Compromise and an Engaged Public: Lessons From Copenhagen

Copenhagen has been called the world’s greenest and most livable city, and it has the added benefit of being capital of the world’s happiest country, Denmark. Writing in Next City, Feargus O'Sullivan finds that the ascendancy of Copenhagen hasn't been as smooth as many believe and additional challenges on the horizon, including a dearth of affordable housing remain a problem for the city.

Right now, for example, Copenhagen is considering a new harbor tunnel that, if built, could end up flooding the city center with cars. Growth in housing demand is galloping ahead of home building, causing higher-than-ever housing costs. Some key housing schemes built so far have made some missteps and predominantly targeted the already well-served rich.…

The urbanism movement’s model city is not immune to the challenges of growth, climate change and increasing economic disparity.

Where Copenhagen has succeeded is in the willingness of its leaders to seek compromise, an outcome of the country's multi-party system. Proposals won't survive unless, as O’Sullivan writes, "their arguments aren’t backed up by data." Risk taking and engagement inside and outside of government is also cited as one of the city's strengths. Progressive activists have rallied to save open space and force better bicycle infrastructure, while one city engineer worked to reduce parking in the city through "stealth urbanism." O'Sullivan provides this interesting anecdote from Copenhagen architect Jan Gehl.

“For many years, Copenhagen had an excellent city engineer who said ‘if you can’t park, you don’t drive.’ Then he said ‘I’ll take 2 percent of the parking out of downtown every year, and I won’t tell anybody so nobody will notice.’ So every year, he reduced the amount of parking space and put in more tables, more chairs,” Gehl recalled at a forum hosted by The Atlantic in October. “The place became nicer and nicer, and people changed their habits, taking their bikes or the bus or metro. Over a period of time, the pattern of behavior has changed. You could call it stealth urbanism.”