The Software & Hardware Framework for Marketing Urbanism
A series on the six things urbanism must do to grow its reach and rekindle America’s love for cities.
Urbanism Has a Marketing Problem
Urbanism has the right ideas, but not enough public buy-in.
We’ve got the data. We’ve got the playbooks. We’ve got entire Twitter accounts dunking on stroads with surgical precision. But we’re still losing the narrative.
The average person doesn’t know what urbanism is. Or worse, they think they do, and assume it’s just bikes, brownstones, and brunch spots for elites. Even when people like urbanist ideas in practice, they rarely connect them back to a bigger vision.
At the same time, cities themselves are struggling to win people over. They’re seen as expensive, unsafe, and broken. In a moment when we need people to believe in cities again, most are walking away from them.
So here’s the problem: Urbanism isn’t reaching the mainstream. And cities aren’t earning back people’s trust.
How do we think about tackling both problems in tandem to start turning the tide, growing the urbanism movement, and restoring a love for American cities all at once?
It’ll take a multi-faceted approach.
That’s where the Software & Hardware framework comes in.
The Software & Hardware Framework
Urbanism and cities aren’t the same thing.
That sounds obvious, but the lines get blurry fast. Urbanism is a set of ideas about how to make cities work better: denser housing, safer streets, better transit, zoning that actually makes sense. It’s the software. The logic running in the background.
But cities are more than the sum of their design choices. They’re where people live out their lives. They’re hardware. And if we want more people to choose cities—to move there, invest there, and believe in them again—we can’t just pitch better policy. We have to make the entire idea of the city feel desirable.
Because here’s the truth: cities can’t be branded as “places for urbanists.” That’s way too narrow.
Cities need to be for people chasing opportunity. For people who want great schools. For people who want to live near friends, raise a family, work on something ambitious, or build a life that feels meaningful.
Urbanism is what makes that possible. But it’s not the pitch. The pitch is the place.
So here’s the framework:
Urbanism is the software. The movement. The ideas that help cities work.
Cities are the hardware. The places. The lived experience that either earns people’s trust (or doesn’t).
If we want to grow this movement, and if we want to see real comebacks in real places, we need to market both.
Software (Urbanism as a Movement)
Narrative: Urbanism needs a story people want to belong to
We’ve talked about this before. Urbanism is a human story. (Read more here.)
We can’t keep speaking in jargon. We have to sell this movement as a vision of the kind of life we’re trying to create for people. (Another piece on that.)
Policy Evangelism: Urbanist ideas need better PR
If net neutrality taught us anything between 2014 and 2018, it’s that even the driest policy can become a hot-button issue.
That’s good news. It means we don’t have to wait for every urbanist idea to be adopted as part of some massive, comprehensive package. We can pull the strongest ideas (like ADUs, zoning reform, or dedicated bus lanes) out from under the broader umbrella and help them catch on faster on their own. The "collector’s set" might take years. But individual wins can happen now.
Urbanism in Action: Show proof of concept
Ideas aren’t enough. We have to show people what successful urbanism looks like in practice, and then parade it around like hell.
“Do you think Savannah, Georgia is beautiful? Want your town to look like that? Great. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
But it can’t just be pointing to pretty places. It has to be real projects, real wins. Stuff that proves urbanism isn’t just a bunch of theory. It's a movement that knows how to get things done in a time where everything feels stuck.
Hardware (Cities as Places)
Rebrand Urban Life: Make cities feel relevant and aspirational again
Cities used to be cool.
In the 90s, sitcoms like Friends, Seinfeld, and Cheers made city life something to aspire to. Who didn’t want Monica’s apartment? Or to grab a drink at a bar where everybody knew your name?
But now, just like real life, sitcoms have gotten more suburban. The cultural signals are clear. Suburbs are seen as safer, more comfortable, and more aspirational. Meanwhile, cities are seen as dangerous, expensive, dirty, and not for families.
Even though the data often tells a different story, the perception of cities is broken. They’re seen as places for the ultra-rich or the ultra-poor, with nothing in between. And all of this is happening at a time when people are already becoming more isolated, more disconnected, and less rooted.
We need to bring back cultural storytelling that makes urban life feel desirable again. Through media, through marketing, through people’s lived experience.
Promote Specific Cities: Help people fall in love with more than just New York and LA
It’s not enough to make cities appealing in general. We need people to choose specific ones.
That doesn’t just mean telling everyone to move to New York. It means putting cities like St. Louis, Kansas City, Birmingham, Dayton, and Cleveland back on the map.
There are a few parts to this:
Telling stories about what already makes these cities great
Generating awareness that some of them even exist
And doing the real work—public and private—to make life better for the people already there, while also making it easier for new residents and businesses to come
This piece goes deeper on that "residents first" approach:
Read more here.
Operational Credibility: Show cities can deliver, not just dream
Hype only works if you can back it up.
The best marketers for cities are the people who can actually get things done. The leaders who turn dysfunction into function. The ones who prove that competence still matters.
Cities need to be clean. Transit needs to run on time. Law enforcement needs to keep people safe, without creating new problems. Permitting needs to be fast and fair.
Leaders need to build real things, finance them sustainably, and cast visions that can be accomplished in a single term.
Because people won’t choose cities if they don’t trust cities. And they shouldn’t.
So Where Do We Go From Here?
This framework isn’t magic. But it is a starting point.
If we want to grow the urbanism movement and restore belief in cities, we can’t just win the arguments. We have to win hearts. We have to sell the vision, prove it works, and make it feel like something worth belonging to. And worth choosing.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll break down each of these six facets in more depth. Not just to add more words to the conversation, but to offer some building blocks.
Because urbanism doesn’t need better opinions. It needs better storytelling, better strategy, and better delivery.
this was great!
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION !! Bravo!