Site of the Greater Gansevoort Urban Improvement Plan, photo by Lily Bernheimer of TOPP.

Meaningful community input in city planning is often called for and rarely achieved. Recent posts at faslanyc, mammoth, and cityofsound consider exciting possibilities. David Harvey and Robert Reich envision improved processes and objectives for international development. Haiti Rewired shows the potential in sharing ideas and applying technology towards collective wellbeing. The Open Planning Project (TOPP) comprises many of these themes.


Opening frame from a video on "Physically Separated Bike Lanes" by TOPP's Streetfilms initiative.

Mark Gorton (founder of LimeWire and Tower Research Capital, among other successful ventures) started TOPP in 1999. His goal was to promote alternatives to automobile dependency. While maintaining this focus, TOPP has become a kind of incubator for projects that advance open participation in urban development. Their approach is rooted in the open source concept, most commonly associated with free computer programs that can be shared, modified, and improved upon by anyone with the ability to contribute. While TOPP has much experience and expertise in programming, they’ve also applied the open source concept towards urban governance, civic empowerment, and transportation planning. In connection with projects from Portland's TriMet rail system to the closing of Times Square to traffic, they've been using technology as a tool for civic action in strikingly innovative ways.


A view from the lawn chairs around Times Square, photo from Design You Trust.

To some extent, Gorton’s background makes the project possible. With degrees in electrical engineering and business administration, he spent nearly 5 years as a trader at Credit Suisse before leaving to found Tower Research Capital in 1998. His software-based approach to trading proved highly successful, and he earned a great deal of money without giving up his bicycle commute to work. After many close calls on the streets of Manhattan, he decided to pursue transportation reform in addition to his work in finance. TOPP is now an impressive group of programmers, designers, planners, writers, and activists. They operate as a nonprofit with a focus on good governance, civic empowerment, and transportation planning.


The new crossroads at Madison Square Park, photo from TOPP's case study on Creating Thriving Public Places.

TOPP helps government agencies save money, share data, and improve services through a combination of flexible software and tech support. Their work in this area includes Open311, an initiative aimed at helping people connect efficiently with municipal information and services; OpenGeo, a software platform that facilitates shared geospatial data; and TOPP Labs, a development engine for new technologies in support of local governance. They helped Landgate, a government agency in Western Australia, apply open source software to transfer updated data efficiently between departments. They've also worked with the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), whose clients include the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management, to improve their GeoServer data system.


Rendering of the Pearl Street Triangle, composite image from susty.com.

For civic empowerment, TOPP provides strong support for local efforts to influence policy and public opinion. Programming, journalism, and multimedia design are used to communicate among participants and in the public sphere. Projects include CoActivate, an open software package that offers blogs, wikis, groups, mailing lists, and file storage; Community Almanac, a forum and archive for collaborative storytelling; GothamSchools, a source of information for teachers, parents, and policymakers dedicated to improving city schools; and UncivilServants, a community monitoring project that helps the city prevent drivers from parking illegally on congested streets. TOPP has also been a key contributer to New York's public plaza initiative, helping to convert a parking lot on Pearl Street into a public resting place with shaded tables and plantings.


Pearl Street Triangle before and after, photos from TOPP's case study on Amplifying Citizen Voices.

TOPP's Livable Streets Initiative works to counteract automobile-centered development and promote ecologically sensitive transportation options. Their work includes web-based political mobilization, tools for collaboration, and education drives. Transportation projects include Streetfilms, which produces documentaries on topics such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and bike sharing; the Streetsblog Network, a collective of over 400 sustainable transport blogs; and Streetswiki, a community-driven archive of transport information. As part of the Streets Renaissance Campaign, TOPP participated in the adaptation of Madison Square Park to better accommodate traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians (see "new crossroads" photo above). They're currently working on a similar plan for Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.


Grand Army Plaza, photo from designtrust.org.

The results of TOPP's work show that open source technology can be used to effectively promote democratic participation in urban development. They've focused primarily on local projects, but their influence has reached national and international scales. The open source concept enables TOPP to draw upon the contributions of many participants in a continuous process of experimentation and improvement.


Rendering of the plan for Grand Army Plaza, photo from TOPP's case study on Transforming Public Places.

While it feels good to see such a remarkable team dedicated to civic action, some questions also come to mind. Is TOPP more than a multimillionaire's pet project? Could it be a model for employment on a larger scale? Is it adding the kind of societal value that can be sustained financially without donations? Does it tap into the priorities and contributions of people who don't come from relatively privileged backgrounds? How can TOPP assure that their work reflects the interests of a substantive majority? Is this a necessity? Would they be happy with the results? I don't mean to criticize TOPP's amazing work, just to consider how it might become a self-sustaining approach to development in cities around the world.


Participants at the New Technology for Participatory Planning workshop sponsored by TOPP and the Regional Plan Association, photo from The Civic Hacker.

To my knowledge, TOPP hasn't yet developed grassroots funding mechanisms for participatory civic improvement. This could add a much-needed financial dimension, making planning less dependent on philanthropy, markets, and government support. Faslanyc's PayPal idea could offer a way for local residents to contribute directly to projects they support. It would require a fully accessible and accountable PayPal-like system as well as effective safeguards against malign intervention, but it seems to have great potential. Maybe it could be used for all kinds of public decisions, eventually taking the place of government representatives and making democracy completely direct. We seem to be heading in this direction, so now is a good time to consider how it could work. I hope to find out about other examples and ideas as well.

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