Barbara Faga is an urban planner who has participated in hundreds and hundreds of public meetings - meetings that attempt to build a dialogue among many different factions on a highly sensitive issue: what will be built/destroyed/grown/paved over near my house or business?

Imagine two ferocious Not In My BackYard opponents chained together and locked in a 900 square foot room - with bad coffee. That’s right. A NIMBY faceoff of epic proportions.

And you are the referee.

Barbara Faga is well-acquainted with this environment. Which is why she was well-qualified to write this blog post last month: A guide to Taser-free public meetings.

She has also written a much longer book, Designing Public Consensus, that discusses the process of urban design and public consultation. Of particular interest is her observation that a good public consultation will stray from a linear, factual and dogmatic presentation of the proposal and options.

“…Rather than a scripted reading, managing a public process is much more a continuous improvisation. This is another image that came to me in Boston, about halfway through the 19 months it took to get final approval of our design for the Wharf District Park. As we debriefed after a particularly fractious meeting, our colleague, Lynn Wolff, insightfully described this series of public meetings as a form of “civic theater,” an entertaining way for involved and curious citizens to spend an evening.

At this point, we felt like lion fodder in the Roman Coliseum, so the metaphor seemed particularly apt. The power plays, emotional outbursts, bitter arguments, tiresome soliloquies, comic relief, sudden plot twists, and dramatic resolutions of the typical public process somehow seem better suited to the stage than to the hardheaded realities of designing and building our public spaces.

As I participated in the public drama that played out in Boston, I couldn’t help noticing the strong parallels to soap opera, Kabuki, and a three-ring circus. Some of our most important work will be performing (not acting, precisely, though a little dramatic flair doesn’t hurt) for audiences we have to win over. If we design and planning professionals think we can stay safely in the wings, ensconced at our comfy desks or drafting tables, we’ve got it wrong.

It’s like the old vaudeville act in which the guy gets all those plates spinning at once, in time to the music. That guy has nothing on us. (Foreword, Designing Public Consensus)

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