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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

mp
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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Mons Badia

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Pilar Conesa

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

Cristina Garrido

Director of Innovation of anteverti

Emilia Saiz

Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)

Manu Fernandez

Founder of Human Scale City & Senior Consultant in anteverti

Sergio García i Rodríguez

Communications Manager at anteverti & CitiesToBe Co-Director

Rebecca Smith

Head of Knowledge & Policy at Climate Infrastructure Partnership

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Inazio Martínez de Arano

Head of Office in European Forest Institute Mediterranean Regional Office

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Jeff Merritt

Director of Innovation, new head of IoT at WEF4IR

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Boyd Cohen

Professor of Entrepreneurship

Mikael Colville-Andersen

Urbanist, designer, author & inspirational speaker

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Geoff Mulgan

Chief Executive of Nesta UK

Natalia Olson-Urtecho

Co-Founder of The Disruptive Factory

Rashiq Fataar

Urbanist and Director of Our Future Cities

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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

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Parvati Nair

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

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Robert Muggah

Co-founder of Igarapé Institute

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Kumaresh Chandra Mishra

Former Deputy Secretary General Habitat III Conference. United Nations

Linda Weiss

Professor of political science at the University of Sydney

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Bahaaeddin Alhaddad

Space Business Development and Urban Remote Sensing at Starlab Ltd

Victor Pineda

President of World Enabled

Darko Radovic

Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Keio University

Carlos Moreno

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

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Gabriela Gomez-Mont

Chief Creativity Officer at Laboratorio para la Ciudad. México City

Tamara Drove Aldana

APEC Advisor on Women and Inclusive Growth

Alba Soler

Consultant at anteverti

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Joan Clos

Former Executive Director of UN-Habitat

Juliet Schor

Professor of Sociology at Boston College

Ana Alcantud

Consulting Director of anteverti

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Sladjana Mijatovic

Program Manager Circular Economy & Innovation at City of Amsterdam

Suzanne Spooner

Consultant & Urban Expert

Catherine DIgnazio

Professor of Urban Science & Planning at MIT

Martin Brynskov

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

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Francis Pisani

Author and consultant

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Amador Ferrer

Architect and Professor at Universitat Ramón Llull

Alice Charles

Cities and Urban Development Lead at the World Economic Forum

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Jason Roberts

Founder of the Better Block

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Dan Lewis

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

Laura Faye Tenenbaum

Science communicator · former Editor at NASA Climate Change website

Janette Sadik Khan

Former NYC Transportation Commissioner and Principal at Bloomberg Associates

Raquel Rolnik

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

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Kilian Kleinschmidt

Entrepreneur and advisor. Former UNHCR official.

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Esteve Almirall

Assoc. Professor. ESADE Business Law School

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Hila Oren

Director General of the Tel Aviv Foundation

Pontus Westerberg

Programme Management Officer at UN-Habitat & 
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Ellis J. Juan

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

Mireia Tuduri

Consultant at anteverti

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Co-founder of Ushahidi

Chaturvedi Bharati

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Beth Simone Noveck

Founder and Director. Governance Lab

Elkin Velásquez

UN-Habitat Regional Director for Latin America

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Goldsmith Stephen

Director of the Innovations Program at Harvard Kennedy School

Albert Tapia

Consultant at anteverti

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Jesús Villasante

Head Net Innovation Unit of the European Comission

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Aníbal Gaviria

Alcalde de la ciudad de Medellín (2012-15)

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Pankaj Ghemawat

Global Professor of Management and Strategy, IESE

Anna Gonzàlez

Consultant at anteverti

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Markku Markkula

First Vice-President EU Committee of the Regions

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Edward Glaeser

Professor of Economics at Harvard University

Ricard Garriga

Co-founder Menorca Millenials

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Gaetan Siew

CEO Global Creative Leadership Initiative

Eleonora Giorgi

Consultant at anteverti

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Carlos Vayas

Business Manager Big Data Telefónica Ecuador

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Shannon Lawrence

Director Global Initiatives. C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

Marta Santamaria

Consultant at anteverti

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Cecile Faraud

London in Action Initiative Manager at CDP

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