Fellows in Urban Leadership View Planning's Complexities During NYC Trip

On Friday, October 18, the Fellows in Urban Leadership traveled to New York City for a day of tours and networking with urban development professionals and Penn alumni. They met with industry leaders in planning, transportation, parks, waste management, and more. 

On their first visit of the day, Fellows met with Chris Jones, Senior Research Fellow at the Regional Plan Association (RPA). RPA is an organization that serves the New York City metropolitan area by providing research, data, and plans aimed at improving quality of life, environmental resiliency, and economic development. Jones discussed RPA’s work to help solve difficulties with the Triboro central rail line, which serves one million commuters using just two tunnels into and out of New York City. 

Vanessa Barrios highlighted the importance of dignity- and joy-centered approaches in repairing harms caused by planning throughout history. This led to a rich conversation about planners as archivists and historians, preserving the stories of our cities into the future. A painting by Howard Chandler Christy called "Enlightenment" (alternatively known as “Our Lady of Slum Clearance”) hung above as the cohort grappled with difficult questions about planning history, serving as a visual reminder of the complex history of the field.

After taking public transportation to Industry City in Brooklyn and eating a delicious Lebanese lunch, the Fellows toured the Sunset Park Recycling Center. There, the speaker emphasized the breadth of the task of handling the City’s reusable refuse and the complex logistics behind it. They also shared the importance of recycling’s mantra, “reduce, reuse, and recycle,” emphasizing recycling as a last resort. Recycling does not save the planet, they shared; rather, recycling reuses materials and keeps them from becoming trash. 

Fellow Conrad Brown ’26 said of his experience, “I was struck by how ‘invisible’ waste management services are fundamental to city’s function and health. The Center made me appreciate what often goes unnoticed in supporting a city's day-to-day operations.”

The Fellows then traveled back to Manhattan for a tour of The High Line with Josh David ’85, Executive Director of Friends of the High Line. The High Line was originally a railroad built for freight trains to travel above the street to increase pedestrian safety, but as trucking rose to prominence, its utility dwindled. In 1999, David and his co-founder Robert Hammond started Friends of the High Line, a nonprofit conservancy focused on reclaiming the area as a public park after envisioning the potential that the High Line had as a public park. Penn Alumnus and Professor Emeritus James Corner (MLA ’86) and his firm led the landscape architecture efforts in the process of designing the High Line. 

David discussed the fundraising efforts that constitute nearly 100% of the maintenance and operations cost. Today, the High Line is a thriving public park, attracting over 8 million visitors annually and providing a natural respite in one of the most densely populated areas of the city. 

Fellow Danielle Uter ’25 said of the visit to the High Line, “A recurring theme was the importance of partnerships—we saw that developers rarely operate alone. They work with other industries, government bodies, and important individuals, like politicians. At the High Line, we saw how collaboration and funding from multiple sources came together to create this beautiful public park.”

Reflecting on the day, Brown ’26 said, “My biggest takeaway from the trip was how interconnected and essential different types of infrastructure are to creating successful, functional cities.” The Fellows returned home with a greater sense of organization and leadership needed to accomplish major projects and govern cities, and their reflections show that this knowledge will guide their perspectives on urban development as they continue their studies.

The Fellows in Urban Leadership Program connects undergraduates interested in urban issues with high-level government, business, and civil leaders to inspire them to become tomorrow’s urban leaders. To learn more, please visit Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership.