D’Acci discusses the power of citizens to influence urban planning. However, what he describes are natural, gradual changes (e.g., the changing of streets from pedestrian to vehicle oriented, and back to pedestrian/biker) made by multi-agent groups. This strategy is hardly compatible with climate change when we consider how fast it is happening (the New York City Panel of Climate Change starts its predictions in the 2020’s- 6 years from now) and the multitude of private interests that can arise.
My question then is, how do we apply the bottom-up system to climate change? Keeping in mind how immediate we need to act if we want to take preventative action, how difficult certain scientific solutions are to understand to the common person, and how different citizens might disagree (e.g. someone on higher ground and someone on lower ground). Should the bottom-up model of change be altered considering the immediacy and complexity of climate change?
