City Planning in Film and TV
City Planning is such a robust profession. From the different specialties (land use, zoning, transportation, environmental), how does this translate into film and TV? I've written about my top Sci-Fi films in urban planning and how they predict and design the future city. This article takes a different approach. What movies/TV shows represent City Planning? To make this list, the Movie/TV show needs a City Planning theme, either land development, community planning, zoning, etc., with a character that plays a City Planner or a great quote related to City Planning. Now, for your reading pleasure (well, I hope), please find my list of City Planning in Film and TV shows.
City Planning Characters
The first one on the list is one of the only TV shows where an actual City Planner is a character. What show may you ask? Well, Parks and Recreation, where the lead character Leslie Knope plays the deputy director of the Parks and Recreation department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. There are a host of characters intertwining City Hall in Pawnee. From the fan favorite Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offerman, the director of the Parks and Recreation department with his deadpan personality and one-liners, to Tom Haverford, played by Aziz Ansari, the sarcastic, conniving Parks and Recreation employee, to Andy Dwyer, played by Chris Pratt the official shoe shiner of City Hall, to the premise of this article Mark Bredanawicz the City Planner of Pawnee. Mark Bredanawicz, often called the failed architect on the show, is one of the only known characters on television who played a City Planner. Unfortunately, the field of city planning is not fondly portrayed in the show. It is portrayed as a dull and mundane profession regulating the sizes of garages and construction additions of houses. This negative connotation of City Planning is reflected in the character of Mark Bredanawicz, who comes across as disillusioned and unhappy in his profession. I'm not denying that there can be mundane parts of the City Planning profession. However, there are exciting projects as well, such as working on master plans shaping the blueprints of land use and planning for municipalities redevelopment plans that shape the built environment of a city, neighborhood, or property, working on community planning projects plans where you get one on one input from the community on shaping such things as their built environment, streetscape, landscaping and countless other things that encompass a community. Mark Bredanawicz does not partake in any of these projects, making him disillusioned with his day-to-day work responsibilities in Pawnee and creating a dull character. The writers of Parks and Recreation agreed with my characterization and wrote him off after Season 2, never to return. Thus, the one City Planner character on television failed to exist.
Bill Murray played a City Planer? Where, what, and when, you may ask. In the 1990 film Quick Change, Bill Murray plays a city planner who robs a bank in a clown suit and finds an indecisive way of getting away with it. Randy Quaid says it best when referring to Grimm, the City Planner played by Grimm, "yesterday he was just a guy working in the Department of City Planning, and today he's robbing a bank." This quote will show up again in this article. Though Bill Murray doesn't do any City Planning day-to-day activities in the film, nor is it the best connotation where why would a City Planner rob a bank, Quick Change is an underrated film and one of the only films I know out there where a City Planner is a main character.
The infamous Seinfeld took a play into City Planning. After George's fiance, Susan, passes aways, George becomes a primary impetus in the Susan Ross Foundation Scholarship program. George interviews a potential scholar, Steven, who wants to be an architect. However, the thought of an architect is minimal to George, and the character he interviews, Steven, raises his aspirations to go from an architect to a City Planner, which leads to the classic quote in the next segment of this article. It's nice to see one of the most successful sitcoms in television history refer to City Planning. Jerry, kudos to you on this.
City Planning Quotes in Film and TV
First, we delved into the city planning characters on TV and film. Next, we highlight memorable quotes that are related to city planning. Some of these may or may not have been referenced in the previous section.
I told you I would be referencing Parks and Recreation again. So here is one of my favorite quotes from the show with a City Planning theme. When the Director of Parks and Recreation, Ron Swanson, needs a permit for his garage, he needs approval from our City Planning TV star Mark Bredanawicz. When Mark denies this, dialogue ensues:
Mark: “Ron, none of this is up to code.”
Ron: “Sure it is. It's up to the Swanson code.”
Next up, we're back at Quick Change when Loomis, played by Randy Quaid, quotes referring to Grimm the City Planner, played by Bill Murray.
"Just the other day he was a guy working at the Department of City Planning, and today he's robbing a bank".
As the character Steven, the aspiring urban planner, is being interviewed for the Susan Ross Foundation, George introduces him as:
GEORGE: Besides, Steven Koren has the highest of aspirations. He wants to be… an architect!
But Steven counters with higher aspirations.
STEVEN: Actually, maybe I could set my sights a little bit higher.
GEORGE: Steven, nothing is higher than an architect.
STEVEN: I think I'd really like to be a city planner. Why limit myself to just one building, when I can design a whole city?
Steven, that's a great point! Us City Planners want to have a blueprint on a city, neighborhood or a community. If given this opportunity, urban planners have the ability to shape and design cities with zoning, master plans, redevelopment plans, form-based codes, historical preservation codes, and so on. So yes, City Planners don't settle for just one building but rather the city or neighborhood as a whole.
