An upside to urbanization

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Written By H. Pike Oliver

Earth’s urban lights in 2001 Photo: Earth's city lights in 2001 (NASA/Getty Images)

On January 12, 2007, there was a brief report on American Public Media's radio show "Marketplace" suggesting that problems associated with rapid urbanization could be an opportunity in disguise.  Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin was quoted as saying that cities hold the keys to attacking both poverty and climate change.  "Increasingly, cities are the source of many of the world's problems — whether those be social problems or environmental problems — but are also the areas where problems can be solved and increasingly are being solved. "  In other words, since the problems are concentrated in urban areas, a targeted solution is possible.   Worldwatch recently published a report, "State of the World 2007:  Our Urban Future" (available for $18.95 at http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4752.)

H. Pike Oliver

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, H. Pike Oliver has worked on real estate development strategies and master-planned communities since the early 1970s, including nearly eight years at the Irvine Company. He resided in the City of Irvine for five years in the 1980s and nine years in the 1990s.

As the founder and sole proprietor of URBANEXUS, Oliver works on advancing equitable and sustainable real estate development and natural lands management. He is also an affiliate instructor at the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington.

Early in his career, Oliver worked for public agencies, including the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. Prior to relocating to Seattle in 2013, Oliver taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in urban and regional studies. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association and a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.

Oliver is a graduate of the urban studies and planning program at San Francisco State University and earned a master’s degree in urban planning at UCLA.

https://urbanexus.com
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