Baumer Series, Dave Amos

“New Media and New Messages in the Urbanism Discourse”

Twenty years after the founding of Facebook, social media continues to evolve and reshape our culture. Over the last few years, video essays and short-form posts have galvanized millions to the cause of “urbanism.” From the “war on cars” to YIMBYs, new movements have both emerged from and supported these changes in medium. The result is a growing number of non-planners with a sophisticated knowledge of the basics of zoning, transportation planning, and spatial justice. How has this shift in knowledge affected the design and planning of cities today? And how has it changed how planning academics approach pedagogy?

Dave Amos is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. They are also the producer of City Beautiful, a YouTube channel dedicated to cities and city planning. Videos on the channel have been viewed a cumulative 75 million times. Dave has published on educating through YouTube, as well as on the topics of active transportation and land use.

Notable publications include: “Planning Education and ‘Free-Choice’ Learners: Teaching the YouTube Classroom” in the Journal of Planning Education and Research and “Understanding the Legacy of Pedestrian Malls” in the Journal of the American Planning Association.