Art Conspiracy and Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, and candidate for US Congress. In 2006, Jason formed the non-profit organization Oak Cliff Transit Authority to revive the Dallas streetcar system. In 2010, Jason organized a series of “Better Block” projects, which have become an international movement and has been featured in the New York Times, Dwell magazine, TED Talks and on NPR.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Pilar Conesa

CEO of anteverti & Curator of the Smart City Expo World Congress

Emilia Saiz

Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)

Cristina Garrido

Director of Innovation of anteverti

Mons Badia

Consultant at anteverti

anteverti team

Internal Organization Manager at anteverti

Alba Soler

Consultant at anteverti

Ana Alcantud

Consulting Director of anteverti

Sergio García i Rodríguez

Communications Manager at anteverti & CitiesToBe Co-Director

Manu Fernandez

Founder of Human Scale City & Senior Consultant in anteverti

Boyd Cohen

Professor of Entrepreneurship

Rebecca Smith

Head of Knowledge & Policy at Climate Infrastructure Partnership

Inazio Martínez de Arano

Head of Office in European Forest Institute Mediterranean Regional Office

Jeff Merritt

Director of Innovation, new head of IoT at WEF4IR

Mikael Colville-Andersen

Urbanist, designer, author & inspirational speaker

Rashiq Fataar

Urbanist and Director of Our Future Cities

Geoff Mulgan

Chief Executive of Nesta UK

Marta Galceran

Senior Consultant at anteverti & Researcher

Natalia Olson-Urtecho

Co-Founder of The Disruptive Factory

Robert Muggah

Co-founder of Igarapé Institute

Parvati Nair

Director of the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility

Kumaresh Chandra Mishra

Former Deputy Secretary General Habitat III Conference. United Nations

Maya Wiley

Civil rights activist and board chair of the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board

Tatiana Gallego Lizón

Division Chief for Urban Development at IDB

Bahaaeddin Alhaddad

Space Business Development and Urban Remote Sensing at Starlab Ltd

Darko Radovic

Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Keio University

Lacina Koné

Director General of Smart Africa

Gabriela Gomez-Mont

Chief Creativity Officer at Laboratorio para la Ciudad. México City

Linda Weiss

Professor of political science at the University of Sydney

Carlos Moreno

Professor at the Sorbonne University & Mayor of Paris’ Special Representative for Smart Cities

Victor Pineda

President of World Enabled

Sameh Wahba

Global Director of Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice at the World Bank

Tamara Drove Aldana

APEC Advisor on Women and Inclusive Growth

Sladjana Mijatovic

Program Manager Circular Economy & Innovation at City of Amsterdam

Martin Brynskov

Chair of Open & Agile Smart Cities & Associate Professor at Aarhus University

Catherine DIgnazio

Professor of Urban Science & Planning at MIT

Suzanne Spooner

Consultant & Urban Expert

Joan Clos

Former Executive Director of UN-Habitat

Juliet Schor

Professor of Sociology at Boston College

Jason Roberts

Founder of the Better Block

Janette Sadik Khan

Former NYC Transportation Commissioner and Principal at Bloomberg Associates

Laura Faye Tenenbaum

Science communicator · former Editor at NASA Climate Change website

Dan Lewis

President, Westcoast International. Forrmer Chief Urban Risk Reduction, UN Habitat

Francis Pisani

Author and consultant

Alice Charles

Cities and Urban Development Lead at the World Economic Forum

Amador Ferrer

Architect and Professor at Universitat Ramón Llull

Pontus Westerberg

Programme Management Officer at UN-Habitat & 
Block by Block programme Special Advisor

Raquel Rolnik

Prof. at the School of Architecture and Urbanism at University of São Paulo

Kilian Kleinschmidt

Entrepreneur and advisor. Former UNHCR official.

Esteve Almirall

Assoc. Professor. ESADE Business Law School

Hila Oren

Director General of the Tel Aviv Foundation

Ellis J. Juan

Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative General Coordinator at Inter-American Development Bank

Mireia Tuduri

Consultant at anteverti

Chaturvedi Bharati

Founder and Director of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group

Juliana Rotich

Co-founder of Ushahidi

Beth Simone Noveck

Founder and Director. Governance Lab

Carla Sanmartin

Internal Organization Manager at anteverti

Elkin Velásquez

UN-Habitat Regional Director for Latin America

Albert Tapia

Consultant at anteverti

Goldsmith Stephen

Director of the Innovations Program at Harvard Kennedy School

Aníbal Gaviria

Alcalde de la ciudad de Medellín (2012-15)

Pankaj Ghemawat

Global Professor of Management and Strategy, IESE

Markku Markkula

First Vice-President EU Committee of the Regions

Jesús Villasante

Head Net Innovation Unit of the European Comission

Anna Gonzàlez

Consultant at anteverti

Edward Glaeser

Professor of Economics at Harvard University

Ricard Garriga

Co-founder Menorca Millenials

Gaetan Siew

CEO Global Creative Leadership Initiative

Carlos Vayas

Business Manager Big Data Telefónica Ecuador

Eleonora Giorgi

Consultant at anteverti

Cecile Faraud

London in Action Initiative Manager at CDP

Marta Santamaria

Consultant at anteverti

Shannon Lawrence

Director Global Initiatives. C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

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