When you think of movies of City Planning quotes, one wouldn't think of a Rodney Dangerfield movie having one. But surprised you may be the 1986 Back to School featuring Rodney Dangerfield as the businessman Thorton Melon who enrolls in college to give his son a helping hand. In the business class that Thorton attends, Thorton Melon provides some business insight on how to be a developer. First of all, "you're going to have to grease the local politicians for the sudden zoning problems that always come up. Then there's the kickbacks to the carpenters, and if you plan on using any cement in this building I'm sure the teamsters would like to have a little chat with ya, and that'll cost ya."
Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the romantic comedy film starring Jason Segel and Kristen Bell, is the next city planning quote. It's the scene where the character Darald, played by Jack McBrayer, is at a bar talking to Jason Segel about his honeymoon and the strife it comes with enjoying his nuptials where he comes up with this classic City Planning quote: "Let me just say that if God was a city planner he would not put a playground next to a sewage system!"
City Planning Themes in Movie and TV
The last part of this article (yes, this one is a bit all over the place) is about City Planning themes or design portrayed in films or TV shows. Themes is a broad word, so what does it entail to make this list? Themes include but are not limited to neighborhoods, communities, gentrification, design, development, and politics.
Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee's 1989 masterpiece is an obvious choice to make the list. Based in Lee's home turf of Bedford Stuyvesant, the lead character, Mookie, played by Lee, tells a story of the individuals, businesses, relationships, and racial tensions that make up a neighborhood. There are a myriad of characters in the film, from Sal and his sons, who own the pizza shop in the predominantly black neighborhood, to Buggin Out, Mookie's eccentric friend, to Radio Raheem, who blasts Public Enemy's Fight the Power from his ghetto blaster (boombox) to a character named the mayor a staple of the community. The film comes to a frightening end, highlighting the tensions that have been building in the neighborhood with the multi-ethnic characters of the film.
Truman Show
It's not the theme of Truman Show the reason why this movie makes the list but the location. The Truman Show set is in real life, idyllic new urbanism designed Seaside, Florida. From the pedestrian-friendly streets, bike-centric roads, public spaces, mixed uses, etc., it is a model of new urbanism designed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, the founders of the new urbanism model. A little interesting backstory is that Seaside is a privately owned community; no municipal government had planning jurisdiction over the community. Thus, the planning/zoning code was an open book, which is why the implementation of new urbanism became a reality. Has it been a success? The real estate value of property in Seaside is extremely high, though it does inhibit the affordability of all income levels to live in a new urbanism-formed community.
Hoop Dreams
The next movie to make the list is Hoop Dreams, a documentary of two aspiring basketball players from the tough streets of Chicago who have been filming their hoop dreams for over five years. What it brought to the film is one of the best documentaries ever made, telling a story of family struggles, race relations, crime, poverty, drug usage, and, of course, basketball. There are so many memorable moments in the film. Still, two that have always resonated with me are when the Agee family visits the University of Illinois campus, admiring the beauty of it and saying this is "beyond a dream," and when the Agee family is having breakfast during one of the basketball tournaments. They have a conversation with a white family about their sons and the basketball tournament. You see the joy in their eyes from each family talking about their son's basketball dreams, and though they are of different races and from vastly different neighborhoods, they resonate with each other and form a connection. I recommend that anyone who has not seen Hoop Dreams add it to their watch list.
The Wire
The HBO Series The Wire is the next one to make the list. Taking place in the gritty streets of Baltimore, the five seasons of The Wire create a realistic version of the drug epidemic facing American cities and how it shapes and molds the characters associated with the drug trade. The Wire focuses on gangs, police, politics, schools, and rehabilitation efforts to limit the impact of drugs it has on a community.
Jaws
Now, in the next movie, you're wondering, how the heck does this have to do with city planning? But give me a minute, and I'll tell you. Jaws, the 1975 classic film directed by Steven Spielberg, takes place in the fictional town of Amity when a killer shark terrorizes the island. With an island that relies on tourism to support the local economy, the Mayor of Amity, Larry Vaughn, decides that the local economy is more important than putting people in danger of a man-eating shark and blatantly says that all beaches are to open. Politics and City Planning are interrelated, and the decision to spur the local economy or cause economic turmoil in the community is tough. Ultimately, Mayor Larry Vaughn made the wrong decision.
Welcome to Wrexham
The last one on my list (I know there are countless more) is a relatively new sports documentary, Welcome to Wrexham, which follows actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds (Mr. Deadpool himself), who purchase a Welsh football club, Wrexham AFC. What transpires is the trials and tribulations of owning a football club. What's interesting, and done very well in the documentary, is that even though Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are the main characters, the show focuses on several characters within the community of Wrexham, tells the history of the Wrexham Football Club and how it was purchased by a developer who envisioned developing the raceway which is aptly called the stadium where the club plays, and the history of football hooliganism. Welcome to Wrexham tells a story of how the Wrexham Football Club is vital to the community of Wrexham, how important it is to the local economy, and the pride and history the football club brings to its residents. It's a worthy show, and the themes of City Planning are multitude in the series.
There could be more City Planners in TV and Film, and there are worthy quotes, films, and TV series with City Planning themes that didn't make the list. But if you read the post this far, maybe you can think of some and add it to my list.